all in a day

the wee man making corn bread for breakfast

a very gentle butterfly rescue at breakfast

A few weeks ago a lovely blogging friend of mine asked me if I would help her repair the much loved doll she made for her daughter. It was a really fun project and I finished her off yesterday.

 In the parcel that she came in Nicole had enclosed lots of goodies for us including some wonderful wooden blanks. This morning I got them out and the kids had a wonderful time painting them.

only the colour pumpkin of course

Benny's dear little gnome

After all of that (and some play thrown in for good measure) we got dressed and headed off to the village tennis court to join in with the festival arts and crafts activity for kids.

 We had lots of fun and enjoyed our time there. On the way home we turned what could have been a very hot and thirsty, moany walk into a really wonderful adventure. There is lots of broken crockery and sea glass on the shore here so we pretended that we were adventurers finding 'evidence' of a lost civilization.

 We found so much 'evidence' that our bag was heavy from it and Benny's pockets were so full he had to walk home holding his shorts up to stop them from falling down.

 At home, while I was getting lunch the explorers washed and dried and sorted all the evidence

some evidence

 After lunch the kids relaxed and watched a dvd and I had some quiet time (aherm NOT doll making)

 well I just can't help it! This wee one will be in the shop shortly :-)

 Rested and revived the creativity continued...

 We made spelt, honey and cocoa cookies with a very wonderful hedgehog cutter that was arrived for Rebe today from a very sweet little fellow hedgehog lover.

 Towards evening Rebe said she had to make Mio (her special) some clothes. She has some very specific ideas about what sort of clothing. Basically he needs to look like he is going on a date at a posh restaurant...

Think we're doing well so far! I will post more about this exciting feline development when I understand it better myself ;-)

So wow, what a day! Sometimes our days are like this, so full, so creative. Sometimes they are not, but the joy of school holidays is being able to just roll with it.

the garden ~ mid July

in the green house, cucumbers and spring onions

tomatoes ripening

and our first ripe one

outside the flowers in bloom, carnations and dahlias 

my favourite rose, favourite because it is busy reverting to it's wild state...i love that

beans climbing on the willow structure (only on one side though as it get's used a goal and people seem to shoot off centre lol)

the front garden, sweet peas climbing by the door and sweet red geraniums in the window boxes

benny's sun flower

a snail-arium... the kids were busy rescuing all the snails and slugs that I was ousting from the green house this morning. They made this wonderful landscape for them to live in

then asked if they could keep it in the green house to stop the thrushes eating their new pets!?!?!?!?!

making pesto

carrot noodles

I lost all of my spinach and lettuce when we were on holiday, they all just went to seed, so I am hoping to pick up some more seedlings tomorrow and also get some seeds to start thinking about greens during autumn and winter. Apart from that I am so delighted with everything and so proud I can actually grow things we actually eat :-)

Jack ~ No Ordinary Cat

While we were visiting her in Bristol my mum gifted us a copy of this book.

It is a kids version of 'A Street Cat Named Bob', a really beautiful story about how Bob the cat and James, a homeless musician found each other and became the best of friends. The kids and I are really enjoying it, Bob is such a character and follows James everywhere, even on the bus!!! So imagine how utterly delighted they were when our cat Jack (a stray who adopted us in the winter and has never left) decided to accompany us on a fishing trip...

 Benny has been imagining that Jack is actually Bob's brother, and by the looks of things he may well be right!

 He waited for us at the top of the little beach to catch something for his supper.

 The kids did their best...

 Jack ventured down to join us on the beach

 the kids tried harder, but no fish were being netted

 in the end Jack went over to see what the hold up was, we still didn't catch anything, not even a tiny tiddler so we headed back home to give him a tin of cat food instead.

(in the name of honesty here I have to add that Benny was getting cranky, he was hungry and tired, he picked jack up and walked towards the sea with him, with the full intention of chucking him in I think, I shouted for him not too, Jack ran off and Benny got upset...and we haven't seen Jack since!)

w'ur holiday ~ Bristol and home again

I don't have any more pictures of the actual things we did because my camera was on the blink but we visited the zoo, and a wild fowl sanctuary, we went swimming and shopping for shoes, we visited with special friends (where I got to hold a very precious 2 week old bundle), we went to a wonderful theater performance and we played and ate and drank. 

On our final weekend we had a family BBQ for my mum and dad who turned and turn 60 this year. It was so lovely. All three of my brothers were there and we cooked a kick-ass bbq for everyone. It was a lot of (middle-finger-showing) fun.

It was the first time in nearly 5 years that we were all together, it was very special!

my dear family

 The evenings were lovely too, when the wee ones were in bed I rocked it on the ukulele with my little brother Chris.

 He very patiently taught me several chords and now I am sporting wee mini ukulele callouses, and I think I have been bitten by the bug and will get one for myself.

The evenings when Chris had gone back home to Oxford I spent watching movies with my other little brother. He has a veritable cinema and I watched my first 3D movie. It was so nice to chill with him...and laugh my ass off to the silly movies we watched!

So we arrived home pretty tired as you can imagine and the garden was over grown and the house had needed cleaning before I even left. But a day setting everything straight and all was good and happy with being back in my beautiful house in my beautiful part of the world.

 We have spent the last few days in glorious sunshine, gardening, sticking lots of things into our scrap books,

 We have been to the beach a lot too because it is so beautiful and hot. My dear friend Lucy came to visit with her brood for a night.

Joa and his very special friend Ash

We had such a good holiday and we are also glad to be home!

And the great thing is there is still 6 weeks of fun before school starts back again :-)

w'ur holiday ~ part 2 Eastbourne

So we arrived safely in Eastbourne where we leaped with glee into the paddling pool awaiting us to cool off.

It was so lovely to be with my best friend Vicci and her family and catch up on all the news.

The following day we all loaded into 2 cars and drove to Groombridge, a completely magical place a 45 min drive from their house.

 There were beautiful gardens, with ponds and giant chess games

 my dear friend Vicci and her youngest wee man (recognise the sling?)

 we took a trip on the pirate boat down the canal

 looking out for sharks and crocodiles and pirates

 we didn't find any actual pirates but we found a magnificent pirate hideout where we had lunch and played

 there were huge bones (made of wood) dotted around the place, probably left by giants or dinosaurs

 these 2 robbers stole all of this precious gold from a museum

huge swings

enchanted sculptures

transforming, magical doorways

covered wagons (and a very tired Joa)

teepee

 At the end of the afternoon we watched a really wonderful falconry display, the highlight of this for Rebe was being feet away from a bald eagle and for me it was watching an unlikely participant 'Mr Pie' a funny wild magpie who always joins in the show!

We had a picnic dinner before driving back home again, where we got the kids into bed before Vicci and I headed out to a pilates class together. It was so nice to do something a little different and not child orientated!

 The following day we were all really tired so we stayed at home to rest.

 Vicci and I made bread and numerous snacks and we had a visit from Vicci's mum which was so lovely.

Much revived we decided to head off to Eastbourne Pier on the Thursday.

 We took the bus and got to sit up top at the front of the double decker. The kids were enthralled, much to the amusement of more senior, regular bus riders. There is only 1 bus a day to our wee village so riding on a bus and seeing so much traffic was a real novelty for my kids.

The pier itself was good fun, Rebe was so fascinated by being able to look through the boards and see the sea under our feet.

 We braved the noise and flashing lights of the amusement arcade to give the kids the experience of that. We lasted about 15 minutes in there before it became too over whelming and we removed ourselves to the calm of the tea room where we treated ourselves to a 'Victorian Tea Party'

 We had tea and little sandwiches served on pretty doilies and scones with jam and cream and then of course 3 kinds of cake.

there wasn't much left when we had finished :-)
That evening the kids decided they wanted to sleep outside in the playhouse. They performed a brilliant concert for us singing and dancing. For this privileged they asked for a donation of £2 that was 'to go to the little plastic money box they have in shops for animals'. They wrote long lists of what they needed and armed with blankets and torches and a midnight feast they headed off to the play house where they lasted until 8.30pm when they all came (or were brought) back in doors to bed again.
The next day we set off after breakfast to catch the train back through London to Bristol. It was a great wee visit to Vicci and her family.
To be continued...