Around here..

I feel like I've been really busy... but in reality I've been doing a lot of this...

My mother-in-law came to stay and taught me how to make a dress. 

Ok, she made me a dress...

The boys have been doing a bit of this...

And a bit of that...

And I did manage to make myself a new website - here if you fancy a look :)

Home Town

It was so nice to go home for a bit and check it was all still the same.

It was - exactly the same -

Winter roses...

The Bell Tower...

Slight flooding...

Evening light...

This clock was there the first time I ever went to the cinema...

 

Nice sky...

A certain East European flavour...

And, of course, the main topic of conversation in town, the new (completely unfinished) bridge!

The Ancestral Home

It's nice being home - although it hasn't really been 'home' for a while it still feels like home.

Things don't change much round here - the clocks still each tell different times..

There are even more books than ever- when they run out of room my dad just makes a new bookcase...

The garden is still jungle-like, in a good way - with a giant fennel plant...

And my dad's shed smells the same as it did when I was little - a mixture of creosote and wood shavings...

It's good to be home.
For a little while..

September

It's a bittersweet time of year, September. 

It can be an exciting time - new school year, new beginnings, a chance for a new start.

It can be also be a sad time, because sometimes new starts and new beginnings mean saying good bye.

We're moving out of our house next week so we've spent the weekend ferrying seven years worth of accumulated 'useful' stuff to the tip.

I sorted through a cupboard of baby clothes, sent a lot of them to the charity shop and got a bit overemotional!

It seems like a good time of year to move -  a turning point. So I'm thinking positive and holding back the tears...

August Break 11 - Running Horse!

This is a new version of a photo I took last summer

August Break 10 - In the garden

August Break 6 - Pink

Honeybuns!

 I was very lucky and won a competition from Honeybuns - a bakery  that specialises in gluten, wheat and dairy free baking - the cakes were delish... Wish I hadn't scoffed them so quickly- might have to buy some more...

We're carless today and I can't believe it's only 11am.. I've introduced a star chart for the day and already set them to work tidying the living room and washing their bikes - what next?

French Fancies and Flowers

This morning I've been mostly eating French Fancies and doodling flowers, when I should have been hoovering, ironing and matching up 57 odd socks...


Time to get the hoover out I suppose : (

Around here

Around here it's mostly been raining. With a few patches of hail..

So we've been lurking indoors a lot -

The effort that goes into chewing around the crusts....!

Daffodils!

Photo a Day - Smile

I found this cow in a charity shop - he casts a great shadow and makes me smile each time I walk past him 

Photo a Day - Bedside

My bedside reading pile - 'This is my Digger' is a classic..

Toasty

What could be better on a rainy afternoon than a movie on the telly and crumpets toasted on the fire! (Slightly burnt crumpets that is...)

Yum!

Second puppyhood...

Molly our Big Dog (French Mastiff cross) is on medication for hypo-thyroidism and has a new lease of life! She has reverted to puppyhood in a big way - see below photo...

Luckily it's a very pink ball of wool that I wasn't going to use, but now I'm a bit worried that she's going to start gnawing on the doorframes like she did when she was little...

That was the day we brought her home - she's grown a bit in the last five years...

Stars and leaves

We had quite an eventful weekend - what with this - it's not every day we drive out of our road to be greeted by armed police...

Our little village is back to it's peaceful self now!

I'm doing a lot of little collages at the moment, but I'm having real trouble when it comes to scanning them - my scanner isn't very advanced and it doesn't seem to like the colours of the paper I'm using - any advice happily received!

Better go and pick my little treasures up from school now...

Laundry day

Can you spot the ladybird on the green peg?