The UK adventure begins!
Arrived at Heathrow airport last Sunday 19th, and we made or way straight to a small surf town on the beach called ‘Woolacombe’ in North Devon. It’s my first time staying here, and it is really beautiful..
We have had typical English summer weather- showers of rain, a chilly breeze and pockets of sunshine throughout the day, around 15/16 degrees…. so not swimming weather, but plenty of country walks
Both my parents grew up in the countryside, my dad in Yorkshire and Bath, my mum in a small village in the Philippines, and they brought my siblings and I up in the West Midlands (near Wales) a place called “Herefordshire”.
As a young girl I used to love playing in the woods, chasing butterflies and climbing trees… innocent ways to pass the time. But, as a teenager I was soon drawn into the sex drugs and rock’n’roll lifestyle, which is all too tempting when the nearest shop to you is seven miles away. Both phases of my life sparked creativity and proved a useful source of inspiration
As soon as I finished college at 18, I chose London for university- desperate to explore the concrete jungle, discover the music scene and escape the green hills of boredom. And after 4 years in London I packed up again, this time for the man made city in the desert that is Dubai.
I have realised over the years that I can never stay in cities too long without feeling a strong desire to go back to the depths of the mountains, hills, rivers, coastline.. to escape the stress of modern day life and return to the wild outdoors.
I came across this quote:
‘My recollection of a hundred lovely lakes has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful.’- Hamlin Garland
That ‘return to the primitive and the peaceful’, is what I seek on breaks like this. To forget all the day to day stresses, forget about work, forget about who I am and where I’m going.. and simply enjoy being alive :)
‘And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.’ William Shakespeare
‘Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.’ Khalil Gibran
‘In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.’ John Fowles
‘Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.’- Jimmy Carter
‘Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.’ Saint Basil
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘universe’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and his feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his conscience. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty..”
Mr Albert Einstein

























Lovely pics of Devon, I spent many a summer holiday there as a child having also grown up in the sticks not far from you, but in Gloucestershire rather than Hereford.
So how did you manage to avoid picking up a country accent?!
such a lovely part of the world! wow yep thats just around the corner! i had more of a twang when I was younger but its faded over the years! haha!