I'm not being lazy.

Honest I'm not.  I know it's summer holidays and all, but I'm actually terribly busy (!)
I've been reading,
I've been gardening,
I've been making,
All sorts really.
So busy, in fact, that I really don't have time for blogging tonight.  I simply must get back into the garden.  And then perhaps an early night with that book...

Never blog with a headache.

I apologise in advance if this turns out to be a bit moany.  I didn't get to sleep particularly early last night, and I've now got a headache to remind me of that fact.
Anyway, today was a trip to Drayton Manor.  Our fourth visit (I think).  The queues have been getting longer every time, and today rather took the proverbial biscuit.  I think the highlight was queuing for 40 minutes for a ride (which took us about halfway up the queue) only for Joshua to decide that we shouldn't wait any longer.  (I have to admit, I was inclined to agree...)  The particularly frustrating thing from my perspective (is this really shocking?) was the 'queue skipping' bands that people seemed to have.  Many of them appeared to be sported by disabled people (and their carers).  I'm not sure why (and this isn't a moan, it's a genuine thought) it's better for a four-year-old to have to wait in a queue that (if we'd taken it to its conclusion) would have lasted nudging an hour and a half, than for disabled people and their carers to have to wait a little longer.  There seemed never to be a particularly long queue for them, and they always had priority (this is all queue-jumpers, not just disabled and carers) which meant that our queue moved even slower.
All-in-all, not quite the same as our first experience, where Joshua had a total of five goes on 'Troublesome Trucks' in a row, without even having to get off, because there was absolutely no queue.  Now THAT was awesome.
Anyway, we've come home tired (I was the only one who didn't fall asleep in the car, and I wasn't far off!)

Other than that, this week has been a sorting and gardening sort of week, which is ok.  The gardening makes up for the sorting.  We've been organising our room for the new arrival (9 days and counting) and therefore sorting Joshua's room as well. 
Last night we had tears because he wanted his old furniture back.  I talked with him about it being our furniture and that we shared it with each other in our family, because we love each other - like I share my cars with him.  (That, too, is under some duress!)
Anyway, he's got a new chest of drawers out of the deal, and he's now got pictures on the drawers of their contents, in the (vain?) hope that he'll help put his clothes away...

Speaking of clothes, we found some at Anna's parents, many of which had never fitted Joshua (10lb2 is bigger than 'newborn' it would appear).  We were collecting them up, and Joshua decided he'd try on his little brother/sister's new clothes:

Strangely, they still seem not to fit him...  Slightly scary that they don't even come up to his knees!

101 and counting.

This is what our corridor looks like when we start clearing the cupboards.  It's a long corridor and a big cupboard ...

Maybe it'll all go back in tomorrow!  Except for the baby stuff, which is all staying out.  We've now got a date.  August 5th.  A bittersweet day - granny's birthday and the date of the attack on MCS.  Very exciting now :)

Open gardens and scarecrows.

Well, the clue's in the title.  This one is about Open Gardens and scarecrows.  Last week was the NGS Open Gardens weekend in the village.  It's a great scheme, and provides the opportunity to potter (snoop?) around other people's gardens and chat with like-minded people.  (Well, like-minded if you're into gardening...)  There were some amazing gardens, the best being one on the High Street.  But what really got Joshua going was the scarecrow hunt: 

Our very own CB Fry.

 The vicar, hard at work.

A bellringer (look carefully, and you'll see a dangling figure holding onto a bell rope)

A lady from the WI.  Joshua was particularly keen on this one, as she had a basket with (pretend) cakes in.  We also stopped off for a drink and snack in the village hall at this point.  Sadly, shortly after our pit-stop, one of our party suffered a complete meltdown, which was only resolved when we came across Dougal.  (I think that's his name, anyway):

Feeding him some grass seemed to perk things up no end, though our garden visits were brief, and we only saw a couple of scarecrows after this:

Joshua's comment was, "look, he's playing cricket too".  Ah, the innocence of youth.
Anyway, a fun way to spend the afternoon (apart from the meltdown bit)

A million things to say.

But probably neither the time nor the inclination to say them all...
We had a million people in our garden at the weekend for end of term drinks.  Well, I think it was about a million; I lost count around the eight hundred thousand mark.  It was invitation only, but I'm sure someone must have put a sign on the gate saying, 'free food, all welcome', because we were inundated.  But hey, it was good, everyone was on top form (it being the start of the holidays helped!) and we've now recovered.  (Though the grass hasn't...)
I keep taking photos to blog about, and then not actually getting around to it.  So here's a random assortment of them, with captions/comments.  If any strike you as interesting (which, lets face it, is fairly unlikely) then comment and you might get a fuller blog post on them some day.  We are on holiday, after all.  (Did I mention that already).
Anyways, here they are:

I saw a mouse ...  I told Joshua that I'd learnt the song when I was about his age.  He replied that that was because he'd taught me.  Still not grasped some aspects of time yet...  But his year at school did dress up beautifully as mice for the performance!

Another great thing to wear.  A school bag.  On your head.

Don't you just love these?!  Big eggs that turn out to be:

double-yolked.  Sadly, in my excitement, I broke both yolks.  Oops.  Needless to say, this egg came from a farm, not a shop.

Barking mad.  This is the bark that went as the 'base' for Joshua's climbing frame.  There was a lot of it.  A lot of wheelbarrow action.  There's only a tiny pile left in the drive now.  The rest is under the climbing frame, in the pig sty, and on one of the paths in the garden.  Phew.

I'm concentrating so hard it almost hurts.  Mind you, the bird did look mighty fine at the end of it.

A gooseberry!  (Look closely - it is the only one!)  These were only planted this year, in my defence...

And some plums too.  These are a little more established, to say the least.  I now need an orchard ladder...

I like this.  There's a sort of 'distant' quality to it.

And this is the boy enjoying the cricket.  Oh no, hang on, he's looking the wrong way.  He enjoyed the inflatables, anyway.  That's something, I suppose.
These pics were all taken last month.  Shows I'm a little behind.  (Stop giggling - I said I am one, not I have one)
I'm now going to do another post ('oh no', I hear you cry) about last weekend's activities...