Rare sunny occasions

When sun is shining words are not needed...

 

Always Yours,

Tina Teaspoon



Not a lonely island

It's funny how we all walk around proclaiming our independence, how we don't need anyone, anything, how we are happy on our own without any other being in our life. Reality is that that's not true. We naturally seek for closeness of other creatures, it's in our blood, it's coded in us biologically and we cannot escape it. A man is not an island - a man is an island with other beings living in it or around it.

My little island this year has been inhabited by a beautiful, super friendly and talkative character - Jasmine. I welcome her in my life as she welcomes me in hers and so far we enjoy each others company as two independent beings who walk in their life where they want but time to time need each others warmth and understanding.

  
Welcome Jasmine! My island is a much happier place with you.

Always yours,
Tina Teaspoon

South of Afrika Chronicles: Elephant

Once I came back from South Africa my mind went into a denial mode. I could not believe that I was there, I could not understand that I was back in UK, I could not make myself look at any pictures that I took. I guess I did not want to be have a post holiday depression knowing that it will be a long time until I might experience something like life in South of Afrika or even that it will never happen again.

Today I finally braved up to get all the photos from my camera onto the laptop and start organizing them. I realise now that I did not take that many pictures as I thought I did and most of them are from the time spent in a national park. So I thought I will put up some posts highlighting my biggest impressions and the first one is - Elephant.

I will not try to describe too much how amazing theses creatures are and what I felt when I saw them. All I can say it that they are magical, like wise men walking this earth carrying the knowledge of life and peace.

I believe that elephants bring luck but I also think that I was lucky to see them and to see them more than once whilst I was there.

 

When I think about the trip, the country, the experience I always think about these beautiful 'wise men'.

Yours,

Tina Teaspoon

Sunday walk

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I woke up today with sun shining through the window. Is it just me or do we all in UK get quite surprised when we actually find ourselves awake with the sun out? I couldn't waste this rare oportunity to go for a long walk (no rain!) and this is why I ended up in Greenwhich. I thought to take lots of pictures around the queens house and the park but my camera managed to die very quickly therefore I present you two picktures: A Tree and Me.

Yup, not very good picks but they will do. I had a lovely afternoon, just taking in the autum, fallen leaves, trees that are still clinging to some of their contents and people walking their dogs. (I did wish at the time how great it would have been to have a dog and see it enjoying freedom of nature). I hope that we will have more weekends when sun comes out and we all feel better just for that.

Yours,
Tina Teaspoon

Simple Sundays

Sometimes simple Sundays are the best. Wake up, have breakfast, go for a walk, come back, have a cup of tea, lunch, make another cup of tea, find the best spot on the couch, read a book, nap, drink some tea...

Life is best when it's simple...

Yours,
Tina Teaspoon

Would you let me

It has been so rare for a new beautifully simple song to come out. A song that has meaningful lyrics rather than two words repeated over and over again with no intellectual or emotional input. But at least sometimes we get something like this:

Yours,
Tina Teaspoon

Want Want Want

                                                                            

What I want from Zara today.

Black Dog

I am sorry but I cannot not blog this. Nicole Scherzinger has recorded the most amazing song Black Dog by Led Zeppelin:

To be honest, not many people can pull off a cover of this song but I do like Nicole's version.

Owl day

A month ago or so me and my BF went to Birds Of Prey Centre in Bedfordshire.  It was one of the most amazing days that I have had for many reasons but the most important one is that I spent most of the morning with Owls. We started off by being introduced to three different sized Owls – Pete, Harriet & Petri. 

The lovely person from the centre (whose name I can’t remember) has talked us through the owls and allowed each of us to hold them. Pete, the male of the three, had really big beautiful eyes.  He’s the type of an owl that has hairs sticking out between his eyes and if you stroke them it makes him fall asleep. That’s pretty amazing when you see it done, they start snoozing in half a second.

Harriet was the biggest of them all and she did weigh quite a bit. I could hold her only for a little bit of time before my arm started feeling very tired.

 

And there was Petri – the smallest one. I hold her for the longest time and she weight barely anything. I could hold her quite close to myself and it was just wonderful. Whilst I had her on my arm some sort of eagle flew buy and she suddenly shrunk half the size and became very skinny and still. I was told that’s how small owls try to avoid to be killed by other birds – trying to blend into the environment and also look as small as possible so that they would not be spotted. When my BF was holding her she tried to fly away couple of times and was really interesting to watch her flying in the same spot, flapping her wings as hard as possible. She was tied to BFs hand that’s so she couldn’t fly away.

Later we actually were allowed to fly some of other owls which was just brilliant. Seeing them fly towards you quietly and landing perfectly on your arm is something that everyone should experience. Owls don’t really make any sounds when they fly so if you wouldn’t know that they are flying past you then you could miss them or get really startled by them.

Me flying a barn owl

Having this experience with them is beyond describing how much fun I had and how much more in love I am with them.

Baby Owls

Yours,

Tina Teaspoon

 

P.S. The lovely person from the centre (whose name I can’t remember) has told us that Owls are actually not very smart birds and there association to knowledge is just a myth. Just because they hand around Athena does not mean that they are intelligent. That kind of did upset me a bit as it crushed my heart. That’s what I always thought about Owls, how smart they are. Nevertheless, Owls are my most favourite birds.

P.S.S. There also was another show of birds after the owl experience day which also was really good fun. We saw eagles, pelicans and all sorts of other birds performing some flying and other tricks. If highly recommend to go to Birds Of Prey Centre and spend there a day. (http://www.birdsofpreycentre.co.uk/)

Something new

This is something new and old at the same time

Yours,
Tina Teaspoon

One lovely Saturday I went to Hampton Court which was amazing, truly amazing! I loved the court and the history it breathes. It is definitely worth it to go there and spend the day. You can see the Kings private rooms, the oldest maze in the world, beautiful gardens and King Henry the VIII walking around the court. I will definitely try to go there one day again.

The Hampton Court day was ended with an afternoon champagne tea. Yet again it was my first time experiencing what is a true British afternoon tea and I was not disappointed with it. British do know what to serve with a good cup of tea.

As always yours,

Tina Teaspoon

Where is summer

Sometimes there are glimpses of summer here in London. Not often, not very often really but just sometime.

I've been in UK for five years now and if you ask what I miss most I will tell you that I miss sun and warmth. And can you believe that last month was the first time I have ever tried Pimms. Why no one told me about Pimms before?! It tastes wonderfully!

I can't believe it's already August. I feel like I have not had any summer time at all which kinda makes me sad because we are nearly at the end....

Yours,
Tina Teaspoon

Recently I have put myself through some things that I am really scared of in my life which for a long time I thought I would never do. You know the kind of fear that takes over your mind and body, when you physically shake but at the same time cannot move, when your mind is screaming ‘RUN’ loudly in your head and there is nothing else there. I wish I could tell you that I was brave, that I did not want to drop everything many times and curl up in bed. I would love to be able to say that I took up everything like a hero with my chest out and calmly controlled my fears in my hands. But I did not. I was scared as scared you can be; I was afraid so much that a lot of times I could not think rationally, I could not speak rationally, I would cry afterwards.

I had read this interesting passage in the book that I am currently reading and it is about how our minds deal with pain. I thought that it not only describes pain but fits on how we deal with fear too as a lot of times these two things are intertwined. Because all the feelings and scary moments are still fresh in me I would like to share the passage with you:

“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind’s way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying ‘time heals all wounds’ is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind doors.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are time when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”

I don’t know if my mind has chosen one of the particular doors to cope with my fears but I do guess that it uses first and second one a lot of time. As I sleep and forget what I want to forget I go by better and better until the next time to be afraid comes along.

How do you cope with fear?

Yours,

Tina Teaspoon

Post Scriptum: The book that I took the quote from is called ‘The Name Of The Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss. If you like fantasy books then definitely read this one as it grabs your attention and does not let you go until you finish it all.

Picture taken from http://1x.com/