Fun weekend.

Well, I say fun, but it would have been funner if it had involved more sleep.
First, Joshua and I decided to pop to Cambridge (well, I decided - he didn't get much say in the matter!) to see our niece/cousin. Sadly, boy fell asleep on the journey down and thus refused to go to sleep properly at bedtime. Then, didn't sleep properly, woke me more than once, and generally deprived me of my human right to sleep. (I should speak with a UN representative - isn't there some sort of law about not torturing people by depriving them of sleep?) Then, on the journey back up, he was so tired, having not slept properly the night before, that he (you've probably guessed already) fell asleep in the car. That led to another night of not going to sleep 'til about 10.30, and another night of daddy ending up somewhat grumpy.
Thankfully, tonight he was out at about 7.00.
BUT that's a distraction anyway, Cambridge was fab (although I didn't get much sleep, but perhaps I'd mentioned that...) and it was a delight to see the gorgeous addition to the family. (No pics without parents' permission!).
We even went to Wimpole for a quick look around the gardens. Lovely time, and a very impressive pumpkin and squash display. (Photos on camera, not phone, and camera's downstairs, so you'll have to wait...)
Then today was a 'day off' and we went to Calke. Again :) It was Fine Food Fair day today (Fine was a description of the food, not the weather, which was, on the contrary, anything but fine!)
Lovely time, and we saw some of their pumpkins too.
Now, you're probably thinking that their pumpkins are somewhat more impressive than mine. And you'd be right. In fact, some of my pumpkins haven't even exceeded the size of your average apple yet... But, when you take into account the amount of bed space they have there, and the number of volunteers tending the gardens, then it's a whole different league. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!)
In fact, this second picture gives you a good idea of the bed space. I just can't compete with that... Well, not without a lot of back-breaking digging, anyway!
Anyhow, it was nice to get out for a bit. We watched UP when we got home. Nice film, if a bit sad at the start...
And now I'm ready to go to bed. Maybe I'll leave it until after 8.30. Just seems a little more ... uh ... grown up.

New camera.

Just had the new camera delivered. Very exciting.
First ever pic:

And then we headed into the garden (slightly gloomy day though...) for some more:
Slight problem I can see developing here though ... that just took 1 minute and 35 seconds to upload... Wonder what a 'large' one takes...


Oh dear, a full 1:47

And finally, how about a 'small' one...

Weird. 1:48. Oh well. Maybe it's a connection difficulty rather than anything else.
Will upload others when I have lots of time to spare!

Sunburn in April.

In Derbyshire! Shocking I know, but I managed to actually burn myself by spending the entire day in the garden today. Well, I popped inside for the occasional drink and pee, but other than that, it was a proper outdoors day. Fab weather all day (thus the burn...) and great fun to be out in it.
Anna did a marvellous job of looking after Joshua while I was fulfilling some weird desire to turn a couple (three actually) of old pallets into flowerbed things. They're kinda flower troughs, I guess, but I can't show you a photo, because it was too dark to take photos by the time I'd finished sweeping up the mess. Very manly business though, even managed to use a couple of power tools for extra stud points. Sadly couldn't find my crowbar (Iso, is it in the lean-to? Don't worry, I won't ask you to post it), which meant I had to dismantle the pallets with my hammer, chisel and screwdriver (not the proper way at all!).
Joshua and I went to pick them up this morning from a friendly chap down the road. Well, strictly speaking, he's down the path, the other side of the field... Joshua was sporting his brand new Gruffalo tee-shirt, so wasn't allowed to help carry the pallets, as the tee would have got even dirtier than it did. The boy's a dirt magnet :) He stuck around for all of about ten minutes, then did a runner. To be fair, he'd already spent a fair amount of time wandering 'round the garden this morning doing the watering (still in his pyjamas - should've got a photo of that!) He did manage to water his jacket fairly convincingly too...
Anyways, the troughs are now filled with gravel and compost (yes, from the compost heap that I sorted out about a month and a half back) and are waiting for their plants. It's going to be sweet peas in the back, and tomatoes at the front. Hopefully, the sweet peas will be trained up some wires to produce a dazzling display, visible from the sitting room. Fingers crossed...
I'm now heading for bed for a well-earned sleep. There's something very satisfying about going to bed aching (well, when it's from hard labour, anyway!).

Doing my duty.

I feel that, given it's been another week since a blog, I should get sorted and do another blog. Not really sure what to blog about, so I'll just sort of splurge about the week just gone.

It's been a bit of a manic one. We went to Worthing this week for Granny's funeral. She died a week and a half earlier, at the age of 94. Though it's always sad to have someone close to you die, I'm sure Granny has no objections (other than that she had in mind that it would happen ages ago!) and I'm completely confident that we'll meet again :) I'd also had the chance to see her and pray with her a week and a half before she died, which was lovely. The funeral itself was ok, and it was also a chance to see family who we'd not seen in months, which was good. It does mean I'm now on the hunt for a prayer warrior to take up where Granny left off. It's funny to think that, despite her diminutive stature, she was a sort of Bruce Lee/Arnold Schwarzenegger of prayer.
Unfortunately, Anna was sick the night before the funeral, and I was sick the night after. Probably due in no small part to the level of tiredness that we'd both reached.
There was, however, a sense of catharsis in the being ill, and I ended up feeling sort of renewed by it (though it was a grim experience that I'm in no hurry to repeat!)

Had a great time this morning moving a bush in the garden. It was taking up valuable space in the veg patch, so had to go elsewhere. Hopefully I haven't killed it off in the process... Must now set about planting some seeds indoors in preparation for this year's bumper crops!

And tomorrow, among other things, Joshua and I are going to go and buy some self-adhesive blackboard stuff (by the makers of sticky-back plastic) and stick it around the house to have loads of fun chalking all over. Wednesday is Daddy day, and it's gonna be a riot this week :) Might even buy some tester pots at B&Q so we can paint Charlie and Lola onto his bedroom wall ... but that might be a project for another day!

Still working on the book, but finding it pushed out by other things all the time. Oh dear.

And now I'm going to bed, because it's well past my bedtime.

Wreaths, bands and fire alarms.

I hardly know where to start. Life moves at such pace!

Something gentle (and perhaps a little sad?) to start with. Having an abundance of garden, and a BBC Gardeners' World magazine for inspiration, I figured I'd make a Christmas wreath. "How hard can it be?", I thought to myself. Turns out it's not hard at all. Time-consuming, yes, but not particularly difficult. So here's a picture of the finished wreath. For those of you who are interested, here's the recipe:
Lots of willow,
Some holly,
Some evergreen branches.
Some baubles.
Some ivy.

Take the willow and twist it into a circle. Add more willow. Add more willow. Keep adding willow until you have lots of willow in a big twisted circle thing.
Jam some little bits of evergreen (nordman fir, in my case) into the willow. Add some more, because it doesn't look very good. Take half of them out, to see if that looks any better. Conclude the evergreen isn't really working out, remove it all and discard.
Hang some baubles on the willow.
Decide the baubles look naff and discard.
Twist the ivy around the willow.
Go and steal some holly from a neighbour (I know I said we have loads of garden, but our holly's not as nice as theirs, and we know them, so it's not really stealing)
Jam the holly into the willow and twist it round a bit. (Similar to the evergreen, but it's in longer bits, so is twistier-able)
Look at your creation and declare it to be fit for display.
Show everyone who's interested (not many, in my case) what a clever person you are.
Hang it on the door.
Take photos to put on your blog, and show friends on the underground (though my sister-in-law was lacking the appropriate level of awe at my genius)
Await compliments from all those who behold its loveliness.
Still waiting ...



Then there was the concert. Fabulous. Delirious (the band, not a description of my mood).
Hammersmith Apollo. The last ever (short of any comebacks...) concert they will do. It was kinda poignant to be fair. And loud, really loud. Great fun too - they've had a great ministry over the last 17 years, and are clearly greatly appreciated. The audience was good too. I guess you're gonna get a fair number of die-hards at a thing like that! The guys were really grateful to God and to all those who'd supported them. I'm guessing the feeling's pretty mutual. Not sure who's going to step up the the plate now that Delirious are leaving the scene, but I hope they're good and well-focused, whoever they are.

The only downside was getting into bed at half two this morning, which is really a little late. Especially when the fire alarm then goes off at 6.20. About as far from ideal as you can get :(

Our swim this morning was a no-show, so Joshua was a bit disappointed with that. But when I then took him to school for the nativity rehearsal, he sort of dismissed me with a kiss - I guess he's settling in! I was going to hang around an wait for him, but his teacher and I decided I may as well come home again and pick him up later, given how settled he was. I'm sure there will be more to say about the nativity in future.