Hogmanay

Well, Christmas is done and dusted for another twelve months and it's been a good one. I've really enjoyed hosting this year, far easier than shipping out and we've been particularly blessed with the snow (well, once everyone arrived safely!) and have been able to sled and really feel the spirit of the season along with a nice backdrop!

The end of the first decade of the noughties too!

It's been quite a ride since December 1999!

I am not one for setting resolutions for the New Year. It means I always fail in something within the first two weeks of a fresh year and why give myself the grief, but as 2009 draws to a close, I always, along with most of the blogging population I think, find myself reflecting on what they year has brought for us personally and for the extended community and what I'd love it to bring in 2010.

So, whilst I'm not intending on sharing my innermost thoughts with you at this point in time, reflect with me on the first ten years of this new millenium, what did it bring for you? where will you be in another ten years on the verge of January 2020?

Have a wonderful and happy New Year and I hope that 2010 brings what you wish for.

Christmas coiffing

Christmas is a comin'
the goose is getting fat,
Please put a penny in the old man's hat!

I love this time of year.
I love the preparations and the carols and the decorations and the tears and the bickering and the upset and, did I mention tears?

We're having everyone to us this year and I'm very excited, as long as the weather can behave itself between now and then. For the first time ever we have snow in the run up to Christmas *sigh*.

Earlier this week LMB was in her first ever nativity. It was touch and go for a moment if she'd make the heavenly host or not, but sadly, she was relegated to the level of singing guest. She was just fine about that and I was just glad we got through the whole performance without any digital brain surgery being performed as she was on the front row!

I also love this time of year because it gives me an excuse to cook and create, and this weekend I've been making edible gifts. I've made bags of truffles and am in the process of making some marron glace.

It seemed a great idea when I saw "Pam the Jam" making them on Hugh Fearnly-Wearnly's Christmas cook-off, however, what they failed to inform us, the unsuspecting public, they take up to four days to make and peeling them...peeling chestnuts...have you ever done this? Well, apart from the fact that I can probably get away with armed robbery as I no longer posess fingerprints I can now see the appeal in buying the pre-peeled version. So basically if anyone says they don't like them, they'll be eating them through a straw *grrr*!!


(Look, the Himalayas!!!!! hee hee!)

What else? Well, I'm sporting a new wig...not exactly impressed with it right now. I decided to "try out" a new wig shop and went in to ask the young...young girl (you have to be older than 10 to cut hair right?) if she knew what Lulu's hair looked like...mistake number 1. Mistake number two was accepting that she had actually seen Twilight and knew what Alice's hair looked like (the closest modern Lulu I could think of). Odd thing was, despite not knowing Lulu, the end result was suprisingly Farrah Fawcett *eurgh*. So, I'm off back to my usual wiggery, picture in hand to get the real McCoy!

So, wishing you all a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and wonderful 2010, let it be peaceful and amazing for you all.


Oh and we're having turkey, not goose!

A new path and BF acronyms

Well, life is a changing again. I am forseeing the imminent change for this blog too.

In the last few weeks we've made one or two important decisions and for the first time in my life I've seized the bull well and truly by the horns and acted on them.

So, what's got me here? Firstly, we've sadly discovered that we are suffering from secondary infertility, so I'm now at a crossroads in my life. I've stepped over the precipice into "life the other side of having babies". Not sure how I'm feeling with it all. Somedays I feel desperately unhappy and would love to push this for all it's worth, but other days I feel remarkably calm and composed and excited to what is the otherside of the door.

I've gone through moment of feeling like life is kind of over, well the fun bits, I've left home, gone to uni, got a job, got married, bought my own home and had babies....what now? It actually has left me dangling a bit. In the last ten years I've been so busy, been pregnant, been studying, been travelling. Now it's all ended.

Obviously, I'm not going to dwell on this, because on the otherside of the precipice is life with older children, watching them grow up and make choices and become adults etc, which in itself is really exciting.

There's the opportunity to finally find my pre baby bod - I'm currently working out three times a week at the gym (well, nearly three times, if it wasn't for poorly kids and advent celebrations meaning that my Friday sessions are being put off *tut* lol!) and I am now going to take time to do the thing that I've been wanting to do ever since I jumped on the baby bandwagon.

I'm going to return to university and do the degree that, in hindsight, I probably should have done the first time around! I'm going to be a midwife (well....if I get accepted of course!)

I've spent ten years doing everything baby related, the NCT chair, being an antenatal teacher, being a doula, working with postpartum mums and babies - I think it's about time to answer that call.

Yesterday evening at about 6.30pm I pressed "send" on my UCAS application to do a BSc (hons) in midwifery. Now, I wait!

I've applied for 2011, so deferring for a year as I intend to start once we move in the house in Oxfordshire and the children are finally settled.

I'm terribly excited about it all- I think I also have a rather unhealthy relationship with my NUS card having had one for the best part of ten years of my 37 and likely (fingers crossed) to have one for another three or four!

I've decided I need to do my Biology GCSE, I don't actually "need" it as I already have a GCSE in Chemistry, but I personally think I do as my original leanings at sixth form were in the arts.

So over the next few years I'm hoping that I'll be able to update on my progress and change in direction, moving away from life as I've known it so far, into the realms of uteri (I'm sure there has to be a plural ;-)), SROM's, FBS, FHR and EDD!!!

OMFG WHILMSIF?

Fools rush in.

Little did I realise when I named my first born, ten years ago, that his name when wailed loudly by a four year old would sound so much like "mammy". The number of times I've gone running to be met by an exasperated tweenie sighing with despair "Not YOU, mammy" Still, I guess I get my workouts in most days with all the cardio stairs I do.

Then there is the time when you thought you were doing your children a favour by not dumbing down language into "ickle wickle and cutsie wootsie" and it backfires with your middle child coming out of school remonstrating how his new BFF isn't "ready to come over for a playdate yet because he needs to get a grip on himself, because today he has been a despicable git" (apparently he (the bff) got into trouble at school). I did have to inhale my tonsils at this fishwifery.

Or the time when you realise that speed reading the bedtime story probably isn't the best way forward to encourage your child to learn the words and Hairy McClary from Donaldson's Dairy is "most definitely" Hamey M'laney from Domalson Damey and nothing you can say or do will convince her otherwise.

And finally you realise that it isn't just you, when your nephew, who has had a slightly *emphasis on slightly* wheezy chest over the last couple of days, tells his teacher that "it's me heart, Miss" when his wicked mother sends him into school...

Oh well, when they grow up, they can blame it all on me when it goes full circle mwahahaha!

All Hallow's Eve

Today I've been performing pumpkin surgery art. My kids don't like to do things by half. Asking if they'd like a witch or ghost or something on the pumpkins, they decided that nothing would do but Harry Potter,Hermione Grainger,and Darth Vader!



The camera doesn't actually enhance them well. If a light is shone into them, I have to say they make me proud.

We now have about half a ton of pumpkin flesh and a load of seeds that I've spent a good hour washing and separating. I'll toast these later with some cumin and pepper, they'll make a good Christmas present!!

Num3ers

LMB is getting more and more interested in numbers.

Two and three digits are the current favourite.

Today as we walked to school she announced that Grandma was not so old.

Grandma is only 65 (love that only in there, hope she remembers that adverb when I'm approaching 65)

She knows this because she drew it on the picture of the cake for Grandma's birthday last week.

As we passed a lampost with a number 100 on it, she declared

"This is a deadly number!"

"Why is it deadly?" I ask, curious to find out if what I am thinking is what she is thinking

"Because if Grandma was this number, she'd be dead, so it's a deadly number"

What can I say...?

It's all just utter crap!

A few weeks back, Mr Beehive the younger started a new school. It's been a steady transition with one of us panicking more than the other - I'll leave you to decide who.

However, he is beginning to settle well and has started to make one or two friends. This morning as I dropped him, he ran off with one of them without so much as a goodbye.

Well, that's a good thing, no?

Just as the bell rang I saw him running back towards me.

Ah! He's not forgotten me after all, he's not so big that he doesn't still need his mama's goodbye hug and reassuring words for the day.

"Have you come back to say goodbye?" I say, arms a-spread to catch him, large smile on my face.

"No! I just wanted to tell you that one of the boys in the breakfast club had done a MASSIVE pooh and we were all looking at it!"

Gee! Thanks babe!

I've now just wasted a good half hour cleaning pooh off the smallest rugrat - no, not LMB, but Little Miss DoggyBeehive. I have no idea WHAT she found to roll it, but fragrant it was not.
To show my disgust at her choice of haute couture, I stomped her upstairs to plonk her in the bath - the shower head was my weapon of revenge.

Get the feeling it's a shit day?!

Mrs Potato Head

Master Beehive the elder has gone to the farm again today to help with the potato harvest. He went last week and brought me back 3 or 4lbs of lovely spuds as payment for his help.

I dropped him off this morning with his mate. We usually walk but he'd spent half the morning whinging that it was wet out AND he had to catch the bus to the farm AND walk...ALL...AROUND...THE...FIELDS...ALL...DAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY! So I caved and drove them there.

"I won't be bringing any potatoes back this time, mum." he announces as he's climbing out of the car.

"Oh? why's that?"

"I'm fed up with the inside of my rucksack being covered with mud"

Right - 'cos I didn't spend ages scrubbing it pristine for him *sigh*

"It's okay!" says I, remembering my Brownie motto, "Be Prepared".

I hand him a considerably fugly, reusable bag, one of many that I have kicking around the car.

"You can put them in here" I add with a sweet mummy smile

The face...was a picture...

Bet he wished he'd walked!!! Mwahahahahahaha!!!

Monach of the Glen

Mr Beehive and I had a fun weekend just gone. My folks came up as we'd bought my mum tickets to go and see Cliff Richard and the Shadows. She's looooooooong been a fan of the wrinkly old sexigenarian and I was dutifully brought up on a diet of Bachelor Boy and We don't talk anymore (and that was before I was the one saying it as a teen lol!), but she'd never actually had the opportunity to scream and wave her smalls at him (although I'm thinking he's not really a knicker kinda guy!)...so, she and dad had a great night out amongst Glasgow's finest Cliff fans on Saturday evening much to her surprise as we'd kept it secret for over 7 months!!

Sunday, I'd bought Mr Beehive a Highland Safari trek as part of his birthday pressie. We went up to Pitlochry to "stalk deer" in the hills. It was a really fun, if not freezing cold day. We were the only ones on the tour, so had the enjoyment of "Golly" and the Bothy picnic all to ourselves. Poor bugger had to sport the uniform of fully scottish dress in temperatures of around 5 or 6 degrees c!! It was incredibly windy too....and yes....he was dressed modestly ;-)
Look hard! There are deer on that hill.


Today my kitchen smells like Christmas. I've started on my mincemeat. It costs more, is more labour intensive, but there's nothing like the smell, likewise, the taste in your own mincepies!

It's a long drawn out process, that involved me standing on the school playground yesterday with a brown bag and a bottle of brandy peeking out - at 3.15pm! Obviously the sun wasn't past the yardarm and the whole bottle ended up in with the fruit...I promise - I hate brandy!

So, if you fancy making my adaptation of mincemeat, here's your recipe:

(Oh and don't expect precision - you know how I cook!)

Around 1lb of dried sultanas and raisins
approx half lb of cranberries
bag of vegetable suet
juice of one lemon
rind of the same lemon and one orange
2 large apples peeled, cored and grated
around 200g dark brown sugar
35cl brandy or rum
3 tbs apple juice
1 tbs dessicated coconut
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp clove powder
1 - 2 cinnamon sticks


Put it all into a bowl bar the apple juice and coconut, stir it up and add the alcohol. Cover and leave to stand for a minimum of 12 hours.

Add about 3 tablespoons of applejuice and the coconut. Put on the heat and allow to simmer gently for about an hour.

Bottle into sterile mason jars or smaller jam jars if you're giving it as a gift.

Logorrhea is not a sexually transmitted disease!

Dahhhhhhhhling! It's been so long.......again!

So as a writer - (you see I can actually call myself that officially now as I am published and holding a pay cheque!! See issue number 31 of The Green Parent magazine) I have come to discover that not only can we suffer from the dreaded writer's block, but we can also suffer from the equally as appalling writer's cacoethes loquendi (you'll have to google that one ;-)

So much has happened since I last posted that quite honestly don't know how to put it down on paper, or should that read screen!

I suppose it started about six weeks ago when I last left you. I was awaiting a visit from my best friend where my dust was going to be secretly inspected for quality and quantity!

However, fate took over the week and spoiled it by our poor dog having to be put to sleep. I am not going to go into it all again as it's still raw, suffice to say, we were all devastated.

Oh, then we lost our house sale again...third time!

So, we've been sitting in the doldrums for a few weeks, however, things are picking up now with us having tentatively sold the house...again and we are now the new owners of a wee beauty called Meggie who, although isn't replacing our Red, has a wonderful charm and is helping us all heal (me particularly)
I also got my cheque for my article, have put two books in the post to two different publishers (I expect rejection letters - but hey ho I'm currently under the illusion of that bugger called confidence!) and have taught my first antenatal course in Edinburgh since arriving.

But, all this boring everyday adult stuff aside, life is far more traumatic for a child. The other evening I went upstairs to read LMB her bedtime story only to discover her sat on the floor, buck naked, in tears, head hanging.

"What's up?"

"I.." cue large sniffing session "...look!"

I look to where she is pointing to discover a really, ickle, pickle dot on her lady area...front bottom...foo foo whatever you may desire to name it...

"I..." cue more sniffing and amdram, ".....have a.......... SPOT!" *falls in a complete heap, sobbing*

This morning she has come to terms with her freckle and peace currently reigns.

God help me when she hits puberty!

Is that a dustbunny I see before me?

It's Friday!

Today I will spout the tale of a Desperate Housewife.

Tomorrow my best friend and her family are arriving.

She is the bestest woman in the whole world who just happens to be a character clone of Monica Geller but without the wierdness - well, I guess that depends on which way you interpret it - she doesn't yell at you when you make a coffee ring on her coffee table, but she strategically places (naturally and without thinking!) 450 coffee mats on the same coffee table so you can't miss anyway ;-)) She has two black dogs and lots of white carpets and furniture, but you'd be hard pressed to find a hair out of place. She makes and decorates cakes to die for and always looks feckin' immaculate (even at 7am in the morning!) She always has time for everyone and her kids are unbelievably well mannered, even her hubby is a real gentleman - hopefully she'll read this before she arrives and won't be able to fit her head through the door, so I'll get away with the grime and dust that is doing its utmost to reapply itself despite being laser-blasted with Mr Sheen!

It's taken over an hour to sort out the children's bedrooms. The rule seems to be: play with one toy, get bored, move onto next, leave out first toy, get bored of second, leave that out to amuse toy one and move onto next, ad infinitum. I decided to "help" Mr Beehive the elder sort out his desk and shelves...I now need to chemically wash myself down. In the interim, Mr Beehive the younger, whose room was fumigated earlier today, has decided he wants to "do art" so his room is still tidy, but he has moved onto a fresh room - the one I tidied yesterday *sigh*.
So I am hoovering stairs, cleaning the glitter off the carpets, discovering that the younger two have used their initiative in the attempt to dry their art work by lying it over the top of the radiator, however, it's so soggy, the radiator is not on, that, like my make up this morning, most of the glue and glitter has slid off and onto the cream carpet (yup those buggers again!).
My workout today has surpassed the Wii though and the elbow grease from scrubbing the 67 spots of black paint from the cream carpet (oah, there we go again!) has left me with nowt but chicken wings for arms!!

Add to this the fact it is raining (again!) and all the towels are due a wash so I'm sitting here watching the electricity meter spin round on acid with the delight of tumble dryer useage to ensure that all towels meet fluffy, clean criteria needed for guests by half past four, the dog has peed all over the kitchen floor so that needs washing, LMB wants me to play princesses with her (I'm feeling the need to be Cinderella today!), the hoover needs emptying - again - before I can attempt to clean the stairs (what fool puts cream carpets all the way through a rental house? *sigh*), Master Beehive the younger needs to write his remaining thank-you letters (that will be two hours for six words!), I have two assignments to write and a deadline, I need to think of something for dinner tonight (and I'm sure you know that that means something interesting that doesn't make one if not all children go ' urgh, what's that?'), the house buying/selling is giving me a bad feeling in my gut and we're sitting here on tenter hooks, the ironing pile is back up to the ceiling despite my doing it all last night and Little Miss Beehive is "cleaning the windows " (Damn you Montessori!) we're good thanks!

Luckily for me, LMB already sees my purpose in life as she told my cousin on Monday "Mummy is mainly the servant in our house" WTF?!



So, my "To Do" list looks like this:

1. Wash, dry and fold towels
2. Make up beds
3. Tidy and hoover repetitively
4. Cover cabbage plants from persistent arse of a butterfly
5. Clean the loos
6. Have a wee (have to schedule that in!)
7. Take dog to vet
8. Drink Gin!

Repeat to fade!!

Nuts in August

Summer’s nearly over and I am getting desperate for sunshine!! Friends are returning from sunny Spain and my sister is packing for France...bleugh. San Francisco looked great in the throes of snow in March - but now...pah!

Mr Beehive has just informed me he’s squirreling away airmiles and has enough to fly him and I first class to Oz (...and back again – sadly!!) but as we can’t possibly go there for less than three weeks and can’t expect to off load the sproglets onto unsuspecting grandparents for that long, we have decided we’re going to try to use them to get back “home” for a while next summer.

We hope to take three weeks and fly into JFK, hire a car to drive up to CT and catch up with as many friends as we can, then fly down to Florida for a couple of weeks. Ideally we’d like to hang out on one of the Keys and then “do” Disney world (that’s not my idea I’ll hasten to add!) for a couple of days before flying back to this godforsaken windswept craggy outcrop!

I have no idea where we'll stay or where is best to go or if Disneyworld will make me mummy of the year or just rapidly decrease my life expectancy.

Other than that... The master Beehives are learning guitar, LMB has now taken up modern jazz as well as balllllaaaaay which is making her more of a drama llama than she already was – but it’s sweet! I’m house hunting in Oxfordshire ready to drag everyone back down South as soon as I possibly can. Edinburgh is a wonderful city, but it’d be more wonderful if it was in….say, Spain?!

It’s just so windy! I had my hair cut off last week – yup – can you believe it! Five years in the growing, it's down my back and I get it hacked off because it’s continually being fished out of my nose or other people’s ears because the wind is so….well, windy really! I can’t even put up an umbrella when it rains because it’s blown inside out in seconds!

Still, culturally it’s an amazing place and we’ve not even touched the sides of Scotland yet (literally for me!) Mr Beehive zooms up to Perth and Moray and the Highlands frequently in search of whisky and a peaty bog (well so he has me believe) and other "man-drinks" – all under the guise that it’s work. I, however, have been here since we arrived in April, bar a wet night in the Lake District with LMB, some incredibly noisy badgers (that's not a metaphor either!) and a lot of mud.

Home education has proven very fruitful but exhausting and each one of my darlings is back off to school in two weeks time to which I will be a touch relieved. Three children who have been in each others pockets since March every day…I’m surprised I’ve not been committed and can string two words together still. From that point I'll hopefully find more time to knuckle down to the Montessori training as I need to organise observations etc and write more.

One of Master Beehive's school friends came out a couple of weeks back, for a fleeting glimpse into the land where men wear kilts and people eat sheep innards with porridge and whisky for breakfast. I think he enjoyed himself albeit it was too short. We’re hoping for other visitors in October and at Spring Bank ;-)

I’ll leave you with a reason why the Scots are known as “tough nuts” and be warned, it isn’t the weather!

Bet I know his reaction on seeing this photo...

"Ach! Bollocks!"

xx

Thesps, Frocks and Foraging

I'm not finding much time to write at the moment, however, I have finally managed to almost catch up on the sewing I've had hanging around for eons. The bobbin case arrived a couple of weeks back, so I've done the spotty dresses for LMB, a couple of fleeces, made a play quilt and also have finished an apron t-shirt dress made with a vintage tea-towel, that I've had sitting around for a while waiting for rick rack and obviously, the bobbin case. I've decided to donate this item to an auction being held in honour of a beautiful little girl, Florence Violet, who lived for just a few short hours late last month. Her mother is an amazing seamstress and a group of women who know her have organised this to raise money to buy some woodland in Florence's name. It'll be held on Hyena cart and will hopefully be up and running next week. Please visit it and if you like something, please bid.

So, here are the dresses:

We drank our first bottle of elderflower champagne last night. It was delicious. It was actually quite dry which made a pleasant surprise as I think we'd expected it to be rather muscat-ish. I had made six bottles but we lost half with an explosion all over the garage!! Still, three bottles for not much more cost than a bag of sugar isn't bad. Foraged food always tastes so much better!

I've made a couple of jars of plum chutney, a few jars of greengage jam from my mum's tree and two small jars of blackcurrant jam. Next on my list is some strawberry vodka!!

We're off to various festival events over the next couple of weeks before school starts. The book festival has some great events for the children and we're also doing a couple of theatre trips, starting with Master Beehive the elder and Master Beehive who saw some Shakespeare for Breakfast this morning.

I can't believe where the last six weeks of school holiday have gone, I'm struggling to get my head around the fact that LMB is back at school on August 19th! I think part of that is the programmed bit of my brain that says school doesn't start until September 2nd. I'm actually looking forward to having some mornings to myself, I'm continuing with the Montessori distance learning course and have to go into schools to do observations and learn how to use the equipment and I'm also hoping to do a couple of evening/weekend courses on owning chickens and herbs and herbal remedies. I have an article coming out in The Green Parent this month and hope to get more exposure, so will enjoy spending time writing in the quiet for a few hours each day....I hope!

Extra Terrestrial fittings

I've a house full today. My niece is currently having a jollibob with us, we picked her up after our whirlwind tour of the South last week. All's well (albeit I'll probably speak too soon) we've Barbie going on in one room and Scaletrix in the other (I'm very proud of myself for setting it up, minus Mr Beehive!)In the utility room I've shut a whining dog who is feeling sorry for himself that he's not allowed to escape and sniff the crotches of the random youths I have wandering around muttering stuff like "do you have a box?" "where's the attic?" and other technicalities that make my blood run cold (the luddite in me!). Red is also very cross that he has to sit in with the washing machine on full, something he hates so much that he'll bring his dinner in to eat on the kitchen floor one biscuit at a time if it's running at dinner time! The random youths (although the one that's deffo over 60 will be please he's hit the random youths category!) are fitting satellite stuff, so they'll soon realise that I'm as much use as a chocolate teapot and will stop with all the stupid questions ;-))

Whilst this is all going on, I'm trying to get holiday washing done, clear up exploded elderflower champagne from the garage floor, plant two apple trees and force my rhubarb with a cloche to see if something might come of the stump that promised rhubarb on the tag, finish the big boyo's trousers and the little lady's dress and find where the fook I left my sanity.....wonder if it's in the attic?!

It's been too long!

It has, it really has. In fact, i have spent whaaaay too much time reading other people's blogs than updating my own!

I also think I probably need to rename this blog, although, for those of you in the US I still AM across the pond, so...maybe it'll stay, what do you think?

So, what have I been up to?
The garden is starting to really flourish. We're still in rented accomodation so right now digging the ground is out of bounds (as is my dream of the chooks, but it'll come!).



We've currently got raspberries, strawberries, squash, spuds, gooseberries, blueberries and redcurrant plants. None of them are giving us high yield this year, but I hold out for a good crop next summer. All the things are grown in containers still, I am master of container gardening *sigh*.
I am also currently trying to persuade some strawberry runners to take and have taken a cutting from my gorgeous aubergine coloured passion flower for mum - hope it takes!
In the craft department, after having moved it all back from the US and realising that my stash was needing a room all of it's own I decided to get my arse into gear and work on the projects I've had hidden away. All was well and good until I got out my sewing machine that I'd stored in mum's roof since we left for Belgium in 2004, to discover the bobbin case was missing. Unfortunately I cocked up the order for a new one, so I'm still waiting to get a replacement. Hopefully this week. In the interim though, I've cut out and pinned most of the projects, so it'll just be a case of putting the sewing machine on acid when the case finally arrives or borrowing my mum's when I go down next week.

This is some spotty polka dot I picked up yesterday in the second hand shop for 6 quid, so this will make LMB a cute sundress and headscarf or scrunchie or something.



This was my bargain buy of fleece from Walmart in the US. It's so soft too. This is going to be a playmat, I'm going to pad it and line it and make a tie for it so it can be rolled up and stored.More of the bargain fleece made into sweaters for LMB and her cousin. I just drew around an existing sweatshirt that MB the elder had to get the basic outline for the pattern. Unfortunately there wasn't enough left to make a hood, well, not without changing my mind about the playmat... It's currently pinned and inside out, it's not meant to be seams outside!



LMB's new party dress. I am going to add a small underskirt with the red cotton and tule just to make it look a little more fifties.


This is the start of a new cardi for the little miss taken from a Sirdar pattern. The main cardi will be the pink colouring. I started the scallopping with pink but then decided it needed a more solid colour at the base, so began again with the green, I think it looks much better this way around, but I am now wondering whether or not to do the rest of the cardigan in the green rather than the pink, although I know which the little miss will prefer!

Finally I have just ordered a load of great fabric from here that I'm going to make up into lunchbags for September for my lot and my niece and nephew. I'm going to borrow this pattern I am sampling some waterproof fabrics for the inner though as I am thinking that leaking yoghurt or sandwich mush will make a nasty mess of the fabric unless I try to protect it a bit. I'll keep you updated on the end results.

Hit the ground running!

Okay, because I am lacking in time, I cannot update two blogs, so am linking you to the other one for this entry - call it laziness, I call it a natty way of killing two birds with one stone so:

Go HERE!

No Corn Fires on Da Bus!

Today has been "my" day. This morning we went on the cable car down the infamous street, to eat "proper" sushi (from revolving boats) in Japan town and then hanging out with the hippies in Haight Street.

The boys have thoroughly enjoyed their class at the museum of cartoon art. They were shown how to draw the simple stick figures, then the tubes (yup, your guess is as good as mine!) then finally the whole figure and cartoon strips. Put my boys in a room with Dennis the Menace or Spiderman and a few pencils and you have an afternoon's entertainment of riotous fun!! So we now own a few new "cartoon strips"


Little Miss was a wee bit too young to participate in this, so she spent a good portion of the day riding the trolley buses and entertaining the passengers with her incessant chatter. We met people from Lowestoft in Suffolk (UK!) and Stonnington, CT (US) and then finally this evening, she chatted up Chris the guitar man from Newtown in CT - who, if you are interested, plays at Ridgefield Playhouse in the Winter season (I think he has that a little screwed - CT in the winter, San Fran in the summer ?! beats me!

Little Miss and I decided to hang out on Haight Street when the boys were cartooning (yup, even Mr Beehive cannot resist the pull of Asterix!) amongst an array of colourful characters. We drank hot chocolate in the Red Victorian Bed and Breakfast, bought tie dye from shops on the street, chatted up people on the street cos they "had cute dogs"!! and entertained the passengers of the 71 line by her adaptation of the "rules"

No eating on the bus
No radios on the bus
No corn fires on the bus - it was a cigarette alight - pretty ingenious. Glad she said corn fires not weed or hash!!


Later, after we'd toured around a bakery, we met up with "da boys" and went on a sunset cruise of the bay. It has to be done! This was where she decided to become best buddies with Chris, the guitar man, who even gave her her own slot whereupon she serenaded with "the ABC song". He also sang some Beatles songs at her request, which cracked us up as she tried so hard to describe the songs she wanted by telling him they were sung by ants!

I guess the kid was pretty close!

So, as the vacation draws to a close, the life in the States draws to a close (sadly - god, that bit is sad!) Here are the remaining few photos of San Francisco:

Yes, yes, it's that picture!! Doesn't matter how many times you see it though, it is still pretty awesome!

San Francisco from just out in the bay.

Alcatraz.

Home to injuns............and three small Bees!

If you kiss a frog when you're on the water...........

Stupid expression, but you should see the one where my wig got away!!!

Happy Harry nearing sunset by the Golden Gate Bridge - which, isn't gold, but is a bridge!

Sunset. Pretty good end to five years of travel! Where next I wonder???

Tumbleweed and Tumbledown!!!!

Okay, so I ain't writing much about today at the moment as I am still recovering!

What is it with men once they have a big car in their grasp they feel the need to drive like they were in a mini? If you want to drive as if you're in a mini and take mountain roads at 70mph, then drive a mini. My stomach is upside down

Today was something like this:
Great morning...
Afternoon conversation, however (bear in mind I am reading a large California road atlas and we're in a tumbleweed town with a road system that doesn't want to be apparent on the map (oh and I can't read maps well in the car as it makes me travel sick!):

MrBH: Where am I going?

Me: Well we need to find Chamber avenue (we are still struggling to find an ice cream shop which normally we are not looking, will find 20 a penny, today when we want one, there are none!) - ach, there it is.

MrBH: Shall I turn round?

Me: Erm, yes, if you want to go the right way.

MrBH: Okay. (Pulls into car park of restaurant and proceeds to try to force the van through a very tight space.

Me: I don't think the van will go through there, why don't you....(unable to finish sentence due to outburst from MrBH, but continue to point to a large turning RV accessible point.

MrBH: *shouting* I can't DO a U-turn in the van!

Me: okay, sorry, I wasn't...

Silence to sound of roof being removed as he attempts to go around a corner with a low roof forgetting he has at least 12ft of van to manoeuvre underneath

*sigh*

So we are now minus a skylight thang, a large deposit, a little faith and some marital lurve!!!

Who said that the road was good for bonding?!

Here are today's pictures, which did actually make up for much of his twattishness!

Oranges on the hundreds of groves we spotted. It probably wasn't going to be a good day as we sped past these creating dust until I shrieked that it would be nice to actually see the groves and perhaps buy some oranges from the little stalls set up beside the road. Natch, by the time I'd finally blown, all the stalls were no where to be seen - the first tumbleweed rolled by!
Pine cones. Not, actually, of the Sequoia. The Sequoia have small pine cones! So this now goes with our collection of growing enormous pine cones!

Snow! People in the snow in sandals! We didn't get too far!

See the size of these? They are amazing. This one is two fused together!

Can you see the date carved in this huge hollowed out tree stump? 1883! Apparently this long carved out trunk was used in the 1800's to stable horses at one point! Shows you how big the things are! Some are 27 storeys high, as wide as a three lane freeway and weigh as much as 70 SUV's!!!

Fire damage. It doesn't actually kill the trees, just the debris and flora around the base of the tree to help the tree survive. They live for upto 3200 years!

A view from mini-man's mountain view race track!

Ah well, half a bottle of wine down, safely tucked up in our campsite (although I am sending Mr Beehive out with the garbage to the dump as there are bears in the woods - no, really this time!) tomorrow IS another day after all!