I have no idea why this post appears to be oddly arranged on some computers and less so on others…I will ask Jacob about it when we return. In the meantime, you might have to match my comments to the appropriate pictures as you read. Oh..and we are continuing to have a most wonderful, inspiring and oh dear…’educational’ time. Travel really does give you a view of not only other places and people…but if you care to look…a view of yourself. Occasionally disturbing…but always useful.
Here we are staying with friends in Maulden Woods Bedfordshire England.
It really is very pretty.
And the word ‘bucolic’ springs to mind. And despite what a friend of mine thinks, this does not mean ‘blustery and red in the face.’
Adrian and his family live here. And as we stay we notice the decisions that have been made about a way of living; about what matters and what doesn’t.
Adi makes extraordinary pieces of (furniture? art?)…
And…the dishes have to be washed in a plastic bowl thing and emptied onto the garden because the drain doesn’t work. But the garden itself, and the view from the kitchen into the garden…
.
.. just gorgeous.
The bathroom floor is made of lovely tiles…heated…
…and yet the wall doesn’t go quite all the way up to the ceiling.
And then again there are the things that are made…created…
This one with the dark wood being 5,500 year old (yep that’s right) bog oak. Lifted from a swamp and dragged across a half mile of bush to be loaded onto a truck. Doing things not the easy way. 
For exquisite results.
And the room we are staying in has no power and its cold and dark at night and so we run a power cord down and in through the window of our totally lovely bedroom which is a caravan…located and brought in just for us…friends arriving who need a bed.
So what matters? What do you care about? What is at the top of your list of things to do? To have? To experience? To be exposed to? To spend your time on? To have around you? To have in your life on a daily basis? Yeah, what’s important and what really matters?