Sunday 13 October 2013

Properly Autumnal

I love, love, love, love this time of year! Right through from September to January. All the good stuff happens, the new college year (despite my best efforts of avoidance I will not be missing the UCAS scurry after all, and will be writing some references having begrudgingly given into my colleague Paul's desperate FB messaging and big brown eyes), Halloween (already picked up a pumpkin carving set so that Noah can be the proud owner of his first scary effort!), Fireworks night (might be interesting this year, but Noah is proving to be rather fearless) and of course, CHRISTMAS, OMG there will be no stopping me this year as, AT LAST, I have a legitimate reason to create my own magical wonderland!!! Ivan (Mr Bicknell) has already adopted a look of panic, as he quite rightly should! I am slightly concerned however that I might be out done by my Mother who has of course spent many years fostering my love of Christmas, but is going to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to her one and only grandson! 

The mild weather (so far) has allowed us to really enjoy our surroundings too, and the relative lack of rain has meant that Noah and I have been able to play outside a lot and explore and discover - of course he had no idea why I was getting so excited by a chance discovery of huge shiny conkers  but happily helped me throw handfuls into his nappy bag, but give it a few years and I am hoping that I will be stringing them for him in preparation for a few contests - hmmm, do kids still play conkers?

Our Babes in the wood adventures have also been devoid of general sogginess, which I have embraced, but this weeks water theme had to be adapted to avoid disappointment! 

I continue to make and we have even been sociable, both as a Mum and Son with our new friends Liz and Stanley and as a family collecting Sloes so that my Sister Lindsay's boyfriend Jack can make us all some Christmas cheer! We have even been to a party and left Noah in Oma's capable hands for the first time! Ha! never thought I would need a babysitter!!!

So the garden is looking awesome and slowly retiring for the winter....

AT LAST!!! They are turning red!!!!

Rick's windfalls - happily baked into crumble already!

Gorgeous Sedum

Heather's maple

Rick's figs

It happened - my beans grew!!!

Don't know the name - but pretty huh?

Lucky snap

Another lucky snap!

Smarty pants in his newt suit!


Important business at hand .........

Every tree elf needs a cocktail!

And a memory jar apparently - hmmm, ours has been lost.......



On our way home from the woods we often stop by our local farm shop for a treat - do you think they might be expecting a sudden rush?!


Talking of Halloween (which I was), the grating offered up a treat this weekend!

And umm, talking of treats, thanks to our pal Nicky we heard about a super duper new playground right up the road, and best of all we had it to ourselves and found the conkers!




Mum! It's not so easy to slide you know with this many clothes on! Well, it was a bit windy.....



An afternoon of picking Sloes


Just to prove that I have done some work towards my gin!!


Jack - giving Ivan (Mr Bicknell) a break! Noah seemed to like the ride!

Crunchy leaves - just the best thing ever!


Party props - huge thanks to Georgie for the speech bubbles!

New birds - no Ivan (Mr Bicknell) they DO NOT have elephant ears these are their wings!

Father Christmas asked us to look after a few things, and what do you think this might be all about? Well, I could tell you now, but I think I will make you wait!


Have a fab week. XXXX

Sunday 6 October 2013

Life.

The college term is now in full swing and whilst, as you know, I am not really missing proceedings, it is quite strange to not be in the thick of things - I rather like being the centre of attention and currently I am constantly out-shone by someone who is only about 2 foot high! He is getting cheekier by the day I might add too! We have a good routine going on, me and him with busy mornings, sleepy lunchtimes (him, not me, I use this time to run around like a headless chicken trying to catch up on making and chores (- you know, all those things that busy little hands make too much of a meal of!) and lazy afternoons filled mainly with Duplo and Oliver Jeffers! My little duckling is much happier in the water, is becoming a very talky tot, is enjoying the sensory side of things of  toddler sense, goes mental in Stepping Stones,  but still won't play peek-a-boo or march in Monkey Music - it appears that the boy just doesn't like following orders - lucky, lucky, me! Last week my folks took him to Monkey Music so that I could take part in the Macmillan Coffee Morning (- please donate - one of my bestest friends underwent surgery recently for about the millionth time - and your money is needed to keep our loved ones, like her, making our world special.......),  really fab of them yeah? Especially as this is going to be a regular occurrence once I return to work, although after his behaviour at the class, perhaps not..... Apparently it got to the part where the "marching" was announced (all he has to do is walk around the room and duck under an umbrella for goodness sake) and he passed my mum her coat and bag, grabbed his nappy bag and was headed out the door! Good grief he's going to get himself a rep!!!! I even practised marching with him too in a bid to rid him of this aversion! Oh well, I expect we will get there! New words have been added to his vocabulary now too, these include all gone (accompanied by a wave, and  a naughty smile when what he has been saying his farewells too has been either spat out or hurled across the room), bye bye, more, Granddad (he can say this but not mama!), purple (has no idea this is a colour), book, bubbles and nice! He is a super little boy and continues to take everything in his stride!

Since my last post we have gorged ourselves on Blackberry and apple crumble, had lots of lunches and coffees out, attended a head shave, shown my parents how to run their office, enjoyed some more yummy things from the garden, had our first hair cut and behaved ourselves on an evening adventure!

Ellie Lyver is an ex-student of mine who was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer whilst studying with us - I can remember the day she told us all so clearly, and how upset and devastated her friends were. Ellie is one of those people who is just instantly likeable and particularly heart-warming to be around, possessing a tremendous sense of fun and energy that this only amplified the situation, hitting them doubly hard in the realisation that it doesn't matter who you are, or how old you are, life is fragile and  cancer isn't just reserved for a  much later period in ones life..  What I have personally learned from Ellie and those who are close to me who have had their own battles with cancer, is that you need to remain positive and trust in both the professionals and your nearest and dearest to help you through - we are lucky that medical science is always an amazing work in progress, but it needs to be met half way and positivity is a very powerful thing. Below are my pictures from Ellie's head shave for CLIC Sargent and the Little Princess Trust, along with her justgiving details and her official photographers record of the afternoon - I even got to have a hack at her hair, as did G as Noah looked on in amazement before becoming more interested in the family dog!!











Well, we had to buy her a hat so that she could stay toasty!!!






Give what you can, it's a very nice thing to do.

More clocks are in production with new prints being created - let's hope people want to buy them or my poor friends and family are going to be forced to have them as Christmas presents!! Oh speaking of which, I am about to start work on the mother of all advent calendars - watch this space.......!








I am also hoping that it is going to get colder......


One of the many amazing things about where we live is the fact that we have a lovely garden where things actually grow and very kind neighbours who also share their spoils!


Heather's cox's


My runners


My leeks


Blackcurrant sage which I have yet to use as an ingredient, but have long lusted after its fabulous purple flowers


Beautiful tomatoes which are now even turning red - never have I managed this before!


The mother of all marrows - all set to feed at least two families


And, err, how can I put this.... Roger's plums...!

Noah enjoyed his trip to my parent's office and proved to be quite the mover and the shaker!




Yeah? What do you want? Can't you see we are busy???

His trip to our office wasn't quite so serious - perhaps his Daddy isn't such a good influence!!!



Ahh, but on the other hand- he does read Room On The Broom very well!


I like Tuesdays, Talking Tots is my favourite Noah class and he actually seems to genuinely enjoy it too, despite the fact that he has to do a little bit of marching! We always head into town afterwards to check out the market, buy some bread from John the baker, play on the park swings and listen the the town crier - isn't he a smarty pants?!


We always enjoy meeting up with the other children at Thedden and this time along with cousin Max we found Fin - an instant hit with Noah, funny how the little ones are instantly attracted to the older ones isn't it? There was also a bit of tree climbing in Thedden's famous Evergreen Oak - Ivan not Noah, but I don't suppose it will be long......




Our adventures in the woods have now begun, and last week it was all about our friend the hedgehog, with some hunting and collecting, decorating and sculpting. If I am absolutely honest Noah was mostly interested in running off, jumping in muddy, boggy, patches, scoffing the story time biscuits and chucking all his collage materials on the classroom floor, and it was me who got all excited about making a clay and twig critter, but it's a lovely little set up with a nice group of Mummies and Daddies and a very lovely orchestrator, and Alice Holt, where it's held is an amazing place for kids to be, so it is something I will persevere with and look forward to going to! 


Twigs for making


Noah's very own bag


An interesting pine cone with a fascinating history


My, errr ahem, our twig and clay creature - I say creature as he is a rather abstract hedgehog!


Amazing what you can do with some double-sided tape and a few twigs and leaves!!

Speaking of simple supplies,  I had a very enjoyable day at Tweseldown race course last month at an Artisan market I sometimes do. You never know where you will be pitched there, which is half the fun, but this time I was in a tiny room with three larger than life friends who were focused on providing fun for the children who have arrived, mostly unwittingly on the hands of their bargain and craft seeking parents. This time wire and paper fish were the main activity, and in the absence of a handy child (who was at home playing with daddy) I elected to get stuck in myself, between customers  - pretty cool, even if I say so myself!!! 


He now hangs from Noah's lampshade!

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS too, to my awesome friend Lynda, who after 22 YEARS finally married the lovely Derek!!


This cropped up on youtube - brilliant!



And since we are on the subject of moving image (!) I have to share with you my joy of Autumn T.V. oh I do love this time of year - when all the new good stuff comes arrives, especially new dramas and, X Factor (tragic, yes I know!). My money is on Abi Alton.

My Glee season 4 DVD is set to arrive tomorrow - a whole season behind as usual and so sad to think that the Cory Monteith tribute episode airs in this week in the states....





On a more positive note, it is big knit time again for Innocent  - get knitting!