Allotment news

So what is happening on your allotment/ gardens this month?

I don't have a lot happening on mine I have had a poor year crop wise, I am determined to do better next year.

I am still picking cooking apples off the tree, the pears are very poor this year, I don't seem to have many at all. The pumpkins are growing well;

Just waiting for them to change colour now

We spent a lovely couple of hours at the allotment where we have made great progress. We weeded the cabbage plot, dismantled the pea/bean frame. Stephanie has taken over a part of that bed as she wants a flower garden, she planted some spring bulbs there today. I had a general tidy up under the fruit trees.

 

I need to find out about pruning the fruit trees this autumn as they are in desperate need, but I have no idea where to start- perhaps a trip to the library for a book may be a good starting point...

where have you been?

I have been extra busy these past few weeks, I have lodgers staying with us and they don't show any sign of moving on for a while yet. I am also struggling to get back into the work routine. I know know it has been 5 weeks of this term already but I don't feel like I have got the routine going yet, possibly not helped by the lodgers being here.

I did finally finish Stephanie's school cardigan I was knitting. I am now trying to get the crochet blanket of my Mum's finished ready to go into my room when I get it back!

We have celebrated Dylan's 14th birthday- time goes far too quickly. It doesn't seem that long since he was a cheeky little toddler.

The birthday boy chose his treat to be a family trip to Mcdonalds- he had nan and grandad there, 2 aunts and 4 cousins as well as me and Stephanie.

The cake felt very hot this year with all those candles!

 

We went to Bodiam castle today; me, Stephanie my sister and nephew. Stephanie's choice of day out as Dylan is with his Dad this weekend.

Exploring the castle

 

We had lots of fun jumping off of various surfaces; a new phone means much better pics and lots of fun testing out what it can do

We all had a go at rolling down the big hills too

 

 

I am hoping to get myself organised- hopefully you will see a bit more of normal service resuming soon!

Paralympics

I seem to have been incredibly busy the past few weeks. Being September I gone back to work, the children have been back at school. On top of this we have had family stuff happening which I can;t discuss here, we are all OK just added stress.

We went out the other weekend for the day just Dylan Stephanie and myself. It was a fantastic day, we went to the ExCel to watch the Wheelchair fencing finals. We got the train there, as we walked along the river front to the ExCel we watched people water skiing, the children asked for a go but it was too expensive for me to do. They did have a go at walking on water on the river;

 

We then had lunch by the river before carrying on our walk to the venue. When we got there the games makers were fantastic, they were singing into their walkie talkies to cheer people as they prepared to queue. One was sat on what looked like a lifeguards chair, the lady was giving directions to people as they came in and let Stephanie speak over the microphone. Which was a fantastic start to the games for us.

We also found when we got there that we were able to go into events other than the one that we had paid for as long as there were seats available at no extra cost. As a result we got to watch the fencing stages, and the Boccia finals in which Great Britain got a silver, it was so exciting and amazing to see the award ceremony. It was so exciting even Dylan forgot his teenage nonchalance and started shouting and cheering!

 

 

Flag raising. Such a proud moment.

 

 

I am so pleased we were able to go and be part of history. My children loved it, I loved it. Such an amazing day and the game makers really did help to make it so special

 

 

There they are singing and dancing as we left the events, still smiling and amazingly cheerful.

 

What an amazing day, it will be remembered for years to come.

 

 

London

We usually visit London a lot especially during the summer holidays, this year however I haven't been as I thought with the Olympics on it would be very busy. I agreed to going between the Olympics and Paralympics however life happens and so we didn't get there until today when we picked up our tickets for the event we are watching. On the way to the central London ticket office we saw Downing Street, The Horse Guards, Houses of Parliament and a view of the London Eye which ticked several boxes of one of the group we were with.

We then had a surprise as whilst in the queue for tickets I was told that the Paralympic flame was passing by anytime! So we found the route, with a little help from a policeman on where best to stand for our little people to be able to see. Lots of excitement and cheering as the flame passed.

We then went to the Science museum another request from the children in the group where we looked at space rockets, and learnt about different materials.

Us grown ups are now very tired after a feet aching and frugal day- we walked the almost 2 miles to the train station and back as there were too many of us to go in the car as we usually would. So we saved the cost of fuel which google estimate to be 50p, plus saved the parking which is £2.50 for the day. We got the train to London using my railcard which saved us a whopping £36.55! We took lunch with us using what we already had in the house so in all we saved £39.55 with our day out so we bought fish and chips in the way home as a treat spending costing £18.50. So even taking this into account we saved £21.05 on our day out.

Torch bearer

The lovely policeman who spoke to the children asking about their day, if they were having fun etc.

 

It wasn't as busy as I had expected until the train on the way home, however that is because we get the high speed train back home, which goes through Stratford where the Olympic park is so it was very full of commuters and supporters. Everyone seemed happy even though many of us stood for the majority of the journey. 2 very kind gentlemen stood up so that the younger members of our group could sit down. Other passengers chatted happily to all of the children making what could have been a difficult journey rather pleasant. 

holiday pictures

 

 

I've been playing with an online app to make this collage of some of my favourite holiday pictures from our recent break. I can't work out how to make them clearer on here but if you are interested the original link is here

My clever girl

Warning I was originally going to post today about our fabulous recent holiday, but then Stephanie did something amazing today I'm so proud of her I am going to write  a boastful proud Mummy post for you all instead.

 

I have been trying to get Stephanie to let me teach her something for almost a year, she was too nervous to let me. At the beginning of the summer holiday she finally agreed (with a spot of bribery!). We tried once before we went away she tried hard but was very nervous. Then today we went out just the 2 of us and look what she managed to do;

 

Would you believe it was only her second try with no stabilisers and look at her go. Sorry that the video is on the side, I don't know how to turn it.

She now can't wait until " when I can do it without wobbling Mum then we can go out with Dylan on all our bikes can't we"

a cleaning kind of a week

This week has been all about clearing the mess!

I began by clearing out Stephanie's room whilst she is at her Dad's that took me Sunday and Tuesday to do. Then I moved on to my room where a lot of unwanted items seem to have collected. I have sorted through these and my room has taken an hour or so yesterday afternoon and an hour today, I still have a little to do but it won't take long it's just dusting etc left now. That will just leave the kitchen to be sorted properly. I am trying to get it all done before we go away next week. When we get back I will be posting a lot of the unwanted items on line for sale. Any money made from this will go towards our next holiday.

I saw a post on Sunday about cleaning your vacuum cleaner and realised that I have not cleaned mine in the 2 and a half years that I have owned it. I gave mine a wash last night after I had hoovered the bedrooms.

This is the gross-ness I removed from the brush bar/ behind the brush bar.

This is the washing water after I washed all the removable parts. YUCK!

All clean and drying out.

This evening after everything had dried I put my cleaner back together and re-hoovered the bedrooms I can not believe the difference in the suck of the vacuum! Also slightly grossed out by what came off of the carpets today when you consider I hoovered them 24 hours before, we have no pets and we do not have food upstairs yet there was a lot of mess in the hoover after I finished today.

So when I saw Froog's cleaned her washing machine today I thought it seemed fitting that I should clean mine, now I have cleaned this more than I cleaned the hoover it does get done every so often. It wasn't looking too dirty so that's good. I forgot to take pictures but that's 2 appliances clean now, I wonder what will be tomorrow...