What's your "happy place"?

[GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal]

You know when people say (on TV, normally, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say it IRL) "go to your happy place"? Well, where's yours?

I've realised I have four:

1. in my garden on a sunny day, listening to the bees buzz (where I am right now, in fact)
2. floating on the surface of the sea somewhere warm and sunny
3. cuddled up on the sofa with my DC on a cold night, watching Strictly
4. with DH in our local cinema at Christmas, drinking wine and watching It's A Wonderful Life

Al places that when I think of them bring me a sense of peace and calm and happiness.

Where are yours?

@bloodywhitecat

My greenhouse. Just me and my seeds, cuttings, plants and things. Normally have some music on as well.

@bloodywhitecat

I don't know at the moment. It used to be Southwold with DH and I was going to go this weekend but I am missing DH more than ever today and I am not sure I can hold it together if I do go.

I hope I can find that place again one day.

I am very sorry for your loss.

1 - in my own bed on my own, watching Coronation Street with a cup of tea.
2 - swimming in cold water on a hot day.
3- Porthcurno beach.
4 - on a train, table seat, window, alone.
5 - glass of wine, good friend, chat.
6 - dancing in a field to live music with a cider in hand.
7 - in the garden with the kids.

Ice skating rink. I adore losing myself in my music and imagining I look fabulous gliding around

On the rollerskating rink, clears my head like nothing else.
Like so many others the beach (preferably a few specific ones)
Floating in the med.
My home with to where I need to be doing things I enjoy.

Cuddling my cats

The hotel we go to in Menorca. Sitting on the balcony after a day relaxing by the pool, watching the beautiful sunset and listening to the cicadas while we get ready for dinner. We've got so many lovely family memories there and we are looking forward to going back after 2 years away.

The Blackpool Eye. I love standing on the glass floor.

On a twister fairground ride, it's about the only ride I can go on now without needing to spew, I can't even go on the teacups any more!

Llandudno pier.

Sitting at home reading with a cup of tea.

Being on the Mersey ferry.

Chester Zoo.

Watching a show in the theatre or being at the circus.

New Brighton seafront.

Whenever I’m trying to block out something awful that’s happening by ‘going to my happy place’ it’s walking the streets of where I live with my newborn in the pram, I was so happy at the time.

I also think of lovely family days out at the beach, or caravan holidays :)

on my bike

In my own home. This wasn't always the case.
On my deck, cup of tea on the bistro table, nice book open in front of me, plants all around me.

Cinema 4d.

If I turn it & open up a project I lose myself in my work & if I don't have to stop to render it can actually be several hours before my head comes out of the computer at all.

I don't notice being hungry or anything, I am just totally focused, happy & at peace.

Utter bliss.

Also sitting on the sea shore.
I can do that all day, just feeling still & at rest.

Don’t know why but I always go back to certain moments in my childhood. I had a good childhood and the rest of my life has been pretty cushty ( obviously had some hiccups through the years)
I always think of childhood Christmases, holidays. Maybe it’s because it take me back to a time when I didn’t have anything or anyone to really worry about.

Studland Bay;
The first cigarette and cup of tea of the day, outside, at first light;
An elegant Excel solution I’ve made for a problem; and
My cat munching her biscuits - little tinkles of biscuits moving in the bowl and happy crunching.

The gym.

Don't get me wrong, I love my house and family but when I'm totally stressed I go to the treadmill and forget about it all on the treadmill for an hour.

Ooh @OrangeBananaFish I had my honeymoon in Frejus. Lovely memories.

I'm not sure I have a completely happy place at the moment. That explains a lot actually. My bed is probably the nearest thing to it.

In bed on a weekend morning with a little daughter asleep in my oxter and DH asleep beside me with the other little daughter asleep in his oxter. Or coming upstairs to see him in the light of the bedside lamp peacefully "crucified" to the bed with one asleep in each arm and him asleep with his glasses still on and the story book he was reading them fallen on the floor.

The lambing sheds- the smell of sheep and haylage and colostrum and cleansing. That low throaty noise of the penned up ewes talking to their lambs and the ones that are starting to get the notion pawing a bit and talking to the lambs already born because the oxytocin is starting to flow. The ones still nowhere near lambing lying down cudding or pottering over to the water trough or the ring feeder. If you stand still and watch for a long time, they quietly get on with their relaxed way of going as if you weren't there.
Lying on the sofa in the kitchen (where I am now), with the back of my head on a hot water bottle, in my shitey lambing jeans and tatty lambing hoodie waiting to go out and check the sheds again because one has the bag out.
Walking over the fields really early in the morning when it's still misty, to check the ones that have already gone out, and finding them all together in the place where they usually spend the night, each ewe with her lambs tucked in beside her and everybody still asleep or half asleep.

Genuinely my home.
I love it so much, we’ve put so much work into making it a place we love. This afternoon I was laid on the sofa in the kitchen with the doors all open and the sun streaming in on me. It warmed me into an afternoon sleep. I woke up and dh had appeared to make a drink and the dc were in the garden playing swingball and frisbeeing and the chickens were clucking about. I genuinely realised in those few seconds upon waking how lucky I felt to own a house I loved and felt safe in with a (mostly!) lovely family. I don’t take it for granted.

Home
The new forest
Canal tow paths ( preferably on my bike)
The camel trail near Padstow

By the sea.
Home.
A fairly local and beautiful castle.

On a boat in the Whitsundays.
Wild swimming in Canada with eagles sitting by the lake.
On the side of a valley in Uganda listening to a choir sing.
Watching children paddle to school at dawn in Halong Bay.

Fuck I miss travelling.

Although on the sofa with the dog and kid is close

When I cycle. Makes me feel like a kid again.
Driving, music on quite loud. I don’t drive to work, so the car is always: oh, we’re going on an adventure.
My home.
Reading.
Running a race.
Swimming.
Seeing my friends when we meet for a walk and a pub lunch.
Christmas.
The beach.
The airport.

Home, always home. On my place on the sofa under my heated throw covered in dogs and DH and DD cuddled up. Or my bed with DH and my cuddly bed dog. Heaven. I’ve been away on holiday this week, currently waiting at the airport to go home and can’t wait to get home now.

I feel so lucky, especially since home was always a place of walking on egg shells, shouting and conflict until this home and my DH.

Home for me too. Snuggled under a blanket on the sofa watching a good Netflix series with Dh, in our lovely bed, pootling about the kitchen listening to R4, in the bath, in the garden on a summer's day, or best of all chilling in the winter by the wood burner in my favourite room, with a cat on my lap and the dog at my feet. I sometimes say to Dh that we're so lucky to live where we live as it's like staying in a gorgeous hotel 24-7. Well, not quite, as we don't have the staff, but it's close enough. My favourite evenings are staying in with Dh, after a good dog walk, lighting the fire, cooking steak, and drinking red wine.

When I do venture away from my house I would say the woods and fields above my village.

And when I venture away from my village, it has to be the Cumbrian fells. Heaven.