Two Ankles*

When it woke up this morning I had a sore throat, felt very hot and headachey. I was hot through the night too though Huffle wasn't. Huffle went off to work earlier than normal. In fact he was in a meeting from 7:30 until 5:30pm - poor Huffle - they did take him out for a meal in the evening, I am guessing he would have preferred to be home.

As soon as the boys went to school (Smallest wearing shorts, not sure it was THAT warm), I got my aerobics kit on and took my car to the garage. I wrote my name on a piece of paper with my mobile number and the man in the garage said "you don't look like a Sam". I said "what do I look like? A Bill or a Dave?" He laughed but when I went past on my way back he shouted out "Hello Sam!"

I did Aerobics but I didn't put 100 % in, I was so tired and weary. I walked home slowly, stopped off for a chat with Mrs Royal, came home, had a cup of tea and a quick watch of Crimson Field before the garage rang to say my car was ready. I walked back, picked up the car, got petrol and drove home and had lunch.

This afternoon I did some washing, knitted, cleaned the bathrooms, knitted more and swept. My throat is still sore and I am even more tired. Huffle text me to say he would possibly on the way home about 8:30pm.

The boys came home, Small did his homework and Smallest helped me to make Pizza dough. Then Smallest and I tidied up his bedroom and sorted out his summer clothes and put his winter/Autumn ones in the wardrobe. Small tidied his room after his homework and then we made pizza which we ate in front of The Muppets take Manhattan (ooh my favourite NOT!).

I watched some of Forrest Gump waiting for Huffle to come home. I wanted a non-scary thing to watch whilst on my own.

 

*I got my first mosquito bite of the year. Hurrah and my ankle is red, itchy and twice it's normal size.

 

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Chip Away

Huffle worked from home today because he was having his tyres changed from Snow tyres to normal ones. When he rang the garage to book them in he said "Can you rotate the tyres on our two cars please" but the woman thought he meant literally rotate the tyres. It wasn't until the man in the garage saw he had other tyres in the back that she realised what Huffle meant. He was in fact trying to be Canadian in his terminology. The poor garage man rotated Huffle's snow tyres and then had to take them off to put the other ones on. Silly Huffle.

The boys went to school smeared in suncream (much to the amusement of the other kids on the bus who are still wearing fleeces, despite the fact it was a beautiful sunny 13*). I went off to the Garden Centre where Jan and I cleared the major beds of debris (but not a finesse clean as Jeff still wanted to keep the leaves, twigs and mulch).

I mentioned that I would like to make 'field of blue' in our garden and asked how to start it. Jeff suggested I take as many bulbs out of the gardens and paths of Scilla (blue), Pushkinia (pale blue and white), Muscari (Blue) and Corydalis (pink). I sat on the gravel paths, basking in the sun trap garden and dug out hundreds of bulbs which Jan and I shared and then we cleared the garden paths of the other bulbs. I had a tray full. Then I filled four bags of wood chips to use as a path for either our vegetables or another path at the front (we haven't decided yet). Jan made Lemon Squares today which were, as usual, amazing. I came home around 1pm ish and I put all the bulbs in and then had Huffle and I had lunch together.

I skyped Moo and we chatted but not for too long as the garage called and we walked to pick up the car. Huffle got on with work and I sat on the porch with my book, Radio One, knitting and a pot of tea whilst texting Yahoo. It was just lovely. I had a brief chat with Garfunkel who passed by and then the boys were home.

Don't look at my dirty nails!!

They instantly asked for ice-cream which we all had on the porch. Huffle set the golf tent up later and the boys played with that for a while. I made dinner, Huffle worked and the boys played and fought! I dug a bit more grass up and Smallest watered for me.

After dinner we all played golf in the back garden. We made two golf holes and practiced up and down the garden and in the net.

The Vuvuzuaela was from the Faraway Garden

 

 

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It may be May Day but not here!

HAPPY MAY DAY

We wish they did Morris Dancing here. The kids couldn't remember what it was so we showed them some videos. They thought it was funny. Small, when he was very small, used to love watching them.

Today I received a photo from Aunty A while she was in Sweden this weekend.

Smallest's name is Freddy and although he is now 7, we liked this photo.

Huffle went off again reluctantly to work and the boys went off to school. I managed a quick breakfast with a bit of Happy Village before driving off to the Faraway Garden and putting in two hours of hard digging. I came away with some Lego I dug up, a bugle, a big fruit bush (type unknown) and some hula hoops. I shopped on the way home but this time I wasn't too dirty (but still dirty).

When I got home, I was so tired, I flumped in front of the TV and ate my lunch and had a cup of tea. I tidied, sorted washing and got changed and then jigsawed and sat on th porch till the boys came home.

Smallest's self-portrait (he got a B+)

Small has been bringing home lots of tests recently where he has been getting A+, A- and B+'s for. (Well done Small). He had homework to do so got on with that whilst soaking his feet in an Epsom Salt bath and then Smallest did the same whilst reading his library book. It was so quiet for about half an hour. I sorted their dinner early and when Huffle came home we went off to Cubs and picked up some flyers to deliver. We did some by car on the way home and then the boys and I delivered some by hand. Once we got to our house, th boys got their bikes and delivered the rest of our road by cycling up the big hill. Hufle and I walked behind them.

Huffle and I had our dinner and the boys played football in the garden until it was time to go back to Cubs/Beavers where they set off rockets.

More of our beautiful Amaryllis

 

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May the Fourth be with you Alvin!

It rained through the night but had stopped by the time we got up. After breakfast, a bit of jigsawing and a Pokemon battle, the boys got their bikes and we walked/biked around the village for about an hour and a half. Huffle and I had a good nose at people's gardens, the boys blew the cobwebs away on their bikes and we stopped for a play at the park.

We came back and while Huffle played football with the kids, I planted up the Urns on the porch with Geraniums, Parsley and Lettuces. I planted up some other containers and tidied up the sun room.

The boys played on the IPads. Smallest got grumpy because he couldn't finish his game and went and hid and cried in his cupboard. I went up to talk to him and we played a few games of Guess Who while Huffle went out and picked up a few bits for dinner and the garden.

When he got back we all made pasta, garlic bread, Italian Roasted Potatoes and veg and had a lovely pasta meal. Huffle and I cleared up and the boys played football and basketball.

After a very big dinner, we went into the garden and put our seed potatoes in their new growing bags and dug a new path which we then filled up with weed mat, sand and rocks. We dug up some more grass and planted some new plants Huffle sneaked back from shopping and then the lady next door asked if we wanted any Peonies or Evening Primrose. Of course we did. I wheeled my wheelbarrow with Smallest in to see if they wanted to swap him for plants but they didn't want him! I dug up the plants and took them back to our garden and then put them in where I could.

Huffle dug up lots of grass and the boys helped to move the bits of turf. We put the plants in, watered and cleared everything away.

Once inside we made Ice Cream Sundaes (which we had promised the boys all weekend). They helped me to make it and we ate it whilst watching Star Wars (well it is May 4th!).

The other day I was with a bunch of over 50 women and they were talking about the fact most of them had an under active thyroid. One of the women said "I knew I had it when half of my eyebrow disappeared". Then she said "but I'm lucky, I have a wrinkle that looks like the other half of my eyebrow". It was true she did. We should therefore be thankful for some wrinkles. I love that story.

Yesterday when we were out eating, Small was sitting next to me (his real name is Alfie), he spilt something onto me and I said "Oohhhh Alfie". The waiter thought I had said Ooh Alvin and he copied me. After that we called him Alvin all day. He says he gets called that often because Alfie isn't a name used here.

WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH MR ROYAL A VERY SPEEDY RECOVERY.

 

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Worriff?

Another miserable rainy day. MrBasement and MrRoof came this morning. They looked at the roof, they scratched their heads, they climbed onto the roof and then drove off and bought some sealant. Then they sealed all around the windows because the sidings (the boards on the outside of the house) were cut (and shouldn't have been) and were letting the water fall behind and into the house! They said it was an experiment and we would just 'have to see'. They disappeared and didn't ask for money so I guess we'll just to wait and see. As of 7pm we had no leaks and it was raining hard so that's a fairly good sign.

Photo from the Telegraph

We had a lazy morning of jigsaw (me), watching football (Huffle edit - and I enjoyed it immensely), playing on the IPads (boys), showers (boys) and sewing (me), Skyping Grandma (Huffle).

This afternoon we took the boys for hair cuts, picked up some Geraniums for the outside pots and went for something to eat. We were in a pub and there were several TV screens playing Hockey, Baseball, Football and News. We went to the Thrifty shop where Huffle bought a pair of trousers (still with labels on) and a double cuffed shirt and we picked up a Snowboard for just $10. Next we went to the Consignment Shop where Huffle was interested in a huge oak cabinet that was as big as my bathroom (in other words nowhere to put it!). We bought an original pen and ink drawing which was half price and reminded us both of a place we saw in Italy, so Huffle bought it for me for Mothers Day (next weekend in Canada).

We came home and although it was still raining, the boys got their bikes out and biked down to the Beer Store. Huffle and I walked down and we bought some seed potatoes. Moo sent us two potato bags so we could grow our potatoes in them instead of in the ground. We bought two different varieties, three seed potatoes of each. We spent $1.50 - big spenders.

The garden is springing into life (finally)

Back home, Smallest watched TV and rested his weary legs and Small, Huffle and I played Thurn and Taxis. It was very good - Huffle won. The boys (and their haircuts) made jelly.

The boys had their tea and we finished off watching Jurassic Park.

Huffle and I made a new photo montage for Smallest and sorted through some pictures and put a few up. A bit more like home now. The boys watched TV then went to bed. Huffle and I watched TV and listened to the rain!

 

Another one of our Amaryllis' flowering for its second time.

And another one that is about to burst into bloom

 

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Tumbleweed

Another dull and rainy day. I got up early and went to the doctors to get my bloods done that I should have done a year ago!!! Huffle worked from home and was there to get the kids breakfast and see them onto the school bus (though I was actually all done and back by the time they went off). I had a quick tidy round, put a wash on, had my breakfast and went off to knitting.

'Suffolk' came today and started a jumper. it was really busy. All the chairs were full and we had to find two more. El wasn't there so Sandra was looking after us, but there were lots of visitors again so she couldn't help us much. Once again it was very loud (but apparantly it didn't put 'Suffolk' off. She says she will come again). I managed to finish my fourth square and my socks had been partially mended. Hurrah!

Ten of us went out for lunch afterwards, and then Suffolk and I wandered around the quilting shop.

Once home, I skyped Moo and we chatted for ages. She reminded me how long it was till she was here and asked if Huffle was counting down the days. Oh yes he is!!!!!!!

The boys came home and we did our usual rushing about before swimming. Huffle couldn't come with us because of his work (which isn't getting any better!!). I knitted, Small sat and played on the IPad while Smallest was swimming his many strokes (and still struggling with Whip Kick). Today the water was freezing and the temperature outside of the pool was cold. In fact it was so cold that the instructors were filling up watering cans to pour on the kids to keep them warm. One boy had to get out because the coldness was giving him a headache. Smallest ate his dinner in reception while Small had his Lifesaving lesson. They spent a long time out of the water today which was good considering it was so cold in it!

Huffle, who painted the ceiling while we were at swimming, had dinner ready for him and Small when we got in and they ate, watched TV and the boys went to bed very tired.

Storms are forecast for the weekend.

 

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not because it was scary

The only incident during the night was Smallest falling out of bed, and that was only because he was too close to the edge. He didn't remember it though.

The weather looked dreary this morning so once all the boys had gone I drove about 15 minutes away and met up with the lady from the Far Away Garden and her friends and we had breakfast together. It was lovely and they were all very nice. I stayed behind afterwards with MrsFarAway and we discussed what we would do with the garden. I couldn't decide whether to garden or not today and chose not to in the end as it was the first time all week I felt clean. Also one of my friends was having a tough time after her parents left for England so I let her know I was available if she needed me.

I went home, mopped and swept and tidied, finished my jigsaw, undid and redid my knitting and listened to the radio. Perfect. The sun kept trying to come out and the temperature went up (in fact it was warmer outside than inside today (how does that happen?).

I had one piece missing!

I met up with 'Suffolk' and we had lunch together and a really good chat.

Todays sky.

The boys came home and after a bit of homework, Small went and played with his friend Lo. Smallest played on the computer and I got dinner.

Huffle came home (another one of THOSE days!) and we had dinner whilst watching Jurassic Park. We only managed half (not because it was too scary)

 

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