A perfick night for eating outside

We've managed a few picnics this year, one to two ended up in the car because its been too cold and windy outside, but tonight for the first time this year we ate outside, it was a little chilly but there is nothing nicer than eating outdoors. The children rarely eat at the table child 2 and 3 tend to squish together on the little trampoline or they drag out the picnic blanket and sprawl over it. Then the minute they've scoffed their dinner down they are swinging on the swing or bouncing on the trampoline (no-ones been sick yet).

Eating outside in the garden always reminds me of The Darling Buds of May a favourite TV series of mine that ran between 1991& 1993. (Based on a book written by H E Bates in 1958). The old kitchen table dragged under what could have been an old apple tree laden with food that Ma Larkin created to be shared by her family and friends is the ultimate in outdoor entertaining.

Our garden unfortunately is on a slope so we have to emulate the Larkins with an old hand me down plastic picnic table with plastic chairs - its amazing what some pink floral oil cloth and jam jars filled with night lights can do us to emulate the Larkins so for now the old plastic picnic table and 4 chairs will have to do.

Our Rainbow Valley

Just around the corner we have our very own Secret Garden, the entrance is secured by two huge, black, old fashioned, wrought iron gates and the whole garden is surrounded by a high stone wall, probably six foot in height. As you enter through the gates there are two gravelly paths leading one to the left and one to the right and in front through an overhang of trees and bushes is an expanse of green hemmed in by tree lined inclines making it look like a valley. At this time of year the trees that dot about through the green are covered in pink, red and white blossoms the fallen petals surrounding their bases like confetti and the green is edged with wild garlic their little white flower heads bobbing a welcome in the breeze. The children absolutely love this place, here they can run off, play football, make hideouts or explore the slopes hiding themselves in the greenery. They make slides on the muddy slopes, climbing up using the tree roots for handholds so they can slide back down to the narrow ditches that lead the water that comes down off the hilly farm land out onto the A road that runs outside this magical haven.

As a girl I read the Anne of Green Gables series, Anne of Green Gables and the 7th book in the series Rainbow Valley  evoke a perfect childhood for me. All these books were about growing up in the country side, allowing you to live out stories from your imagination or rather Anne's, Walter's or Rilla's and Rainbow Valley a book about the Blythe and Meredith children playing their childhoods away in a sun dappled hollow provides a perfect distraction from real life, inspiring carefree and happy days with picnics and laughter.

It is often said that we don't give our children the freedom that we had as children, although I am not sure that I agree,but with more cars on the roads and busier lifestyles I concur that the childhoods our children experience are different from the childhoods we had. That is why I love our secret garden, it's an opportunity for all the children from the very young right through to our teenagers to be independent, to explore, to play and to be children without a parent "helicoptering" over them. They often play all together, the older ones leading the younger ones on exploits they couldn't accomplish on their own. In fact as a mum I rarely move from the picnic  blanket in its sunny spot where I catch up with the gossip,only being interrupted when our hollow legged children need more sustenance before running off again. I don't even really know what they get up to but by the time we head home they are tired, grubby and full of the adventures they have had.  Just think of the memories that they are creating and hopefully they will look back on these sunny days and smile................

A famous five day out without the famous five

Today was my works sponsored bike ride, 20 miles following an old disused railway line - no hills hahaha!

Despite the weather forecast of cloud, wind and showers we had a beautiful day for a bike ride, blue skies, fluffy white clouds and a cool breeze. I don't have a bike so borrowed my mums, in fact I haven't been on a bike for probably 10 years, so this certainly made cycling, manoeuvring and changing gear highly entertaining. We were quite a crowd heading off, many of us not cyclists but all willing to give it our all and smiling all the way. Do you know what, the first 10 miles were ok so long as it wasn't uphill not good going uphill, but I kept telling myself going up meant coasting down the other side and although I wasn't brave enough to stick my legs out in front I did whoop all the way down.

The return journey was much much tougher, but I can be pretty bloody minded and I was determined to complete the 20 miles which I did, I may have been the last person to finish but it wasn't a race it was to raise money for charity.

What the early part of this experience did though was introduce me to the appeal of cycling. blue skies, picnics and famous five adventures especially with the family, I was about to say only with easy, flat routes but then there would be no whooping with legs outstretched down hills!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dust Fairies and Dandelion Clocks

Every now and then child 3 makes it in to our bed in the early hours of the morning,  there is nothing more delightful than that little warm body snuggled up into yours, except when she fidgets, squirms and wiggles continually until just before the alarm goes off, when of course she drops off into the sleep of the dead and you are forced to untangle yourself from her limbs and creep out of bed moving with that exaggerated stealth that only parents seem to know when attempting to move without disturbing a sleeping child. This morning I was woken up by her trying to catch dust fairies. Does anyone else have dust fairies? (Possibly not, as its quite obvious that I don't dust enough, in fact when the children were very young I used to leave the hoover out. So that if anyone called round I could say that I was about to hoover.) Anyway, back to dust fairies, do you know they only ever seem to appear in the early shafts of sunlight that filters through the slivers of gaps between the bedroom curtains first thing in the morning and you can never catch them, they just disappear, slipping through your fingers.

On another similar vein of my lacking in the housewife role........

From about now right through until the autumn, child 3 loves to pick the dandelions that have changed from the bright yellow fluffy head to the white puffball made up of seeds so that she can blow the dandelion fairies up up and away, this can on occasion make our journey to and from school a lengthy yet magical one. I am sure that our neighbours must see this and think "great no wonder I cannot eradicate the dandelion weed from my lawn," in fact I have to admit our garden is full of Dandelions and although I do dig some of them up I can't quite bring myself to kill them all.

I promise that it is not just laziness that prevents me from dusting and weeding, but also the fact that I still believe in fairies!! Everyone should try it and believe.

When I grow up I want to be a...........

Today was "what do you want to be when you grow up day". All the children at Child 3's school had to dress up as their chosen career choice, our little one of course went as an Olympic gymnast and there were lots of children dressed up as vets, spies, Lego designers, zoo keepers, designers, firemen, hairdressers, soldiers and even a Dalek!! The children had an amazing day and some of the costumes were truly inspired ( the Dalek was one of them). It made me wonder what these children would really end up doing. It would be fascinating to compare now with the future.

Driving home from work there was an interview on the radio about our teenage children attending university, but due to the cost many of our youngsters were studying degrees to enable them to earn large salaries rather than learn about something they loved.

We spend so much of our life working that surely it is better to at least aim for something we dream of. Alan Watts (a british born philosopher) approach to careers advice is fantastic. "What would you do, if money was no object?  Once we have decided what we really want to do, forget about the money and go for it. If we work only for money we will spend our lives completely wasting our time. We'll be doing things we don’t particularily like, in order to go on earning money to keep us living that life, which is stupid. There is a possibility that by doing something we really love we will become a master of it and so earn a living from it.

So I will encourage child 1 to study her dance and drama, child 2 his science and building and destroying things and child 3 to enjoy her gymnastics...........

http://www.alanwatts.org/
http://zenpencils.com/comic/98-alan-watts-what-if-money-was-no-object/

I am not a racist but ............

"I am not a racist but.......". If I hear one more person say this I will scream!!!!!!!!

I want patience NOW!!!!!

The social worker has called to say that our panel date has been moved, it's now 5 weeks away, instead of 2! I try to be philosophical about it, it's meant to be maybe. But do you know what I am actually really really really disappointed. I know that the man upstairs has his plan and that "patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet" John Jacques Rousseau. But, hell I wish it hadn't happened..........
Child 1 has now amended her countdown to 34 days and I've yet to tell the other two. Friends and family as usual are being supportive but still it's crap :-((

Storm before the rainbow.
All good things come to those that wait.
Something's are worth waiting for.
Everything will be alright in the end.
Things worth having are worth waiting for.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass its about dancing in the rain.
Everything happens for a reason.
Waiting may not be a good feeling but its better than having nothing to wait for.

OK I'm off to eat chocolate hoping that I'll feel better tomorrow...............................