Mother Hen

Burst!, Bummer

2012-02-13T13:35:00.002Z

I turned on my kitchen tap last Friday and nothing happened. No water, no noise, nothing. That's a bad thing. We have just been waiting for a bit of a thaw so the pipe won't burst but husband forgot and turned on the tap yesterday afternoon in the kitchen. He promptly shouted," it works! " Then swore really loud as a woosh sound came from the kitchen floor.

When this happens:

Then This happens:

Husband freaks out and rips the back of the kitchen cupboard out to expose the burst pipe. Nice. I have a nice clean up job today. A little something for half term to keep me busy.

I have been taking the chickens a jug of warm water each morning for the last two weeks since we have had this cold weather. They are a bit delicate and don't seem to like the snow that is in their home run. Babies. They must not mind too much because they are laying fast and furious at the moment.

26 Minutes Gone

2012-02-02T10:15:00.001Z

I have just lost 26 minutes of my life!

The Chick has asked for concert tickets to see Drake and others at Hyde Park this summer and I was under very strict instructions to buy two tickets on line at exactly 9 am or die.

Easier said then done. After finding the freaking website, I had to register and password myself to get in then the clock starts ticking down with each page I was on. Pressure to do it right!!!!
I found the right date, found the right price then had to Ticketmaster the stupid things. Clock still ticking down. 'Account holder already at this email address, please confirm password'. Which one of my family has opened a Ticketmaster account???
Having re-registered on that with a new password, my time runs out on the Drake tickets and I have to start all over!
It is now 21 minutes past the hour and if I blow this, a screaming teenager will bite my fingers off for being so useless on a keyboard and computer illiterate. No pressure then. I can visualise her holding her phone under her desk at school watching for my text. I am swearing at the website as I type furiously. Dink, dink, dink and confirm payment.

Seven emails later,ping, ping,ping into my inbox and... I still have all my fingers.

Happy Chick confirmation

Just Lay an Egg or Something!

2012-02-01T10:16:00.000Z

My girls are happy. I spent ages cleaning out their home over the weekend which I haven't done since The New Year. They had a lovely peck around the garden while I swept and dusted out their coop. Clean bedding and straw all lovingly replaced. They were very appreciative of my efforts and immediately laid three eggs for me.

Now if only my children were so appreciative. I'm not asking for them to lay an egg or anything, just a nod or something. Whenever I get through the door of the boys' room and have a tidy, I get the 'What have you done with my blah blah blah?" When I get into the chicks bathroom to tidy, she manages to cover the room in dirty clothes and makeup by that evening! Never mind the Rooster. He didn't notice when the chick had her hair highlighted blond from brown so do you think he would notice a clean house?

The dogs are more appreciative then the human family. I clean up after them in the house every day. They pull out most of their toys from the toy box and rip bits off. They shed dust bunnies, luckily not single hairs, bunnies are easier to scoop up, the puppy brings down my socks and some days they even empty the odd waste paper basket for me. I tidy up after them as I go along and whenever I have a moment and sit down, I get one or all three of them sitting down with me, usually with a head or butt on my lap. Such good dogs.

Cadi and Hobbs with their toy basket

Summer Time Around the Corner

2012-01-22T19:37:00.001Z

I am typing this from our iPad and haven't figured out all the bits and pieces to this thing yet, like how to change the font or add pictures to the blog so sorry if you are reading this!We have started talking about our summer holidays. The chicks each want to bring a friend along when we go off to America. That's fine. I can plan for that. Because I don't like to do too much while I am there, they think I am boring. What I don't like is entertaining non stop while I am there on my holiday. I like to enjoy my children and husband and The Cape and all it's fun. Swimming, kayaking, yoga, biking, picnicking,shopping and exploring. And I like to drag the family off to do these things with me.I can't believe we are thinking about the summer but with the 2012 Olympics being advertised in our faces 24/7, it's hard not to think about the summer. We do have a couple of tickets but haven't really got into the swing of things. I guess I better find a house sitter for while we are away. It could be easier said then done considering the events the summer holds. I do love Sunday nights. Country File, a glass of wine, a soak in the tube and early to bed!

Winter Might Be Here, At Least For Today

2012-01-14T09:57:00.002Z

I was very pleased to wake this morning to see all the fields around our home covered in a Winter frost. Finally it is Winter.

It will probably be over by lunch time but I like Winter.

I don't mind putting on three sweaters and thick wooly socks.
I like putting on my (fur) coat and stomping through frozen fields to walk the dogs.
I like having to bring a blanket to hockey games to sit on and wrap around me to keep my bum warm.
I don't mind running out to feed the chickens in my husbands wool coat over my pajamas and running through the frosty grass (as long as I don't slip on slick pavement outside the front door and amuse the workmen fixing the neighbours roof).

And I love how pretty things look with a bit of frost on them.

Write It, Send It

2012-01-07T17:50:00.000Z

Yesterday was the write it and send it day.
I filled out my house rental forms for potential renters in our Cape Cod house for next summer and sent them off. Actually I sorted that out a few days ago but left part of the form in the copier so had to send that off.
Thank you cards to friends and family. I am always happy when that gets done and they are sent off.
The check to the poor plumber who had to come sort my bathroom taps out on December 23rd before guests arrived and had to share a bathroom with the the children! Sent with a big thank you note!!

My EBKA form and a check. This is an interesting one. I will soon be part of the Essex Beekeeping Association. Yes, a beekeeper. My girl chick is thrilled. She thinks it will be really cool to tell her friends that her mom is a bee keeper. I have to sit through a few lessons and read a couple of books, get the cool suit that could save my life and what else?? Oh ya, get a hive with some bees in it! Sent.

I will keep you informed on this one. Could be interesting.

So, in the rest of my world, my real chicks are very happy at the moment. They love their hen house, the old Wendy house, and seem to really enjoy making as much mess as possible in it. They scratch around in there all day and poo all night. The compost heap is over filled! But on the up side, they are now laying real sized eggs and not girly sized eggs. For about three months, they were really unpredictable with their laying and I had to keep going over to the neighbours and buying eggs. So embarrassing when I have girls of my own. Then in December, they all of a sudden grew, fluffed up and started laying regularly. Good girls.

Lambs in January

2012-01-02T19:46:00.000Z

Just at home with the family, having a quiet moment when the TV gets turned on and shrieking comes from the TV room. Come Dine With Me has gone to Made In Chelsea! Binky, Mark, Spencer and Caggie are cooking it up posh style. Great January TV. Teen Chick is beside herself with joy.

So I have been nicely busy since the beginning of November. I worked everyday with my girlfriend at her farm, selling Christmas trees, making and decorating fresh wreaths and garlands and even decorating the odd house for clients. Through it all, we had the Internet business to run and houses and families to run as well. Seven days a week for nearly seven weeks is exhausting but fun. It is Christmas after all and I never tire of Christmas tunes. But by the 22nd of December, I was beat. The friends and family started to arrive and we kept very busy right up until New Years Eve. I love having a house full of friends and or family, especially during the holidays. All went well.

New Years Eve was celebrated at a friend's house with our chicks and about 80 other parents and children(teens). Safe, fun and close to home. I didn't make any resolutions because I hate to disappoint myself but I know this year will be full of trials. Some for me and some for my chicks.

Today was one of the first trials, literally. The family spent the day up in Birmingham at Moseley Rugby Club with the teen boy. He was selected to represent the South East in rugby trials for The Lambs (an English Independent Schools U18 team). He was very nervous over the last few days but he performed brilliantly on the pitch. 80 boys working their stuff off for 26 places. It was a great day out and we were so proud of him. If he doesn't make it any further then todays trials, so be it. It was a great achievement to get this far. He is asleep now and so has missed The Chelsea lot dinning together. Shame.

I love the start of a new year. Full of new things and ideas. Us lucky lambs.

It's All About The Tree

2011-12-09T08:20:00.000Z

Your tree might be wild and wacky or more traditional.

Which ever way you choose to decorate your Christmas tree, have fun doing it.
Don't fret, panic or get tied in knots. It's once a year and only with you for a few weeks at most. Once a few presents are under it and the lights get turned on, every Christmas tree becomes beautiful.

I'm living with Christmas trees at the moment. It's a 9-5, 7 days a week job up until Christmas Eve. I look at a lot of trees and hear a lot of stories about peoples tree habits.

Some people come as couples and whisper and touch gently, choosing delicately. They are sweet and giggle a bit. They choose in about 15-20 minutes, looking at maybe three different trees.

Some people come by themselves, usually the wife, and she hums and ha's, hands on hips, looking critical because she is the one who will be looking at it everyday until it gets taken down and chucked on the bonfire. She looks at maybe eight different trees and can take up to half hour to pick one tree.

The well married couple that comes are pleasant, aren't really paying attention to the trees that we are showing them until they spot the tree being showed to another person then they instantly want that tree! Pleasant couple becomes competitive couple. They start following other people around and watch as trees are brought out and displayed. When one tree is discarded, they swoop and buy. We are happy to see them go.

The man comes. He is husband, he has instructions, he has a measuring tape! He doesn't need our help and he will take it with him; no delivering. We like him.

The woman in Gucci boots comes in. We all hide. She will want to look at all the trees that are over 9 feet tall. She will want it perfect and will make us dig through a pile of wet, freshly cut trees forever until she gets just the right one. She will complain about the mud in the yard, the pine needles clinging to her trouser bottoms, the cold, the fact that her gardener will make a mess putting it in her house even though her cleaning lady will be the one sweeping up the needles. She will decorate the lower branches and have staff to do the higher ones. She will want it delivered yesterday.

The families are the funniest. They all want different trees, different sizes and shapes and are super critical of each others choices. They all say 'no' to mom's choice. They have a warm drink and look at decorations and stands and lights and all agree on a big wreath for the door with a red ribbon. They have a nice time and usually leave,having bought two trees. Even if they want the trees delivered by the weekend, they had a good time and the fun rubs off on us and we are happy to oblige.

The couple that fight. They have brought their troubles with them and have no qualms about public displays of...non-adoration. There is a lot of finger pointing and jabs about mother in-laws, egg nog consumption and dirty dishes. They often want a large tree, a status symbol to their fained happiness perhaps. Sometimes we give them a strip of ribbon and send them out into the tree plantation by themselves to sort it all out. They come back half an hour later,visibly relieved, having picked the perfect tree and settled their marital life for the moment. We wave them off, forgetting the public tiff but expecting our driver to get tip when he delivers their tree two days later.

The very best is the eight second picker. She comes in has a quick scan of the trees,points to the first tree in the line, rips off the tag,pays and bam, done and dusted. We net it load it and she's off. And we're on to the next one.

Maybe it is all bout the tree. It sets the mood. It enlightens us for the holiday.

Happy holidays everyone.

Heart On The Floor And Spinning Head

2011-11-22T09:11:00.000Z

I had a call from my daughters' school the other day. Not out of the norm this time of year as there is a lot going on with her being in her GCSE year. There are phone calls and emails to and from parents updating infor about our girls wellbeing. This particular phone call was different though, as it did not begin with, " Your daughter is fine," it began with, "Do you have your daughter home with you today?". "Ah, No." was my reply, "You have her." "No we don't. She didn't register in school this morning."

My heart fell out of my chest onto the floor. As I bent down to pick it up, my head spun.

The call was 45 minutes after registration so pretty quick in school time. Where the hell was she then. She had a Biology exam that morning and had been up late studying and was really ready for it. I knew she wouldn't miss it on purpose.
We will look for her, school remarks. Oh, thanks, that would be nice.
"Call me back as soon as you know anything," was all I could think of at the moment.
Then I called her dad. Yes, I saw her get on the bus. Then I called the bus company. Thank goodness for private bus service. I talked to a man instead of a machine who promptly called the bus driver. Yes he saw her walking up to school.

So where was she? All sorts of horrible thoughts where running through my head. She goes to school in a city. Small but still a city. There was a problem with an invader on Facebook just last week who tried to befriend some younger girls at her school. Stupid girls for letting everyone become their friends. at the end of last year, a strange man in a van repeatedly drove along their road trying to talk to the girls. He was picked up but we were all told about it. Horrible things could happen to her. Though in all fairness, she is quick witted and pretty street smart. She sees everything and I have taught her to always be aware of her surroundings.

Phone rings 14 minutes later. They found her and were So sorry to put the fear of God in me. Their fault, blah, blah, blah. but I wasn't listening, I was jsut so thankful that all was ok. Called father, and expalined schools cock up. They didn't register her in her Biology exam first period. I did forget to call the bus and thank them though so when she got on in the afternoon, the driver was really worried and said that I had called this morning.

Daughter thought the whole thing halarious. I can't wait until she is a parent. I guess by then though, all children will have microchipped bodies and will be tracked via a device located on the controll pad on mother's forearm. She will be able to track child and cook dinner from her virtual office.

Sofa So Good?

2011-11-16T09:51:00.001Z

Our living room has (had) four sofas/couches in it until Sunday. Only one large three seater and the others are two seaters. It's a largish 'L' shaped room and so has two sitting ares so to speak, one on the sunny side of the room and one in front of the wood burner. All fine. On our second floor (third floor to Americans) there is the Rooster's desk and a large open planned area with not much on it. On wet days, I obedience train the puppy up there. There is also a fooze ball table that only gets used during drunken moments. The floor is hard wood and is the easiest room in the house to clean. Ideal.

This school year though, my chick has decided to take over the desk as it is bigger then hers and she can spread out all her GCSE crap (papers) and books and really get down to the business of studying. Fine. She works hard and uses the space well. It's quiet up there for her and as I know she is working hard, I don't need to go up there in the evenings to help her.

The problem is this. When Rooster needs to work at his desk,he can't because Chick is there. So he takes what papers he needs and sits on an old dining room chair across from her in the corner of the room to work, papers on his lap. When he is done, he just leaves the papers on the floor! The fact that he has taken over the dining room table downstairs with all his hockey coaching paper work is besides the point in his head. He doesn't like the dining room chair or working in the dining room.

This past weekend, he decided that the living room has too many sofas not being sat on and that the second floor needs a sofa or two so he can sit down up there to read his papers. He would also like a flat screen TV on the wall and a fridge but he is pushing his luck.

So, I cleaned the floor up there, hauled up a spare chair from the guest room and let the Rooster and chick boy drag up the smallest of the two seater sofas in to my lovely, was easy to clean, was empty space, space. It took ten minutes for the dogs to find this sofa (yes they come up stairs) and chair and promptly scratch around on them and then settle down for a nap! They had never sat on these before and I was not pleased. Family thinks it's hilarious that I take the dogs to obedience classes and as soon as I'm not looking, they hop on the furniture. I'm sure that Rooster will still just leave his papers in a heap on the floor though even if he does use the sofa.

Nothing like a latte and a nice chat...

2011-11-10T18:24:00.000Z

I had a smile on my face all afternoon after having met a fellow blogger for a coffee.

Turns out we are both Essex/American blogger girls and when one post lead to another,we decided to meet up for a coffee and a chat. It was really nice and not at all strange to sit in a coffee house waiting for a total stranger who you have only ever seen a tiny picture of and spoken to via a blog.

Two lattes later and I had to run off to do a 'school run' so to speak but I would have happily sat there getting to know a new friend face to face instead.

It really is a small world we live in.

The chickens are being really daft. They scratch around the hen house and mess about in there and won't come out into their lovely, dirty, leafy run. They hop up to the top of the Wendy house that is their home and sit looking out the window like little old ladies!
They won't lay eggs and have no interest in nesting.

Help. What am I doing wrong??

No Snow For Halloween

2011-10-31T09:11:00.000Z

Autumn is in full flow around us here in Essex, England. But my family in New England are covered in Snow and it's only Halloween.

Colour is just melting off the trees thanks to the wet summer and mild Autumn.

And isn't it clever that Cadi, my Toller, matches the Fall colours all around us.

A Useful Day

2011-10-25T15:16:00.000+01:00

So now that it's half term, I seem to be doing useless and useful jobs that involve the chicks.
I've done plenty of baking and cooking already and it's only Tuesday. A bit useless for me, I really don't need the extra calories. And I have done about a ton and a half of laundry. I think I have even done some that was previously cleaned that the boy knocked over in his room and just threw back down the stairs! All pretty useless stuff as I am getting board with it.

The useful stuff all seemed to happen today though. Having woken up the chicks and rolled them into the car at a reasonable 9:30am, we were parked an on the high street by 10am. Banking and mobile phones all sorted by half past and I was in Starbucks with an extra hot chi tea latte not long after that! A bit of Rooster birthday shopping, his birthday is on Halloween, How cool is that to grow up with! And then off to Pound Land to buy batteries, Halloween nonsense and nothing else in particular.
By the time we drove into the driveway, the septic tank was emptied which was a really useful job. Except there was still a block near the tank that involved me and 13 black plastic rods and heavy gloves. But, sorted and again, a really useful job.I have learned to do some really ugly jobs since moving into this house. So after a very hot and long shower, I answered the door to the Chimney Sweep who finished a job early and was in the neighbourhood, could he come today instead of next week? Sure, and another really useful job sorted!

We only have one chimney but granted, it is four stories high and at the bottom is a large wood burner. That is what is getting sorted today. My daughter, bless, walked into the room after the Sweeper had opened up the top of the wood burner but had gone back out to his van, and looked into the top of the stove then with all honesty, asked how the man was going to fit up into that small hole in the top of the wood burner to clean it?
We live in the country and she knows that milk comes from cows and that the inside of a good pair of Ugg boots is fleece from a sheep but this baffled her. I told her the Chimney Sweep had a very small boy that he used to get up the hole. Thank god she didn't believe that but even with the industrial size vac in our hall way, she still didn't quite get it. Anyway, until she has a house of her own with a working chimney, she doesn't really need to know the ins and outs of how it gets cleaned. I'll save that mystery for her for another day.

It's Cold Out There, I Mean In Here.

2011-10-20T10:29:00.000+01:00

There is nothing better then a crisp Autumnal day in October. Cold and crisp as the sun comes up and then warm by lunch time then cold as dark falls.

We have had 2 frosty mornings this October already. The dogs love it and are even still swimming, I love it, most people I talk to love it.

But my house is cold! I have had to light the wood burner nearly every day for the last two weeks. I have to carry all the wood in as well so at least I get warm while I try to get the house warm. Living in an old brick building has it's draw backs this time of year. Outside can be warmer then inside. The windows have this old glass and every door is drafty. But it's cold because I refuse to turn the heat on until Halloween/ Roosters birthday. I have always done this. On it goes and I watch the oil tank drain as the house fills up with warm air.

These cold mornings are getting the better of me though. I have taken to sleeping in my mid winter gear and it's 11 days until the heat goes on. Cashmere socks,long pj bottoms, long sleeved 't' shirt, and an extra blanket over my three season duvet! Rooster is a different story. His duvet is a thin pathetic thing and he only sleeps in boxers. Maybe the BBC had it right the other morning about women feeling the cold differently then men. And I do wear socks all the time! Maybe this is the secret of 20 years of marriage. Separate duvets and a cold house.

We just had our 20 year anniversary and it was pretty typical. He forgot his card for me at the office and was going to be at a dinner meeting in London until about midnight. I had a swanky cute card for him and will use his credit card latter to buy myself something really nice. Probably a pair of winter boots with fleece lining at this rate. It's 60f in my house and I am typing with wrist warmers on! Must go outside into sunshine now and warm up!!!

I Know It.

2011-10-14T12:39:00.000+01:00

As a mother, you want only the best for your children. But where do you draw the line from caring to smothering? When do you stop cleaning their rooms for them and insisting that they do it themselves? Or do you? When do you stop making their dinner so they learn to cook for themselves? And the laundry- do I even bother going there? I just want to keep my chicks all in a row, so to speak.

The big chick is 17 and doing his A levels. His room looks like a war torn country, he would happily eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or grilled cheese for the rest of his teen years and well, the laundry,clean and disgusting, is on the floor, always.

The girl chick is only in her GCSE final year and though keeps a tidy desk and mind, her room is, well, lived in. She requires brain food and likes her laundry, dirty and clean, stacked high on the floor in a neatish pile.

One is happier then the other,I know it. I smother one more then the other,I know it. I feel like I am letting one down though, I know it.

Guiding them now is such an ordeal. I feel like every word that comes out of my mouth is a command as opposed to a suggestion. I feel like the biggest nag to both of them and I feel like I am really putting the pressure on even if it's telling them to have some breakfast before they go off to school!

They have enough pressure already and I know I make it worse. Have you finished your homework? do you have any laundry(always a dumb question but as a mother, I can't help but to ask)? Have you finished your UCAS statement? What A levels have you decided on? I kill them with questions, I know it.

If I could help them out more, I would. If I could help them reduce the pressures of being a teenager in a high pressure society, I would. I don't remember having this sort of pressure and worry when I was 16/17. High school was fun. Going off to university was what you did. There were jobs waiting for when you got out. Here in the UK it all seems so demanding. 11-13 GCSE's, then 5 A levels, personal statements, interviews, where to go, when to go and do you even bother to go to Uni? They can't do this on their own, my chicks but I know that they have to make important decisions like these with their own hearts and minds. It's just hard for me to sit back and watch without a bit of nagging and smothering.

In truth, I tidy their rooms when they are away at school. I bake cookies and try to have dinner ready for when they get home and their brains are starving. I wash their dirty towels and muddy clothes while they are asleep on the sofa on Sunday afternoons. I read through their text books that they leave lying around so I know what they are studying. I hate looking like a complete idiot when they ask me what the difference between the ego and superego are or what the environmental impacts are of rising sea levels.

I want them to be happy and young at heart forever. I am a selfish cow aren't I- or am I? Maybe this is a world wide phenomenon with mothers of teenagers about to embark on the rest of their lives. This could be how all mothers' feel and I am just catching on! Not only am I slow but smothering as well! I know it...

Well, it is October After All

2011-10-02T09:45:00.000+01:00

Don't panic, but it's October which means that society will now throw the holiday season in our face.

Extravaganza Christmas shopping flyers will fall through your letter box to entice you to go to old converted Essex or Suffolk barns to spend your money on fabulous knitted bits and luxury all natural pieces. You will be lulled into thinking about presents for sister and brothers that you don't normally buy for. Organic hams, nettle covered cheeses and plum spice chutneys will make up the perfect Christmas hamper for great Aunt So and So. You throw your parking meter coins into the beautiful cut glass jar that will help restore the kneeling cushions in the parish church. The supermarkets advertise giant tins of chocolates that nobody really needs but everybody really wants. You can start stocking up now on 3 for 2 bottles of bubbly for the holiday parties. And quietly, the garden centers are displaying singing penguins families that light up in your garden, making your electricity meter spin madly until January.

I am adding to it. I am part of that society. I help decorate a Christmas shop and yes, I started in August (it takes a long time to do it right).

I also help run an on line Christmas shop and finished doing photos last month to brighten things up for the season. The thing is though, I don't see it as Christmas stuff anymore. It is just stuff that happens to sell really well for Christmas. I don't mind the flyers and church fairs. I laugh at the big boxes of chocolates. And really, who doesn't need an extra bottle of bubbly in the fridge no matter the time of year.

What is strange though is that it is 85 degrees in Essex and it is October. So really, it is hard to get my head around the decorating when I have to do it in 't' shirt and shorts.

Sport, sport, sport, sport,sport

2011-09-25T21:03:00.000+01:00

I have had my fill of sport for awhile.
I have spent 10 hours on the side of various hockey pitches in various parts of Essex watching sport. Hockey.
I have been shook out of bed to watch early morning rugby and am now sitting by the fire(my house felt chilly) listening to the dog snoring away with the sound of a 20-20 cricket match going on in the next room!
I would like everyone in this house to go to work or school and leave me in silence and indoors for a whole day with no sport!
I would like to not eat out of a picnic hamper or in front of the tv, which were turned on in every room of the house on Saturday morning, and have sports equipment scattered all over my front hall way for at least one week(it will be two days).
It's a lot to ask of my sports mad family but who knows, miracles happen.

A Lovely Night Out

2011-09-21T16:23:00.000+01:00

The Rooster and I have been trying to spend some quality time with the Chicks. Easier said then done. They are busier then we are! Being a final GCSE and A level year, they are snowed under already with work. Rooster and I just want them to know we're there for them.

Rooster left work early and went and watched a rugby game that the boy was in while I took my Chick up to Cambridge for the Cambridge movie premier of I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson at The Odeon. We were invited to the cocktail party before hand and had Allison sign our books then joined the guests for the movie. She spoke to the audience for a few minutes and was very entertaining and a pleasure to listen to. We both enjoyed the movie and there were more then enough references to the real workings of a working mom to amuse both of us. Though I don't have a high powered job like the Kate Reddy character, I could still relate to what she and some of the other mom characters go through!

Juggling, juggling, juggling is the answer.

My little real chickens have finally started laying eggs! Little eggs but beggers can't be choosers. What good girls.

The Man Thing

2011-09-16T09:43:00.000+01:00

I sat around with some girlfriends the other night discussing the things our husbands do for us and home or don't for that matter.

We often discuss our other half's because they are still a source of wonder to us even though most of us have been married at least 20 years.

None of them seem to be able to make any sort of major decision once they walk through their front doors or do any important chores without a prompt.

They can't call to order more oil for the tank, they can't find a plumber to fix a leaky tap, they don't deal with phone calls or take any interest in the mail. All school matters get passed on, car troubles ignored and unless a post it is put on his coffee cup in the morning to remind him or ask him to do something in particular,nothing else seems to matter.

Mine on the other hand, who thankfully doesn't bring normal work home, brings his side job home and all the crap that goes with it. He coaches hockey(field. A very English boy-girl sport) to 120 children on a Sunday morning for 3 1/2 hours and then to chicks women's team on Tuesday nights. Our downstairs toilet looks like Barrington Sports website! 23 hockey sticks, 40 smelly bright yellow pinnies, a stack of plastic cones that the dogs like to get hold of and chew and a bag of balls so heavy that when he leaves it on top of the freezer cabinet, I can't lift it off. And the smell in that room is rank. The season just started and will last until April!!

That's the crap. The other part of the hockey is the emails that come to our home computer. On a normal day it's nice to log on and, 'oh joy, you have mail'. No, Rooster has 57 emails from parents saying anything from, 'little Ben won't be there this Sunday, he won't be feeling well' (Translates that parents are going out the night before and intend intend to booze it up and can't be fagged to get up at 9am to get little Ben to the pitch!) or 'Why wasn't my daughter who is the best player on the pitch picked for the match?'( Mother didn't bother to stay and watch practice the week before and see daughter texting on her phone the whole time instead of practicing). Sometimes he gets nice emails from parents but not often.

I try to stay out of the hockey way. I like being the mom on the side line with the camera,spare gum shield and extra sports drink. Chief driver and bottle washer is fine with me.

Of course now that hockey has started, our house will suffer. The lawn won't be cut unless I slash his tyres, the house will grow dark because light bulbs that I can't reach will go unchanged and forget cleaning out the garage until next summer or unless we have snow and the pitches get covered! That would be great.

The Reclamation Yard

2011-09-07T11:48:00.000+01:00

So, The Chicks are both back at school as of 7:22 this morning. A sigh of relief passed through me as I closed the door to them. I have the house to myself again and we are all back on schedule for the new year. I don't know why January 1st is considered the start of the New Year when any mother with a child in school probably feels that it is the day the child starts the new term.

I can now reclaim my house and space. Having them home, as busy as we were this summer, fills the house in all sorts of ways. Twice as much food, laundry and bodies in the house. They both had friends over constantly and managed to use every room in the house all day long, every day. Now that I have cleaned up a bit and put rooms back in order, I feel things are settling down to normality.

This morning I sat and re-did my calendar for the next couple of months according to the chicks' school calendars, god forbid I miss a rugby match or charity bake sale! I managed to squeeze in my weekly joys around their crazy schedules like yoga classes, work and dog classes. That has taken most of the morning just to sync the blackberry, laptop and old fashion paper calendar.

Then I cleaned the lap top and computer key boards. Apple juice is very hard to clean out of wifi key boards but with a few ear buds, now only the a and s keys are sticky.

And finally I made the list of all the things that I want to try to do before I get stuck in deep with... the Christmas business. The chicks were great this summer and helped out with projects around the house. They painted the hall way and den, cleaned interior windows and cleaned out closets. This was all done to pay for "V" tickets of course but now they are both really good with a paint brush at least. I have a simpler list. Sort the growing pile of Oxfam clothes under the stairs, clean off the book shelves and get busy making soups for the freezer for the winter.
Not high energy jobs but satisfying non the less.

The list will have to start next week though as I am uncomfortably sitting with a huge heating pack on my lower back. Don't jump over your dog when you take them out cross country running, just scream at them to keep going. And if you do jump, don't land in a ditch, wrenching your ankle and straining your back when your arms go flailing wildly to trying to keep yourself upright. So much for the healthy life style. But on the up side, I get the day to myself to mope and feel sorry for myself while taking anti inflammatorys every four hours.

Sweet Holiday

2011-08-12T06:16:00.000+01:00

I have a very long day today and it doesn't help that it started at 4:30 this morning when our lovely old cat Casper spooked a fox in our driveway, making an awful noise that bolted me right out of my slumber. I think it was the cat that made the noise. Our bedroom over looks that play ground and as it was still dark at that hour, the security lights came on full tilt. Rooster moved quicker then I did which was a bit of a surprise at that hour, and was watching the cat and fox for a full minute before I could even put my glasses on.

He then explained that he had been tossing and turning for the last hour and couldn't sleep. Well, that was all it took for him to promptly fall asleep and start snoring as bad as our old dog. So then I was fully awake and it was 4:40 when I threw back my beloved duvet and left him snoring away.

I know the new chickens are safe as I created Fort Knox last week. There are three doors to get in to the hen house. One door with a proper latch and the hen entrance with a double whammy, sliding door up and down and pulley door to the side. I keep smacking one of my chicks as she hears me coming to open the door and gets in the way of the pulley door. A few more times and I suspect she will figure it out.

So in the wee hours of this morning, I have cleaned out the fridge, folded laundry, charged and found batteries for cameras and ipods, inspected noisy culprit who came meowing at the window for wounds(none), changed blog picture and am just about to have my second cup of tea. I wish I hadn't packed last night for our sweet holiday because that could have taken me right through the breakfast news!

Our flight doesn't leave until 10pm tonight so I shall be a walking nightmare in the airport by 8pm. Good luck to my darling chicks and lovely rooster that will be dragging me along.

The Mother Was Here!

2011-08-08T14:32:00.000+01:00

I have had bit of a whirl wind over the last couple of weeks. My mother decided to pay a visit to this side of the pond. It was too hot in Florida for her so she first flew to New England to climatize before flying here. It was 98f in Boston but 68f here! I had to tell her to pack a sweater it was so chilly.
"Will it get warmer?" she asked.
"Maybe", was the best I could do.
So when she arrived I lent her a pair of socks and a sweater and put a blanket on her bed. It was all a bit pathetic really.

When it did warm up, it was instant and we were unprepared for it. We ventured down to London for the day to the South Bank Vintage Fair. We had a bit of sunshine in the morning but it was iffy to whether it would turn into something nice or not so we dressed as if it wouldn't. Well that served us right. We were happily popping in and out of tents when the sun came out full force. I think because I hadn't seen it for so long, it kind of had the vampire effect on me. I had to immediately go and buy a very cool pair of vintage Emmanuelle Khahn sunglasses to hide my eyes. I love them.

I also managed to pick up a fab navy, Scottish wool, long Burberry coat for £70 for the boy rooster. I was very pleased when we got home, that he loved it and it fit because it was a slog to carry home with the sun shinning and the weight of the thing!

About half way through the mother's visit, Rooster swam, biked and ran the London Triathlon. I felt bad about making the whole family rise at 5:30 am on a Sunday morning to trek down to London to watch him but it was SO worth it. IT was very exciting, super organised and great fun all around. 2hrs42 minutes after he started, he then finished. And the sun was out (but not warm at that early hour). We are very proud of his efforts but mainly I am pleased not to have to cook double amounts of carbs for every meal to keep him fueled. If I don't make pasta or rice for the next couple of weeks, I will be very happy!

So the visit went over well, I kept mother busy every day with little projects. Garden centers, museums, lunches out, shopping. And of course I had to play the good daughter/mother and not shout at the chicks or the Rooster for that matter (though he did his best to stay at the office as late as possible most days). I had to secretly keep the house clean when she wasn't looking and cook effortless meals as if I threw them together like that every day. I couldn't be seen to be slouching in front of the television or relaxing in any sort of way, it isn't the done thing in her book. She did like my dogs though and was quite happy to watch as I practiced with them in their obedience and agility training.
When I could, I ran with the dogs through the fields to escape her for a bit. Exercise is not part of her life so I was safe there to escape without her!

I don't see her often and talking weekly is nice but a visit really is the only option if she wants to catch up with the grandchildren. But dose it have to be in my house? I'm exhausted.

The Gallery, Vintage

2011-07-21T14:52:00.000+01:00

This week in over at stickyfingers1 The Gallery subject is Vintage.

This is a great idea and brought about a lot of thought at my end. I have been given some amazing pieces of silver from older relatives for presents. Most of them came when I was engaged and then some when I got married. I have a collection of silver Tiffany Spoons, one for each birthday from when I was born until I was 12. Very useful actually. I have a Very large silver teapot and coffee set, not as useful as it got very hot when I tried it out with just hot water once. But it's the little nick nacks that I love the most. Sugar bowls and s&p shakers, creamers and little jugs, all silver. But what makes them special is that each one was engraved just for me and they have the old family crest or coat of arms on them, depending who they came from in the family.

I love them, polish them and use them. They are vintage treasures.

Booking a Holiday is Hard Work

2011-07-18T18:06:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday left me with a headache, soar neck and google eyes from spending seven hours on the keyboard typing in hundreds of destinations all over the world trying to find a suitable holiday for Rooster, the Chicks and I in August.

Since boy is dead armed and doing nothing much more then physio and xbox(funny how that doesn't seem to hurt his shoulder even though he throws his arms all over the place while he is killing aliens!) until school starts again, I was assigned as holiday rep for the family.

Well,my aunt was a travel agent for many years and I always thought that her job was So clamourous, booking people into exotic locations all over the world. I was so wrong. It's really hard to find the perfect spot. The last five years I have had it lucky. We just go to our beach house in the summer and if we ski, we go to France with friends or out west to family, simple. No brainer.

But to actually think of a place to go with two teenagers and a husband that needs a rest isn't easy. They want somewhere that is sunny but not hurricane season, flyable but not 14 hours and three changes of aircraft, adventurous but not too physical as boy will moan and girl won't hike, food has to be readable on the menu and meat not dog,donkey or dragon, a spa would be nice, history and shopping would be a plus, no sitting in traffic, dirty water or over crowded swimming pools, and no spending more then one term of school fees per person!!!

Really not a lot to ask of one mother and a computer. I think at one point I had the big Apple and the laptop open with about 10 pages each on them. I had to check NOAA for weather, google for maps, every package deal company I could think of and then when I was feeling beat, I called friends and trolled through the holiday sections of every magazine in the house. Of course my family only wanted to know what had I found? and where were we going? I just wanted to never look at the computer again. Nearly everywhere I suggested was wrong one way or another, too far, too ugly, too European, too close, too short a time, too expensive, too something. It was hopeless, I was hopeless. I could easily have just stayed at home with my dogs and pondered buying more chickens.

So I took Friday off from touring the world and ignored all destination questions until Friday night. The four of us sat down to a nice quiet dinner, my neck was just about tolerable when I moved my head up and down, and I was just tucking into my first bite of food when Rooster opened his big mouth-So where are we going? Considering all the options and the work I put into Thursday and all the negative feedback I got from the Rooster and Chicks, I nearly spat out my food.

But I didn't, I quietly got up from the table and got his laptop out, opened it and put it down in front of him then did the same with the chicks and the other laptop. "First one to find a place that we all agree on, I will book tomorrow. Ready, go". And I left the room with a big class of wine.

It was actually my sister who had a good idea and I showed the boy on Friday just to see what he thought. He googled and 'youtubed' it and was hooked but I told him to keep it hush until after dinner.
In the Bahamas there is a place call The Atlantis. There is also the same resort in Dubai. It is big and loud and wet. Boy doesn't have to swim, all's he has to do is float down 51feet of slide into a shark infested tank (inclosed in a clear tube of course for 3-D viewing) and come out the other side and do it again, all day if he wants. He is thrilled. Hotel has 1500+ rooms so I can't imagine that there will be too much over crowding, there is shopping , sun (38c plus degrees but it's a dry heat) and sand and not too far away from wet England.

I secretly thought it looked like great fun but knew that daughter and husband would question my sanity. Really I like a bit of fun and water parks, white beaches and an all contained resort suit me and the boy. I let them all play around searching for holiday spots and they din't do very well in the couple of hours after dinner. So I quietly told boy to pull up our secret hot spot and show them.

I booked it up Sunday morning and never want to have to do that again.

There are hundreds of places I want to to for different reason. Iceland, Sweden. Sri Lanka, South Africa, Mongolia, parts of South America, parts of America, parts of England and Ireland and most recently, Zanzibar. That looked perfect and would be my secret hide a way. The world is huge and full of fantastic places but it's really hard to narrow it down. I am really pleased to have finally done my job, holiday sorted.

Sad

2011-07-13T11:10:00.000+01:00

I have the saddest boy ever. I actually have never seen him this sad in all of his 17 years. His dad and I had to tell him that he couldn't go on his rugby tour to Australia at the beginning of August because of his shoulder. He hasn't broken,snapped or torn anything but he has actually sprained it and the inflammation is quite severe all around the ball and socket joint.

Well, boy heard, 'nothing broken' from the doctor and then totally zoned out while he was sitting three feet away! I could see his mind wondering off to Brisbane, his un-yet shaved head glistening in the Oz sunshine, rugby ball in hand. Meanwhile, doctor went on to say all the stuff that moms actually listen too. So when I said, 'and contact sports?' and ,'not for 6-8 weeks' popped out, still boy was far far away. I actually had to push his leg to bring him back to earth.

So mean mean mom and dad had to sit the boy down and explain that Australia was too far to go to sit on a bench with your mates if you couldn't actually play. His coach was kind enough to call and have a chat with him as well and reassured him that providing he was fit and able,ie did his exercises and didn't slog out on the couch for the rest of the summer, he would still be starting at pre season at the end of August.

Physio man on Monday night confirmed that the shoulder will need weeks of non contact sport healing. Boy would have cried if he had let himself. He basically hasn't spoken more then six words to us since and has this permanent frown like pout on his face.

It breaks my heart. I hate to see the children disappointed and this is a whopper.

A Summer in the UK?

2011-07-08T15:53:00.000+01:00

I had a fab time last weekend at my friends' rainbow party. It was very colourful with a great mix of people. She had a Calypso band, yummy food and lots of bubbly on tap. She loved the jellybeans. There were fireworks at 11pm and lanterns at midnight. A really fun party.

So, one of two of my chicks are out of school but we seem to be playing the waiting game as to what to do this summer. If boys shoulder if ok, he will go off on his rugby tour and we will join him in Honk Kong for a bit. If not, our summer is a bit up in the air.

I haven't actually spent a summer in the UK since the children where born. I have always whisked them off to America to vacation with the American family. This summer I have even rented out the beach house so we couldn't even pop over to Cape Cod for a break.

What does one do for the whole summer in England?? I will find out on Monday what the summer plans will be after we see the doctor and find out the MRI results.

Thanks Diney and Around My Kitchen Table for your thoughts.

Rainbows and MRI's

2011-07-01T22:14:00.000+01:00

I have a girlfriend who just turned 50 and is having a birthday party this weekend to celebrate. Her parties are never like normal dinner parties. They usually involve drinks with umbrellas, small, colourful marquees and food with a twist.

This weekends theme is rainbows!
Guess what I bought the girl that has everything????

The 2 liter jar holds a lot of jelly beans. I did not count them but they took a long time to get from their little bags to this jar, I can tell you.

I'm really looking forwards to a fun, colourful evening.

I feel like having a bit of fun, I've had a weird week.

Boy finished school today. Speech day involved a lot of sitting and clapping as 35 minutes of names where read out, nearly one at a time, for prizes awarded to the gifted, creative and honored. I clapped for them and my rings where swollen on to my fingers by the time we sat down to lunch. There was actually a very nice speech given by a guest speaker but I think he only had about 9 minutes to give it by the time prize giving was finished.

I'm pleased the boy is finished. He needs a break,he has had a bad couple of weeks. To be on your best behavior 24/7, ignoring a verbal bully everyday, is exhausting. Fortunately he has had some other issues on his mind to distract him.

He had a fall on the hockey a couple of months go and hurt his shoulder. We thought it would just heal and went to a physio to speed things along. The physio saw him a few times with no results so he refereed us to a shoulder specialist.

That has now resulted in me spending hours on the phone over the last week trying to organize doctors appointments and a MRI scan on his shoulder. He has to have some dye shot into the shoulder first and that takes a special appointment and it is all a major hassle as we are under a bit of a time frame.

He is due to fly out to Australia at the end of the month for a 3 week rugby tour and he can't lift his arm over his head. I can't get my head around spending £3000 on a tour if he won't make it off the bench!

Small bit of stress on the family side of all this because MRI keeps getting the date changed and the shoulder doctor has a crazy schedule and if it turns out that the boy can't go to Australia, we really needed to know all this last week, not next week so we can get our money back and make some other plans!

He loves his rugby as much as his hockey and the tour is a huge deal. We want him to go but not with an injury. His coach has been wonderful about all this and has been helping us anyway he can. He used to play with the London Wasp's, and has some good contacts. But really until the doctor sees what is in his shoulder, we don't know anything and can't make any decisions.

So really all I can do this weekend is go to a party dressed in my most colourful dress and have fun.

Just when I thought it was safe to go out....

2011-06-20T14:30:00.000+01:00

I have been had by my dogs.

I took smallest, cutest, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, Cadi off to dog class this morning and left

I am so old, don't worry about me even leaving my bed, Hobbes and

who me? I only look at the cats, I don't chase them, Rosalynn, at home as usual.

This time though, when I opened the front door, naughty 1 and 2 tried to escape through my legs. A tell tale sign that something is not right in my kitchen. I didn't even have to go in there to know that they had eatten something or broken something. So I kicked them out the back and surveyed the room. 3 huge tubs of homemade chicken and barley soup for the freezer when not only missing but the plastic containers had been torn to bits.

I guess it was good but I will never know now myself, little buggers. I knew I should have left it somewhere higher up to cool but they have been so good lately and haven't stolen anything for weeks.

If only the chicks where that transparent.

We have had issues with rooster boy and school. He pushed a smaller boy who has been verbally bullying him and he snapped last week and slammed the kid into a chair. The fact that the verbal boy had just called my son's parents "retarded and should be in a mental institution",to start with, might have been the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. The verbal insults were heard by other boys and though I Do No tolerate bullying, I can see how making fun of ones parents might set off some boys. It did mine. He was defending our honour in a way. 2 days at home helped him see the errors of his way though. Now school just has to deal with the verbal bully.

Of course all this nonsense took a few days to come to light because rooster didn't want us to know the horrible things the verbal boy said about us. We as parents know it was only talk but it was hurtful to our son.

He couldn't hide under the kitchen table like the dogs do when they have been bad, hoping we don't see them. He had to come out and face the music. He has and now it's over with.

2011-06-13T16:18:00.001+01:00

Wylye Girl has very kindly Liebsterd me. Yes, I am small with less then 100 followers but I am happy to just type away and share what and when I can. Smiles all around.

So, who to pass it on to???

From My Kitchen Table, an Irish blog. I love her kitchen table and like to pop by her blog.

Knitting Not Necessary, a fellow knitter and who doesn't like to keep their hands busy.

There are Cuckoos in my Nest, is always a pretty read.

I pop by but don't always comment, sorry.

What's In A Word?

2011-06-11T14:32:00.002+01:00

Pleasant Bay

  I have been a bit stressed with the going ons of my second home that sits quietly on a dead end street over looking a beautiful bay in Cape Cod. The Bay is beautiful and the house is great. To look at the house, you wouldn't think it had a care in the world. But it does. Termites have attacked the wooden sleepers on the front steps. A weird creeper has infiltrated the air conditioning unit and some sort of bee has taken up residency with the local raccoon in my shed. That's on the outside.

   Inside though, if a certain woman who shall remain nameless had her way, I would have to re-due the entire place! A stain on a bit of carpet, a broken light fixture in the kitchen, never mind that there are 19 that Do work in the kitchen alone, Older Laura Ashley bed covers (give it time and they will be back in style) and the screened in summer porch could use a lick of paint. Really stupid things.

  They are all easily fixable and I have a very capable sister who is near by and can sort it for me, I just write the checks and she gets to stay in a really nice summer house close to the beach and on the bay for free!

  It's the woman who shall remain nameless that I am having the problem with. She drives me nuts. She makes me use a word that I really don't like as well, hate.I have always tried to never hate anything or anyone. It is a very strong word and shouldn't be used lightly in my book. I have tried to encourage my children to follow this ideal as well. But this woman, I think I hate. She has made my life miserable over the last five weeks. I have never met her and the only times I have spoken to her on the phone, I have wanted to hang up and throw the phone against the wall!

So there I was the other day, picking up my chick from her bus stop when she hopped in and it only took her 10 seconds to realize that I was in a foul mood. She guessed on the second go that it had to do with The Cape house as we call it. We spent to car ride home and part of the time fixing dinner, discussing the word hate. She thinks I'm justified in my choice of word in this case. She told me that she doesn't hate anything or anyone at the moment. I was very pleased by this. She also said that she just didn't have the time or energy to hate, that it was too exhausting and I was proof of that. !5 and so mature already. I have been thinking about this all the rest of the week and she is right. It isn't worth my time to hate her. I can fix it so I never have to deal with her again after August when the last renters leave. One smartly placed letter to the branch manager should sort that. So I have decided to 'dislike her very much'. I actually feel better now, knowing that I don't hate someone because it really is exhausting.

A bright note and a gloomy note

2011-06-05T15:59:00.000+01:00

On a bright note, with A2 exams nearly over and work study beginning, it means that it is nearly the summer holidays.

June 1st was a lovely evening and the first hot air balloons flew over head. I always think that summer is really here when the balloons come.

The weather has been just so lovely and warm. Sun lotion is left out on the counter now because the whole family seem to be needing to use it with the sunny days.

The dogs are less interested in walks through the fields where the wheat makes for hot walking, and are more interested in swimming in the river and the pond.

The puppy,who is now a full year old, is swimming and retrieving balls from the pond and she thinks this is just the most fun any dog could have.

sandals and sundresses are my basic wardrobe now.

The elder is flowering and I've made the first batch of cordial, yummy.

On a totally gloomy note, I am a bit mentally exhausted at the moment. My life seems to be revolving around my check book and as I have two, a UK bank check book and a USA bank check book, my head is spinning more. I have managed this morning to have already voided two checks because I wrote pounds on one and dollars on the other when it should have been the other way around.

All's I seem to do lately is give people money. Parties, clubs, garden projects, charities, schools, cleaning crew, family, children, insurance companies.

I really feel that I am not getting anything back at the moment either except a head ache. My son found me standing in the kitchen last night after I had just read and responded to some emails, all about money, and I was just done, brain dead. He had to shut the laptop and take it away from me. I think he thought I might do something rash like chuck it in the river or something.

Two glasses of very chilled white wine and I just about felt clear headed enough to go to bed.

Still feeling out of sorts this morning but two hours of mindless gardening has helped to see a light at the end of the tunnel. And just for fun, all check writing this week will be done in red pen.

Taking a Sickie

2011-05-26T21:31:00.000+01:00

I've used the same surgery in our village for the last 16 years but not long ago, our doctor retired and the practice was rearranged.

When my headaches started, I managed to see the same doctor twice but then not again as he is only a once a weeker. Then I couldn't even get an emergency appointment. Frustrated, I went private at my own expense.

So this week I needed a doctors appointment for my poor little chick. She came back from a school camping weekend with the right side of her neck all swollen. Glands raging and tonsils all pussy. she was a sight. So first thing Monday morning I called the surgery and guess what? No appointments, call back after 4pm but even then I wouldn't be guaranteed an appointment. Wednesday would have been the next available. I needed her on antibiotics asap and they were not going to help me out. I was very cross and let them know it.

So I bundled her into the car and drove down to our Sainsbury's where a new NHS walk in has opened up. We were in and out in no time with 10 days worth of anti-b'.

So what is going on if I can't even get a child into an emergency appointment in my own village! I'm still angry about it.

Otherwise, all is well in the chicken coup. My new girls are settling in and really, I am more worried about gypsies that have moved onto the edge of the village then the fox at the moment.

The Night Invader!

2011-05-21T12:02:00.000+01:00

My chickens have been found out. A large greedy fox has invaded my space and eaten two of my girls and it really has pissed me off. I have one lonely girl wondering around the garden looking for her mates and it's very sad.

I saw the fox as well. He was rather healthy looking but if I see him again, that could change. I am taking the dogs up to the run and letting them pee all around the fence to try to put off the invader. I'm sure he'll try again but I have a surprise for him if he does. I have just spent two hours rewiring the whole run with really sharp chicken wire. I am now wearing band-aides like a 5 year old. The stuff is sharp.

The chickens haven't been the only problem on the homestead. Honey bees swarmed in my bedroom the other afternoon. Not fun. Creepy really. I had to find out how they were coming in and duct tape the whole. Crafty buggers. They have been living peacefully in the rafters outside our bedroom window for more then 15 years and have never invaded our space before. But for some reason, the other day they did. They got through the brick and made their way between the plaster board and the wall and crept out into the room along a beam. The wall doesn't look very pretty all duct taped but it will have to do until the pest control man comes on Monday morning to sort them out. I don't want to have to do it but now they have become dangerous. I ended up vacuuming up 159 sleepy bees. I did kindly let them free into the garden and then ran away fast.

I've thought about bee keeping as a hobby but now I'm not so sure.

Can I say a thank you to Michelloui, London City Mum and Selina for being supportive. You all are very kind and I am going to keep blogging. I really do enjoy the writing and so that is what I am going to do. I'm going to try to be more consistent as well. I think a bit of routine in my life would be a good thing.

I have been found out.

2011-05-06T12:07:00.000+01:00

I have been found out.

A girlfriend sent me an email to say she and a friend where googling chickens and came across my blog. And read it!

I should be flattered but she was a bit critical and well, made fun of me in a round about way. I haven't heard from the other woman but don't really know her very well anyway.
I have never had one of you followers do that, poke fun, thank you.

For weeks I have been avoiding the computers in the house. I stand in front of them and just look and not touch. I dread that she would have left a comment or another email to me. It's stupid but she has really put me off blogging and finally today I had had enough and logged on.

I feel violated as I had no intentions of having anyone I know personally ever read My blog.
It's like reading my diary, which I keep as well. I wouldn't just leave it out on the kitchen table at a dinner party for any guest to read.

I write for me, to poke fun at me or mine. To bitch and moan about me or mine and to gush about me or mine.

I don't mind how many or few readers and followers I have. That isn't my gratification. Putting fingers to keys is and having the occasionally feed back is an extra bonus. I love that people, my followers, do read along with my life but I am not sure that I want a woman who can be a bit nosy at the best of times knowing my personal business, in this way.

Maybe it was only a matter of time but as it is, my husband doesn't even know I blog. Though now that she has sent a email to my home computer, I guess he knows now too.

I don't see this woman very often but she runs in a similar circle of friends. There are some personal feelings and things in my life that I just don't share with all my friends. Writing about these things does help me get through, past, over and on with my life. True followers are a part of that but I think if she keeps reading, she will just be a tattle tale.

So now what? She know who she is and she may have ruined this for me. I have to think on this one for a bit.

Mother Love: About The Dogs

2011-04-06T09:01:00.000+01:00

The Gallery: Mother Love is the topic this week. So is it a mother's love for her children? The maternal instinct that sometimes overwhelms us females and makes us give in to anything our little darlings want?? Could it be broader, the instinct to swaddle, cuddle, nurture?

What mother couldn't love a puppy like this?

Life has been a bit about the Dogs lately. Dog classes with Cadi once a week and last weekend I did an agility demo day with Rosalynn. She's my 6 year old Toller and she had a blast, running through hoops and flying over jumps. I was exhausted after two hours but she could have gone for another two! The dogs are my distraction at the moment but if you ask my children, they are my obsession all the time.

I wouldn't have animals if I wasn't going to do it right. IT isn't just about the feeding and watering or the letting them out. It's about making them part of the family. Our dogs have more personality then some of my children's friends and I am happy to be a Mom to them.

83 Days

2011-04-02T19:28:00.000+01:00

  I have gone from one thing to another this week, all in a bit of a haze, but a nice haze.
  The headaches haven't gone away but we think we know why they came in the first place. Apparently I got a cramp in my brain. Like you might at 3 o'clock on a Sunday morning. There you are, sound asleep and your calf muscle cramps up and you roll around in pain for a while until it eases and then fall on the floor when you get out of bed the next morning due to the muscle being inflamed and aching. That's my brain. But now just the aching part.
  An hour cooped up in in an MRI machine and some pretty cool pictures later, I know the results.
  I have a beautiful brain with a muscle ache in it.
  Apparently, Valium is really good for this type of headache but being a child who grew up in the 70's and early 80's with a mother who really liked Her valium, I refused this option. The neuro did say that really I could use it for a while, get rid of the headaches, then he would 'get me off of it'! No thank you.
  I am going to try an alternative medicine first. Wish me luck. 83 days is a long time to have a headache, even if it is only a sore muscle.

In the mean time, one chick has gone off to France for an exchange with a French family and the the other chick/rooster has finished up school and is on his Easter holiday. No sleeping in though. He had to help The Rooster clean out the garage today or the skip was going to be ordered for Monday! It did get done.

More later, it has been a really busy week and there's plenty to write about!

2011-03-26T14:05:00.000Z

I have been tagged for a Liebster Blog award from Knitting Not Necessary. I follow her as a fellow knitter and I thank her very much. The award is for us who have less then 300 followers in the blog world and as always, there are a few rules.
1- display the award and link it back to the giver, knittingnotnecessary.blogspot.com
2-Choose your own blog picks and let them know they’re awarded
3-Discover some new favourites out there.
4- Enjoy the love.

This has actually been a really nice way to start my day. I have been off line for a bit with computer illness. The Blackberry has been working fine but I find it hard to keep up in the blogging world via my little purple phone.

I have enjoyed the last several days of warm weather and am pleased to see the end of hockey season approaching. Soon there will be no more gritty sand in the front hall way from sandy astros. Soon the smell of rank shin pads will be taken over by the Spring in the air as I have my kitchen door open all day. And soon there will be no more washing of plastic clothes that seem to never really smell clean until next year. Best of all, Soon I won't be a hockey widow and I will get my Rooster back into the garden where any good husband belongs on a Saturday morning!

You see, I refuse to cut the grass. We have a horrible island that you have to cross a bridge to get to, hence lifting the mower up and down steps of the bridge to even get to the island. I don't cut the island. Then there is the bank of the river. Since I nearly dropped the mower in the river a few years ago as it is so heavy and close to the water, Rooster doesn't think I should mow there any more.
Little does he know that I hate that particular mower SO much that I nearly dropped it in on purpose but then guilt got me. He happened to be watching and thought I had just slipped and came to my rescue. Now he does the mowing. Hehehe. He has to do the strimming as well because the strimmer is taller then me! I get to use the ride on tractor. My favourite garden job.

You will understand this photo in a minute, just read on......

So now, hockey season is nearly over and I get my gardener back. Today I threw open the garage door in anticipation of finding all the tools and work gloves for our Sunday together tomorrow, only to be stopped in my tracks. I don't go into the garage much at this time of year.

I could NOT get into my garage. Not true. I made it in to the light switch two feet in then was blocked by STUFF. So much stuff. Where did it come from? Whose is it? Why is it there? Get it out!

Rooster has his last game today and wasn't home when I opened that horrible door. My garage, home of my lovely red ride on tractor and the kayaks. I couldn't even see my tractor because there was and I think it was, a huge red and white plastic goal keepers bag sitting on top of it! That was only some of the stuff. There are empty card board boxes, tubs and tubs of hockey sticks, junk that is un-describable and more! Now, I know he brought a few things home from his office and that he cleaned out the pantry a few weeks back and that some of the hockey stuff isn't his but honestly, why move junk from one place to another if it doesn't involve an incinerator!!!

I am going to order a skip. I LOVE skips and my garage is in need of a skip. And I am going to use the Rooster's credit card. Hehehe again!

So, to Spring, and the garden, if we can find it under all the junk.

Recipients to tag:
aroundmykitchentable

domesticgoddesque

howilikemycoffee

2011-03-17T09:40:00.000Z

This picture is what I feel like. Bleak, grey, sparse, hidden in the mist.

Since last weekend, we just have not been out of the mist.

It has really affected me and I haven't wanted to go out at all. I hate to even do the school run when it's like this. I just want to stay in with all the lights on and the heating turned up. I want warm and bright!

I don't know why I haven't been tittering away on the laptop on my blog. The weather has made me anti social I think.

The only bright and cheery place seems to be Sainsbury's and that Is sad that I think that. I have strolled up and down their cheery bright isles twice in the last week. Bright packaging, shiny happy fruit and veg isles, warm bread from the bakery and under cover parking so I didn't even have to get wet!

I find when the weather sucks, I take to the kitchen. I turn the food network channel on and putter. Making sunny, colourful food cheers me up. Pumpkin crumble bread, oriental spice chicken, cranberry oat squares, homemade ragu sauce with meatballs, pea soup. Anything with colour. The freezer is filling up fast. I think I have drunk a couple of gallons of tea over the last week while I have been stirring, baking and creating in my kitchen. I will be fat and have badly stained teeth by the end of March if I'm not careful.

I feel bad that the dogs have had shorter walks because I don't want to be out. They are just happy to get a bit of a run around, they don't care what the weather is. I have been throwing the ball in the kitchen and Up the stairs for them too. They just like to play and don't really care if it's in or out. The chickens too, are happy in any weather, silly things. They dig and scratch in any crappy weather.

What has been cheering me up is some really good hockey that my teen chicks have been playing lately. I have had to go out for that and have dressed in all my winter wear to do so. The end of the season brings on all the best games, county and school cup games with lots of parents cheering them on.

It's all a bit of an adrenalin rush when they are winning and I have to say the chicks are on a winning streak. It's a warm and sunny feeling, watching them play. It really does make me feel good. I have probably jinxed it now, their winning streak.

Snap out of it woman and get a grip, April isn't too far a way and there is so much other really horrible things going on in the world right now. Time for another cup of tea.

The Exam Take over...

2011-03-08T11:38:00.001Z

I have been ousted this past week by my chick who has been using every spare space in the house for her studying. The dining table was littered with papers, her bedroom, a bomb site and somewhere in it was the poor lonely laptop with it's juice run dry, Spanish revision left floating in the History page, and then there was the hub of the house; the landing. Art took over here and we were banned not only from using the Apple but from touching anything in the immediate vicinity while she was not in the chair.

So after 24 hours of recharging the laptop to its wonderful self, I am able to rant about Mocks. She is only doing her Mocks and the house is in a complete shambles and I don't dare disturb anything or I might unbalance the Universe or something.

So I am trying to spend as much time outside as I can to up my vitamin D and to get our garden back into some sort of order. My chickens now love me because I have not only overhauled their house and run but re-fenced an area for them to free range a bit more. Budlias and anything woody has been butchered and the log piles have all been straightened. Best of all, I lugged the damn Christmas tree off the driveway,across the bridge and over to the bonfire. Yes, me, not him. It was not easy as it was 14 feet and really heavy still! He would have left it until next Christmas if he could have. I was just plain sick of stepping around it and nagging him about it. I wonder how long the light above the front door will have to stay out before he changes that? I can't reach it even with a ladder.

So I think I will go out into the garden again and see what else I can butcher. If I can't clean inside, I might as well clean out. I love early Spring.

Done and Dusted

2011-03-01T09:40:00.000Z

I am Very happy to have half term over. I am probably one of the few parents who is. Our half term was spent at home with a teen on each floor surrounded by text books, empty pen cartridges and hot chocolate stained mugs. They both worked like demons and since the weather was pretty foul, they didn't bother to get out much for fresh air except for the odd game of hockey. I kept them fed and watered and in paper and clean sheets and clothes and really that is all I could do.

Even when I dragged, yes I did have to drag her, the teen chick to Bluewater for a morning of shopping and sushi lunch, I could see her looking at her watch and wondering what time we would be home so she could practice her Spanish verbs.

I am terrible when it comes to their work loads, I feel more pressured for them to do well then they do I think. I can't believe I was thinking about taking an Open University course myself. The thought of doing homework at my age, I am one year older tomorrow actually, makes my stomach turn. Thank goodness I missed the deadline for the course I was going to take and it filled up.

Environmental Science. What was I thinking? Maybe that it isn't too late to save the planet for my future grandchildren. Rooster is still trying to get me to sign up for something else. I think he is seeing into the future as we have been talking a lot lately about the teens going off to University. I feel he is worried about the empty nest syndrome for me. Ooops, there goes my stomach turning again.

I do have plenty to keep me busy really.

I just signed Cadi up for another dog training class for example. She and I have had long talks about it and we decided that we both really enjoy it. One more session and then she can start agility classes. She thinks that's a great idea. Trainer wants her to be a year old before she does too much jumping and to master catching a tennis ball. She isn't as interested in the whole 'catch' thing as my other two Tollers so we are working on it. It is keeping me very busy.

I'm thinking of moving the chicken house as well, to the island on the other side of our river. I thought that they might like to be more free range then they already are. Though it would be a big project as I would have to fence off the footpath so the 3 Tollers wouldn't get the chickens and make them their lunch.
I stupidly left the hen door open the other day when I went out to feed them. The dogs were all out with me and when I turned around, hens and dogs where all chasing each other around. Thank goodness that old dog is nearly blind and youngest dog is still a bit thick about what tastes good. Flapping chickens actually freaked her out a bit. Fortunately middle dog obeys commands when frantic mother shouts sit-stay at the top of her voice. Even the chickens froze for a split second then high tailed it back into their house.

The garden is another project that needs tackling this year. 3 dogs and a wet flooded winter have made it a real mess. I think I have plenty to keep me busy for the moment.

Selective hearing and other things...

2011-02-17T18:56:00.000Z

I had a very interesting book club meeting last night.

Firstly, I was late because I am the youngest member of book club and still have children that need picking up from school, bus etc.
Second, I was a solo parent as the Rooster was in the West Country on business. Not really sure what that means but there he was, not home. So I had to throw food at the chicks and hope they got it.
Thirdly, when I got to b.c., we spent 30 seconds talking about a Charming Scottish tale called, House-Bound by Winifred Peck. Enough said about the book. The real conversation was about our husbands and sons.

It was instigated from the book really, housewife taking on the role of chief cook and bottle washer while husband sits in his velvet smoking jacket with his feet up in front of the fire, laid by wife earlier that day of course.

Our thought for the evening was really that our husband's mothers are/were to blame if our husbands are useless in this day and age.
Don't get all uppity- 'But they work so hard in the city, farm, store, whatever, they don't want to come home and take out the trash, garbage, rubbish,etc.

This is 2011, not 1911. Men are very capable and so are their sons.
Loading a dishwasher, ironing a shirt and sorting out the bloody recycling are good common sense jobs and a nice little bit of help for mom/mum.

There are jobs in our house that I save for my Rooster. Sometimes I save them for months for him because he has selective hearing when it comes to manly duties around the home. Light bulbs are for him as we have 12 foot high ceiling and I am 5"2, 5"10 on a ladder because I hate heights and won't go to the top. I have also taught son to do these jobs when he is home from boarding school.
Recycling is mostly his job too. I find it very amusing when he walks into the pantry and then tells me there is a funny smell coming from in there and he wonders what it could be. The fact that he had to step around the over flowing bin to get to the larder is not hear or there.

Another job that I feel is for the man of the house is the Christmas tree. There it lovingly stands for a couple of weeks, decorated with care and brightly lit, presents scattered around its flowing bottom branches until I can't stand it any longer and whip the whole thing down in 10 minutes, lights and all about the 5th of January. Remember, I am in the Christmas business and having sold trees 24/7 for 5 weeks, January 5th was a do-able dismantling date for me. Son kindly dragged tree out the door on his way up out but guess where that tree is still today??? And I was not alone in this with the other b.c. moms- about four feet out from the front door. Still.

Selective hearing, seeing and doing more like it.

I don't speak 'Puppy" and my 'teen' is a bit rusty

2011-02-11T19:44:00.000Z

A big transformation has happened in our home. Our puppy now speaks. At nine months, she has found her voice and though I don't speak 'puppy', I do get some of the things she wants by where she stands in the room. Something else new- The teen chicks have regressed from speaking out loud. They will have arthriatis in their thumbs by the time they are 25 with the amount or texting they do.

Puppy transformation is fun if not a bit of a game for me. I am easily amused so puppy tricks are fun for me most of the time. If she stands near her food bowl or by the water bowl are easy ones. She stands staring at me near these spots and growls in a sort of ruff whinny sort of way. I feed and water these noises.

She does a similar sound with a higher pitch ruff when she wants to go out. Again, easy.

Then there is the waking me up out of bed noise which I think I only hear part of as she does it at a very early hour to wake me up so I don't catch the whole noise, I just get some and then the action to go with it. Little black tongue up my nose. Yuck first thing in the morning. I never should have brought her up to our bedroom when Rooster got stuck in New York at Christmas time.

Tonight was a new noise and I am clueless. There she stood while I was catching up on blogs, and ruffed in a quizzical way while staring straight at me and added a little bounce. She'd been fed and watered and had been out so really what was left but to annoy me. she has two other dogs to play with so I really didn't feel the need to get down on my knees and play with a pull toy with her and she's a fat little thing so I wasn't going to give her more food. Oops, she just swung and smacked a rope toy in older dogs face and sent older dog off in a huff. Glad I don't speak dog as I think dog just gave puppy the f...off.

Thinking about it, My chick teens are like the puppy. They don't really speak but do a lot of starring at me. They stand in front of the fridge or oven magically expecting food to materialize. They drink from cartons and taps. Puppy tries to drink from the downstairs loo like the big dogs, so cute. I hope the teens don't pick up on this habit.

The teens sometimes just say 'thank you' for no reason and out of context. This really throws me. "For what?" I say but then get nothing. Sometimes they even say 'hello'. I throw them a biscuit for that.

Sometimes I talk to the teen chicks like I talk to the dogs, that does not go over well and I get a lot of noise from them, especially the girl chick. A 'good girl' or 'clean puppy' doesn't wash with a teenager.

Yes, sometimes I have better conversations and more fun with the dogs then I do with the teens. They are instantly gratified with a treat and I don't get back talk.

Worries

2011-02-05T13:41:00.000Z

Somethings are mind over matter. If I don't think about them, they will go away or sort themselves out. I'm talking about problems. Some are little some are big. Some are manageable and some are bigger then me and I know I can't do something about them yet they worry me anyway.

If the problem isn't on your door step, do you really need to worry about it? If you don't turn on the TV, does it concern you? Or if you don't answer the phone, will you not hear about it?

I worry and sometimes it gets the best of me. I wouldn't go as far as saying worries stress me out because of course I do yoga and that is supposed to sort the stress out. Yah, down dogs and Sheba's. But they do get in my head and I find the best way to fix the worry is to do just that, fix it.

-House is a mess, clean it.
-Old dog going blind, don't throw balls in the garden for him anymore.
-Can't find a good house sitter, leave Rooster at home for the family holiday.(Yes that is mean and not quite true but it sorts the dog/house issue out for our holiday)
-Mother driving you mad, don't answer her calls and write a nice trivial letter to her instead, even if she is calling from Florida.
-Bank account a little low, stop spending money on your card and use Roosters instead.(Also a little mean but really I can buy new knickers from Sainsbury's and just put them on the grocery bill)

Then there are the other worries in my life,my biggest worries really. My children are getting older and my parents are getting old. To watch two grow up and to not see two growing old really does worry me. To know when to let go and when to hang on tighter are very hard skills to master. I don't always get it right.

Outside my chicks school the other day, a man approached an older student and offered to sell her drugs. The girl had enough sense to say no and tell a teacher. My dad is going to a neurologist to be tested for Parkinson's. Do I wrap daughter and father up in a cozy blanket and tell them it's all going to be OK? Or do I just wrap myself up and tell myself it's going to be OK?

But what about the bigger worries? War, Floods, gangs, The Olympic Stadium being torn down after it's use and rebuilt as a football stadium?
I think I'll just read about these in the paper over a cup of tea and reflect on them accordingly.

No wonder I still have a headache. Maybe I should up the yoga to 3 times a week.

Head games

2011-01-25T12:40:00.000Z

I'm so pleased with my three little feathered friends. They are laying eggs daily, big fat eggs. I thought maybe this foul (ha ha) weather might put them off but not a chance.

Puppy class was great fun yesterday. Even though our recall skills are hit and miss- and I say 'ours' because Cadi isn't totaly to blame for her stuborness- and we freaked some poor insecure woman out with a rottwieler, we still had fun. We got to do some agility training. Since Cadi is still only 8 months old, she got to jump over little cross jump and thought it was pretty fun. We did lots of weaving and leg work and then went home and slept for the rest of the day.
It exhausted both of us.

So, I am on day 16 of the head ache. I've been to the doctor three times and am on the third type of pill to try to ease the ache. He didn't really have much hope for this last pill but he wants to rule out migrains before he sends me off to a specialist.
Headaches are really boring. I have things to do, places to go and friends to see and children to take care of and this is slowing me down.
I don't like ths game.

Here's lookin' at you, Mother Hen-

2011-01-17T14:48:00.001Z

This is the Stylish Blogger Award that very kind 'Cross the Pond has awarded me. She didn't realise at the time how un-coordinated I am on the lap-top so if you are chosen and can't link in, it's totally my fault as I am useless sometimes.

The rules are:

a) Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
b) Share 7 things about yourself. Sorry if I scare you-
c) Award 15 recently discovered bloggers. This was fun.
d) Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award. This was harder.

Ok, here we go.....

1- I Love cashmere. More then chocolate, more then sex, more then my puppy. If my house flooded, I would save all my sweaters, scarves and mittens first and let the puppy swim. She is a water dog and maybe secretly that Is why I have this breed- See number 2.

2- I love my dogs more then I love the children's cats. I love my chickens more then I love those cats! The dogs are great and keep me busy in a really lovely way. I let the the puppy sleep on our bed but haven't told the dog trainer that or he might kick me out of class. I would stay at home with the dogs and send the family off on holiday if the family would let me, which they don't. Mean family.

3- I eat White foods. I crave them. But I don't need a lot of them, I just need a bit of it. Rice, pasta, chewy grainy brown breads(though technically not white, I like the butter that goes on it and hate white bread),cheese, which in my mind falls into white foods, Milk by the pint, cereals, oats, usually in the form of porridge or homemade oat cookies with chewy dried cranberries and dates- oh, sorry back to my list. You get the idea. I am not as big as a house but maybe should be.

4- Yoga, I really enjoy yoga. It sorts my mind and body and helps me not be as big as a house. The chick and I go to class every week and have a great time. The teacher is fantastic and funny and if I have had a crap week, I know I will feel better after a laugh and a good balance in her class. The chick loves it too and she is really good and graceful. It's a great mother/daughter thing to do together.

5- My marriage was an arranged marriage. My Italian grandfather married for the third time, an English woman. They lived up the road from me in Connecticut and I saw them quite often. Well when I was in my early 20's, I guess my grandfather thought it was time for me to settle down. He didn't really like the pro-windsurfer I was dating at the time. Under protest, I showed up for dinner one night at their house, barefoot and an hour late, to meet the nephew of the English wife. Well, here I am in England so you can guess the out come :)xoxoxo

6- I sometimes don't answer the phone after having looked at the caller ID. Sometimes I just look at whose is calling and don't feel up to that conversation. And if they leave a message, I erase it without even listening to it because I know what it will be about. The International caller will either be my mother or my sister or a telemarketer who I don't won't to listen to anyway. I like to speak to them on my terms in my time and not listen to their moanings about life in Florida or how little 'x' has a cold again. For god's sake, it's warm all the time and why do you think someone invented tissues! And I love the person who invented caller ID by the way.

7- Ready, I wear real fur. No, you say, not a woman who has chickens living in her children's playhouse!!! Mink, rabbit and raccoon. They are warm, luxurious, water repellent. I know the mink was reconditioned to the gillette it is today because the pelts came from Great Aunt Virginia's full length mink coat 20 years ago. I would own more as well but what I have does me just fine on cold days. I'm not a bad person, I'm just not an animal rights activist.

So seven things for you to ponder and here are the lucky 15. Some are new to my blogging list and some are not. I also have no idea why some are purple and some are blue!!

Writes in the City
vintage girl at heart
The River Cottage Diaries
The American Resident
Tattie Weasle
London City Mum
Ladybird World Mother
Knackered Mothers' Wine Club
Selina Kingston Is Forty
How I like My Coffee
Hot Cross Mum
dots and spots
Me, The Man & The Baby
Crystal Jigsaw
Around My Kitchen Table

Help! I have Sunday Brain

2011-01-16T17:05:00.000Z

I have Sunday afternoon Brain.

I have been sick all week with a virus that's only major symptom is a permanent headache. I have had a dull ache in the head for 6 days now and it is making me brain dead. Reading and writing have been very difficult and painkillers have been useless.

This afternoon I felt better and decided to have a session on the computer to catch up with blogging life and I was SO PLEASED to see that I was awarded a Stylish Award from http://jollyoldengland.blogspot.com but I can't remember or my brain isn't working still, how to access it to my page. And thank goodness for spell check because I had about 9 mistakes just so far!

So as soon as I sort out how to link in and add the gadget, I will get on with the criteria of the award.

If there is anyone who would like to help my Sunday brain with this, what I am sure is a, simple task, all help is welcome xx

The 'Thank you' note to one and all-

2011-01-06T19:38:00.000Z

I love mail, real mail, not electronic mail, though that is fun too but real paper in an envelope with a stamp mail that isn't a bill or junk.

The last couple of days have brought me some sweet letters and notes from friends and family in the form of good old 'thank you' notes. They arrive in my American mail box that I painted light brown with white and pale blue spots. They are hidden amongst the bills and junk but they are there. I love to come home and grab the mail from the box and bring it into the house, shuffling through it like every other person in the world. Bill, flyer, flyer, junk, oh, real letter!

I love them and read them while I'm standing at the hall table. I love them more if the card is pretty or comes in a colourful envelope. I am easily pleased really, as it isn't so much the contexts of the note as the fact that there is one in the first place.

I truly believe in the art of the 'thank you' note. Not just for presents but for other times too. Dinner parties, being helpful, a stay over. I try very hard to employ my children in this art as well. Boy Rooster was actually the first in the family to finish and seal up his 'thank you' notes which made me a bit suspicious but he swore that he had really written something in them. The fact that he addressed one of the notes 'To The Cousins', was disturbing. When I asked him if he really thought it would get there, he seriously asked what else he should put on the front. Not every child is made for higher education but if they can write a nice 'thank you' card, they are going to get somewhere nice in life.

I was very pleased to get a note from the daughter of a very good friend who I always give little gifts to. She is a teenager and I like to try to find her something humorous. This year it was a funny card full of Christmas scratch lotto cards. It was a great 'thank you' card as she won a bunch of pounds back!

Another card I got was to thank me for the Micheal McIntyre book I gave her. It was the second one she received but muchly appreciated anyway. I got two myself so know how she felt. It is very funny though.

So, time to go now and finish up my 'thank you' notes to friends and loved ones for their thoughtful gifts, drinks parties and such.

Happy New Year

Addicted to Christmas

2010-12-24T13:13:00.000Z

The last couple of weeks have been a whirl wind of activity. The snow has dampened alot of things but not my Christmas good cheer. I've managed to get to work cross country every day and though I had to dress like the Pillsbury Dough Boy to keep warm, we had a great time selling our Christmas Trees in the snow. Not sure everyone liked it though. Cadi rolled around in the new snow so much that her ears were caked!

Some things look beautiful in the snow. Our river was nearly frozen over and icicles where hanging from the roof. The roses that I forgot to dead head, cristalized. Our road was hardly driven on and looked magical, Christmas trees with white fluffy boughs, Christmas lights twinkling in the evening.
Some things don't look so hot, cars in ditches, empty runways, burst pipes.

I have cooked and decorated gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies, decorated our house top to bottom, made Christmas Panattone Bombs and done the Christmas food shop all in good faith for the big day. But, our big day was nearly postponed due to the weather.

The Rooster went off to NewYork City for a funeral of all things and got stuck there! Try as he could, BA thought sending him home Christmas day would be fine! Well, not fine in our book. Heathrow was useless. He made it home after 5 days of waiting poor thing but he missed so much fun while he was gone.

My house has some water on the property, under the property really and under our kitchen to be more exact. There are also some pretty old pipes, water mains actually. See where I'm going with this? Now I am not the only person to have had plumbing problems when the temperature drops to minus double didgets but I didn't really like to have to deal with the hassles by myself while Rooster was shopping in NYC to pass the time. Four hot water bottles and lagging from Travis Perkins solved one problem. It's amazing what you can learn on YouTube. But the water tank was completely empty and I couldn't figure out why. Four days later, all with out water, a kindly plumber, the 5th I tried, showed up at my door at 6:45 Monday night. After discovering that yes, there was a burst pipe somewhere under my house and that if he ripped up floor boards he could probably find it, I casually mentioned a funny hanging icicle that I noticed under the house. I noticed it only because I had spent so much time under the house warming and lagging exposed mains! The icicle was sure to be the problem but getting to it meant putting on the Wellies, plumber borrowed The Roosters, and slogging through freezing cold river to the trap door under the house! I was willing to help if it meant he could fix it that night. What a star he was. Freezing cold, in the dark, standing in the river, magic. When he turned the stop-cock back on, we could hear the pipes rumble back into life and when he stuck his head back into the water tank four stories up in the rafters, it was filling. Yah!

So today is Christmas Eve. The sun is shinning, it's freezing cold, we're making soup and shortbread. We'll walk the dogs in a little while and put some pressies under the tree. We'll light the fire and break out the port and watch A White Christmas. All is good in the world.

Happy Holidays.

Sip the mulled wine, it's the holidays!

2010-11-29T21:48:00.000Z

I have been working everyday now for the last 10 days and won't surface until about the 23rd of December.
I have dug out the long under wear, ski socks, trapper hat, mink ear muffs, cashmere scarves, wrist warmers and sweaters ( I might be out in the cold but I'm going to look good and feel warm doing it!), I have my new black sheepskin thermal boots and great lip gloss that my hair doesn't stick to. I am all set for the Christmas rush.
I will now be outside working at the Christmas Tree farm until Christmas, snow or shine. We sell our trees in a big barn but who am I kidding, it isn't warm in there, just dry (unless I am wet from lugging trees in from the field). The trees love the cold frosty weather we are having. It makes them last longer if they have had a nice cold snap before they come inside for the holidays. Even the internet barn is cold.

I've made some cracking wreaths for people already and have even sent several out via the internet already.

Decorations are my weak point though. I love doing up trees and when I have tons of decorations at my disposal, I have great fun.

This is a tree I did in Suffolk not long ago.
Funny enough though, I have only glass ornaments on our tree and some red roses. I use lots of white lights to get the wow effect. I have been decorating other peoples trees for over ten years and yet tend to keep it really simple for myself. Most of the ornaments that I have will get passed along to each child when they move out and start having their own trees. I have been collecting for them since they were born. Keep sakes. Every year I buy two of the same decorations for them to add to their collection. I put them on our family tree but they know that some day they will be put on their own tree.

Boy will my tree look bare when the first child moves out! Maybe then I'll start collecting other themes!

I'll try to stay in touch and pass on any funny antics from the tree farm between now and Christmas. So put on some Frank and sip some mulled wine and enjoy the Happy Holidays!

Go, go, go and wear the fluffy blue slippers-

2010-11-23T09:20:00.000Z

I felt a bit pulled in all directions last weekend and I put about 400 miles on my car driving the chicks all over the county. I cooked all weekend, different meals at different times for whoever was home at what ever time, did numerous loads of different types of loads of laundry due to school,sports and leisure wear. I spent odd hours due to the miles in the car and had to throw in some Christmas shopping time into the mix as well.

I am working everyday right up until Christmas now and have to plan my time on post it's all over the house so I can have some sort of organized kayos. My usual routine before I leave for work starts with waking what ever child is home, packed lunches, feed the dogs and puppy, chickens, me, laundry, house tidy like a whirl wind(only house between kitchen and bedroom gets the whirl wind as it is direct path), dress myself and find shoes of child leaving house for the bus, walk dogs, turn off lights, 19 this morning!, lock dogs out of pantry and laundry room so they don't eat cats or our food, and go to work.

There are a few shouts and shrills in between all that but most mornings it goes pretty smoothly unless there is frost, sick dog, sick child,no power,fussy puppy or the likes. Or like this morning when the oil man parked his huge truck infront of the driveway 6 minutes before the Rooster needed to leave to do the bus run! Poor oil man then had irate mom in her not very nice pajamas and fluffy blue slippers having to move cars around at 7am. All good fun.

Before and After

2010-11-17T15:15:00.000Z

The Gallery: Before & After has a great idea for photos.
So, Here are daughter on the top age 9 and me on the bottom age 9. Related or what??

The Gallery-SEASONS

2010-11-10T11:00:00.001Z

The Gallery, is here and it's Seasons.

The Gallery: Seasons

Well, Autumn is here and a frosty morning and a camera produced this. I do love the fall, chunky sweaters and lighting the wood burner, Cooking with pumpkin and the smell of bonfines.

Puppy Class

2010-11-09T21:02:00.000Z

10 weeks later and this is all she thought of puppy class! She was given a little pink (well she is a girl) rosette last night and she promptly ran off with it to chew it to bits. She actually fought me for it but I did win in the end and managed to attach it to her puppy bag.

I was pleased to have taken her to the classes in the end as I have taught her to be pretty obedient when we are out in the fields around our house. Though maybe the pocket full of treats has something to do with that as well. We would have managed the sits and stays by out selves but it's fun to do it all with other pups and people.

I have yet to teach her Not to steal the loo roll and My socks and her new trick is to shred the mail that has our names on it that we usually burn. Now I have my own live shredder. Though picking up manky wet clumps of paper off the hall carpet is not my idea of a good time. She'll learn, won't she??

Oh, and the chickens are out...

2010-11-05T16:11:00.000Z

Sometimes Rooster stops home for lunch.

This is fine but he gets a bit forgetful or helpful as he calls it.

Dishes get put into the sink, fine but if food is left on them, very naughty dogs sneak up when our backs are turned and try to remove the plates from the sink to get the food on them. Mind you, this could only be ketchup residue or spilt soup but they have very good noses and are very greedy. They can get the bowls out of the sink and I know this as I have found cereal bowls in their baskets licked so clean that they look like new. Bowls have the lip and are easier to lift out of the sink obviously.

In all fairness, he only leaves them in the sink if the dishwasher is full. I don't really like him emptying the dishwasher because half of the stuff in it ends up on the counter next to the sink. It's all clean stuff but he seems to think that he doesn't know where it goes in the kitchen. Like maybe while the dishwasher was running, it magically made a new salad bowl or spatula and he just wasn't sure where to put. God forbid he put it with the other ones.

Now, Rooster has lived in our house, with me and our chicks, for almost 16 years. The kitchen has been with us for 14 years and the dishwasher and cupboards have been in the same place for that long as well. I need a new kitchen. So how come he can't remember where the cheese grater and the really big tea mugs go? Both of which he probably made dirty so therefore, got out of the cupboards in the first place!

This baffles me, Every time he empties the stupid machine, I end up going in later and putting the other half he left out away.

Today was another home lunch.
Fine, the dogs got the soup can off the counter, I could hear them fighting over it before I even went to investigate. And they have drank out of the water that he filled his soup pot up with in the sink. I caught them doing this. It was amusing really so I didn't get too cross. I really should be taking all three of them to 'puppy' class, not just the puppy.

But the topper was when he called me from the top of the driveway to ask me if I wanted the chickens out. When I ran outside to get them, I did find him out of his car and behind it with his arms out in typical 'shoo girls, back in you go' mode except he wasn't shooing the chicks, he was dusting down his trousers from kneeling under the car, he thought he had run over one of them.
So then I had my arms out, hopping around the driveway getting the girls back to their home.

Rooster kindly pointed out that I had no shoes on and my socks were getting wet.

Thanks honey, come home for lunch anytime. I love it.

Strike 3

2010-11-03T11:49:00.000Z

It could be an interesting day today-
I managed to spill a whole bag of white sugar while reaching for the cranberries to put on my cereal this morning.
I knew it was going to fall and knew it had a huge hole in the bag as I was the idiot who put it there (then didn't re bag it).
It just poured out into the utensil drawer, into the toaster and all over the counter. Strike 1

I thought I would be a good mother and change all the sheets on the beds for the chicks. I usually get them to at least strip the beds first. So, while remaking young Roosters bed, I stood on the really nice light blue flannel fitted bed sheet and put my foot right threw it. I have a little foot UK4/US6 but it seemed to make a really big hole. Now I have more dog sheets, yah. Strike 2

It's only 11:48 and I am doomed this morning. I don't dare turn on the vacuum as I will probably blow something up. If you don't hear from me in a while, it was the house!

Have a nice day...

One Down and One To Go-

2010-11-02T08:11:00.000Z

One week is all my chick had to rest up, sleep till her body woke her and catch up with friends. Oh and do the homework that was assigned for half term. In truth, the poor thing spent her wakened hours doing that homework and as for friends, all the great plans were pushed under the bed that she was in when she wasn't working!

I felt particularly bad as a parent because I had all these great ideas for us and we didn't do any of them as planned because of her work load and real need to just be at home with her room and stuff. We didn't go to London to the Tate Modern, we didn't go out to this great farm shop not far from us, for a girls lunch and we didn't make it up to Cambridge to Christmas shop. We did manage to get a new pair of school shoes for her, yah! and we did pop into town for a new sketch pad and acrylic paints, for school, again, yah! And I managed to not feed her a single sandwich for lunch as she has one every school day during term time.

Where I did come in on the " good Mom" barometer was the Rooster's birthday trip to London, Wapping and Canary Wharf. It was really a two for one though. Chick, Rooster and the young Rooster were all due to play hockey, at Wapping on Saturday morning, perfect timing, 10:30 start. The Chicks team needed a couple of extra players, being half term, so I roped in two of her girl friends that she hadn't seen in ages as extras. Along with two of her really good friends that are already on the team and the five of them were happy girls together. So they played their game in the beautiful sunshine with Tower Bridge as their back drop the my boys played, also in the sunshine. Both teams won by a mile and as the club was so nice where they played, there were hot showers for all after. Very important for hot sweaty hockey boys and girls. Then off we went to Canary Wharf for a lovely lunch and a walk around India Quay and the Wharf. The Rooster and I had the adult company of one of the girl's parents who are friends of ours as well so we had someone to share a bottle of wind with. It was all very social and bubbly and when we'd had enough of four walking around, we headed back up the M11 to home and had birthday cake and presents and watched some rugby.

Really, everyone was happy for the day. I think I covered everything in one go:
London, friends, physical exercise, two wins, family time, sunshine, meat and fish for lunch, atmosphere, a bit of shopping, cake and presents. It was exhausting squeezing it all into one day but worth it.

Chick was back to school this morning and young Rooster has gone on a rugby tour to France. All's quiet on the home front this morning!

2010-10-25T09:17:00.000+01:00

I always thought it amusing that when The Rooster was a grain trader, he went to wheat conventions. Then he was a rice buyer and went to rice conventions. I have been to both of these types of events and they do really exist. This week I have done the convention, it was just a day trip but I was at The British Christmas Tree Growers convention. Yes, there really is such a thing. The wreath in the picture is not a Christmas tree but something I threw together to enter for the best wreath competition. The winner's wreath was surrounded with bunches of holly and I just don't go there. Prickly, poky, mean stuff. I think even the winner didn't really make it himself, as he had 'staff', I am the staff and make all the wreaths hands on.

It was an interesting day out anyway. We were up in Suffolk for the day and the weather was annoyingly cold but sunny, a heavy frost that morning over parts of the UK was good for the xmas trees, it makes them greener say the farmers. I just can't believe how chilly it is already and it isn't even November yet. I tried to have a few chats with some Christmas tree growers but one was from deepest Scotland and the other from deepest Norfolk. I couldn't really understand either of them but they seemed happy chatting away to each other, no worries. Not being a tree grower myself, only associated to a seller of one, I didn't have to pay attention to the chats about pesticides and vermin. Really I was only along as I knew the farmer hosting the event and I make a pretty wreath. Well, some people think so but not the tree people there that day. Farmer friend won best tree and gets to pick one of his larger ones to take down to Downing Street. Impressive. I wouldn't mind putting a wreath on number 10.

The rest of the week was a bit full on too.

At puppy class, which seems to not be going that great, I have been struggling with collar work. Cadi thinks her collar is the devil and runs away and hides her head when she sees me with it. So I make her wear it more regularly to try to combat the fear. It's really sweet, chocolate brown with pale pink spots, I'd love a scarf like it. She just rolls around the carpets trying to get the thing off. It's exhausting. Puppy teacher says we have to get over this devil stage. Maybe I'll knit a scarf to match Cadi's collar and see if that helps.

I didn't see much of my boy Rooster until the end of the week at his rugby festival at school. Perfect day for that. Pissed down with rain while we were all still in bed then the sun came out for breakfast. There wasn't a clean boy on the pitch at the end of the day as under all that long grass on the field was mud! Thank goodness the first team kit doesn't come home to be washed as coach protects it like a new born! My machine cringes when the boy Rooster comes home with training kit anyway. I am constantly cleaning mud blobs,small stones and grass wads out of the filter.

I was running a bake sale during the rugby but luckily the sale was right in front of pitch number 1 where boy was bruising and battering other boys and himself.
The sale is to raise some extra funds for a rugby tour this summer for the boys. They are off to Australia and it isn't cheep! A few cakes aren't going to cut it but we moms have to start somewhere. Boys are useless at raising money but very good at spending it.

The chick had an easier week until I made her clean her room yesterday. It's half term now and there was six weeks worth of crap scattered around the place that really needed the attention of a bin bag. I stood outside her door with the vacuum cleaner at the ready until I could see the floor. You would have thought I was asking her to climb Everest or something with the fuss that she made. She has an 'on suite' and I started there. When I could see the bathroom floor, I congratulated her, "Well done, that wasn't so hard was it?" Silly me, when I pushed the door all the way open, I saw that she had literally chucked everything that was on the bathroom floor into the bathtub! Well, wait until she wants a shower in the morning, because I wasn't going to clean up that mess. The bathroom floor has never been cleaner though.

That goes for the rest of the house too.

Actually,just the carpets. I had to pop into B&Q yesterday for light bulbs and came out with a Rug Devil carpet cleaner instead! Chicks think I am honestly, the saddest mother in town as I then spent Five hours steam cleaning every carpet in the house! The house smells great and carpets are springy and new like. I didn't even mind when Cadi peed on the front hall way carpet in fear of the machine, as I just steamed it all up! It doesn't have to go back until Tuesday so I am sure that I can get the sofas and a few chairs done by then. My arms were killing me from lugging the damn thing in only one direction but it's worth the pain. Rooster had to put the burgers on the grill last night as I couldn't lift my right arm, but what's the saying?- no pain, no gain-

I must remember to pick up the light bulbs when I return the carpet cleaner on Tuesday. House getting a bit dark and I want to see nice clean carpets.

The Big Question

2010-10-14T15:30:00.000+01:00

I heard a rumor over the weekend when I was away with my fluffs. I heard a lovely friend of mine had breast cancer. It made me feel physically sick and I didn't want to talk about it.

First thing Monday morning, I called my lovely friend to ask about the rumor and she confirmed it. But talking to her about it made the sick feeling start to go away.
She was veery confident and brave but not immune to pain and sadness. She was very real about the cancer.

She is a doctor herself so could explain the gory details but that didn't stop her getting cancer or having complications.

How and why does this happen to the good people?

My chicks were not happy to hear about my friend as they have known her since they were little and are friends with her children as well.

So now I guess I have to go get my headaches sorted and probably even drop by Tesco's parking lot to visit the breast screening clinic. Better safe then sorry.

Many busy moments

2010-10-12T09:23:00.000+01:00

I feel that I have been on the go for the last several days and need to settle down for a few moments to re group.

I left for a weekend away on Friday to stay with a friend who has just moved to deepest Suffolk. I have a small group of girl friends and we refer to ourselves as the 'Fluffs'. The four of us are all different in looks, personality and age. I am the baby of the group at 45. We have been together for about 10 years as the 'Fluffs' but some of us have been friends separately for longer. We are good together and very protective of our time together as it is hard to come by. Trying to get a mom of two teenagers still in school, a London City, working divorcee,mom, a bubbly blond divorcee, living a whirl wind life,mom and a newly moved to Suffolk, mom of college kids, together in one place for even a dinner, let alone a weekend together, is a bit of magic.
Well, it did work but I had to add a little fluffy puppy to the mix as my family were all over the place over the weekend and not one of them would be home for more then a couple of hours to look after Cadi. So off we went, I had as much stuff for the puppy as I did for me for the weekend; folding cage, food, snacks, toys, towel, leashes, bowl, doggie bags and her soft bed. It took up most of the back of the Mini.

Now, Suffolk is not that far away from Essex, we border each other and it is only an hour's drive from mine to hers but when I got there, we were in the middle of nowhere in a lovely little village just on the green with beautifully painted houses surrounding the green with the church on the corner. It is idyllic.
But guess what, no mobile phone service for miles!!! We felt like we had travelled to deepest Scotland but I bet they have at least 2 bars way out on the Isles. We were bar less! It was pretty funny when we would go out, phones in our back pockets and all of a sudden we would all start to vibrate as service hit us. We had a lovely time together and covered a wide range of subjects in our hours together from menopause to the X-Factor singers. We stayed in each evening and ate home cooked food in front of a roaring log burner and walked the countryside both days. It was a real treat and we all behaved ourselves including Cadi, who loved having three other moms doating on her. The weather was great as well and that helped.
I always miss my chicks when I am away from them, even when I'm an hour away. They were busy themselves playing hockey and rugby and coaching and schooling and this and that-ing. I doubt they missed me, Cadi maybe, they missed. She's such a big part of the family now but still takes up so much of my time.
I was happy to drive home on Sunday in the beautiful sunshine and spend the afternoon, supermarket shopping, cooking, cleaning the garden and oh yes, laundry! The moments of a busy mom.

Unhappy and Happy Hens

2010-10-04T09:33:00.000+01:00

My girls are unhappy. You can tell really, just look at that pout, that stare, that evil eye.
Would you want that looking at you when you innocently reached in to snatch the freshly layed eggs?
They are pissed off. The rain has made their run a mud slide and they are filthy and muddy and very unhappy.

Their eggs are muddy, my boots are muddy from visiting them and their hutch is muddy.
It is a no win situation all around except I am still getting eggs, just really dirty ones.

I'm not too unhappy these days though, I'm just ticking along doing the everyday things happily enough. The Christmas business is pretty much full time now with stock arriving and setting up and decorating the trees up in Suffolk. The internet is busy with orders and the office has had a good clean to make ready for the rush. The Christmas trees have been tenderly pruned and weeded and I'll start thinking about making wreaths soon. I have to get the creative juices flowing and come up with some new ideas for this year. I completely ignore the toot in the shops and supermarkets for now as I look on what I do as just a business for a particular time of year. Otherwise I would be sick of Christmas by next week!

Life on the side lines

2010-09-27T10:47:00.000+01:00

It was a bit of a wild, wet and windy weekend here in the East of England. Probably across most of the South really. I was standing out in it for about 8 hours of it watching field hockey yesterday. I did take a warm break and sat in the back of the car with a mug of soup and my book for an hour then bravely went back out.

I become a hockey widow starting in September and stay that way until May. Rooster, coaches Tuesday nights and Saturdays for chicks ladies team and sometimes plays on Saturdays too with a men's team. Then spends most of Sundays coaching for our local club of mini's. It really is part of our lives and I love watching and cheering and taking photos. The driving too and fro, I could live with out but that is all part of it and the children do really appreciate it when I pack the car with everything they might need for the game and some things they didn't know they needed. Sweet and salt and extra water are a must, as is any sort of deep heat spray and dry sweatshirts.

Yesterday, when I grabbed my ski sweater and cashmere mittens, I thought I might be over doing it for September but I was pleased I did. It was a horrible weather day yesterday and I hated seeing all the kids out on the pitches in the wind and rain, all wet and wild. They loved it of course and didn't blink about the weather. Apparently, once you are out there and running around, you don't feel the weather unless it is snowing or Very hot. We as parents on the side of the pitches, FEEL EVERYTHING.

They are playing on a water based pitch that has to be 'watered' for every game. It was only turned on twice yesterday. The water at their feet is from the RAIN!

The chicks were both playing Junior Regional Performance hockey for Under 15 and U17's and it was four games over the whole day for them. Very competitive stuff and we don't get the results of the over all team picking until Tuesday. About 45 kids from 3 teams get narrowed down to a single 15 person team for both of my children.
The boy is the more competitive of the two and would really like to get through to the next stage. We are just pleased that they have both gotten this far in the sport.

Last night I was so cold when we got home that I had to go to bed in woolly socks and a heavy blanket over my duvet. The chicks used up all the hot water when they got in and really I couldn't complain as they did all the hard work.

Today I get to buy another can of Fabreeze to dilute the shin pads and kit bags. The smell of sweat on plastic, foam and synthetic material, is grouse.

So, it is September and the ski sweater is out of the cupboard already. I guess I better dust off the long sheepskin coat and the snoods as well.

A smile

2010-09-22T12:16:00.000+01:00

A smile is what you get when everyone is having a great time.

A smile is what you get when there is no TV or Internet and only each other to play with no matter what your age.

A smile is what you get when family is together.

The cousins, young and a bit older the lower down the totem pole you get.

It makes me smile. I with they could be happy like this all the time.

Thank you Stickyfingers.

Lacking Colour

2010-09-20T14:22:00.000+01:00

Things around the place seem to be lacking in colour. Not just the garden but my wardrobe has turned predominantly grey too. I have a browny grey cord skirt that has seen the light of day several times in the last couple of weeks. A lovely cosy Pure cashmere with frilly trim cardigan that I live in, several shades of grey 't' shirts in various lengths and the trousers, two pairs of grey fine cords.

I do own other clothes but seem to live in the same things day in and day out. Funny really that my pajamas that only the Rooster and chicks see, are pink and purple flowers. But really I wouldn't go out in those on purpose. Well, maybe to feed the chickens.

So I think I need to spice things up and by that, I don't mean the colour. What a horrible colour 'spice' would be. An orangy gold. Not for me. I do love greys and I don't look half bad in shades of it but I think I need to add a bit of wham underneath or something.

Not so much can be said for the garden. I have a few big sunflowers holding court and left over geraniums that are looking sad and some pink roses that have blessed me with their presence but really, it is very green in my garden and where it isn't green, it is brown and that is about all. I messed up somewhere with the planting. Even the dogs are brown!
Not planted but planned. I love their colours.

I love this time of year; cool nights, bonfires, falling leaves, wearing sweaters and my cowboy boots, rugby and hockey games, apple pie, the whole lot.
But I need a colour fix!

Relief

2010-09-16T07:47:00.001+01:00

An evening of relief last night.

After many hours of chick trying to give me the silent treatment, she caved. The fact that I made really yummy oatmeal cookies and her favorite dinner, eggplant parmigiano, might have helped. The house smelt fantastic by the time she got home and I noticed that after she had her dinner and a couple of cookies, she had planted herself at the kitchen table to finish her art homework instead of on her bedroom floor. By the end of the evening, she was asking for my help with her painting for GCSE and chatting away like normal.

The other relief is with young rooster and GCSE/AS's. Rooster and I met with a very helpful advisor at school yesterday and I think we have all come up with a plan to get the boy through the next 2 years. Not everyone is cut out for the Ivy League. We just have to do the best with what we have and so will he.

Puppy is getting on well with training though the little sausages that I they recommend for training, made her spastic and I won't be using those any more. She socialized very well with an Irish wolfhound giant puppy and loved a little boxer puppy. I came away with a wicked headache due to many puppies barking, but otherwise, yah for Cadi. Best of all, my other two dogs haven't eatten her yet even though she has eatten through all their toys!

Poor pig-gutted in a matter of minutes!

I hope the rest of my week goes as well.

She won't speak to me!

2010-09-15T09:45:00.000+01:00

She won't speak to me because I pulled the " Because I am your Mother" card.

She is beautiful, confident, smart- street and brain, and a pain in the ass but if I loved her more, I would melt. Oh, and she is only 14.

When the boys come of age, their voices change and they start to grunt. Easy.
When the girls come of age, they get mood swings (I started her on Evening Primrose oil tabs ages ago to combat that one) and their voices become shrieks of 'But why not? But why not?' Not so easy.

So the Mother card came out yesterday, while we were in the car and I was driving no less. The whole family seems to think that the best time to get me is while I am behind the wheel of a ton of metal. Is it because I can't escape? Or completely freak out because I might crash the car with us in it? Who knows but I think I spend too much time in the car!

So my lovely chick asked me if she could get on a train from Stansted on Sunday to go to see a friend in Oakham for a few hours, I was driving at the time. I knew exactly who the 'friend' was and friend being a boy at a boarding school 2 hours away, I said,'Sorry, no.' Switched from 6th gear down to 5th to slow the car just in case. I didn't need her going to see a 'friend' and coming back with a 'boyfriend'.

Then all I heard was, 'blah,blah, so unfair, blah, blah,but why not?, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm not a baby you know!' Tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

That's the problem, she isn't a baby, she is a beautiful young teenage girl, MY girl and I really feel that her going off to visit a boy who she swears is just a friend, is not on. Case closed. Now she isn't speaking to me. It's only been 14 hours but all I have had from her are boy grunts.

Thank god, Rooster agrees 100% with me on this one.

She has 250 plus friends on facebook, bbm's the whole bus ride home from school to where I pick her up, blogs and has a social life better then Rooster and I. Am I so out of line to deny her seeing this one boy who we don't even know?
I think not. I'm holding my ground on this one. She can visit the old fashion way, by telephone.

What if...

2010-09-10T10:14:00.000+01:00

I haven't been very kind to my chickens lately, the real ones. Actually I have been ignoring them but they have surprised me by laying really big eggs all week.

What if I ignore them for so long that all the eggs every day become extra large? Would that be a problem? Maybe to the chickens, I can't imagine cranking out super sizes everyday would be much fun.

What if I ignore other things? I haven't spent much time with my daughter this week except in the kitchen as she has wanted to do a bit of baking and I like to supervise as I multi task other things around us. We chat but we haven't really spent too much quality time together since she went back to school. I think she was trying to get my attention yesterday though when she sent me a text from school in the afternoon-

' Can I stay after school today?' Her.
' No, get on bus pls,' me.
'But I want to go with Lauren to get her belly button pierced,' her.
'NO WAY,' me.

This came through while I was at my grown up book club lunch discussing The House of Mirth. For a split second I felt like I was in someone elses world. Book club ladies politely chuckled as I read it out. I think I will be asked to leave the book club.

What if I don't give teenage girl chick the right attention, will I become the Mother Hen to a multi pierced rebel who likes to bake? Luckily tattoos are out as she has an incredible phobia of needles, it doesn't stop her talking about them though.

The other big What if problem I have had this week is with Rooster. We have been spending a lot of time together this week because he put gas in his diesel tank and we are down to one car. My 'clubman', and we have been driving each other around so to share it. Sweet right? Fat chance. It's a pain in the ass but we talk in the car and that's good. But not yesterdays conversation. It went something like this-

'What if we are bad parents and it's are fault that our(16 year old young rooster) son is like he
is?' Rooster.
Foot on break as I am driving, to slow down in order to process what Rooster has just said to me.
'I thought we agreed that we were good parents and his mistakes were his own lazy ass's fault?' me
'But we lead by example' him.
'So I am disorganised, lazy, bored and don't care what my future holds?' me, now speeding up.
Thank god rooster said 'no, not you' or I might have put us in a ditch.

But what if our parenting skills have just not sunk in in general? That is a problem. We thought we were okay parents and gave young rooster the right amount of attention and nurturing over the years. But maybe we were making a bigger problem.

Young rooster walked home from school on Monday afternoon ( he started Monday morning) with a friend. Since my car wasn't in the driveway he didn't know I was home. We opened the door together and his face was shocked. I was smiling but when I say his face, mine became less amused. You see, I can read him like a book. He was up to something, sneaking home. I let it pass but then found him rooting around in the pantry with his coat still on and when I found him shoving something into his pocket, I went in, told him that I didn't care what it was but to put it back and go back to school, friend and all.

'But we were bored at school' he says.
Well, when I pointed the dreaded finger towards the door without speaking, I think they got the hint and left.

Later in the week, I picked him up for his night home and I didn't see his new L6 suit, just his over night bag. See where this is going? I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

'Did you leave your new suit in your room?' me.
'No, it's in here' him!
I blah,blah, blahed him all the way home on the principle that he said knew how to take care of his new, lovely, wool suit that he looks really handsome in.
'But I folded it up first' he said like a ten year old.

So what if we have got it wrong with him? The pre back to school talk about responsibility and maturity and organising yourself and crappy GCSE grades talk obviously flew right by him. He seemed so positive for a brief moment during that talk, we had hope as parents. Have we ignored that the chicken might have a problem and he's cranking out super sizes all on his own?

As parents, we can say so much to them but really, they can only take in so much. It is so hard and frustrating to be responsible for other people, especially your own flesh and blood. What if you never know if you are getting it right?

On a lighter note, I have enrolled puppy, Cadi and I onto puppy classes. I thought I might not ignore obedience problems and get this one right. It could be pretty funny as there are all sizes in the class from a Pug puppy to an Irish Wolf Hound puppy. It could be something to blog about.

Off to do some baking to ease my mind- Orange and chocolate scones.

Earl

2010-09-02T15:29:00.000+01:00

It is horrible but I am so jealous of my sister.
She is in our summer house and gets to ride out Hurricane Earl instead of me.
I got Bob but haven't had a good hurricane in years!

Not disrespecting Katrina and New Orleans or anything, but there is nothing like a good tropical storm to get the blood flowing.
Living in the UK, I just don't get that here. We get wind but not rain, wind and storm as well.

Category 4 heading in a southwesterly route towards New England and Cape Cod.
Maybe it will chase the sharks away.
Stay tuned.

The Blur

2010-08-28T09:18:00.000+01:00

The week is a blur yet again.
It was GCSE week and my heart was in my throat for the day and the next actually. The results weren't what he wanted in some and MUCH better then expected in others but there was disappointment for sure. Not everyone is cut out to be a rocket scientist or lawyer or doctor or a banker for that matter. The pressure up to and through the exams sucks and then you wait for ever for the results and just when you have forgotten that they are looming, bam, right in your face. This weekend we are going to discuss re-sits in a couple. Then we start all over.

So, I thought Summer was a time of relaxation and sunny lazy days...
Fat chance. I have been in the blasted car everyday for hours at a time shuffling the teen chicks and their friends around live a frickin taxi driver. I have put about £85 of gas in the 'clubman' in the last 10 days and that is normally 3 tanks of gas that should last me 3 months! And I haven't even really gone that far, I've just been everywhere.

Oh, and I've been bringing Cadi along for some of the rides and I'm very proud to say she has only thrown up twice. Once she made it all the way up to Suffolk and didn't puke until we got outside the house we were due to stop at! Good girl, no really. She is settling in really well with our family life.

I almost can't wait until school starts again so things can calm down here. All the mayhem is wearing me out. That and the fact that the weather is crap. We have 25 to camp this weekend and thank god the weather is predicted to be 'fine but cool'. I would love 'perfect and hot' but not raining is good enough for me.

It's the annual 'family camping' weekend that we have every year. The more families the better. We have all ages from pre-prep through stroppy teens to fit adults. Every family pitches a tent or two and also pitches in with food, wine and such. This years menu includes BBQ feta and Mediterranean veggies hot dip, salsa and chips, BBQ pork loins, garlic bread and lovely salads. And what ever else comes along in picnic baskets. There is usually an assortment of bubbly and some nice wines and cold beers. I think we might need schnapps in our coffees to go with our S'Mores though. It was chilly last night and will be again tonight.
I might have to wimp out and sleep in the house with the puppy.

Chickens are molting and I'm not sure if it's because it has been so wet or if they are just unhappy that I haven't given them enough attention. They are laying 3 big eggs a day though so something must be right.

Happy Bank Holiday xx

Puppies and chicks

2010-08-22T22:29:00.000+01:00

It's been a lovely and tiring week.
This morning I actually got to sleep in past 7am as the rooster was on puppy duty for the first time. Acadia is an early riser and I have been up at the first little squeak from her by 6am every morning since we collected her a week ago. She is such a cute little puppy and I haven't minded the early rising except for the jet lag that I was suffering from earlier in the week.

The chicks slept in all week and missed me wondering inside then outside then inside then outside again from 6-8am in my pajamas with a little puppy in tow. She is learning pretty quick about going outside and the two older dogs are teaching her about the ins and outs of the garden. They aren't too crazy about her yet but the more confident she gets, the more interested they get. I don't feel confident about leaving her unattended with them so basically I have gotten Nothing done this week unless she is sleeping or shut in her coop or with me in the car. ( I learned quick to keep newspapers on the floor wells for her accidents and puppy puke.)

I have only run for 2 1/2 hours total this week
I have not written a single word on my YA novel
I have only blogged once
I have only been to the supermarket once (chick, puppy sat)
I have mopped the whole kitchen floor three times
I have done a lot of cooking for the freezer
and I have fallen asleep on the sofa with her on me a couple of times

The puppy in the car is an interesting one. Rosalynn, my beautiful girl dog, loves the car but Hobbes, my older dog, hates it. I want Cadi to love the car too so we have to suffer a bit first. We have been all around the near by town and down to the V Festival to drop off V chicks and though she doesn't love it, she tolerates it.
Hopefully next week will be better for her. I have a trip to Watford for Hockey,
A trip up to a friends in Suffolk and Cadi will come for the day and various trips to cart the chicks round to tennis camp, and friends houses. She better love the car soon.

Rooster completed his second Triathalon this weekend. He loved it but has yet to ask me if he can do another one...yet.

The chicks are both at V Festival this weekend in Chelmsford. They keep texting in to say what they are seeing. They are loving it. I am not loving going to collect them at midnight to bring them home!

The things we do for our puppies and chicks.

On another note, I have some blogger 'friends' that have had and are having a tough time of it emotionally and physically. I feel for them and wish them well.

Back from New England

2010-08-17T21:00:00.000+01:00

Yah, we're back! Home is nice, crap weather and all.

So, I seemed to make a lot of work for myself this holiday but i do love Cape Cod and New England. I did everything backwards and we seemed to do so many different things that I am completely exhausted now that I am back.

I thought it would be a great idea to touch base with my dad in upstate Connecticut on his farm to start the holiday. I traveled over with just the chicks and the Rooster was meeting us in Cape Cod. It has been a long time since the chicks have been there and they couldn't really remember what it was like. 4 1/2 hours drive later, in the rain and jet lagged, we got there and in truth, had a lovely 3 days and the drive was only that long because of really bad traffic on the Mass Pike. So I would do that again. My dad raises Belted Galloway cows and the family are Big Meat eaters but he was very kind and didn't feed us a big meal when we arrived. We had that the next night, steaks the size of a Belties' head! We were very well looked after and didn't have to ask for anything. Comfy beds, a beautiful setting, great food and he planned something for us to do each day.

Kayaking on the river up there, berry picking, walks round the farm. It was lovely. My dad is only 71 but years of outdoor farming has taken it's tool and aged his limbs. He moves slower these days then a normal 70+ year old and I am now trying to convince him to start taking cod liver oil and the likes. We'll see. I'm really happy that we visited him at his place though.

The next stop was not so great. I love my brother and his family but they are un-organised and their life is a whirl wind of one not knowing what the other is doing. The children all get along well and I adore them but we didn't actually see them all as a family until they came up to the Cape a few days later. My brother bought the 'family' estate a few years back and has recently modernised the whole house. I was really interested to see what they had done. It looks fab and I am pleased for them. He works hard and deserves to have a lovely home to come home to. I was tired after I left there and looked forwards to a couple of days with just my chicks in the Cape before the family all came to me.

That happened sooner rather then later but it was all fun once we got to our house. We have two closets full of our own stuff that we immediately pull out to make us feel more at home. Our own sheets, towels, pillows, bikes, candles, stereo, toys, kayaks, you know, stuff. I don't sleep from jet lag and seem to toss and turn from about 2am the whole holiday. I look pretty grim by the time we get back to the UK but it has been that way for several years so why change now. The chicks adapt pretty quickly though and are much more fun. We usually see all my family at the end of our holiday but this year, because school got out so late, we changed things round a bit. They came first and then some friends from the UK came over after them for the rest of the holiday. My family all pitch in while they are with us which is great.

We eat really well and play hard while we are there.

This year we tried stand up paddle boarding.I think next year we might have to buy a board. It was really fun.

We had amazing stripper fishing and WHALES were a mile off shore.

Storms had changed the beach out at the Cut once again and the seals were a bit close for comfort, only because they are so loud and the fact that they draw in the Great White Sharks. Beaches were closed in Chatham several times because of the sharks too close to the beaches.
While out fishing, a large 9 foot blue shark head butted our boat but we were so engrossed in actually seeing the thing 2 feet a way from us that we didn't think of the danger! Then there were the whales. In all the years on the Cape, this is the first time that I have seen them without having to pay a fortune to a man driving a floating bus full of tourists out of Boston. The pod was so big that it actually interrupted our fishing!

While the family were still with us, Girl Chick mentioned that her teeth hurt. As this was not a normal, 'my throat hurts' or 'I have an ear ache', the good mother in me ignored it for the day and told her to stop chewing so much gum. With in four hours, she spiked a 105 fever and her neck swelled. Who am I kidding, she had no neck. It swelled up from her shoulders to her ears. Nice as this was Saturday and no doctors. Ice packs and Advil/Tylenol on off for two days. The diagnoses- ear infection and throat infection due to her bloody molars impacting.
She grew cysts on the two lower back tooth slots and then her mouth broke out in horrible soars and ulsers from the really strong 'Z' Pack anti-b's that we got from the hospital. Poor thing. Actually, while she was sick and couldn't go out and play, I actually had the most rest sitting around taking care of her!

Family left, and friends arrived and finally Chick Girl could come out and play. she couldn't eat and could only drink plain drinks through a straw but she was determined to be a trooper. More fishing, more WHALES, more food, more playing, more beach and sharks and seals, though that didn't keep us out of the water. We are die hards when it comes to cool New England waters and boogie boarded till dusk. It was all great.

By our last night together, we could all just about manage pizza on Nauset beach and a bit of shooting star watching before packing up and heading back to England.

Now the rest of the summer begins.
We picked up Acadia, our new puppy yesterday and the chicks start hockey this weekend and I will be carting them around for the next few days to friend's houses and V Festival and school shopping. And I still won't get any sleep now that Cadi is here. Oh well. I have the perfect opportunity to catch up with all you lot and check in with all the blogging news that I have missed out on!

CT state of mind

2010-07-28T12:07:00.000+01:00

I have started the holidays with family in Conneticut and though we have been kayaking on a river and swimming in various pools, I have yet to set a foot on lovely Cape Cod and stick my toe in shark infested waters. But that will happen tomorrow, without the sharks, we hope.

I have had 5 days with doing the catch up family thing and so far so good. And because life is too short, I am not going to blog complaints about any of them today. No pictures either, sorry as the ones I have taken so far are of Belted Galloway Cows and mishaps on the Housatonic River. That and as I am borrowing my sister in laws brand new ipad, I don't know how to load anything and everyone is still asleep. Jet lag is a bitch and I have been awake for hours and shattered by 9:30 every night.

Sister in law is visiting on the Cape next weekend so maybe she will bring this lovely little sleek toy and show me how to do cool stuff on it. Or my 8 year old niece will!

It's strange being back in the old home town. I haven't really spent any time here since I moved to England and married my English man more then 20 years ago. I went for a run around the 'old neighborhood' and the houses should seem smaller as one gets bigger but they are HUGE around here now. Greenwich, Ct is a very different place from my childhood. Still nice but , wow, I think there is an English Tudor house in the place where an old friend of mine once had a lovely farm house. I guess some change is good. It is really green here still, the Canadian Geese still honk and fly into the lake and mossis still bite your ankles under the picnic table.

I think though, my home is in England now. Greenwich is just where I started to grow up.

Right, off to the beach now.

Away with the fairies, I mean my holidays

2010-07-22T14:38:00.000+01:00

I am off with the Chicks and the Rooster to America on holiday. will try to amuse you all by posting from America with pictures, maybe. If not, I'll be back in three weeks time.

In the mean time, I am a holiday worrier.

I spend the week before hand nesting and cleaning and organising and plain worrying about going away. The day before I travel I live on ant-acids and IBS tablets.

I'm not a nervous flyer or anything, and I love to travel but it's just that leaving of my nice little life to go off and do it somewhere else, turns me upside down. The chicks think I am a bit insane before I travel. They are right.

I like to leave everything tidy so it's that way when I get home. That's what I like to think though it doesn't always happen that way. Sorry, was that 'control freak' that you said? 'Yes, you did say that out loud'.

I always feel sorry for our poor house sitter. I leave her a bit of light reading that I have painstakingly put together over the few days before we leave. This time I have left her a relatively short novel of 9 pages.
95% of which is how to take care of the animals while we are away. I'm hopeless.
She'll spoil them rotten and they won't even miss me!!

I will miss our garden as well. We have been having such a nice time in it even thought he grass is brown and it looks like the Fall as so many leaves have fallen from the trees. The river is warm though and the sun has been shinning. we have been using the BBQ most nights and have even used the out door shower. It does run hot and cold water and is very un-English and we love it. It has a huge purple clematis growing up the wall of it to hide us from passers by.

When we get to our first holiday destination and our second actually, I am hoping not to have to be cooking and cleaning like I will be when we get to our third destination. We are doing the family obligation trips first, great aunts and such. Then we will be on the beach in Cape Cod and that will be wonderful even if I am cooking and cleaning. Cooking lobster and fresh tuna on the grill and washing bathing suits and beach towels is my sort of holiday.

Then the day before we leave our holiday house, I will be the worrier again. I will have to start on the tablets and throw my organisational skills into high. We don't just pack up the suit cases there, we have to put all our own stuff that we keep there year round away, clean and dry.
The good sheets and towels.
The bikes.
The kayaks.
The favourite pots and pans.
The beach and holiday shoes, there are two baskets full.
The boogie boards.
The beach towels.
And the list goes on.

I love it but I drive myself mad and then collapse on the plane going home to my nice clean and organised house in England. Yah, sure.

Oh, I can hear one of the chicks cleaning her room, like Mother like daughter but she can't have any of my pills.
OMG, her suit case is huge!!!! How can bathing suits take up so much room???
More worries, I think I need a nice plane to collapse on.

Tag, I'm it-

2010-07-18T09:43:00.000+01:00

I've been tagged to put someone on the Naughty Step. Hot Cross Mum has kindly included me in her list of challengers and after careful consideration, I think I will choose Paris Hilton.
Drugs, really Paris? And at a World Cup game? Do you have any smarts? And then again a week later. It is not worth it. A very visible socialite, icon to many young impressionable teens and tweens, should not be found to be doing drugs of any kind.

Kudos to you, Paris for making another mistake in your charmed life. On the Step with you!

So, I will Tag a couple of fellow bloggers to see who they they would put on the Naughty Step.
'Cross the Pond
Brits n' Bobs
   Knackered Mother's Wine Club
     Tattie Weasle
     Writes in the City

Happy or amused?

2010-07-17T09:26:00.000+01:00

Our puppy will be with us after we get back from holiday. She is growing quickly and we have been lucky enough to get to visit her growing process, once a week as she is only 45 minutes away. It is a high light of my week, and it makes me really Happy to walk in to their run and have 6 wiggly, soft, sharp toothed fur balls great me. They love human company and and I've been told that it's good to socialize them. Having something give you un-conditional licks and trust, is such a lovely feeling.

On a similar happy feeling, I have been taking my favourite girl, Rosalynn out for cross country runs with me. She's a dog. She can be a wonderer through the fields normally. But lately, with the runs, she is so fired up, she waits for me and encourages me to keep up. She's great company out there.

Sometimes it's hard to be happy. It seems to be a feeling that just flickers thru our day and that we actually have to work at it sometimes.
Content, and the odd smile, follows me around most of the day but actually happy, I have to work at a bit.

I am easily amused and I have blogged this before. I sometimes blur the two, I think. I'd like to think I am a happy person and that my family is a happy family and that we are not just playing at it. But actually, it is work to make it so.

Shouldn't happiness come naturally to us and not make us work for it? Should we settle for being content and a smile when we could be happy? Would people think we were on drugs and want some of what we're having?

Things that made me Happy this week:

My dogs, even when they chased the cats and ate the chicken curry off the counter when my back was turned.

My children smiling at me with actual love in their eyes. It does happen sometimes.

Opening the letter box and finding a hand written letter to me and not only bills.

Flipping through old family photos.

Visiting our new pup.

A successful run without passing out in a field somewhere.

Calling my Dad on his birthday, or remembering to.

Picking up my son from a party at midnight and finding him stone cold sober, as I new he would be because I had asked him to please not drink. I was really happy then :)

And a couple of other little snippits.

How about you?

Teenagers from Hell

2010-07-12T11:33:00.000+01:00

Up until Saturday at 5 pm, I was having such a nice weekend. Beautiful weather, good company and a lovely going away party/BBQ kept me in high spirits and not thinking about the imminent sweet 16 party my son was about to have from 6pm that evening.

Girls and boys, frolicking and camping in our lovely field ( girls where being driven to a different sleeping location by yours truly two miles away for the night) till midnight.
That was just about fine, I could just about handle that.

What I could not handle was the group of thug teens from our village and the next door one over,that strolled down our road at 5pm with towels around their necks and foul running commentaries spewing from their mouths as they passed our driveway. They where not the invited group or friends with my son. Of course I was in the driveway at the time having just returned from the BBQ and dressed in a lovely little floaty summer dress, all done up hair, face and shoes. I new exactly where these teens where headed and kindly told them to NOT cross our property to the river and to stay off our private land.

(View from our house to the pond,river and our fields beyond)

That went down like a lead balloon. Rooster was also home and shouted at the group to stay clear of our property. They laughed at us. They pissed me off but Rooster said to just let them have 1/2 hour then they would hopefully leave. If not, then he would sort it.

My sons friends all arrived, a lovely little group, 10 girls, 7 boys all dressed for splashing and frolicking down in our field. Well, I walked down with a tray of food only to find the horrible chavs all over our field and in our river and they had multiplied! 8 became about 14, mostly guys and they were scaring our girls and hounding our boys. Rooster and I had had enough and stormed over to kick them off once and for all.

Then it got ugly. Words were said, threats were made and Rooster stormed off to call the police. But I have a big mouth and the chavs started to threaten my children. I instantly became mother to 10 girls and 6 boys as well as my own 14 year old daughter and 16 year old son. I was in Mother Protecting Her Babies mode. One of the chavs actually said he would come back and burn down my sons tent later that night if I didn't shut up and leave them alone, ON MY PROPERTY.

I was pissed and still in my party dress, and told them they were trespassing, rude, disrespectful, breaking the law, and stupid for thinking that I wouldn't do everything in my power to get them to leave. Then it got interesting. The gang has a girl for a leader and when I faced her off and said I hope she had children some day then she would know what it was like to want to protect them, she said she was going into the army so she could drink and party at the governments expense and 'aint no having any sodden brats' Pretty mouth.

Her mates bike was on the ground at my feet and I had to step over it to get right in her face. I picked the bike up and handed it to my son and told him to take it home as it was now ours as we found it on our property. Pretty Mouth went nuts. F...ing this and that and called me more names then I care to say though they went in one ear and out the other.

At this stage, son did come back riding the bike around in circles and all his friends, My new children, joined him but I was a bit unaware of this as Pretty Mouth then threatened me with physical violence. 'If you don't give that back, I'll f...ing punch your face in' sort of thing. Well, I surprised myself a bit and stepped right up to her, she was taller too, bitch, and told her to try it. If she touched me, I would take her down so fast her head would spin, and it would hurt. She actually stepped back.

Then I screamed in her face, "Just F...ing Get Off My Property!" and turned and pointed at our gate and saw son, daughter and all the friends standing right behind me with shock and awh expressions on their little faces. I had been in this kind of tunnel when I was facing Pretty Mouth and completely unaware of all the others around us. It was very strange. I guess it was adrenalin because after that, they did, go, slowly, but I was shaking and I was SO Angry.

My son walked me back to our house so I could ask Rooster when police where coming. He never called them. He was watering the garden and didn't know about the confrontation or the threat to the tent, which was repeated twice more time by one of the chavs. Then he said I should definitely call them. At that stage, the thugs were then headed back up the hill away from our property and I did call the police and asked them to advise me on how to handle the situation. Our property was put on 'high alert' for 24 hours if a 999 call was made from our address.

That didn't stop me shaking or worrying for the next 20 hours. Eventually the shaking stopped but that was because I now saw sweet 16 and his friends having a really nice time and brushing the crazy mother mad moment away. They swam and ate and sat around the fire pit, wrapped in sweatshirts, talking and laughing and being really nice, gracious, good teenagers. I was so pleased with them all. Girls were driven home at midnight and I think by 2am I fell asleep exhausted for a couple of hours, wondering if Unwanted visitors would be lighting anything on fire. At 4am all was still well and Rooster did the 6am look out.

It was all exhausting and I couldn't even have a drink all night as I had to drive girls home!

I am still angry Monday morning but now I am wondering if I am angry at myself for completely loosing my cool in front of the good teenagers. My son and daughter and their guests did say I was really brave and a total bad ass for standing up to Pretty Mouth and that nobody does and she deserved it. I am now the coolest Mom. I see them all, sitting round, wasting their time doing nothing and bothering locals.

Why are there children out there who are so naughty.

My car will probably get keyed and the windows at the house broken but I would do it again. I would protect what is mine (even the children who weren't). But how far should one go???

Bliss and Wonder of Blogging

2010-07-07T12:16:00.000+01:00

The rest of my family were all out last night and I was left in peace for two whole hours to ponder and peruse the blog-isphere. I popped by a couple of favourites and from theirs, I looked into a couple of their favourites and so on.

It was like a Chinese Finger, my fingers were stuck to the key-board and new blogs kept pulling and pulling. Moms with babies, moms with toddlers, moms up North and by the sea, designer moms, writing moms, moms that make cupcakes and arts and crafts, cooking moms, working moms, insightful and boring moms, moms that only advertise stuff and moms that love Vintage, shoes and cosmetics, moms that are building houses or remodeling houses, moms that love the beach and everything beachy and then there were the moms who just liked to show them selves off with big white smiles, large breasts and tiny waists prancing around in pictures,their sometimes not so nice homes-
'Aren't my boobs, I mean pillows, gorgeous on this vintage,beach themed sofa?'

I didn't like everything that I found on my blogging mission but I did come by a few that are keepers and I'll watch them for a while to see how things go.

I also popped by my chicks new blog.

I suggested to her that maybe facebook was getting too commercial for her and that a blog might be a good creative out-let for her. She could have a pseudo name and build on a style that suited her. She could have it as something just her own without her many friends coming by and tapping in.

She liked this idea and uses it as a style/diary of her teenage life. It's working for her too. She has 15 followers already in just 3 weeks and gets loads of positive comments on her fashion photographs and personal wordings and thoughts. She's really enjoying it all.

There are few pressures in the blogging world for her and teenagers need as little pressure as possible. There is already enough out there to push them over the edge into eating disorders, knife crime, bullying or whatever.

As for my boy, he's just happy in his own little world with our soon to be puppy, Acadia or Cadi for short.

(Acadia is the original name for Nova Scotia and the dog breed are Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.) She is nearly four weeks old now and as fat as she is long!

The Gallery

2010-07-05T21:35:00.000+01:00

The Gallery this week is holidays.

I have had the best ones with family on the beaches of Cape Cod. Can you tell??

Sweet Music

2010-06-29T22:49:00.000+01:00

I'm reading a really lovely book by Kazuo Ishiguro called Nocturnes- Five Stories of Music and Nightfall.
The first story takes place in Venice, San Marco Square. A simple musician meets a famous singer and they embark on a romantic serenade for the singers wife.

Many years ago, my rooster and I were lucky enough to be invited to Venice by my aunt and uncle. They had been many times before and wanted to share the city with us. The holiday was on them and they travel first class. They were much older at the time but lovely company. We saw the city through their eyes, galleries hidden away down narrow streets, restaurants on little islands and the music and coffees in San Marco Square. It was magical.

On our last night, we were having coffee in the famous square when we noticed that all the musicians from the four corners were playing the same song. Frank Sinatra had passed away and they were all playing New York New York.

My aunt was very upset by the news but was comforted by my uncle when he took her hand and stepped out into the middle of the square and started to dance with her. Nobody else was dancing because when the music began to play, it began to drizzle, a soft cold rain, and most people took cover under the coloured umbrellas. They danced out there as if it was a beautiful night filled with stars. People clapped for them when the song ended.

It was sad and beautiful at the same time.

My uncle died a few years later and though we had other holidays with them, that was the most special.

When I read the first story in Ishiguro's book, sweet memories came rushing back. I was in San Marco Square all over again.

The Nerve!

2010-06-28T10:46:00.000+01:00

My chick informed me yesterday morning at 7:30am (she was up only because she had to go to hockey camp for the day) that the house was looking a bit messy. Okay, so I blew off the Friday sweep to help out a friend who is moving. Well, the big Chestnut out our back door is doing the change over from stickies to small hard spiky things that give you splinters and stick to the dogs tails and get deposited all over house. You can see for yourself- It's a big tree!

So now I have left over stickies and spiky things to suck up in the vacuum cleaner. They sound like marbles going in and then clatter about for a bit until they settle in the dog hair and other dust accumulated in the 'can see all' cylinder. Really I would rather not see what the machine is sucking up as I just saw it all over the floor. Just like I would rather not see a child's dinner all over the carpet at One in the morning.

The other problem with this time of year is that our back door is always open and the dogs come and go from garden to house a billion times a day. If I leave them out, they bark to come in and vise versa, so I leave the door open. It's the country, why not.
The country is great and the dogs are great. Did you know that baby snakes can stick to a fluffy dogs fur and when the dog comes in and rolls around the kitchen floor, baby snake will freak out-yes I just typed that- and slither away under closest appliance.
Baby snake was eventually trapped in an odd plastic container and released into the wilds of Essex. I now have more grey hair but didn't blame the dogs.

I did clean as soon as she left for two hours, in my pajamas, but just the ground floor. Don't OMG, it wasn't that dirty really but I also had a good clear out of the cleaning/ medicine/dog cupboard. We had Calpol and flee collars so out dated that they both had changed to the same colour.
Then I hit the 'plastic container' drawer. It now closes and the recycling box is full of odd tops and bottoms.
Then of course baby snake clear up took a bit of time.
Then the pantry got a once over.

After all that, I sat out side in the sun with little spiky balls falling around me, and started my book club book for next week.

A Very satisfying Sunday morning really.

How was yours?

Hassels of a multi home owner!

2010-06-24T20:45:00.000+01:00

I own a home in Cape Cod (in case any one wants a lovely rental near fresh and salt water that sleeps 8) and rent it out in the summer months. We, as a family spend about 2 1/2 weeks there if we are lucky , with family and friends.

Sounds idyllic right? Well on a good day it is. The days when I am here in England and not thinking about the house, are great. Then there are the days when I am forced to not only think about it but do something about it too! Up keep is a bitch on one house let alone another one across the pond.

The phone doesn't work, the gas grill is broken and you need to buy a new one quick, the outside lights are pointing towards Mars and not at the driveway.

I pay a man a lot of money to keep the house ticking over because from 3,500 miles away, it is a bit hard for me to just pop over and move a bloody light let alone buy a gas grill, have it assembled and gas tank filled and the whole lot delivered by tomorrow!

Few, that felt good. You can't tell but I just banged very hard on every key on the key board and now feel better. I can't say the same about the key board.

Thank god for the Internet, which is being a bit temperamental today anyway due to the sun shinning apparently, because I was able to fix the stupid phone line and buy a Weber and align the stars between here and Mars. Well we all know that 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Spring in the Cape and Summer at Nausett Beach

Sea Creatures for The Gallery

2010-06-21T16:17:00.001+01:00

This weeks Gallery theme is Creatures. Visit link below for some fun pictures.

I'm not sure if the cooked red kind are what Sticky Fingers had in mind so I' put in a proper sea creature too.

My Hero, but it will cost me.

2010-06-20T18:26:00.000+01:00

I had an early start this morning as my Rooster had his very first Triathlon and left the house at Six this morning, which is early for most people around here on a Sunday (except maybe farmers). I sent him off with a big bowl of porridge in his belly and promised we would see him at the start line.

We did and after a quick swim, he got off on his bike and Didn't Fall Off. I was very proud. The running part was an uphill start, literally, but twenty something minutes later, he was crossing the finish line.

He was in great spirits afterwards and I have decided to let him do another one.
What a great thing to do on Father's Day.

The rest of the week has run pretty smoothly too. GCSE's are nearly finished and my little chick has finished her end of year exams and has managed to pick up the Art Award for her year.
It tends to be a bit of an expensive time of year, this end of school time. The Rooster and I have resorted to financial bribery intern for good grades. What ever works right?

Well, the art prize and the 5th highest in Geography for her year and the 98% in French are going to bankrupt me. We had a little chat earlier today and I offered to take her shopping next weekend for a new pair of summer shoes. I know she saw some in a mag that she really liked. I hoped that might be payment enough. I am so naive.
"I'd love a new pair of shoes, thanks. Oh, and I still want Cash for the grades."

I'm out twice. I should really learn to word my words more carefully.

The boy won't wear the shoes he has unless they are astros so at least I'm safe there. And I don't dish out the cash until results day in August so I have time to save up now.

My lovely chickens are having a wonderful time lately. It's so dry that they are constantly covered in dust from rolling around in the dirt. It's really funny to actually watch a chicken try to roll over. They twist their little heads around like in the Exorcist and wings invert then they are right back to where they started. I'm not sure they really roll but they sure do try.

Now if all four girls would kindly lay me four eggs, that would be nice...

Birthday Boy

2010-06-17T10:11:00.000+01:00

There was a time, 16 years ago today or last night at 2:20 am, when he was a tiny little baby.

6 weeks early, upside down and backwards, one broken rib(me), and major blood loss, but in no time, we were both just fine.

Now it's GCSE's and playing hockey at county level and 6'2 and charming. I could go on. I adore my boy, even when he drives me crazy.

Happy Birthday my little chick!

The Gallery

2010-06-13T19:56:00.000+01:00

The Gallery: Week 15

the theme is simply: Motherhood.

Misty, Monkey and pups.

Enough said. x

Uk 1-USA 1 - Pudding, WInner!

2010-06-13T19:33:00.000+01:00

We hung the flags, divided the dinner guests and demolished the pudding.

Olympics and world cup games seem to be the divider in this family. The Rooster really does think that I care who wins and so as not to break his bleeding heart, I pretend to be incredibly passionate about all games American v England.

So last night with every TV in our house on for surround sound effect, both teams scored and drew. Not a pretty out come. Our dinner guests were very good not to talk too much football, thinking that I might be upset by it all.

I couldn't have cared less really. I just wanted to bring out the pudding!

This morning I was just about to take down the American flag from the front porch and Rooster was horrified, so I pretended that I was just moving it over. I said that the mail man might find it in the way in the morning while trying to get to the mail box. I did ask him why I shouldn't take it down,( just curios), and he said that America was still in the running! Of course they were, what was I thinking.

I must have had too much wine last night.

On a completely different note, we went to visit and pick out our new puppy yesterday morning.

She is the cutest Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever ever (except for the two that we already have).
Two weeks old and already she can 'sleep' on command. How smart is that!