Melanie’s August Apologies

Welcome to Melanie’s August Apologies, it has been the most unusual month we have had this year. First of all we have to hugely apologise to all of our clients and thank them so much, for being so very patient with us. The month started off well with a lovely wedding to attend, however the following day, in the middle of the night we received a call that my father-in-law had been taken seriously ill in hospital.

Melanie’s August Apologies Backstory!

If any of you have been following our personal blog posts this year, you will know that I have been doing a lot of work around the cottage and garden, catching up on things we have not been able to attend to in the last 4 years with Nicholas having been unwell due to covid. A lot of things had fallen by the wayside that he, or I, have not been able to attend to. I made the decision to take on much less work this year so that I could get to grips with everything here.

I had in the back of my mind that it was time to get everything sorted out in case any of our family members were poorly. Get all the jobs done so if we have to drop everything at a moments notice we could.

Well… Colin kind of beat us to it! The call came, we had not long been back from the wedding, we hadn’t had a lot of sleep and we were in no fit state to drive 5 hours in the middle of the night. Thankfully and quite coincidentally, Nicholas’s sister had just travelled down to Cornwall to visit them for a few days, so they were there to take the strain at the start. Not quite the holiday they had imagined. So while they did the first few days of hospital visits, we arranged an air BnB so we could take over the hospital duties and help out.

The Shepherds Hut

We stayed in a little Shepherds hut and I will add a link to it, as it was such a lovely place to stay. If you are heading to Cornwall for a short break, I fully recommend it. Hillview Haven Shepherds Hut. It even had a little woodburning stove, fully functioning kitchen and bathroom with shower. We didn’t need anymore.

Charlotte, the owner, was so absolutely lovely. She knew that we weren’t coming down for a holiday as such, bought us pizza and a bottle of wine, along with eggs, honey, bread and milk to get us started. Small gestures of kindness really do go a long way, especially in a time of need. The back was completely safe for Lily and she could gaze across the fields at the goings on…

So while Nicholas went back and forth to the hospital with his mum, Lily and I stayed at the shepherds hut. It gave me time to do admin work for my college work job. Which was quite helpful as I have been behind on my emails and admin! While Lily looked out of the window across the fields!

We stayed a week and every day Colin began to improve. He finally come out of hospital on our last day and is on the mend. In actual fact now they have changed his medication, he is better than when he went in! So all is well. Here is a photo of our last night at the hut, just as lots of Geese flew over. Beautiful sight!

Melanie’s August Apologies – Steve’s Visit

As soon as we arrived home, we had a visit from an old friend who stayed for a few days. We have mentioned him before on our blog. He visits us once a year and this was his planned yearly visit. We not only do tourist things with him, but he helps us with any jobs. The photo of us below was at Colby Gardens which Lily loved. We stopped there for lunch which is highly recommended!

We did a much longer woodland walk than we have done before. It takes you right through a lovely forest, we even saw Redwood trees along the way too.

LLangrannog

We also took Steve to Llangrannog where we did a lovely coastal walk. It was a bit overcast, but not at all cold and great to blow away the cobwebs. The views are superb. We didn’t see any dolphins, but we did see Choughs, Cormorants, Ravens and of course seagulls. The roads are very narrow to get there. We did a lot of reversing on the way and on the way home.

Lily and I were ahead, lily always forging the way. As you can see Nicholas and Steve following behind.

The Compost Area

Steve is very handy to have around. He is a gardener by trade, although we met him at art college, he now does landscape gardening. He knew that I was struggling with my compost area. My garden generates a lot of clippings. We have no where really to keep them…. apart from the bottom of the garden. My original compost area was just too small.. can you see Lily hidden in the photo bellow?!

So although this is a ‘Before’ photo, previously this year the whole area had a huge three row stack of split logs. Previous to that a huge pile of tree rounds… then a pile of pallets! So now we have made it a composting area using left over wood. We like to recycle.

This is how it looks now. I must be the only person in the world who has a tree stump in their composting area!!! Steve took the very top off of the stump so that we could add a back to meet the other compost area. We took the divide out of the old compost area. We spread last years compost in the garden and then made it all one bay. So now I have two large bays, one empty ready for next year’s garden clippings and grass. It is going to be so much easier and the fronts come off when needed. I painted it all up and it looks very tidy. The tidiest this area has been for many years. Phew! Such a relief.

Melanie’s August Apologies – Back to Work

So back to Melanie’s August Apologies. Now we are home we need to get organised. I have cleaned and tidied the studio, my first admin job was this blog and to sort out my newsletter software. It’s currently under construction with many technical issues! So if you are reading this it did actually work in the end! And then to concentrate on our lovely clients and artwork.

I am truly grateful for how our clients have been and thankful that they are all happy to wait a little longer for their portraits. We are both eternally grateful. Thank you!! If you missed last months blog post, please check out our July Jottings and thank you so much for reading our Melanie’s August Apologies. Next month will be a much more jovial and normal blog post!

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