hot, hot, hot

Please, I can take no more.

I hate summer.

It's too hot.

I'm dreaming of the good times!

Well!

Hasn't it been a long while? It's been a crazy time of year and it just goes on and on!

So much has happened that I don't know where to start so forgive me if I ramble.

The most exciting thing that has happened is we spent a weekend in Paris! It was a 'big' birthday for M. so I booked a weekend away for the four of us to go to Paris on the Eurostar. We went to the Champagne Bar in St Pancras before hand and told him where he was going - I reckon he had guessed by then though! F+T were totally brilliant at keeping it all a secret, even though they were terribly excited!

It was a very hot weekend and I'm not good in the heat but we saw as much as we could in the time that we had.

We stayed in a very posh hotel, the Crowne Plaza where we shared a family room. We decided to head down to the bar in the evening to let F+T go to sleep as there was no way they were going to drop off with us there!

We went to the Picasso Museum which is quite small but not crowded. Great display of his work and some bits from others. The Pompidou Centre had a Calder exhibition. Calder is one of my favourite artists, I love his mobiles! He had an exhibition in London many years ago and it showed a film of his circus, I

remember loving it and being amazed at it's simplicity. Well the first thing we saw was this very film and the actual circus he had made was also there. I loved his wire work. Quite often just one piece of wire sculpted into simple yet detailed

heads. They had lit them very well too so that the shadows were also realistic.

Of course we had to go to the Eiffel! F+T were amazed at the scale of it. Annoyingly

only one lift was working and the queue was huge and hardly moving.

A decision had to be made!

Walk up or not go?

We walked up! It was hot, my legs had never had so much exercise and wearing Birkenstocks did not help! No, we did not make it to the top but we did to the 2nd tier so not too bad - I think!

It was a very full on weekend with some lovely food, wine and of course chocolate crepes!

F+T's school held their first ever Summer Fayre which the Parent Forum organised.Mrs Cupcake and I are the chair-ladies so we had lots to do. I didn't sleep very well as everything just kept spinning in my head! Weird random thoughts about signs, weather and blue tack kept me awake!

The day was great - long but great! We raised well over a thousand pounds and Gunge a Teacher went extremely well! The children enjoyed themselves which in the end is the most important thing!

That same weekend M's parents were staying over too. So there was not much chance of chilling out!

School activities seem to be every week with the choir singing in a celebration evening with 2 other schools, trips out, sports day, presentation evening and they have their Grade 1 piano exam in a week or so. Feeling very nervous for them.

I'm looking forward to the summer holidays!

the mother of all sales

Last week I went to the annual Osborne and Little sale on Lavender Hill. I love going to this place and have been going for many years. There was one year they didn't hold it and I was quite devastated and another they held at their warehouse which was just odd!

But unlike all the other times I had gone I was there at opening time and out in half an hour! The journey itself took far longer than I spent in there.

No waiting in long queues for me!

I knew what I was looking for and of course got a few extra bits too! Practically climbing into the remnant boxes believing, surely what I wanted was at the bottom. Only to have a huge landslide of fabrics covering my potential find.

I did think tho that this year was not as good as in the past. Far less funky furniture and not as many remnants either but it won't stop my visit next year!

how does your garden grow?

The garden has been very hard done by for the last few years. When we had builders in it was very forgotten and lots of plants got out of hand. Last year was such a bad summer it had another forgotten year.

But not this year.

We have trimmed, pruned moved and planted.

We inherited lots of plants when we moved here,  mainly roses, so I have no idea what their names are! One climber has flowers that range from yellow to red - truly amazing! Another climber is a beautiful palest baby pink. we planted one  called 'Rambling Rector' I'm afraid bought purely for it's name - it is rather rampant but has lovely clusters of simple white flowers! 

A rose bush that was here has huge pink blooms and is a massive bush that I haven't the heart to get rid of it!

The garage is covered by a climbing hydrangea which needs a trim but seeing as its covered in flowers it will have to wait. 

Under that, there are huge bushes of purple/blue hydrangeas. I really love these, they are one of my all time favourites!

This year we spent an age digging up a garden path that skirted the edge of the garden that no-one walked on.  Whoever laid it must have been thinking they were laying the M4, as it was incredibly deep for such a narrow path. This has given us a much wider bed and we have planted sedums, lavenders, santolina and moved lots of others around. My mimosa tree was finally planted too which has been in a big pot since we bought it. I'm hoping it will do better than my last mimosa in our other house, as it snapped off at ground level in freak high winds!

I've missed the time to plant alliums but will make sure I get round to it as they are another favourite.

All the stones with holes I have collected over the years have been strung up and adorned on anything with a hook, including the huge thorns on a climbing rose!

Pots have been filled with coral coloured  geraniums. Coral is my favourite colour at the moment.

We now need to get some steps built and the patio made a bit bigger but the quotes coming in are rather pricey! I'm not really looking forward to the building site again tho!

hen sitting

Phew.

I feel like I have been at work 24/7. Am looking forward to having tomorrow off - my first Saturday and proper weekend in a month!

We've been hen sitting again and we are now full of chicken love!!

And no 'cane wall' was needed this year! Maud, Daisy and Queenie are very fat, fluffy, clucking, getting on a bit hens and hard to photograph as they won't stand still, possibly camera shy!

We found them treats of snails from around the garden and the odd cherry. But in return the egg production was pretty minimal! 

2!! Yes, only 2 eggs! 

The ladies were not giving them up!

And it's so nice to have toes out in this lovely sunshine!

a little bit of crochet

I've  been doing more crochet these past few weeks.

I finished my big bright square blanket and then started another smaller one for little baby Agatha who joined the world not long ago. With her blanket I tried to be random - it was very hard. I tried putting the wool in a bag and to just pick one out, no questions just do it. 

But I couldn't! 

I tweaked!

Just a little bit. But there is no pattern to the colours so I'm pretty pleased with the way it is!

                      this is my blanket being blocked on the carpet!

I also followed some crochet patterns and learnt these twirls. I'm not too sure about them as they look rude!

I  completed the Bella Bell tea cosy from the Wild Tea Cosies book. It took two balls of wool, using both ends of each, so knitting with 4 strands. It wasn't too bad even though it was moss stitch! I also crocheted the pods. My first one (with the twirls) didn't turn out that good - I learnt that  counting and marking your first stitch did actually help!

Now, is it me, or does this teapot look like its flashing its bottom? Possibly the white unglazed teapot doesn't help. I do want to paint it but don't know what to do on it.

Suggestions on a postcard please.

Well a Bank holiday wouldn't be one without a trip to my favourite place now would it?

Of course F had to go to his namesake shop. This is Wilma Whitstable, she is friends with T's William Whitstable. She now sports a very fetching crochet skirt and flower at her neck!

This is Angus, sometimes he changes his name to Augustus though!

a sad loss

A few weekends ago we forgot to close the sitting room door when we went to bed. 

After spending the last year sitting and being teased by Popcorn, who climbed the cage walls like Spiderman in front of her, Ollie cat finally got what she so longed for!

The cage had been knocked off the chest and the the plastic tubes had come away. Popcorn made a run for it and Ollie had him. 

F. came down the next morning to feed them and found the carnage. It broke my heart to see him sobbing. Popcorn had gone to join Coco (our previous hamster). 

But a little miracle!

Fudge was asleep in his bed! He is fine but he doesn't come out much - although he never did really, so unsure if he is traumatised or just lazy!

F. insisted on burying Popcorn where Coco was. So he set to and organised the funeral!

RIP Popcorn

19/1/08 ~ 17/04/09

 As N. has pointed out I left a bit out! When telling her about the incident she was crying with laughter - note 'with laughter'!! 

 But you see I did write it but on reading it back I thought 'err creepy and weird!' So deleted it.

But now I feel I need to explain! 

M. found Popcorn's body and put it in an empty Lavazza coffee bag. F. decided later that day he wanted to bury him so rescued Popcorn from the bin. Trouble is he was covered in coffee grinds. So we got a soft paintbrush and brushed it all away.

Even weirder I have photos of the deceased Popcorn - coffee grinds and all but I really think that is a little weird to post and have not put it on Flickr either for fear of weird comeback!

Whenever we hit red traffic lights F+T say 'Coco, change the lights' and she does. Now that Popcorn has joined her in hamster heaven, it is a bit of a mouthful to say Coco AND Popcorn. So they came up with 'Coco Pops, change the lights' and yes they do!

There, now you know a little more about the weird and wonderful household we have!

Run for the hills! And if the traffic lights are on red - you know what to say!!!