How very English!

How very English it is to obsess about the weather – I know we’re famous worldwide for it!  And walking along to the village post office all the greetings go something like this…. “Hello! How are you? Lovely/awful/chilly etc etc day isn’t it?”  But can you wonder at this when yesterday it didn’t stop raining once.  Not once.  In the morning we had heavy rain, followed by torrential rain at lunchtime.  Then a brief lull when it only rained lightly (we managed to squeeze in a rather damp walk in that interlude) before the heavy rain resumed until after dark.  I lit the fire for the first time this year as it was cold as well as wet …

Whilst today I woke to a clear blue sky, sunshine and warmth too!  I’ve packed away the summerhouse office for this year and am working inside again…..

Enjoying the sunshine streaming through the windows onto my table.  And when I went outside to take some photographs (see next month’s magazine projects lining up beside my laptop ready to have their patterns written) there was real warmth in the sunshine and for a while I regretted closing down the summerhouse…..

Though at this time of year the sun is lower in the sky, there are only a few hours of warmth, and most probably a chilly night to come – unless the rain clouds return to blanket us!  Can you spot the terrible twosome in the photo above?  They’re quite hard to see. Ben is towards the end of the garden facing down towards me and Daisy – who is staring at him very hard – I seem to have chopped off half of her body and you can just see the back of her head and front legs.  There’s a bit of a bare patch on the grass which I must reseed while there’s still some warmth in the soil – playing with their young visitor, Miss Tilly, earlier this month was fun for the Newfies – but hard on the garden!

Another very English characteristic is a reluctance to blow our own trumpets, that is to tell people about our proudest achievements – it’s very much seen as showing off which is not a good thing at all.  But this weekend that’s exactly what I’ve been asked to do.  Not show off, but to tell people about one of my proudest achievements – Bustle & Sew of course!  I’ve been asked to do a presentation about Bustle & Sew, from the very earliest days as a crafting blog back in 2009, to where it is today.

There will be 100 (yes ONE HUNDRED) delegates listening to me and I’ve been asked to speak for an hour.  AN HOUR!!  That’s 60 minutes or THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED SECONDS!!  I’m really pleased to be doing this as it’s great to perhaps be able to help others with their own small businesses, but the closer Saturday comes, the more nervous I get!  So please everybody, can you send positive thoughts my way on Saturday morning – I need all your help and support as I’m so far out of my comfort zone I might as well be on another planet!

“We’ll be thinking about you Mum!”

And finally, don’t forget  – there’s still time to enter my Toadstool Bag giveaway over on my Facebook page.  And if you don’t do Facebook, then don’t worry, I have another great giveaway planned very soon here on the blog as part of my month of celebrating our new website!

16 Comments

Wishing you well for your talk on Saturday – Bustle & Sew is fantastic and can only be an inspiration for others.

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Good luck with Saturday – enjoy yourself, You should be very proud. The magazine is wonderful, well I think so. I send you happy positive thoughts. Please may I say I remember when you first mentioned it, I knew then this lovely person will make a wonderful magazine.
Julie xxxxxxxxx

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A beautiful autumn garden shot Helen, you lucky thing having no rain today! It poured and poured here yesterday and today we have had more rain than not, even when there wasn’t any rain (brief spells) it was dank and miserable 🙁 So glad to have our cheery fire too, central heating is okay but fires are so much more cheering aren’t they?
Helen I do empathize with the speechifying! I have had to do this on several occasions and it was very nerve wracking but when you are talking about your ‘baby’, your passion and enthusiasm will come through and the nerves will gradually subside and suddenly the time has flown 🙂 I found using index cards and just clearing writing a subject heading with one or two brief notes to keep you on track and turning that card over as soon as you start talking about that subject. My DH used to say to me ‘they are people, just think of them on the loo’!!!!!!
I shall be thinking of you and mentally supporting you. You can do it!
Lynn xx

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Positive, happy thoughts heading your way! Everyone will be inspired and charmed, I’m sure, by you and with “Bustle & Sew”.
XXX Linda

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Ooooh, how exciting and scary – but you will be fantastic – Bustle and Sew is so wonderful all the delegates will love you.

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Pam MacLennan

You will be fine Helen, and as some of the others have commented once you start talking about ‘your baby’ the passion and enthusiasm will shine through. Will be thinking of you none the less.. How can so many of us be wrong? HAHA
On a different note, we in New Zealand are also well known for watching the weather and those of us that have land and stock even more so. We are coming into summer and I for one can’t wait. We have had a very wet winter, luckily our calves have arrived later this year and missed most of the nasty stuff.
I have a son living in Buckinghamshire at the moment playing rugby for the Amersham-Chiltern Rugby Club and wonder how he will cope with your English winter – he is a very outdoorsy guy and two winters in a row might be hard to bear but then again it’s a wonderful experience and he is making the most of it.
Look forward to hearing about your talk next week.

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Thanks Pam – and I’m sure your son will be fine if he’s a rugby player, they’re very tough! It seems so strange that October is coming into summer for you, for me October is the start of hot chocolate and woodburner season! xxx

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Kathleen Robertson

Wishing you well for tomorrow Helen although I’m very sure you will be fine. After the first couple of minutes you’ll really get in to it and the time will fly, although I have to say an hour does seem a loooooooong time LOL Now this is just a thought but could you maybe introduce Rosie to help/support you, she is an employee now so that is expansion, just a thought. You really have nothing to fear, your magazine is lovely, very informative but with such a special personal feel.
I think the weather thing is more British rather than just English, up here in Scotland we’re exactly the same, say hello and immediately mention the weather. LOL I wonder how other countries greet each other, maybe we could learn something from them. 🙂

Kathleen xx

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