September?

Well, I hadn't anticipated taking quite such a prolonged blog-break but after my last post our summer got much busier than expected.

We've had visitors, lots of visitors. The children were whisked away to London by dear friends of ours and I was lucky enough to have a whole day all to myself.

Naturally, I ignored the housework in favour of sewing, crochet and doing more sketchbook work. 

 Minx caught the arty bug and spent many happy hours sketching - talking non-stop the entire time, of course.

In fact, that girl of mine talked non-stop for the whole five and a half weeks!

She even managed to squeeze in plenty of bickering, arguing and niggling with her beloved brother.

She went back to school yesterday, and headed straight off on a whole week residential trip.

It's very quiet here this week!

Despite the noise, she did redeem herself with the odd bit of baking.

It seems I'm all but redundant when it comes to fairy cakes these days, being required only for oven lighting and the fetching and carrying of ingredients :o)

She can do a mean chocolate brownie too, and her ginger biscuits were a resounding success. I've come to realise this girl of mine is at her happiest (but not quietest) when she's busy doing - preferably busy doing with me by her side, lending an ear to the continuous stream of chat that she emits.

We both got rather heavily into making bracelets a couple of weeks ago. This cute daisy bracelet is from a very old beading book that's been gathering dust for rather too long.

It took about an hour, with Minx chit-chatting next to me....

....are you noticing a bit of a theme to my summer?

During my one and only day of silence this summer, I managed to finish off a bag that I'd been crocheting. I was hoping it would be mine but the mother in me ended up giving it to Minx, to make up for her having a poorly day the week before - she  must have been ill that day as she was quiet for about three hours!


She loves her new bag.


Hasn't used it once.


If it had been mine I'd have almost worn it out by now!

The penultimate week of our summer break saw us spending a very relaxing, and surprisingly dry, day on the beach with my lovely friend Trashy, while various children and dogs kept themselves entertained :o)



Old black dog, exhausted by the silly puppies.



So, before you know it, September is here. Another lovely summer has been and gone. There's the chill of Autumn in the air and it's back to work for me and back to school for them, although for my boy it's no longer junior school but the big and scary world of secondary education. Yup, my baby started secondary school today. I watched him go into school with his shiny new uniform, looking far too grown up and wandered back home with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

Now, if you would kindly excuse me, I must go and throw the computer through the window - blurry Blogger has gone all 'new and improved' while I've been away and I can't get my words or photos where I want them....grrrr!!!

Happy blogging!

xxx

From sand castles to snowmen

This is a very very quick post. I just wanted to show you what we were doing on the same weekend last year - click here and then scroll down a bit.....

....and today?

Staying indoors making a big casserole 'cos it's ffffrrreeeezzzzing!!!!!!!!!

More snow on the way - maybe we can make another one of these

....except the next one will not have an edible nose - did you hear that, Moog?

xxx

...and a Happy New Year!!

It's so good to be back!

I haven't been near an email or an internet since Christmas eve.

We had my Dad here for a few days over Christmas and although it was very lovely to have him here it was also very hard work. These days he needs help bathing, dressing and getting up and down stairs - it's been a learning curve for me! He did go home happy and relaxed though :-)

Today, we decided to recharge our batteries with a visit to one of our favourite beaches.

We made our first footprints of the year in the sand....



....dodged a few waves....



....and wished we had one of these.


Hengistbury Head has the best beach huts. Many of them have a sleeping loft, with water, electricity and a chemical loo.....and some great views.

The beach cafe also has a lot to commend it....

Apart from today, my camera has not been out once over Christmas. Not even for the opening of presents!

After a total blog break, I'm feeling recharged and am looking forward to 2009.

I love New Year for the anticipation of what the year ahead may bring. Whether this be good things or not we have yet to see.

With so much gloom around in the media right now it is harder than ever to remain positive but who knows what great experiences are just waiting out there for us over the next twelve months?

I intend to make the most of every minute. I'm not making resolutions. There are things I want to do and, hopefully, I will do them.

After a great year getting to know all you lovely bloggers even better, I'm looking forward to more of the same.

I'm looking forward to another year of exploring all things crafty.

I'm looking forward to a whole year of sock knitting - I'm on my fifth pair! (after spending most of last year belly-aching about how I couldn't knit socks!!!).

What are you looking forward to?

To start the New Year off on a good note, I have a prize to award. You all came up with some great suggestions for a name for Mr P0045.
It took quite a bit of choosing. I was very taken with Totty Teabag's suggestion but in the end the prize just had to go to Leanne.

In the truest spirit of obsessive blogging, Leanne googled 'Gloria &'

Just look at what she found - here.

Faced with such a superb piece of research I felt I just had to go with it and name Mr P0045 after the lovely newlywed chap on the website.

So there you have it - Mr P0045 will henceforth be known as Marcel. Only time will tell whether the woolly Gloria and Marcel will have as exciting a year in 2009 as their interwebs namesakes did in 2008.....

......who knows, maybe there'll even be a wedding of the feathered variety!

Well done Leanne, on a fabulous bit of work. At some point soon I will get something on it's way down under as a reward :-)

I'm now off to read 126 blog posts that I've missed but before I go.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

XXXXXX

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside.....

Good evening bloggers and here is the news.


Photo from here.

I am sad to report that the superb 'Birdman of Bognor' event that was to be held in Worthing today was cancelled.

Doomed from the start it seems. First off, someone broke the pier at Bognor causing this spectacularly British event to be moved to neighbouring Worthing.

Then the fabulous British summer weather took it's toll.

After the rescue boats capsized three times the powers that be called a halt to the 2008 event. (Huh - softies!!!).

Some nutters still ventured out in the atrocious inclement conditions.

That'd be us then...





Good job we were able to enjoy good food, good chat and fine company with our dear friends! We've asked them to make sure the weather is booked well in advance for the 2009 event!

In other news, the blackbirds in Moogsvile were rewarded for all their hard work this week when one (is that all???) healthy, fluffsome chick fledged successfully.

There may have been others but they/it flew the nest very early in the morning thus robbing us 'guardians of the nest' of the joy of witnessing the event.


Chicky news - 2 eggs today, thank you for asking :)

Off now to get some sleep in readiness for another week of doings in Moog's house.

xxxxxxx

Sporadic...moi?

Before I start wittering on (and on and...) I'm pleased to report that Ruby is back from her 'World Tour', in fine fettle - albeit a little tired. No photos of her to prove it I'm afraid - as I'm being crubbish with the camera! (We truly appreciate all your fabulous comments but Ruby and I are being far too pants to reply to them - sorry :( )

I'm a wee bit scared about where on this Earth the time is going!

Tomorrow starts week four in my new job. (Not sure where 1,2 and 3 have gone!!).

Blogging has become ad hoc to say the very least! Reading everyone else's blogs has become even more hit and miss and as for actually doing or making anything creative - forget it buster - creative drought going on here in Moogsville!!

Things sort of got to me a bit this weekend (didn't they Locket?!!!). We had the in-laws down and I may not have been the most gracious of hostesses....

......mainly 'cos I'm utterly knackered and would rather blog/craft/eat my own feet than entertain anyone at the weekends right now....not that much entertaining went on!!!!

Lucky for them that they had to be elsewhere today and Moogsdad took charge and decided we needed a fambley day out at the beach :)

So, after unceremoniously shoving his parents out of the door and me and the little beasties into the car, he drove us to Hengistbury Head near Bournemouth (via Waitrose for posh and bizarrely healthy picnic nosh).

There are times - very rarely of course - when the man himself is right.

A day on the beach with the little bubbs was just what I needed.

The Moog of course was a bloody idiot as usual. Desperate to go in the sea. Too scared to go in with Moogsdad as she couldn't understand where his legs had gone and too much of a girl's blouse to go in on her own.

Eventually she got in there and cooled down so much she was shivering - idiot!




Moog, in case you didn't know, is our lovely old border collie - 13 this year!! - thinks she's a puppy but is actually a cantankerous old b*tch.

She's unaware of her canine genes and thinks she's a hoooman just like us - only a much more grumpy one where other dogs are concerned.

Having said that, she was quite the lady on the beach today. Not the barking, pooing, spraying everyone with sand, following their owner into the ladies' toilets (yup, this happened - big black dog joined the queue with his mistress and even sniffed under the door while she wee'd!!!!!! - while the others in the queue went 'awwww, how sweet!! [WTF!!!!!!])) sort of dog that we witnessed at Hengistbury today.

Told you I'd witter didn't I?

Ha!

Tough - I'm catching up here!!!

So, we had a loverley day on the beach and have all come back feeling relaxed and refreshed.

In other news......

.....I've been spending my wages......


....on these for Moogsdad:


...and this for me:


So......you can expect lots of chickeny, greeny stuff from here on in!



You have been warned :)


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Filling up on Vitamin D

After months of rain and grey chilly days it has been such a treat to have a whole weekend of dry, sunny and unseasonably warm weather.

Saturday saw us all pottering about. Moogsdad was on a major clear up operation as once the scaffolding came down we realised we could no longer ignore the piles of leaves and debris that seem to have accumulated over the winter.

I mowed the lawn!!!

In February!!!!

The world has truly gone mad!!!

It seems to be springtime in the garden. These little Tete a Tete daffodils are my favourites.


I also did the cutting back and tidying up that should have been done in the autumn.

The children pottered and bounced on the trampoline. Wherever Monster went, George was never far behind :)

First they played superheroes.


George sunned himself while the children played football.

The fresh air and exercise meant that George was ready for an early night so Monster made him a bed.

I also found time for a bit of crochet. I hadn't done any for nearly a week but this pattern grows pretty fast so I caught up a bit.

Sunday dawned bright and chilly. By mid-morning it was warming up so we headed off for a walk somewhere. We had no idea where we were going.

Moogsdad suggested we go to Hengistbury Head near Bournemouth. Hengistbury is a beautiful National Nature Reserve with fantastic wildlife habitats.

Our plan was to walk through the reserve to the beach huts at the far side of the head overlooking Christchurch Bay. I was planning on taking lots of beach hut photos.

This plan changed somewhat when we decided to go across to the beach first. Four hours later we were still there!!

It was so warm down on the sand - far too warm for February in fact!

As we were totally unprepared for a day on the beach the children were very sensible and kept their shoes and socks on totally ignored my pleas to stay dry and eventually removed all their layers until they were in knickers and short sleeved t-shirts !!!

They had a great time playing dodge the waves or rather not-dodge the waves!!

Monster decided to practise long-jump :)

But then landed thud on his bottom and completely winded himself :(

Here he is sulking because his horrible mother was laughing so hard at him - oops!!

Minx ditched these and they were laid out to dry - how scary is this, they actually dried completely in less than an hour......in a British 'winter'!!!!!

Moog was with us and spent four hours tiptoeing along the shoreline willing us to find a stick for her to catch.

Although I've had to come home to a messy house it was worth it. We all feel more alive than we have all winter. Our cheeks are rosy and we feel relaxed and refreshed.

I will never cease to appreciate and enjoy the fact that we live within easy reach of such beautiful beaches. I always used to phone Mum any time we went to the beach so I could share it with her. (That's why I texted you Lucy - being, as you are, my surrogate Mum!!!!).

We never did get our walk but I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight :)

xxxx