Wintery weather

We have had a bit of wintery weather.... the early warning message on the news at the weekend was a hilarious "moderate risk of a significant snow event" - Oh my god the world's gone mad when even the weather men speak corporate-buzzword-bingo-lingo!

So what actually happened? It snowed on Sunday evening, a bit more yesterday but not enough to shut the schools - by the afternoon it was melting and today it was icy but there were really only pockets of snow left. Kids at school again and I worked at home to get a bit of peace and quiet to write a big boring old document - oh and this....

I did however get out for a brain-refreshing walk with the hound and took these photos of some amazing ice formations in the marsh. The last one looks like a diagram of a cell or amoeba with it's nucleus.

Animated

The boys - both small and large have been making some sweet Lego animations recently which can be seen on their wonderful LEGO blogs - see links to the right

Fabulous birthday weekend!

For a birthday of no great importance I was very spoiled and exceedingly well celebrated last weekend by all of my lovely friends and family. Dinner on Friday night with Polly and Simon with scrumptious food and even dancing! Saturday - pretty impressive lie in and then a complete spoilage of pressies, including the fab toy I am writing this on - swish new Netbook! Lunch in Canterbury with sprogs and Mozart in the Cathedral followed by sushi. Then Sunday a very soggy walk in Perry wood with Berry's and Smiths, after which a magnificent feast at West Street - pics to follow, but the highlight must surely have been the rousing rendition of Happy Birthday see film below. Not sure I have had it sung so loud and with so much love since I was very wee! Thank you all XXX

The 'real' sea

Much as I love living so close to the sea, there are days when the estuarine nature of our most local beaches just doesn't hit the spot. So with the first day for ages that wasn't utterly freezing and frosty we decided to go to Folkestone based on the fact that there would be proper waves and hopefully a beachside chippy.

Yes to the former but no luck with any sort of cafe or chippy apart from a very chi-chi kiosk selling hot choc for £2 and it was still exceedingly chilly with a biting wind. So not altogether a huge success. I was hoping that the 'Creative Quarter' which is Folkestone's up and coming bit might have some interesting things to see and do - but mostly it was shut and forlorn.

The kids did have fun on the beach running away from the rollers, but we all got rather cold and when it then took us another half an hour driving down the coast to find a chippy, it rather took the shine off the day. I think we will give it another go in the summer when it might be a bit more buzzy, but for now Folkestone isn't top of my list

Snapdragon

I have been a huge fan of Jane Lindsey from Snapdragon for ages having discovered her I know not how, probably on a wander round the web, as you do! She makes and sells some of the most beautiful objects as well as growing and selling her own cut flowers and writing an entertaining and informative blog which I have now added to the links on the right. You can see what I mean at snapdragon and in particular my favourite things are the embroidered designs - I asked very nicely and got a few lovely things for Christmas such as this gorgeous book

So now I am sharing her with you, pass it on, she's really worth it and you never know, someone might buy something beautiful for you too!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr Chilly

Seriously cold today, last day of the school hols, the kids had an inset day and we woke to a white landscape. I was lounging in bed (waiting for my tea...........) as "poor old Michael" had to get up and go to work - He has been somewhat teased as he didn't manage to work a full week for the whole of December as he was using up so much annual leave - so he brought me tea and reported that by 8.15 Stan was up and dressed and trying to make a snow man in the slush. When that failed he threw soggy snowballs at the windows! (Stan, not Michael)

Stan had complained last night that he was being sent to bed without "a proper supper" so I teased him mercilessly today, serving him a "proper" breakfast of porridge, followed by "proper" lunch of freshly made soup, croutons, ham, bread and carrots, with a "proper" supper of special cheesy baked spuds with broccoli, fruit salad and a whopping hunk of Choc brownie. Hope now he can't snitch on us to the teachers for underfeeding!!
I have to go back to work tomorrow - should be fun getting there as lane will be an ice rink as apparently tonight is set to be coldest day this winter - actually looking forward to work as there is much to do and I like doing it!

Here's to a fab 2009, getting lots done and embracing all of the fun and challenges that life throws at us!

Christmas Tree

We went for a bracing (for that read blinking chilly!) walk yesterday in Perry Wood. We were well fuelled with huge breakfast - bubble and squeak, yummy ham, poached eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes! Raff took his new pop gun rifle and wore his flat hat and looked every bit the country lad!

At the end of the walk we came across this tree which had been decorated with food for the the birds, beautiful!

Hot Wheels

And here is an equally favourite present.

Stan just keeps saying "I'm SO happy, it's JUST what I wanted. I'm SO happy, it's just ............"

I quite like playing with it too - you may notice my hand rather alot!

Clone Troopers

Two of the happiest boys in the world as they got their one true wish at Christmas "Voice Change Clone Trooper helmets" of course - not world peace! Stan was slightly disgruntled that Father Christmas hadn't managed to put one in his stocking but luckily Grandpa Chris-mas sorted it out instead.

Winter Solstice

What a fabulous day, I feel like it's New Year's Day; I felt such a strong sense of new beginnings or of turning a new page.

Bright blue sky when we woke up, impromptu big breakfast with Polly and Simon when they came to collect their boys who had stayed over, which was lovely. Then I finally got on with some garden stuff - most importantly cleaning out the chickens - they were chicken-knee deep in pretty sordid muck, no wonder there are never any eggs, I think they are on strike.

After that I went for a "quick blast " with Mouse, which turned into the full 3 mile loop out to the sea and back along the creek. Well, the sun was beaming down and it felt rude not to celebrate it's solstice by soaking up the rays and I took loads of pictures - they will be paintings one day... From the sea wall looking back inland you can see nearly all of my favourite spots, Perry Wood, Blean, the marshes and Seasalter. I met friend who was walking from Whitstable back to Fav having been dropped there by his wife - I don't think in anger...? we should try it sometime.

The Konik ponies were looking a a little cold, Mouse was very excited to see them; it really is astonishing to walk 20 minutes from the house and be right amongst them. Close by in the field behind them was a vast flock of swans, who overwinter here, I must have counted 50, but the young are pretty well hidden so there were probably another 10 at least.

On the last leg I noticed the shadows that Mouse and I were making looked like Giacometti scupltures, so I snapped them for amusement.

And I just loved the colours of the mud - if you painted it the same purple no-one would believe that was how it looked.

Rounded off the day by gong to Dan And Annies Christmas drinks, with Dan's spectacular mince pies - they are made with a super tasty spiced meat filling, with pine nuts and apricots; I definately had my fair share! Someone there mentioned that it was 9 lessons and carols at 6.30, so we found ourselves easily persuaded - or was that the sherry and Prosecco talking? - to go along and have a good old sing! So I am thoroughly in the mood now for a jolly festive time - just a shame I have to go to work tomorrow before thoroughly embracing the season of eating and drinking to excess!

Brown paper packages....

tied up with string..

Made a new recipe Christmas cake last night which involved a great deal of lining the tin and even wrapping it in brown paper and string. It smells pretty outrageously good, here's hoping it tastes good, if it does I 'll share the recip'

Christmas is coming

Kids have finally finished school for the hols (hooray!) and even though I still have to go back to work on Monday, it will be a breeze! At least we won't have any more missives from school asking for "a Roman soldier's outfit, King's costume, cakes for two school fairs and money for the school panto trip, plus contributions for the Tombola and confirmed numbers for the Christmas meal", all in one day!!! I kid you not, just over a week ago we laid out the bits of paper received in one day from the two schools and that is pretty much what was being asked for THAT day!!

But the magic of Christmas is not quite buried under all those demands. We got our tree last weekend - succumbing to an absurdly expensive one as I insisted on a 'nice' one. It's not yet fully decorated which is a bit tragic but nearly all of the lights from the last few years had finally had it and it took a while to find anywhere with any left in stock. Then G was performing at a concert in London and so the boys and I only dared put a few things on the tree when she was out - we still got a full on sulk on her return for daring to do that, and since then there just hasn't been time. So I have promised a full on decorating session in the morning, which probably means I will come down and find that she has done it tomorrow before anyone else is awake!

Innocent Smoothie woolly hats

http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/thebigknit/2008/10/the-wooliest-ha.html

Tim Dowling - Saturday Guardian

If I only manage to find the time at the weekend to skim the papers - of which there are always too many - I absolutely have to read the food, gardening and Tim Dowling columns. The latter nearly always has me weeping with laughter by the end of the first paragraph and Michael has to submit to me reading out random sentences whilst hooting with laughter. It may be that you have to read it for a few weeks before you get into his groove, but I recommend you search him out for a serious hit of endorphins! This week's is a classic and I am still wiping away the tears!!

'I have known my wife for many years, and the children are right to be afraid'

Fabulous Day

It's amazing what sunshine can do. My soul is recharged and uplifted.
The list of garden jobs was getting a little out of hand and with the next few weekends looking pretty hectic it was today or bust! I have conquered most of it. Dead shrub has been dug up, plants which I tolerated but did not love have been sent to the compost heap; I wanted a bonfire really but it was all too damp and would have invited the wrath of Knibbs if smoke had gone across his garden - not worth repeating, ever!
I have been painting with plants in my imagination, moving things and putting in new favourites and underplanting with lots of bulbs. I am bound to have forgotten some of the plants which have already died back, and there may be a little jostling and pushing in the spring, but nothing too disastrous I am sure.
Last night we went to the Mt Ephraim fireworks - first time we have been to a 'proper' display for at least 6 years! It was spectacular, truly beautiful and as Michael said, almost more exciting to watch the faces of Stan and Raff as they took it all in.

Raff - rock star!

Taken in the summer, but I love it and wanted to share!

Veg patch slipping into Autumn

Looks a bit sad, but it is still being productive. - we had a lovely salad from it yesterday and there are still leeks, beetroot and chard to be had, plus Raff's carrots and baby corn.

I have sown green manure on two of the beds - Phacelia on one and Hungarian Rye grass on the other. Next I need to get some Broad Beans in -they were rubbish this year as I got them in too late and in the old patch which I think has become truly exhausted. I have begun thinking about what to do with that bit, but can't decide between a meadow made up just from flowering annuals, inspired by Gardens Illustrated or the Derek Jarman inspired shingle garden that I had previously planned for that end.

Larkin

I went to a Private View recently of a project called the 'Importance of Elsewhere' - the artists had worked with an anthology of Philip Larkin poems as their juming off point. Written on acetate in beautiful script and stuck to a window in an attic room overlooking the lights and buildings that make up the remains of Chatham's industrial past, was this poem. Apparently it's about Hull but it could so easily have been the Medway which is the 'widening river's slow presence'.
Getting home and reading it here, where the land also ends suddenly, it speaks to me even more and reminds me how much I love his writing and how I should go back to reading poetry amongst all of the fiction.

Here

Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows
And traffic all night north; swerving through fields
Too thin and thistled to be called meadows,
And now and then a harsh-named halt, that shields
Workmen at dawn; swerving to solitude
Of skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants,
And the widening river's slow presence,
The piled gold clouds, the shining gull-marked mud,

Gathers to the surprise of a large town:
Here domes and statues, spires and cranes cluster
Beside grain-scattered streets, barge-crowded water,
And residents from raw estates, brought down
The dead straight miles by stealing flat-faced trolleys,
Push through plate-glass swing doors to their desires -
Cheap suits, red kitchen-ware, sharp shoes, iced lollies,
Electric mixers, toasters, washers, driers –

A cut-price crowd, urban yet simple, dwelling
Where only salesmen and relations come
Within a terminate and fishy-smelling
Pastoral of ships up streets, the slave museum,
Tattoo-shops, consulates, grim head-scarfed wives;
And out beyond its mortgaged half-built edges
Fast-shadowed wheat-fields, running high as hedges,
Isolate villages, where removed lives

Loneliness clarifies. Here silence stands
Like heat. Here leaves unnoticed thicken,
Hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken,
Luminously-peopled air ascends;
And past the poppies bluish neutral distance
Ends the land suddenly beyond a beach
Of shapes and shingle. Here is unfenced existence:
Facing the sun, untalkative, out of reach.

Philip Larkin

Here she is, 10!

Planning my mid-life crisis...

Don't say you haven't all been warned!
Georgia is 10 on Friday and whilst a very exciting and an amazing milestone, it is nonetheless causing me no small amount of reflection. Mostly on the subject of "where did those 10 years go and what did I do in them?". I remember so vividly turning 10 and how quickly after that 16, 18, 21 and 30. Is her life going to get up to warp speed now too?
Her birthday coincides with my first week working properly full time for the first time since before she was born - for the past 4 months it has been 4 days per week, but now I am a 5 day a week girl and that too is daunting; I have prized my Fridays, free to go for huge walks with the dog, visit friends, do things without anyone else and will feel the loss of that small breathing space keenly.
But, before it sounds as though I am disappearing down my black hole, I love my new job, it's fantastic, challenging and rewarding. I guess it's just all about adjustments and there have been so many to make recently.