Time Off & Back To Reality!

I mentioned in my last post that I was midway through my first of two weeks off of work, and what a lovely chilled out two weeks they were. But it's been back to work and back to reality again this week!

I did manage to get a lot of what I wanted to get done in my weeks off though! During my first week I mainly chilled out as my hubby was off too so it was nice to spend some together, as with me working Saturdays we usually only get one full day together.

Luckily we had some lovely weather that so I took my hubby for a walk down to my usual bunny spotting place. We ended up going further than I usually do and took a route past my usual place, which took us out the other side of the fields and through a housing estate where we then came across a farm who's land was open to the public.

We walked through the fields for hours and then along the river walk on the way back, we saw a few Pony's but it was mainly just open countryside with amazing views over the town. It's crazy to think that I have lived here all of my life and never even knew that the place existed. That's on of the things the I love about where I live, we are so close to town and everything that we need but equally we are surrounded by such beautiful countryside that you can feel like you are in the middle of nowhere within minutes. I have put together some of the photos from our little outing below:

The beautiful view over the fields

 The beautiful view over the fields towards town

     Another beautiful view from the top of the hill

   

 A Magpie with it's baby & a Shire Horse that we met along the way

   Along with it's pony friend

Shetland Pony Friend & it's fellow Shire Horse friend 

Along the river walk we spotted dome Dragon Flies  

 and a very hairy and elaborate caterpillar, I am not sure what type he is though

  Some pretty flowers

The heavy erosion on the roots of the trees along the river walk was quite apparent and not helped by the bad weather we had last winter. As it turned out they are about to close off and regenerate the river walk within the next free months due to the excessive erosion caused over the winter. 

A Painted Lady Butterfly basking in the sunshine

 

The second week of my time off I mainly spent tidying and de-cluttering the flat! I think that I have mentioned before that I am a bit of a hoarder, and the flat has been in need of a sort out for sometime but prior to now I have not had the time to get my teeth stuck into it. I have still got the bedroom and my studio to go, but the living room and kitchen are looking much fresher now and are much nicer places to spend time in!

The only other thing that I have to report is that we have kind of found a temporary solution to the washing machine issue! We had the plumber round and it seems that the problem with the pressure is in the wall between us and our neighbour as their water pressure is fine, which means that it is an issue that the managing agents of the flat will need to sort. It’s going to be a bit expensive job for them though so it may not be happening anytime soon, so until then I am having to fill the washing machine up manually which isn’t ideal but is still quicker and more convenient that having to go to my parents to do it!

I hope that you have all had a good weekend and that you have a good week ahead. I am currently writing this whilst watching the end of the Glastonbury Festival, which I have watched a lot of over the weekend and it is really making me long to go to a festival again! Usually I have the same two weeks that I have just had off each year to go to Download Festival, which I have mentioned before but this year is the first in five years that I have not gone and I have really missed not going. The reason that my friends and I decided not to go this year was because we had seen a lot of the bands before, and a band that we really want to see are playing Reading Festival in August so we have decided to give that a go instead. I really hope that it is as good as Download is as typically the weather was really good for Download this year. For me there really is no other experience like going to a music festival! Unfortunately I can’t do the whole five days of Reading like my friends due to it being our peak trading week at work, but I shall be joining them during the weekend instead which is better than nothing!

Thanks as always for popping by! x      

Busy & Bunnies!

I am not quite sure where the weeks have gone over the past month or so since I last blogged but they definitely seem to have flown by! Things have been busy around here as usual not only with work, but our washing machine also broke a few weeks ago so I have been spending most of my days off going around my parents to get our washing done and dried. Hence why not a lot else has been getting done including blogging!

I thought that ordering and fitting a new washing machine would be quite simple, but it has turned out to be a bit of a nightmare!

 Firstly it turned up and I ended up having to spend a few evenings bashing holes in cupboards, which I wasn't expecting as the pipes for the new one needed to be higher than the old one.

Then I was rather proud that I had successfully managed to plumb in our washing machine myself and get all working, only to find that it didn't work properly because we don't have enough pressure coming in from our cold tap to make it able to do a whole cycle. This is a problem that we didn't have before as our other washing machine was so old that it ran through a hot and cold feed, whereas modern washing machines only run on a cold feed. So I now have a brand new washing machine that currently I can only look at until the landlord sends in a plumber to sort out the problem, so the washing at my parents goes on.

On the plus side we went and saw a financial advisor the other weekend to find out if we are any closer to being able to afford our own property, and it seems like we are getting there which has made us more hopeful.

We have our flat lease until the beginning of next year, so our aim is to be able to get out of out worn out little flat and find something before then. We were really hoping to be able to get a two bed house, but with the way that the prices are going up around here at the moment that is looking less likely.

Two bed houses in the area are currently going for about £235,000+ at the moment, with all of the new builds of the same size that are currently being built going for £300,000 upwards, so you can see what we are up against. But so long as we can get on the property ladder and find a property big enough to start a family in we will be happy.

So after weeks of my head being filled with washing machines and mortgages I decided last Friday that I just needed a day to myself to go and clear my head, so as it was such a beautiful day I went down to my favourite bunny spotting site to see if I could see any this time.

You may remember that I mentioned going down there in my post "Crisp Sunny Days" earlier in the year and didn't see any. In fact I haven't seen any since my post "Snowy Walk," but this time I was definitely not disappointed! Warning this part of my post is a little photo heavy!

 

 So firstly I saw two little squirrels playing together and thought, well at least if I don't see any bunnies I have seen some form of wild life!

 

 

Then I spotted these little babies in my usual bunny spotting place, enjoying the freshly cut grass. This was about as close as I could get to them without scaring them off. But the some nice man saw I was taking photos and decided to deliberately walk right by them and scare them all away. So my plan B was to go over the railway bridge and see if I could spot any more!

 

 

At first I couldn't see anything but then I spotted these two little ears poking up above the grass in the distance.

 

 

Then the more I looked the more I began to see! The bunnies on this side of the bridge were even more skittish the ones in my usual spot, so it took a lot of time to slowly creep up to them and read their body language in order to get photos. 

 

 

As I sat very still over time more and more bunnies came out to play! 

 

 

I was really lucky to get so close up to this little baby. I had been trying to get a shot of him for a while, and kept walking down the hill and creeping back up again to try and get a close up. But as I crept up to within a meter or so towards him rather than run off he just froze, at which point I realised that there was a lady with a dog on the other side that was eyeing him up. So at this point he was probably terrified, but it meant that I managed to get within a couple of feet of him in order to get this picture before he ran off.

 

 

 

After this I noticed that there was a big collection of bushes that was right by where I had been taking the photos that had overgrown with an archway in between, so I decided that it would be the perfect hiding place to try and get some more close ups. As you can see it worked a treat and after a bit of waiting I found myself looking up the hill at some bunnies in the distance, when I looked back I realised that this bunny above was right in front of me just outside the bush, I think that I was more surprised to see him that he was to see me! In fact I don't think that he ever even realised that I was there, and that is how I managed to get my shot of the day! He stayed there for a few minutes so I got to take in every detail of this beautiful creature, before he hopped off. I don't think that I have ever been this close to a wild bunny before but it was a wonderful experience.

 

 

After this I continued to watch the bunnies from my little hide out, and this baby bunny appeared. It took him a while to get his confidence to come out but he did eventually.

 

I wanted to try and get another cloue up of a baby and then this little one appeared, again  getting pretty close to me and basking in the sun. He was definitely more aware of me being there than the previous bunny though. 

 

By this point I had been bunny spotting up the hill for over three hours, so I thought that I should start to head back. On the way though I stopped back at my usual spot and found these two very chilled out bunnies!  

 

Along with this little one who was enjoying the grass. I thought that he looked so cute as he moved along putting his little  bun in the air. He was also quite playful and had mad moments where he would run about and jump in the air!

 

More munching bunnies!

 

Time for a little scratch between the munching!

 

As well as a little wash!

 

Just chilling and munching!

 

They just couldn't get enough of the lush grass!

 

The pretty pathway on my way back home!

 

Needless to say after my little bunny spotting adventure I was definitely feeling a lot more chilled, and I am planning on keeping this up further as I now have two weeks off of work. This week with my hubby and the next on my own. During this time I am hoping to get a lot  done, both with tidying the flat, drawing, and hopefully launching a new bobby bunny product!

 

I hope that you are all well and that the weather is being a kind to all of you as it seems to be with us at the moment. Thank you for hopping by! x