Hey batta batta batta schawing batta

Little Smallest got up by himself this morning and and watched Garfield (a bit too noisily) without arguing over which seat he lazed in or who's turn it was to have the remote control. We had breakfast, got ready and were out of the house by 9:30. We went to the Mini Golf (Crazy Golf for us Brits). There are two different courses to play on, and to to be fair Huffle normally sneaks us on to the other course at the end, but today the girl behind the counter told us there were 25 kids on the one we wanted to 'pay' for. Of course we decided to play on the other one as 25 noisy kids was too much to bear so early in the day. We started with a little putting practice, by which time a group of squealing girls jumped ahead of us and started playing. It was too much for poor Huffle so we walked backwards over the course till we found a hole we liked and practised there instead until the girls had moved on. Unfortunately another group of girls, and a loud mother, were now on that hole. Before Huffle could march us off again, a man beckoned them over to the other course. Phew we were saved.

We played all eighteen holes with only one interruption from two boys who walked right over the hole we were playing. I said EXCUSE ME twice before they got the idea I wasn't happy with them being there and they ran away. Smallest has improved and only putted right handed (he usually swaps half way through), didn't smash it across to the other course and was the only one of us that got a hole in one. Towards the end he started talking about ice creams and although Huffle had said we could have one at home, he didn't stop asking.

It was very hot and we did end up with an ice cream which was very nice. We sat and ate it in the shade and counted the scores. Huffle and Smallest both won with 57 and I got 60. Beaten by a seven year old. PAH! Today we didn't sneak on the other course even though the party seemed to have moved on. It was too hot and we were flagging. However we did have just enough energy to go in the batting (yes Huffle that is Batting not Badding as I heard you say to the cashier!) cages. Smallest went first, slugging at everything that came his way. He missed the first few but once he started hitting he was hitting them every time. He loved it.

I went next (never hit a baseball before but was in the Rounders team). I loved it and hit nearly every one, I may have even got a couple of home runs! However, Huffle took photos of me - I am not a ladylike baseball player obviously.

Huffle went next and slugged every one and got many home runs.

Next we drove to the Country Market where I noticed everyone was either large or dirty looking or smelly (just an observation!). We bought a couple of vegetable and herb plants and some fruit and went to look at the animals. There was a box moving and inside were some ducklings. Bless they were trying to get out. We looked at the birds and saw some like Moo has. Inside we had a quick mooch around and didn't buy anything until we went into the biscuit/sweet part. Here we bought some slightly out of date nutrigrains, chocolate biscuits and cola bottles. We had a look around the outside market which we decided was a poor mans car boot. Nothing to buy so we headed home with our England flag flying from the car.

Lunch was on the porch in the shade and Smallest played on the IPad and the computer while Huffle and I did a bit of gardening. It was too hot really to garden but we put our plants in and took up a bit of grass. The afternoon was spent playing on the trampoline, lying on the trampoline and playing I-Spy on the trampoline. Smallest obviously missed Small today. It is very strange not having him around.

Our garden : TOP - Iris, Salvia, aquilegia (this is one Smallest bought last year because it is called Winky. He wants me to too you 'It is very big!').

BOTTOM: Another aquilegia, seed head of the anenome, alliums

We made pizza dough and later made some pizzas and ate them (with fresh herbs and home grown rocket) in front of Rio2. We didn't manage it all (the film) because Smallest was too tired so after lots of cuddles and a bit of silliness, we sent him to bed. It is still very warm and Huffle has checked the weather forecast. Tomorrow is another hot one but a bit of a wobbly afternoon with chances of storms for next week.

While Huffle and I were out watering the garden, and Snallest was cycling, we watched a couple of naughty chipmunks. These are the pipes that lead to our basement. Bad Chippies!

 

 

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Elvis Unplugged

Huffle went off for a very early game of golf in which he encountered no skunks but he did see a heron (no photos though because it was too far away). He was back by 9am. Small, who should have got all his camp gear ready on Monday, had to get his final bits together in his huge rucksack. Small, Smallest and I had a bounce on the trampoline before driving off to Suffolk's house. Our kids haven't met before but I was hoping they would get on because it would make trips in the Summer so much more enjoyable. She has three kids, aged 12, 10 and 6. Anyway we first went to the Farmers Market where we bought some lovely things for lunch and I bought Huffle a Fathers Day present (shhhhhhhh). We tried sausage rolls, talked to the Honey lady and to the organic meat man. It was a nice market but not huge.

We went back to Suffolks where the kids played while we sorted lunch which we had outside in the sunshine. Today was 25*. After lunch and a play, we went off to swimming. Of course everything here is so far away so there was a lot of a travelling in between. The swimming pool was a large one with a big curly slide, a lazy river, fountains and several intermingling pools, of different depths. The kids were allowed in by themselves as soon as they had a quick swimming test. They all passed and got a green band which we later swapped for a card with their photos on which shows they can swim there by themselves in the future. Parents don't even need to stay and watch, I think they need to be in the same building but they can go and play another sport or go and have a coffee. There are plenty of lifeguards and they watch very closely!

The kids had a ball, all got on well, and swam and played for about an hour and a half. We had to get back as Suffolk's kids had piano lessons (where the teacher comes to their house and sits with each one for half an hour). The other kids played in the garden until dinner was ready which we had again outside.

Suffolk and I managed to get a bit of appliqué robins done and then we all had a mad dash. Her kids had to get to a Karate test and Small had to get to Cub Camp. The road was closed on the way so we had to detour but we got here eventually, parked and walked into camp which we found after about 20 minutes. Small found his tent and his friends and after a quick kiss (to me) was off. Smallest and I walked slowly back to the car avoiding the bugs and drove home to Huffle.

Smallest would have stayed if he could have. He sneaked into Small's tent and hid!

It was gone 7pm by the time we got home. Smallest watched TV and bathed his sore eyes (he didn't wear goggles and his eyes were suffering from the chlorine).

THE COOKER SAGA CONTINUES .................... BY HUFFLE

I rang samsungs wonderful service department and spoke to 'Elvis'. Now, not the Elvis who is dead clearly and to be fair I doubt was actually called Elvis judging by the strange accent. Dear old Elvis asked me to pull the cookers plug out and then press all of the buttons, this is their way of troubleshooting. He had a fair bit of trouble understanding me and I had to ask him why, this baffled him completely.

I then told Elvis all of that action was lovely but it wouldn't fix it and then I confused him a bit more with the cooker number 1 problems. I then told him that I had lost patience and wanted to speak with his manager. He disappeared for a few minutes and then advised that his manager would ring me back. He tried to hang up, but I stopped him. I wanted the managers name - it was Wallyvs, and no I haven't spelt it wrong. I think they get scrabble pieces and throw them in the air to make up some names. Guess what good old Wallyvs failed to call. I'm off with a garden gnome to the call centre to insert it up his bum. Then some boring efforts at online chat with their 'agents'. But, when you tried to chat or moan to them, no one was actually there. Then I submitted an online form to complain. Next week I will get serious with them, I've done the following procedure nice customer act. Rubb - ish, or Gaaaar- bage for the Yankee Doodle readers.

 

 

 

 

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Don't squish yer squirty bum in our direction!*

The boys got up this morning and showered before school - that's a first! They went off to school (apparently most of the school was at Track and Field so the rest didn't do any work). Huffle had already left for work, hopefully he will have a better day. It's not much fun for him at the moment.

I grabbed my sewing stuff and drove to Suffolk's house. There we discussed quilts, patterns and started to assemble our Appliqué Robins for our 'Saturday $10 Quilt'. This should have been easy. I brought along wax paper, baking parchment, material etc but unfortunately after tracing our robins onto the wax paper we soon realised it didn't stick to the fabric once we ironed it. Had the wrong paper. How many wax papers could there be? We gave up, assembled Suffolk's lovely quilt and then went off to buy some real wax paper.

We had a lovely lunch at the French Bistro, Crepes with asparagus and Brie and a maple syrup cake thing for dessert. Very nice. When we first got in there it was full of school kids and was really really noisy. The French owner Bernard (pronounced Bernaaaaaard) told the kids their bus was there and almost showed them out. Apparently they had been in there for over an hour and he had had enough!

After lunch we drove to FabricLand where we browsed and Suffolk bought material. Then we realised we were going to be late getting back for the kids. I drove home and called Drew to see if she could tell the kids I would be late. Bless her, she was busily cleaning for a viewing but promised she would look out for them.

I actually got home just as they got off the bus so all was well. I went and picked up Smallest's friend to play and the first thing they did was go on the trampoline. They didn't even last five minutes before they were in again. "Malcolm says it's not bouncy enough!". So they went off to play on the Wii. Small stayed at home while I picked up Malcolm and emptied the dishwasher for me (his chore to earn IPad playing). He was disappointed we were so quick, I think he liked being home alone!

The boys played nicely and Small sat down in the basement with them and eventually played on their game. I made Beef Burgers for the boys and Carrot, Bean and Cumin burgers for me which we barbecued when Huffle came home.

The boys watched TV while Huffle and I played table tennis and then they went to bed. It is PA day tomorrow so no school! Huffle is going to play an early golf game again before working from home. I wonder if MrStinky will be there this week?

Yesterday Huffle emailed the person who helped us sort the cooker last time. We got a reply today that said she was sorry we were having trouble again but we would have to go through to Samsung for them to troubleshoot and send an engineer to repair. OH NO NOT AGAIN! Huffle will try and ring tomorrow.

Our application for Permanent Residency has gone to the next stage and we now all have to have medicals. Unfortunately this can't be done at our family doctors, we have to travel to Scarborough to have them done. We have booked in for the end of June.

* after tucking the boys up for the night, I came down the stairs and noticed on the landing window a big splodge of bird poo. Nothing strange there, except that there is nothing to perch on so it had to have done it whilst flying by and it got through the bug screen and made a huge splatter!! Dirty bird!

 

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Jose Reyes Bobblehead

Today was a much cooler day. Still sunny but not humid at all. Everyone went off and left me to cycle to aerobics, an hour of exercise, a bit of a laugh and then cycle home.

I watched the final episode of Happy Valley. Brilliant. Then I did a bit of tidying and cut the grass. Easier said than done with a huge 15ft trampoline in the way. It may have wheels but that doesn't make it any easier to move by one person alone! Eventually the grass was done stopping once or twice to move the trampoline and fill the mower with petrol. I then raked and put the grass into piles with the intention of moving them later (Huffle did it for me when he got home). I also stopped for lunch and a cup of tea on the porch with my knitting after my shower.

I am completely covered in bites again. The boys came home. Small's friend 'Run' came over and the three of them played on the trampoline until Smallest accidentally kicked Small in the tummy and Small accidentally punched Smallest in the face.

Ice pack applied, apologies given and then the trampoline was banned of a while because no-one would take responsibility for anything and they started arguing. After smallest sulked in his room he went out and played on the jungle Gym.

Then Small grabbed Smallest (which apparently was part of their game!) and I watched Smallest hit out at Small. I called him in and he went and sulked in his room again. 'Run' went home for his tea and I made th boys apologise to each other properly.

Today I started making a Roast Chicken dinner but ten minutes into the cooking the cooker did it's error message and everything went off. I fired up the BBQ just in case and turned the cooker off at the fuse box. It came on again but as soon as it got to the desired temperature it went off again. I left it for a few minutes and tried again but this time on a lower temperature. Honestly this cooker is a piece of 'disappointing machinery' (Huffle's words, I wanted to say something much ruder!). Huffle sent an email to the person who sorted it all out for us last time. Rather than go through the hassle we went through befor, let's go to the Horses Mouth (and hope it doesn't spit at us!).

Dinner finally got made, the boys played on the trampoline under Huffle's supervision but Smallest soon came off moaning that Small wanted to play his own game and not Smallest's. Goodness me, I feel like this Summer is going to be a long one! Shall I sign them both up for Summer Camps now?

Yesterday Huffle saw two teenage girls photographing our garden and today three ladies stopped to admire the garden. I looked out of the window (it was aerobic ladies). I shouted at them to 'get orf my land'. They are funny. They love the garden and wanted to know what some of the plants were.

The boys went to bed, Smallest and in stuck snake stickers in a book that Drew gave him and I read Harry Potter to Small. We are on the last book and although I have read all the books and watched the films several times, I have forgotten a lot of it.

 

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Royal Lettuce

It was so hot and humid last night (why didn't we put the air con on?) it was difficult to sleep. I think even the boys had trouble as they were still in bed at 7:20am when I got up. It was really foggy this morning. A real pea souper!

Huffle stayed at home to work today (and to also be there when the boys got home as I wasn't), the boys went to school and I drove to the garden centre and then got a lift with MrsM to Toronto. Her car wasn't behaving and every time we stopped (for every single light that was red and much construction) her car stalled. I can't believe we got there and back on one piece. We were over half an hour later than planned at the Royal York. Once there we met the chef on the roof and were joined by three apprentices who were there to help us today. The roof was flooded which made getting around the raised beds difficult. It was very hot up there.

We weeded four beds fully and planted tomatoes, peppers, lovage, mint, nasturtiums and hops. The rest of the beds were tidied up, dead headed and dead leaved (we were there for two and a half hours). Then we tidied, washed up (as best we could) and went for dinner. Today we ate in The Library Room. We all had Stinger Fish and Chips (the beer batter is made using the the honey from the rooftop bees), a glass of wine and ice cold water. It was superb.

We left Jan to catch her train and drove off to pick up Kilts for the shop MrsM works in when she is not gardening. The traffic was horrendous and the car kept stalking again but eventually we got there, picked up the kilts and drove back to the garden centre. We were both very tired and warm. I came home and found that Huffle had suffered through a storm (in the basement) and the boys were home playing on the IPads. Huffle hadn't let them on the trampoline because of the storm but it seemed to pass later.

I sat on the porch, with full sunshine again, with a cup of tea before making dinner, and a tree branch fell off the tree and just missed my car. It was a completely dead branch that no doubt Mr woodpecker has pecked to death. Huffle now wants to chop all the branches overhanging the drive as one hit his car last year!

We played on the trampoline for a while, then some table tennis and finally sat on the porch to cool down.

 

 

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Two big fat dead flies and poppadom streams

Huffle went to work, the boys went to school and I went to my Faraway Garden where I worked tirelessly weeding in the hot humid sunshine. I was covered in factor 60 suncream and bug spray, still the bugs bit me and while I was shopping afterwards, I heard the words "oh you've burnt your arms". It was Rude Trude and I replied. LOOK THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME, WHEN I AM WARM, MY ARMS GO RED AND EVEN THOUGH I TELL EVERYONE THEY STILL KEEP ASKING ME, BUT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER ASKED BEFORE I WILL GIVE YOU THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT". Phew that felt good. She said "oh yes my husband gets that and I promise you I won't ask again".

Gardening done, shopping done, I came home and had my lunch, watched From Here to There and put the shopping away.

I had a quick sneaky bounce on the trampoline and felt like a naughty school girl then I did washing, drying, sorting, changed our bed and had a shower. It was extremely humid and it thundered and rained a little - I think we have more forecast later this evening. The temperature was 27*C with a humidex (feels like) 34*.

I sat on the porch and skyped Grandad and Grandad and Moo. When the boys came home they wanted their friends to come and play on the trampoline but I said NO as it was raining and thundering. They had an ice pole, did a chore each and put their clothes away before going on the IPad and computer.

I started dinner and when Huffle came home we all had dinner. After dinner we went on the trampoline as the rain stopped and the sun came out again. We worked out if we were on the trampoline, the Mossies didn't get us. It's an incredible workout! Small got all his camp stuff together for a weekend camping with the Cubs.

The boys taught us 'popcorn' where everyone but you sits on with arms around legs and the jumper has to pop the corn!

HB sent this photo through of Huffle when he was around 14. He says handsome chap. I say Monkey face (and I'm not talking about Grandma).

 

 

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Two hours to build........

No interruptions in the night and a small lie-in in the morning. Ahhhhhhhhh. Then we got up, had breakfast, skyped Aunty A for a good catch up and took Small to his friends house for the day. Smallest's friend wasn't available so Huffle and I took him with us to buy a Trampoline (the boys present for doing so well at school), a waterproof coat for Small for next weekends cub camp and some shorts for everyone but me. I am saving my shopping experience for when Moo is here (she is a much nicer shopping companion than two stinky boys who hate shoes and accessories!).

Once home we had lunch out on the porch and then we all set to work. First Smallest counted all the pieces and checked them off the inventory list. All there. Next we laid all the pieces out on the correct order to assemble them, then we assembled them. Next we realised we had not assembled them right and took them apart and then laid them in the correct position, enabling us to put them together correctly! It was at this point that we noticed it was quite BIG and there was no way we were going to be able to move it to behind the barn.

It was also far too big to have in between the house and the barn, so after Smallest measured with his five long steps and Huffle measured with his long tape measure, we took it apart again and laid it correctly again in the final position, under a tree, in the shade at the back of the barn.

Huffle set the Golf Net up for Smallest as he got a bit bored waiting for us to build!

Next came the trampoline mat which was placed in the middle with 96 (smallest agreed we had the right number) springs. Using our spring tool we worked our way round systematically forcing the mat tight across with all the springs. Then came the padding around the sides, tying all the ties underneath. Next the safety net which included screwing, holding and finally climbing on the trampoline to put the high poles in place. The safety net had to be tied underneath and threaded all the way round - this took the longest time. We had a few breaks for ice-poles and tea and brownies. Eventually it was all done and we had a go to check it was okay. It is fabulous and way bigger than I ever imagined it would be.

It is a lot of fun. After much bouncing and a quick Skype with Aunty A to show her the results (as she was our expert advisor this morning), Huffle went and fetched Small back for a good bounce before dinner.

Huffle particularly likes the shoe holder! (That's his skinny ankles bouncing while Smallest can't stop laughing

Today's dinner was a quick thrown together BBQ which we ate inside as there were many Mossies today and Huffle and I have some bites that are beauties!!!! After dinner the boys watched TV before bed and Huffle and I sat on the porch and watched our Hummingbird get it's nectar from the Aliums and the Soloman Seal. Fascinating little birds.

 

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