Birthday Blessings

Yes it's my birthday; in fact it is my 46th birthday...

- My hair is defiantly getting greyer
+ My hair is still soft and shinny

- My toes nails are getting misshapen
+ I can still cut my own toe nails

- My face has slightly more wrinkles
+ I still can choose not to wear make-up

- I am no longer a size 10
+ I can still buy clothes in M&S, if I want to!

I look at photographs of times gone pass, where being 46 was a million miles away, I have nearly always had to live my life in the here and now but the now is actually very loving and peaceful and I can sit down and either choose to look back on what I have accomplished or look forward to what I would like to achieve.

The forward list is very small. My past life I worked hard and played hard, doing as much as I could possibly cope with, never thinking that life could go on for quite a while. Therefore there is not much more I would like to do, a few more countries to travel to, a goat or two in my back garden, to work from home.

You see I have achieved far more by having an amazing husband and two loving children, which if I am brutally honest I never ever thought I would have. Not to say I couldn't have children, getting pregnant was not a problem but being a good mother - whatever-that-means was the hard target, not having any skills passed on to me but you know what, I think I have done it.

Even when my son, calls, at 10:00 am, asking "why does it hurt to have teeth out?"

Yesterday he had a wisdom tooth out and it had 4 roots, 3 came out with the tooth but the 4th had to be dug out, so now he has stitches and is feeling sorry for himself.

Answering in my most sympathetic and appropriate mummy’s voice, I then asked "are you calling to say anything else?" Slight silence, while this bit of what I had asked was sinking in and all the time trying to think of an answer.. you can hear the clogs going round, this must be a trick question, why is Mum asking this? His tablet induced thick groggy brain trying to work it all out in a nanosecond; the answer "no" was what I got.

Oh, so you are not ringing me to say "Happy Birthday Mum" ...


"Bollocks"


This reply has made me chuckle all day, the first time he has forgotten in his 24 years of being my son.

I will forgive him having wisdom teeth out at the dentist, is painful very painful and I forgot to telephone him yesterday and ask how he was ....

...What a dreadful mother!

Clean Sweep

Hello everybody, I am having a good clean sweep, so bare with me while I do this and then I have so much to say about what we have been up to over the summer. Partly to keep track of my life for my own slightly degenerating memory and more importantly because Toby asked, "Mum why haven't you updated your thingy lately?" No proper answer son, apart from I know how important this site is going to be over the next year for you.

Life’s a Gamble

Remember all the excitement about broody eggs and me whizzing off and purchasing 6 Bantam eggs. Well they took a little bit longer to reach me than I was expecting!! But in the mean time curiosity got the better of Buddy and he just had to poke is nose in and have a look to what was going on – a big no, to a broody chicken and within half an hour of that little incident, she was off the eggs never to return.

Still it was a gamble ... some you win, some you lose.

But Paul came up trumps with this ...


A very dusty Brinsea Octagon 10 Incubator, so after a good clean...





Paul told me the eggs should last up to 14 days if kept in a cool’ish’ place and I turn the eggs, (I have kept them in the box, so I am turning the box) periodically throughout the day, every day.



There were six lovely little bantam eggs in the box.


But on closer inspection, I found this ...



I am sure it didn’t get broken in the post, as the crack was on the in side but I have now had the eggs for a week, so I can’t go back to the supplier and say anything.

So down to 5 eggs, which I have placed in the incubator, it seems I should have sterilised everything first, opps, sorry eggs .... didn’t get any instructions until I did a search on line ... after having set everything up!

Oh well, as I said “life’s a gamble ...”

But I did find this very informative site about chickens and all you need to know, so thought I would share with you, if you are interested of course.

But if you can see I am doing something wrong or you can give me any more advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

The upside is all three chickens are now laying; we have been giving the most recently laid eggs away. Giving away! Well my thought process is, I will get my friends and family hooked on scummy fresh eggs, having already said that I will charge a little, to off set the chicken food costs!

Pay it Forward

I cut my neighbours grass as they suffer from hay fever. That is a return for me being sent an Interview Knits from Natalie at the Yarn Yard as she had two copies. Unfortunately I never did receive the magazine as it got lost in the post, such a shame. But I still wanted to repay the very kind gesture.

Knitting

I have completed my first monkey’s sock apart from the kitchener stitching, which will be saved until I have a quiet half an hour. Just now need to find the repeat of pattern, if that is possible with such a colourful yarn so that I can hopefully make the finished socks look similar.

I have never knitted a sock in a week, not even a month, six months being my average, I have knitted 3 pairs, and a couple of singles – having not got round to doing the second one ‘yet’, so not really a sock guru.

Therefore your guess is as good as mine to whether I get ‘second sock syndrome’ or the time to finish the second sock anytime this year.

But you must of guessed I am so chuffed with myself ... I finished a sock in a week - yay!

Year End

Last week was very much a hard week at work, however this was off set by lots of playing, it seemed that all the things I do, had come together in just one week, why does that happen; for weeks you have no social live and then it all comes together in one exhausting week?

I was getting up extra early in the mornings to do any chores and to arrive at work for 7:30am; this gave me a little bit of quiet time before the all the woodworking machines got turned on.

I needed to accomplish 4 major tasks, that had to be finished by the Friday, however to be able to do these tasks, several other jobs had to be completed first, like having every account reconciled from the bank accounts, credit cards and loans, you name it, it had to be reconciled.

If you do wages as part of or all of your job, then you will have had to submit all the P.A.Y.E., submissions for ‘year end ‘ 2007/08 by Saturday May 31st. (Note for me : NEXT YEAR IS THE 19 MAY - REMEMBER 19th!!) For me this means writing out 40 P60’s by hand, with no mistakes, or if I do make a mistake, I have to start a fresh one.

I was able to complete the on-line submission with no issues what-so-ever, unlike previous years by Tuesday afternoon, then on to finalising all of May’s worked hours and calculate everybody’s pay and submit to the bank for paying. The next big task was to make sure that all suppliers invoices, tallied with the appropriate suppliers statements. May is also work’s end of VAT quarter. Normally as soon as the invoices are sorted, it is just a short job. However QuickBooks has completely upgraded their VAT software and I could not get it to calculate properly – groan, however after much shouting at the computer, I managed to find before and end figures, did some math’s and have submitted a hand written form.

Every quarter, Gary and I have a small competition to who can get the nearest to the amount that has to be paid to HM Customs. This quarter I won, which means Gary meant a pound in the Prospect Hospice Box.

My final job was to submit all the bill payments for the bank to make the BACS payments.

I did it all and I am sure that the fact that I had such a lovely week helped me through.

Monday night, I finished Noel's socks off, I had completed the first sock including a terrible example of kitchener stitch, however sitting very quietly by myself, in the small gap between me getting home and everybody else on a Monday evening, I sewed up the second sock - quiet is the answer, I did a much better job.

Noel's socks - taken at this angle, so that I could use the wall as a back drop!

Tuesday I decided to join a Monkey Sock KAL on the CTnY Forum and that evening, I cast-on and knitted about 7 rows of the rib and then realised that it should have been twisted rib, so I frogged it all, again.

Wednesday evening, Poppy was sleeping over Kaan’s, so Noel suggested we go out to dinner, we decided to go to the local pub, the Iron Horse, because at 8 pm at this pub is where I have a fortnightly village knit/craft get together. It also happens to serve nice home-made food. We had a lovely meal together and then Noel, disappeared (he didn’t want to bump into any of the group) at 7:50 pm, I carried on knitting. I re-cast-on the monkeys and this time remembered to do the twisted rib and managed to do; 2 pattern repeats.

Thursday, started with me following Noel to the garage to get his car MOT’ed, then Noel dropped me off at work, and he went back and collect Kaan and Poppy; as they were all going to spend the day together, starting with the cinema and watching the new Indian Jones film, which they all really enjoyed, then on to Pizza Hut for lunch before going climbing together.

After work, we collected the car, it had passed, such a relief, with just the cost of a bulb (and the four new tyres we had bought the week before!!)

Thursday evening, I met up with Kate and Louise at the pub, (none of us had heard from Sprite64, which is a shame as we were then not sure what to do – hope you are reading this Sprite and you can let us know if you still want to join in), a lovely meal was had by all and a great time while we did ‘show and tell’. As we are all members of the forum, out came 3 monkey’s, which made us giggle, Kate’s were a plum with a splash of pink colour, Louise’s were a white, black and beige colour and then mine.

Friday afternoon, a bit later than planned as it had taken me longer to sort the VAT out, I went round to Ruth’s and caught up with all the family and showed her this blog!! Noel and Poppy went off to climbing the wall at West Swindon’s Leisure Centre and came back and picked me up at 5 pm. We had a relaxing evening at home together as a family and I carried on knitting.

And then Saturday, which broke with glorious sunshine, I travelled down to Hillier’s Arboretum, Braishfield, Hampshire to meet Linda. We had a lovely day together chatting, we are members of Hilliers, it gives us some where to go, when we just want to chat, away from husbands, children, ironing etc etc ... you know the sort of place. In between eating, drinking and walking I took 160 photographs of the plants; this is just a selection of what I took ...

More knitting ...

Yesterday was spent relaxing and knitting (progress photo below), while we watched the DVD; The Golden Compass. Poppy explained to me that her daemon was a Monkey, so I thought I would see what mine was; you can agree or disagree by following this link:


It was also the first day that all three chickens had laid eggs on the same day! One egg was so fresh that it was sticky and very warm.

My monkey sock as of going to bed Sunday evening!

Clever Chickens

They have seemed to have settled down quite quickly really, but they still don’t like me going near them – shame, but lets give them some time.

During the day, they found their food and drink, and their nesting box, there was defiantly two flatten areas of straw in the box and the dark coloured chickens were happy on their perch.

I wouldn’t normally give my poultry names, I don’t even give my car a name, it’s car – final and chickens well they are there for laying eggs etc ... however the bronze coloured chicken, I have decided to call Mrs B. B = Bronze or Broody. The idea came from my Nana who l lived with for a while and she was illiterate, so struggled with the writing of her name. She went into service at 14 and was still working as a house keeper / cook well into her late sixties. She was always known as Mrs D.

Mrs B is broody; she has come to me broody and just wants to sit, which is one of the reasons I have decided to give her a name.

This is not a problem, but I have had to make some decisions very quickly and take advice from Paul.

This is the plan; to get parrot box down from the loft, line it with straw and use it as a nesting box for Mrs B, place two supermarket eggs in the straw and then move Mrs B as it is getting dark tonight. This will keep her broody. In the meantime I have ordered; 6 Blue Lace Wyandotte Bantam Eggs for £16.00, free post and packaging. The guy will collect them over this weekend, and send them on Tuesday to my work, so that I will get them Wednesday morning. Then I will swap the naff eggs for the fertilised eggs and then just wait and pray that I get hens and not cockerels!

I didn’t expect it all to happen so quickly.

Last night the chickens put themselves to bed, very clever; I just had to shut the door. I picked up any left over food and there was only a little bit and the drinker, so that I hopefully won’t attract any unwanted furries and also making life easier in the morning.

Hannah and Buddy were very interested but very well behaved, I am using a shaker bottle when they get to interested, and the command ‘leave’, lets hope they learn to ignore them very quickly. Hannah has seen chickens before but it is all new for Buddy.

This morning, I had company, Jill, she is such a scaredy cat that I am not too worried but she is obviously finding the chickens interesting, need to be carefully if/when we get chicks!

I now have a new morning routine; which goes a bit like this; Noel, let the dogs out into the garden for their ablutions, and then took them out for a walk. I refilled the feeders and drinker and went and got the chickens up, still with a bit of clucking going on and Jill for company. So that when the dogs came back home everything was quiet and the dogs were non-the-wiser – she says ...

But look what I got out of the nesting box this morning ...

I was so excited and it put such a big smile on my face. Noel and I have decided that scrambled ‘fresh’ eggs are on the menu for lunch time (we have some eggs in the fridge from Paul's chickens to make a decent size meal) – yum.

Chickens

Oh my goodness, it has been like preparing for a baby, and then just waiting and waiting and then all of a sudden it all happens in a flurry.

This morning Paul (my boss) managed to catch 3 of his free range Welsummer hens (not quite a true breed colour; thier legs should be yellow and thier feathers, brown), the other two hens that I am getting were a bit skitty and he was unable to catch them this morning. He put the 3 in a sack and brought them into work, they were very quiet sat in the foot well of the van. I had arrived early so that the chickens had the least amount of time in the sack. I then lifted them into my car and drove back down the hill, to home. I unlocked the front door and Hannah decided that this was the morning she would make her escape.* So I placed the chickens gently down in the hallway and went back outside and opened my car up, which thank goodness Hannah just jumped in, no great chase up the hills – actually it worked out really well as I then knew she was safe in the car and Buddy in his cage. Enabling me to carry the chickens into the back garden and safely place them in to their bit of garden, so that we can all get a customised to each other.

First thing this morning I went to the base of the hills where a tree had been cut down, I noticed this yesterday when walking the dogs. I picked up two cut off branches and took them back round home, purpose being; that the chickens could have a couple of natural perches to sit on.

After gently opening the sack and letting them step out one at a time, they quickly moved away from me, they were slightly jumpy as I stood up and walked back through the fence. The bronze coloured chicken was quite noisy, so I scattered some corn, having already placed a feeder and drinker down before they arrived. I then went into the conservatory and watched them all get busy, scratching around. I left them quiet and hopefully quite content.

It is all very exciting, well for me, maybe not for them. Now just have to wait for my first egg; it is going to be so ... well just ... brillent.

I have had my heart set on Blue Laced Wyandottes but to buy new is quite expensive and having never kept chickens before, it was a little bit off putting. I have kept ducks so do have a little experience of poultry but I wanted to learn more about chickens before going head long into expensive chickens.

Paul has lots of chickens and said "he had about five that were the wrong colour, but perfectly healthy in every other way and would probably charge me £3.00 a chicken". They were hatched last year and are already laying. Bargain, which is why I have Welsummers and not Wyandottes!!

My aim in the future is to get some Wyandotte Bantam eggs and put them under one of the hens if, or, more likely, when one of the chickens gets broody.

*When ever I have taken Hannah up the hills, she must enjoy it so much that, the very next time, I walk in the front door she is waiting to run out. At first and very several times afterwards, I would follow her up the hill however last year I decided and it was ‘horrible with worry’ but I just let her go. Eventually after about an hour and after a huge downpour a very kind neighbour on the other side of our tiny housing estate brought her home. I repaid this kindness with a good bottle of wine! Now she runs out the door, runs for about 15 foot (3 meters), stops, turns round, and looks at me. I ignore her, walk straight to the car, open it up and she jumps in, simple.

Knitting

Poppy is going to Barcelona on a music department school trip in July and it is going to be hot, very hot.

So a new summer wardrobe was discussed and as a result a couple of little summer cardigans needed to be produced.

We chose this pattern (a free download from Garnstudio) and I bought this white cotton yarn from Scandinavian Knitting, at £1.45 a ball it is excellent quality for a great price. Toby is based very near to the home of Bruce who runs Scandinavian Knitting, so he very kindly drove over to the house and picked the yarn up for me, and while he was there, he had a play with their new black Labrador puppy.

I have knitted the sleeves (as shown in the photo below) and I decided to make them a little shorter than the pattern states, so that they fit to the elbow. As I really do not like knitting sleeves, I have decided to knit them first, then the two fronts, that way I am just left with the back piece, that way, I feel that I am nearly finished. The yarn is knitting up lovely and looks so crisp, clean and white just what every girl needs for an evening in Barcelona.

On a rare trip to the shops in town, this week, (I really do not like shopping), I had a browse at the magazines in WHSmiths and spotted this book, made up of Alan Dart knitting designs in. I am not normally a toy maker but this has some lovely patterns in, including the Yuletide Gnomes.

Aren’t they just adorable? I just know I would like some sat around the home at Christmas time.

Throw-Away Society

In the post last month we received, as part of our English Heritage Magazine and newsletter, a voucher for 15% off at Homebase for last weekend. As we had quite a shopping list, Noel and I decided to make the most of the discount.

We bought; felt for the chicken house, small wire fence to finish off the new border, wood chip, compost, bell cloches, a few bedding/pots/hanging basket starter plants, 3 grow bags, 2 grow bag trays and 6 strawberry plants. Not bad for 40 minutes of shopping at a total of £175.00 after discount. After picking ourselves back up off the floor and being complemented by the guy on the till about the fact that Noel and I work very well as a team (wasn’t that nice of him to say), we piled it all into the car – just and set off for home.

The result of newly cleaned out and nearly planted pots; and instead of over crowding the patio with all the pots, like I did last year. I have placed them around the garden, partly to stop Buddy running through the shrubs and also to brighten up dull/dark areas with colour.

A couple of the many pots

The new border all planted and finished off; Noel had to do a lot of hard digging through the very wet clay to turn it all over before any planting could be done. He is very patient with me; because I am so fussy on the positioning of the plants, which we had bought last month and had been test placed and moved and moved and moved again before the planting actually took place.

New Border

Sorry about my shadow!

Strawberry Plants

These tomato plants were grown from seed by Llew and he gave them to me last Friday, his have already doubled in size since planting out.

Now I will explain my title; after having a fantastic weekend sat in the sun and generally getting the garden back up to scratch, we needed to do a dump run, of thick clay with bits of sad tufty, ‘never (has yet, after 4 years) going to grow properly’ grass. I was dreading the wait at the recycling depot, however as luck would have it there were just 10 cars in front, so only a comparatively short wait – great. We even got a space just 2 away from the particular container we needed to throw the green or as it was and very embarrassing we got shouted at: "‘soil’ bin". Then this happened, I am sure you can picture this; two parking spaces away a car pulled up with a 'tall' Japanese man, who parked his car. I watched him take from his boot (trunk) and throw away two Photmiums and two Fatsia Japonica’s, I stood in the middle of the path, with my ‘scardy cat hat’ on, my mouth wide open watching him throw these plants away, they were perfect, the leaves were all immaculate, the root balls, clean and tidy. He must of been a gardener, he had to be ... Then out of his boot came a 5 foot (1.5 meters) bamboo, now I knew this was over a £100.00 ($200.00) from the garden centre, at this point I plucked up the courage and asked “are you throwing thatttt awwayyyy”, “yes” he said, “I have 3 altogether”. “Please may I have them”, “of course, you should have said earlier, you could of had it all” – I let out a GROAN (but my insides were screaming), “why are you throwing all this away, you could sell it”, “my garden is to small and the plants to large”, he replied, no reason given for just throwing them away, perhaps I should not have asked.

I gave one of bamboo plants to another man who saw what I was doing and very politely asked if I wanted all three, I just couldn’t be that greedy. So that particular bamboo was placed in the front seat of a open top sports car, never did manage to see where his partner sat, but that plant was taking priorty, I was more lucky ours fitted in from the back of the car and I just had to keep the ends from tickling Noel's face as he was driving! But all the way home I could have spit at what I let go in the ‘green’ container. I hate going to the dump, I hate what people throw away, it really gets to me, however if I hadn’t of gone I would not have come home with over £200.00 worth of bamboo.

We put one each side of the new chicken house. The chicken house now looks very different since it has left the workshop. It has has had two coats of creosote; one on all sides before being assembled properly and then the outside again. I looked like I had an amazing tan, why is it, I manage to paint me as well as the thing I am suppose to be painting. I even had a big boiler suit on to protect me. The roof has been felted, which Noel has done an excellent job off. With the help of Toby we laid 7 paving slabs, which we were given my our neighbour who has just had their garden 85% paved over, leaving a lovely shrub/flower border round one edge. They have decided to do this because the grass is so poor and soggy and always looked a mess. The bricks are a left over from a small wall being built a few years ago. So at a very low cost we think the chicken area is looking very posh.

However the next day I was retelling my sad story to my boss and workshop manager and would you believe this; Llew (Workshop Manager), had gone to the dump on Saturday and he just missed a guy tipping away over half a dustbin of Lego away – LEGO how could he.

Chicken House

The nest box is at the rear and there is ladder that fits into the door way. With a perch inside. Just need to make a dust bath and place down the drinker and feeder.

Gallery

A selection of photographs I have taken over the last month;

My guys relaxing, while watching TV - I suppose this is one way of sitting on the sofa together.

and Hannah, who is not in the mass bundle but she is still sat on my knitting and books.



Snow : We woke up to this, on a Sunday morning, the 6th April, you would not believe the English weather, this weekend (10/11 May) we had temperatures reaching 28°C (82°F) (Sunday).



Hannah, who has seen it all before



and Buddy, who at first dropped down on the patio before the urge for a wee got to great and then there was stopping him!!



The Dog House - only used by the cat!



But what was interesting the roads were completely clear, no snow what-so-ever, very peculiar.



The view from my bedroom window:

Right



Left



A trip to the nursery - Saturday 12 April



I am gradually working my way through gardening books and picking shrubs that will hopefully grow in different situations within the garden; from dark and very wet to hot and sunny and very well drained. (I did keep the list so that I could let you all know what I had bought - I have obviously put it in a very safe place - so much so that I can't find it.)

The start of making the border larger - Saturday 19 April, it was just a foot wide (30 cms), but all the original plants have now matured and it is time to expand and give more depth and variety of foliage and colour.



Starting to erect the fence for the arrival of the chickens - Saturday 26 April:



Well he does insist on posing and my shutter is very fast – he is brave or is that ‘stu-pid’!

A little bit of colour - a not very 'in focus' tulip.



The Tree - April

Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman and Lava

What an amazing true story this is :

I am only half way through this book; I started it, when I went to bed last night and was able to read a little more before coming to work this morning. I am touched, it brings the world of my son and our dogs, to right here, touching my chest, where my heart beats ...

You can read more by following the link above the picture of the book (paperback)on the right.

Teenagers – don’t you just love em!

Working to Rule

Now I am going to tell you about my work to rule. Because in years to come I will laugh about this, just like Toby and I do over his I am 15 – king of my domain attitude. You will probably laugh now, because you have either been there as a teenager or as a mum or even you may just see yourself in this situation in years to come – good luck...

Toby and I are very similar, very fair minded, shout very loud and then forgive very easily, however Poppy is the quiet smouldering sort and most of the time only really sees things from her point of few. Neither way is right but as a family you just have to work around these not so nice characteristics.

So setting the scene:

Noel and I are sat on the settee having a quiet hour, catching up on our day, a very rare time and we made the most of it. The conversation came round to what to have for dinner, one of my favourite simple meals is savoury mince, basically the mixture you make for shepherds pie but not baked, I have it with mash and peas, as does Noel, and Poppy who detests peas has sweet corn. Now for some peculiar reason, Poppy always moans about this meal.

Noel asks if I can collect said daughter from dancing and pre-warn her about the menu and he will cook us all dinner.

Now, the journey is about 12 minutes long, 8 of those minutes, was Poppy and I arguing about this meal and why she can’t have spaghetti bolognaise and me saying “well you cook it on another day”, and Poppy saying “you don’t have to cook your favourite meal” and on and on, now I am pissed off with myself with arguing with her. Bad state of mind to be in ...

Noel has nearly finished as we step in the door and nothing new, he asks Poppy to ‘lay the table’. She goes upstairs, sits on her bed, I clear the table of sewing (8 x dresses for Poppy’s school trip to Barcelona), so that she can now lay the table without the added ‘work load’ of clearing it first. No sign of Poppy, now remember I am in a grumpy mood, not with Noel or the dogs or anybody if they had happened to telephone at that moment but I am with my teenage daughter.

Me = one ‘grumpy mum’ (GM) goes up stairs, she ‘moody madam’ (MM) still sat on bed, ‘grumpy mum’ turns up volume by a couple of notches;

GM “I thought I had told you to take those dirty glasses (4) downstairs at the weekend.”

MM “I forgot.”

GM “Dad has asked you to lay the table and please take the dirty glasses down with you.”

GM goes to her bedroom to close window and then has to walk back pass MM bedroom. MM has not moved.

GM turns the volume up another two or three notches.

GM “Go and lay the table.”

GM you most note, not MM, stumps downstairs – very grown up, responsible attitude going on here.

~~ Nothing ~~

GM shouts (having turned volume up far too much for nice quiet village) from the bottom of the stairs and repeats instructions, “LAY THE TABLE”.

Note : No, please, no, thank you - really GM is not setting a good example.

MM “I am not hungry.”

GM “Flies up stairs (I am sure I was knackered five minutes ago, hardly being able to put one foot in front of the other), you can go to bed with no dinner then, as you didn’t mention feeling not hungry when I first picked you up”.

GM goes downstairs and starts laying the table, then decides that mobile phone has to be removed from daughter, as I feel that making sure being sent to bed does not have making it better gadgets in room. So I go back up stairs and ask for mobile, which is handed over obediently.

MM says “She is feeling sick!”

Now in my loving compassionate thought process my reply is:

“Well you can jolly well eat your dinner for that, because you were fine 5 minutes ago.”

MM; comes downstairs in ballet tights, leotard and her pyjama top with, I have to admit, with four dirty glasses.

Not being able to find her dressing gown (which is in the wash), I suggest she borrows mine, she did.

Now the important bit:

Over the dinner table, Poppy, mentions that I do nothing, Dad cooks the dinner, she does the dishwasher, which she feels is very unfair as I am so lazy. Noel try’s to suggest that ‘Mum’ is not lazy; however Poppy is convinced that I am lazy. On reflection, it is really good that Poppy feels she can express her true feelings but ... a bit more thought might have helped her cause.

At the end of the meal, she clears the table, stacks (half, the other half already done) dishwasher, seems to forget clearing and wiping down the worktops and sink and goes to bed, time is 8pm.

Remember grumpy mum, well I try to put it to the back of my mind and watch How to Look Good Naked, presented by Gok Wan, who always makes me laugh and cry. But groan; it doesn’t go away, the whole incident goes round and round my brain and gives me a sleepless night, however my final thought, before falling asleep which as always, seems, just before the alarm clock goes off; is ‘I will work to rule’.

Finally :

Now picture this, it’s Wednesday morning, which means, I leave work at 3pm, to pick Poppy up from school and take her straight into town for dancing, it’s raining and I am very tired and still grumpy.

Poppy “asks if I can put her dancing bag in the car ready for this afternoon.”

VeryGM “No, I am working to rule, if you think I don’t do anything, then I am not going to do anything.”

I left my daughter nearly in tears, in shock that I am not going to help her, and I walk out of the front door to drive Noel and myself to work. I am feeling crap, guilty (a word that is tied in with motherhood), miserable and rotten. Desperately wanting to go back home and say “I will pick you up etc”. But I have got a point to prove and I don’t want to argue any more, I really just want my loving relationship back but it is one of those hurdles that as a mum of a teenager I am going to have to jump.

Epilogue :

Please wish me luck and please send some ‘I need to rethink vibes, for Poppy’.

I am very mindful of ‘15’, I left home at 15 and I would have hated it, if Toby and today, Poppy felt the need to copy me. I needed to go ... it was the best thing for me but not my ‘stepping back, viewing from all angles’ very well behaved, beautiful daughter. Let’s hope that by tonight we can make up, have a lovely cuddle and tell each other that we really do love each other even though we don’t always like each other.

Poppy dressed in character as; 'A Secretary'

St. George's Day

Are you proud to be an English Man or in my case a Woman? That's if you are an english person of course! Do you think of St. Georges Day as a special day? For me it evokes the images of Knights and Dragons and Medieval Feasts. Would I have been happy to live in Medieval Times – I can never decide ... a lady living in a castle and spending my day working on a tapestry or crewel embroidery, or would I prefer to be a peasant and working the fields and tending the livestock and perhaps using my drop spindle ...

If I am honest a bit of both, and as nobody can take my dreams away, I can mix it all up and live the life I would deep down quite like to live now.

Whatever your thoughts and dreams are about this man / saint / day / celebration, have a great St. George's Day, where ever you are.

I have so much to share with you, so why is that when I have lots to blog, I have no extra time to write it all ... there most be a Chinese saying for this scenario. However I will upload all my photographs and get myself and you all up to date with what has been happening, very soon.

But at the moment I will leave you with my fidgety feeling. It is Noel's last day at work today; he has booked Brize Nortons' Fire Department's bar and bar-be-que area and will be saying his farewells to all his team, work colleagues and friends from the last four years. I am going to pick him up much later this evening to bring him home as I am positive he will be quite wobbly and very unfit to drive. He then has a couple of days off work before starting his new job on Monday. I am very excited about his new job, for a start he has only a very short distance to travel, a distance that he can cycle, saving him quite a lot of petrol and car running costs, with the added advantage of less travelling time, but more importantly it will be great for the environment. It is also a very big step up the ladder ... so I am so proud I could shout about it to everyone I meet (I don't of course) but this is surely the next best thing ... however I am left with this fidgety feeling, I am hoping it is because it means a lot of positive changes to our lives, he will be home so much more, something that I am really looking forward to... however there is this little tiny nag at the back of my head that says 'good things never last', it is such a shame to think like this, because since I married Noel my life has got so much better than any of my expectations.

Race For Life

I have entered the Race for Life

When : Saturday 14th June 2008

Where : Lydiard Park, West Swindon

Now I am quite worried / scared; firstly I am over weight, I am 45 and I have body that has been abused by participating in lots of sport, in my more energetic younger days, I have managed to break my back (not really serious!), my hip, my pelvis and shattering my right knee plus lots of other smaller injuries. So this is a huge commitment from my body. My head is 100% up for it but is my body going to cope – it has to be a resounding YES, I want to do this.

a) It is for a good cause.

b) I had my own scare 18 months ago.

What do you have to do, well for most of you, actually attending the event and cheering me on is probably an expensive logistical non-starter, so how about sponsoring me as much as you possible can and leaving your best wishes on here, which means Cancer Research wins, and I get a push in the right direction, trying to following this programme for beginners, couldn’t be better.

Thanking you lots, in anticipation, Jacky xxx

Chickens

Chicken Coup

Work has built me a chicken coup, one of the advantages of working for a joinery company. This is how it looked before it was dismantled to deliver to my bank garden. I just need to paint it, put a waterproof roof on and fill it with straw.

My boss Paul, is giving me 5 of his hens, I think, they are an old English breed, not sure what sort, but when I know I will tell you all about them. I use to keep ducks many years ago but not chickens but really can it be that different? Have done lots of reading, so now need to put all that ‘knowledge’ into practise!!



Front View



Back View


Can you spot what I noticed out of my work window?



Three Roe Deer in the distance (edge of the green field)


Two Questions ...

High Juice



Why are less and less shops stocking this drink?

I am in very short supply of what I like to drink and Orange High Juice happens to be something that I can tolerate, however my local Somerfield and slightly further away, Asda are no longer selling this product. Just wondered if any of you know why?

And my second question is why do I not get more comments on my blog?

I have one friend who graciously leaves comments practically every time I blog; however I wondered why I get few other comments. Any ideas, or is that cheating and getting you to comment?!! lol

Noel Update

Yesterday he really seemed to have bounced back, he still got very tired by the end of the day however he has decided to return to work this morning, Poppy and I joked at the dinner table last evening, that if he didn’t think he could manage to work properly after his 50 minute drive, this could happen!;


Team: "Oh you made it in then?"

Noel: "No, just an April’s Fool’s Joke; I'm going home now!!"

Have a great day and I really hope that none of you got horribly duped on this April Fools Day.

The Answer

The Walled Garden

I have been given the use of this wonderful walled garden. The landowner who owns the farm where I work has this kitchen garden, which I knew nothing about. However a week or so ago, I was very cheeky and asked if I could have a bit of the waste land at the back of our workshop. Much to my surprise he said “I could use his patch behind the wall”. Imagine my surprise when I had a peep behind the gate, which reminds me of the gate to the Secret Garden. I was completely floored by what I found. The price of using this garden, some vegetables ...

The Gate to the Walled Garden
- you can see how close I am from my works carpark!



Inside the Walled Garden – Left Side Facing North



The Beds facing North - spot the gate in the far corner.



The Posh Paths



The Shed – also on the left - (but not sure if I have use of the shed)



The View – behind the hedge, facing south
- opposite the gate / hedge in top photograph.




Now you can understand why I was so excited ... my plans are; to plant my allotment (rented from the Parish Council) with lots of potatoes and sweet corn and use the walled garden for the rest of the vegetables and salad stuff. Now all I need /would really like is a greenhouse, might put my thinking cap on about that one.

The Show

Was a complete success and sold out. I went and watched it on the opening night and the last night and I am so pleased I did, because there was a difference between the two shows and also by watching it twice, I got to see new things, the second time, which I missed the first time.

Poppy was dancing for the first time 'on point', in the Snowflake scene. Which as a ‘soppy mummy’ it did bring a tear to my eye.


An example of being 'on point' (not Poppy).

She was in many things and apart from starting to take a step at the wrong time on the first night (she wasn’t the only one) she did magnificently.

Very very proud – a big well done from all the family, xxx

Sunday

Which was such a beautiful day, was sort of wasted by me sitting on my bottom all day, recovering. However as a family we all watched two DVD’s, the first being Run Fat Boy Run and then Stardust, we all really enjoyed both of the films. However I was left with slightly itchy fingers as I kept looking out on the back garden and really wanting to get outside but as it was Toby and Louise last day before they both went home yesterday, I also really wanted to spend the last few hours with them, which of course they won. They left after a lovely roast dinner altogether at tea time, especially, important for Louise, who has a long drive home. Louise still has another week before returning to teaching but Toby will be back on his ‘Up Graders’ training at Arborfield this morning. And to be honest my head was up for gardening but not the body, so watching films and knitting was really the best option. But as Saturday / Sunday here in the UK, we have changed over to BST Time, which means I can hopefully get out into the garden for a little bit each evening and catch up and make it all look lovely!! Best of both worlds ...

Knitting

However time indoors as I said, did give me a bit of a chance to catch up on some knitting and thinking; I have decided to succumb to knitting the Central Park Hoodie especially as other friends off the CT’n’Y forum have been saying what a bargain this particular yarn is. So as I still had my Mother’s Day present money from Toby to spend, and therefore still not breaking the stash along, I have decided that I am going to purchase the Aran Weight Donegal Silk Tweed in Damson, at just £1.80 a ball. I am going to buy 12 balls (a couple spare, just in case and could be used up on gloves and a beanie at a later date), which means I have gone over budget by £1.60, I am sure I will be forgiven for this *winks*.

Noel

Update : I took him to the doctors on Friday afternoon as he was just not getting better. Just as well as the doctor has said that he has a chest infection with fluid causing a crackle on the bottom of his left lung. No wonder he is feeling poorly. Noel has been prescribed some antibiotics, which he has been taking over the weekend, however he is only making a very slow recovery, so if he is no better by tomorrow, I think we should seek some more advice.

Reading

I also spent a bit of time, including at the theatre while waiting for Poppy at the end to pack up and come down the stairs to be collected after the show to finished the book ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ (see margin for information) what a story, enthralling, sad, very sad, I highly recommend this read.

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