Just Jo!

Apart from the truly horrible news about Laura, things are much better here.
We (as in Olivia and yours truly) have set up our own Flickr group. Mainly at Olivia’s insistence, but I must admit to having a bit of fun with it too.
I’ve remembered to put up a photo of Olivia’s play, it’s just unfortunate that the day she did it, I really wasn’t in the mood to be faffing around posting photos. So here’s one of her big scene….

I’m also allowed to finally post a photo of Olivia’s stone age scene ‘cos it’s now finished….

We made a flying visit to group on Wednesday. There was another workshop at the museum the same day. Animals in Native American art, so we got to make totems. But first we had to say hello to this beast….

We had one of Olivia’s drama friends with us, who took part in the totem making but refused point blank to go anywhere near the snake.
She came back to our house after and set Olivia up with her own Bebo account. Because Olivia really doesn’t spend enough time on the ‘puter.

I’ve had a birthday, so I’m now older than I was. Whoop de doo. It was going to be postponed ’til next week because we’re all skint. But both the kids took it in turns to make me cups of tea in the morning. Then Olivia disappeared off on a Guides day out, leaving me with the pleasurable company of Adam for most of the day, ’til he disappeared off to work. I had a bath. A long one. With lots of bubbles.
Then Lisa treated me to a lovely night out. Tapas meal, then a club with lots of alcohol.
And a very nice barman, who made the mistake of almost falling onto our table. He was very lucky to escape our clutches!
‘Twas a very lovely night indeed, thanks Lisa!
And my birthday’s not over yet, as Adam is treating us to a meal out somewhere after he gets paid, which is on Friday. But he won’t be here that day. He’ll be up in London being interviewed by Richard Branson. Sort of.
Anyway, I digress, got home at 1:30, then woke up completely and couldn’t get to sleep ’til gone three. Which was not good, as we had to be up early the next day in order to catch a train. We were heading back down to Totnes to be picked up for a drive to Spitchwick, on the edge of Dartmoor. A birthday picnic, not mine, a little friend who is now the grand old age of three. Although I did get Happy Birthday sung ‘at’ me.

We saw ponies too! Well, it is Dartmoor….

One of those truly lovely and relaxed days with friends, plenty of food, plenty of chatting, plenty of giggling….
More pics here.

Boring food shop and bill paying day on Monday so we’ll gloss over that.
But we had another lovely day out yesterday.
Lisa picked Olivia up and I got the bus. Which meant that I obviously got there hours after Lisa and her sister.
Where?
The Amazing Maize Maze at Bickleigh. A gloriously hot sunny day. Picnic first, ride round on go-karts, then the maze. The girls had to find brass rubbings hidden in the maze. The brass rubbings all joined up to spell out “Sir Robert Baden Powell Chief Scout of the world Be Prepared”.

My personal fave from the day….

It turned into a very hot day, not helped by the fact that the last rubbing was incredibly elusive. I’m sure someone kept moving it. But, after purchasing ice lollies, we headed back into the maze determined not to let it beat us! Yay! We found it! Then there was the obligatory paddling to be done.

Lisa took all the girls home. And I missed the bus by seconds.
The driver shrugged apologetically as he pulled away….
Not too concerned though, there is a jolly nice pub across the road.
I took some pics in the garden while supping me shandy….

More pics from the day here.
Yes, another one of them lovely days.

This morning we’ve had a visit from the council man to do the annual gas check. The fire is never used, except as a display area for Olivia’s arty crafty bits and pieces, so we had to clear it off for him. I happened to mention that we never use it and he asked if I wanted it taken away. Ooh! Yes please! So we have a little bit more room in the sitting room now, which will be occupied by a bookcase (currently residing in Olivia’s room) as soon as another council man has bricked up the hole and replastered.
But…. but…. but…. the bestest news is that Adam wasn’t winding me up about the kitchen!!
There is a lady coming this very afternoon to go over colour options with me . Yay!!! Blokey this morning said they take about three weeks to fit it, which means no kitchen for the duration. Do I care? Not a blinkin’ sausage!
And I had a lovely card from my mum and stepdad with a big fat cheque in it.
Adam’s gone to pay it in for me, ‘cos I’m not stepping outside the house, just in case I miss the council ladyand my new kitchen is delayed.

….thank goodness Olivia’s been more regular (in a blogging sense), I’ve got something to jog my somewhat lacking memory.

Monday I was still mourning my little Kodak. No news, so it must be having a jolly old time at British Rail’s expense.
We met friends for lunch in Rougemont Gardens. Not strictly true, we got a phonecall whilst in Sainsbury’s, so Olivia went haring off to Primark to meet them and I eventually caught up with them. Then we went for a picnic.
Then we went deep into the bowels of the museum to experience the terrors of a WWII air raid. Some wonderful (and missed) photo ops of the girls dressed up as ARP’s. Curses.
They all came back here and suddenly it was 8pm.

Tuesday morning was spent hanging out of the window, all agog, as I waited oh so patiently for my new beastie to be delivered. Back into town to buy it a snug little bag to keep it safe and warm on all our adventures to come.
The rest of the day was spent taking mindnumbingly boring photos around the house. Well, the first one isn’t so boring, quite like it actually….

That’s enough of that, methinks.
I was up ’til four in the morning playing with it. Zooming in on corners in my bedroom. Zooming in well enough to highlight the general grottiness….

Wednesday was a friend’s birthday party, so cakes were made.

Which got demolished within seconds.
Back to Lisa’s after, and a late walk home meant we got some gratuitous shots of the sunset.

Thursday….
Made another birthday card for another little friend. Can’t for the life of me think what else we did. Do remember Olivia in fits of giggles because Adam exploded baked beans over himself and the kitchen. He’d microwaved them and the lid got stuck, so when he opened it….
I really don’t think one corner of the kitchen escaped a coating of baked beans.
I stayed in my room.

Friday we were up bright and early. Ish. We headed down to Cockington to have a look around the pretty little thatched village and Cockington Court. And the Drum Inn. Because it was designed by Lutyens. The fact that it also sells a very nice pint of shandy is completely irrelevant.

Still working out the settings. And shutter speeds. And aperture. I blame the weather. Such awful lighting….
We saw Romeo and Juliet on the cricket pitch in front of the house. Jolly good it was too. The girls grabbed a picnic blanket and got as close as possible to the action. No photos because it was dark and I couldn’t see the buttons and things on the beastie.
I did, however, get this one of a speeding train at the station on the way home. Slow shutter speed. Very pleased with myself. Although I felt quite uncannily (and quite scarily too) like a train spotter.

Saturday didn’t start ’til roughly lunch time.
We needed to catch up on some sleep. My excuse, and I’m sticking to it.
Olivia suddenly had the brilliant idea to make her friend’s birthday present. Out of clay. And her birthday was the day before. So the late present she was going to get, is going to be even later while we wait for the clay to dry.
Stiil, it’s looking good so far.
Olivia wanted to paint her gargoyle (from the Cathedral workshop), so she did. Then spent hours mixing paints to get the right skin colour, then mixing paints just for the heck of it. So there are reams of paper now covered in splodges of paint. Mostly browns and greys, but a few pinks and blues too.

Notice the Saturday-not-brushed-hair?

Adam went charging off early to play footie. When he got back, I noticed some red ‘marks’ on his neck. They looked suspiciously like nibbles of some sort. I queried them and he ripped off his T-shirt to show me more of the same marks on his chest.
“Um….dearie, you haven’t mentioned a new girlfriend lately….”
“It’s not that, I got burned!”
“When??”
“The baked beans the other day.”
I confess, I sniggered. Really didn’t mean to, just couldn’t help myself.
I asked him what his friends thought and had he told them what had happened.
“Did they laugh at you?”
“No, they did call me Heinz all match though….”
Snigger snigger. I defy you not to.
Then he scarpered off for a five aside game in the afternoon. He’s dedicated that boy.

So now we’re up to yesterday. Sunday. The day before today. The day before Olivia started drama. Which meant she got steadily more excited throughout the day. To the extent of making her own rolls for packed lunch about 4 o’clock. Which is good. I suppose.
I spent ages ringing round to remind people of raft building, one of the activities I organised. Then an early bath and bed. Because we had to be up early this morning and we’re not too good at that kind of thing.
It’s been chucking it down all morning. So I’ve had a few phonecalls.
“Is it (raftbuilding) still on? Even though it’s raining?”
“As far as I know. It’s supposed to be getting brighter this afternoon anyway. Try ringing the centre and see what they say.”
It’s an outdoor centre, they only cancel if there’s a chance of killing any of the clients. Bad publicity and all that.
What do I care though??
Olivia’s in drama, I’ve got the day off!!!
Time for a trashy gossip mag in a big huge bubbly bath!

The pretend chicken has taken up residency in Di’s fridge for the next few days….
We do have hot water again….yay!!!
But the phone is still kaput….

So Wednesday…. at group…. a somewhat eye-opening chat with friends there, sort of following on from a chat over the weekend. I’m not one for gossip and I stay out of feuds and such like, so if I’ve got a problem with someone I keep it to myself, it’s not really anyone else’s business is the way I see it. But some had noticed ‘things’ and asked me about it, which led to the eye-opening chats. This is all sounding incredibly mysterious, which is not like me at all. What you see, is pretty much what you get…. Anyway, having had the chats, I’m feeling better about the situation as a whole. Let’s just say I really do have a huge problem with people lying to me and about me. And that’s all you’re getting from me on the subject!
Still managed to upset someone else at group though….
I hadn’t heard from her as to whether her boys would be doing windsurfing, one of the activities I’ve been organising, and as per my rules (quite clearly stated on posters I put up each week at group), I gave their places to the next kids on the list, bumped into her in the High Street and told her. She got annoyed, stomped off saying she couldn’t talk about it then. Then kicked up a fuss at group….
Upshot is that the substitute boys felt uncomfortable taking the others’ places and stepped down. Which is fine, I have no problem with that. But….gnnnhhh….can feel the need for a chat with her coming up….such fun….

Anyway, after upsetting her, we went and checked on Olivia’s community garden….

And had time for a snack on the Cathedral Green before drama, I also got to play with some B&W photography….

Needless to say there’s a few more on Flickr.

Yesterday, we had the pleasurable company of Lisa’s girls in the morning. Lots of sticking bits of old magazines to bits of paper, and playing with cuddly toys. Must be a girl thing, Adam was way past cuddlies by this age. So was I actually, but then I was a total tomboy….
A quiet afternoon for me ‘cos Lisa took Olivia home with her, before taking her to Guides in the evening. I had my long awaited mega bath with huge amounts of Lush thrown in for good measure.
Adam came home, perfectly timed for about ten minutes after I’d got out of the bath. He wanted to look at my book of quotations. I thought he was getting all erudite….a thought which had a lifespan of….ooh….about five seconds. He was looking for inspiration for his next tattoo. He made the mistake of asking my opinion on what he should get. He is fully aware of my opinion on tattoos, so I suppose it’s quite touching that he still asks. I suppose….
He said he wanted another one because he really wanted to be a yob….
“You’re already one” I said.
“What? What did you say?? I’ll show you!!” And off he ran upstairs….
Coming back down with this….

Can you see what it says? He’s very proud…. yes, so am I!
I had a meeting in the evening about the grant we got for the outdoor activities. A few other groups turned up and we all showed what we’d been spending our/their money on. They had laptops and power point presentations, I had a bit of paper I waved about with great enthusiasm….

This morning was fairly bright and sunny, this evening is turning out the same. This afternoon it was grotty and raining. Which is why we decided to choose that particular time to wander round the Continental Market in town…. Like you do….
All these photos taken by Olivia.

But not this one, ‘cos I had to stand on a chair in the kitchen.

A scary amount of money spent.

I think we have about a weeks worth of photo prompts to catch up with. Safe to say, it’s not gonna happen tomorrow. We’ll be going on another cycling scavenger hunt somewhere, so if it’s grotty weather on Sunday (which no doubt it will be), it won’t be happening then either. Monday’s out as well, as is Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Looks like it’ll be Thursday then.
(Or should that be…. )
In which case, it’ll be nearly two weeks worth, which is definitely worth a

Yesterday is probably best glossed over fairly quickly. Olivia did a few pages of various workbooks, then developed an earache….although it might have been the other way around and I just told her to get on with her work.
I did some washing and hung it out, so of course it then had to pour down.
Sadly, I really cannot remember what else we did…. It’s just soooo long ago….. A few phonecalls…..then Olivia’s earache morphed into the beginnings of a cold….and sore throat. I have no problems with colds and sore throats as long as they keep her quiet…. But they never do…. she just keeps on going…. relentlessly…. determinedly…. bearing an uncanny resemblance to The Terminator….

So today, we got picked up by some friends (in a car! ) to go off for our organic arts trip. The place we did the risk assessment thingy….whenever it was…. It rained. A lot. Fortunately they had spare wellies at the farm….
It was too wet and rainy to even contemplate getting my camera out at first. But then the sun came out halfway round on our self guided walk to the old quarry….
We saw a male and female pheasant that ran ever so quickly behind a big pile of poo. Too quickly to get a pic….

Lovely views all round. The object of the self guided walk was to identify trees and collect leaves. These two photos are bizarre in the contrast between the colours of sky and ‘green’ in each….probably about ten minutes between each photo being taken…. Sorry, getting all arty farty for a second there….

We went back to the barn for lunch. It’s a working farm, so Olivia raced off to get a photo of cows. Didn’t tell her they (or their off-spring) would soon be heading to the abattoir….

We all made our way to the tree henge and Chillies Copse for the afternoon workshops. (There were a lot of cowpats….hence the title of this post!)

The kids had to split into two groups, older and younger. The younger ones went clay digging to make some sculptures based on the tree henge in the field. The older ones went up into Chillies Copse to cut ash trees to make a trellis for the yurt they’re building. But to get to the woodland camp, some had to be blindfolded and led along the path….

We had another introduction, safety talk and general talk about what the kids would be doing.

The older group got divided again. One lot staying behind in the camp to do ‘things’, the other lot heading into the woods to find suitable ash trees for a yurt’s trellis frame….

The chopped up logs then had to be carried back to the camp….

Back at the campsite, it was time for cooking ‘dampers’ (I’m assuming that’s the correct spelling….), hot chocolate and tea….

The ‘dampers’ were really simple….just flour and water mixed to a dough, with whatever you fancy added (today we had raisins), rolled into a sausage shape then wrapped round a ‘green’ stick and cooked over the fire. Oh yes, we will be doing those over our fire pit! We have the fuel drying in the back garden already.
It’s been another great day, the only criticism being that it wasn’t long enough.

We had a lift home, whereupon Olivia was straight out into the garden. Then came in to start painting a bird box…..

Her cold is coming along quite nicely…. she soaked for ages in the bath, then begged for a hot water bottle and a lie-in in the morning…..

I saw this on Prydwen this morning. It made me laugh at first. Then I thought “Ooh yeah!” Then I got quite sad. And felt old. ‘Cos most of it’s true. Except the car bit. Substitute a bike for that. And I don’t drink coke. ‘Cos that’s just yuk and completely foul….

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my lawn.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over
at my car and decide my car needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice that there
is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the
mail box earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the
car.
I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk
mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice
that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and
take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I’m going to be near the
mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as
well pay the bills first.
I take my cheque book off the table, and see that
there is only one cheque left.
My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I
go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of
Coke that I had been drinking.
I’m going to look for my cheques, but first I need
to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally
knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm,
and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to
keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke a vase
of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need
to be watered.
I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover
my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all
morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but
first I’m going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a
container with water and suddenly I spot the TV
remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I
will be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember
that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it
back in the living room where it belongs, but first
I’ll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit
of it spills on the floor.
So, I set the remote back down on the table, get
some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I
was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
the lawn isn’t watered,
the car isn’t washed,
the bills aren’t paid,
there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter,
the flowers don’t have enough water,
there is still only one cheque in my cheque book,
I can’t find the remote,
I can’t find my glasses,
I don’t remember what I did with the car keys,
and my neighbor called to tell me he turned off the
hose that was flooding the driveway.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done
today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy
all day long, and I’m really tired. I realize this is
a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for
it, but first I’ll check my e-mail.

And I don’t watch TV….but apart from that…. yeah, I’m getting old.

EDIT 22:07: Just seen this, in amongst some luvverly luvverly prints on Jules’ new blog….

You Are 92% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity. Your next creation could be something very great… Or at least very cool!

Got a lot to live up to now….

I had another candle lit bath last night. When I was all cleansed and pure again, I had great fun tipping the melted wax into the bath to look at the swirly patterns it made on cooling. Hmmm…. yeah…. next time I do that, I’ll wait ’til after I get out of the bath…. I spent an interesting time extracting wax out of places you really don’t want to know about! Let’s just say, it brings a whole new meaning to a ‘bikini wax’….
Yes…. um…. er…. that is probably a little bit more information than I’m truly comfortable sharing. And probably waaaay more than you really wanted to know….

So…. today…. yes…. this morning Olivia spent reading and keyboarding. She also read quite a bit of her RSPB magazine that she gets from our home ed group. I was Flickr-ing like mad…. my new obssession….
Then we walked over to Di’s. It was far too windy and blustery to cycle. We could have, but my hair’s too long and it whips round all over the place in the wind. I’d be blinded and crash into something. Not pleasant. I could have tied it back, but I didn’t think of that ’til we got to Di’s.
Di’s got a pond in her garden, but it’s not holding water in the marshy area very well, so that got sorted out.
But Olivia had to take a few photos first. I reallyreallyreally want a new camera. Olivia reallyreallyreally wants my old one.
“You can have it, love!”
The battery casing’s all cracked and you have to hold it all together to get a photo. What a palaver….
Olivia’s photos….

She was very pleased with herself….
“See? I can work it! It’s not a problem at all!”
“You have work to do…. Get on with it!”
So she did.
Di had some cobble stones that they lined most of the marshy area with….

Then they mixed up some soil and clay to add to the middle bit to plant some plants in (How was that for a clunky sentence?!)….

Then it needed filling with water….

An old friend of Di’s came round with a new friend of his, so we chatted and drank tea, then all wandered round to Di’s allotment. Olivia picked lots more broad beans and we had a look at one of the other allotments. Di’s is more a wild plant haven that she uses for her herbalism and edible wild plants, John’s is ‘proper allotmenting’. All laid out in rows, which Di doesn’t do at all. We talked to John last week and he said to feel free to have a look. Di wanted Olivia to just see a different way of gardening, a more formal way, not Di’s free and easy, hippy-like way.
By this time it was raining, we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed up to the High Street. I was wearing flipflops. They slip in the rain (’specially in the High Street), so I took them off. Olivia was again outraged that I would dare do such a thing.
I put them on again to get some shopping, then took them off again to walk on the pavement. If I kept them on, it would have taken me an hour to walk up the High Street. I also walked most of the way home barefoot….
“Please Mum! Put them on! It’s so embarrassing!”
“But I keep slipping on them!”
“That doesn’t matter!”
“So me slipping over, breaking an ankle and landing flat on my arse is less embarrassing than me walking barefoot?”
“YES!!”
“Grotty urchin!”
“You’re so embarrassing!!”
“Aaahh! My work here is done!”
I put them on when I trod on a bit of glass that then got stuck in my heel.
“Thank you, Mother!”
So I took ‘em off again!

I had an early bath tonight so that I wouldn’t need candles. Still too traumatised and humiliated to look a candle in the eye at the moment….

Today is the 5th of May. 24 hours of Flickr Day. Which obviously means a huge photo fest coming up.
I was still up after midnight, so I started then….

I got a photo of Olivia, ‘cos she’ll sleep through anything. Adam won’t though. Not unless he’s drunk….goes without saying really.

I went up to bed then. Found it a little hard to get a photo of me sleeping, so here’s a bit of my bed instead. Not technically my bed, the bit above….

The absolute very first thing I have to do when I wake up is have a wee. Didn’t get a photo of that you’ll be pleased to know!

Quick bit of ironing….

Then off to the arts centre for Saturday Art Club….

We had a few minutes before going in, so what better way to spend them than climbing on an ancient wall?

I did a bit of shopping, then got myself a cuppa at the centre.

I saw my friend Debbie’s partner there with their youngest son. Debbie was my very close friend who died last year. He’s going through a tough time at the moment (again), has to sell their home, already sold but nowhere to live yet, his father died recently and he’s very worried about their eldest son, won’t go into details. Suffice to say, it’s a delayed reaction to his mum going. Rob asked how we were. Felt awful saying how wonderful life is for us right now. But Debbie and Rob have always been so happy to see their friends happy regardless of what’s going on in their lives. Sign of a true friend….
He’s going to give me their new address and phone number to stay in touch when they find out where they’ll be living. Really don’t want to lose touch, last bit of Debbie I’ve got left….
Getting a bit blubbery now, so I’ll stop there!

We were chatting for so long that I was late picking Olivia up.
There was still a boy waiting for his dad though, so I wasn’t that late. We had sausage rolls for lunch….

There were some girls playing with poi on the Cathedral Green. Can you see them? I can’t….and I know they were there!

As soon as we got home, we felt a desperate need for sorbet. I loved the patterns so couldn’t resist taking a photo….

I had a quick glance round the garden….

Then Olivia was inspired by the poi girls on the Green….

This is, I think, my favourite photo from today….

More reading of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe….

More work on Fairy Land….

I was incredibly busy too….

Getting up occasionally to take photos of the work in progress….

We made sausage rolls for tomorrow’s outing….

Adam came home after spending the afternoon in the pub watching footie, sober this time….

But was gone again in minutes.
We had some spare sausage rolls, so we had them for dinner. But Olivia had to earn hers first….

That’s been our day in Flickr world. It’s not quite over, I’ve still got to have my bath, but you won’t be wanting a photo of that. No more than you’d want one of me on the loo.

Saw this on SuzyB, via Eleanor’s. Google your name followed by ‘needs’.

Jo needs your help. (Obviously!)

Jo needs a 17″ PowerBox. (A what??)

Jo needs to have adequate agricultural statistics. (Oh yes indeedy!)

Jo needs to be claimed. (Just pick me up at Lost Property)

Jo needs help with dressing and washing and still wets the bed occasionally. (I have been to the doctor though….)

Jo needs to be brought back to play for a larger crowd. (But I don’t do crowds)

Jo needs the money. (Tell me about it!)

Jo needs to stop being so uptight n such a stroppy pants n go 4 it. (Oh shut up!)

Jo needs just a ‘little’ bit more training and professional guidance. (Only a ‘little’ you realise)

Jo needs a nose job. (Outrageous!)

Jo needs some room to be used powerfully. (Ooh! I say!!)

Jo needs a producer who can get the best out of her. (I do I do!)

And as I’m really a ‘Joanne’….

Joanne needs some adult company. ( Would that be in the ‘Biblical’ sense then?!)

And finally, a public health announcement from Prydwen…..

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have
demonstrated that if we drink 1 litre of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria found in faeces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poo.
However, we do not run that risk when drinking wine (or rum, whiskey, beer or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember:
Water = Poo
Wine = Health
Therefore, it’s better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of s**t.
There’s no need to thank me for this valuable information; I’m doing it as a public service.

My public service is passing the information on!

This really can’t be May!
Although yesterday we did see a swallow dodging arrows at archery. And before I forget, Olivia spent most of her ‘waiting’ time at said venue wandering around with a piece of grass clamped between her teeth mumbling, “Ahm a hillbilly!”

This will only be a quickie, no particular reason why, just that I want to go to bed.
Olivia spent the morning slaving over maths and English. I was ‘putering, looking at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival site (should be going on Friday or Sunday) and checking out bus times. Also made the discovery that someone had got to my post Maths and Beavers by googling ‘beavers’…. Ha ha!! No idea what they made of it, they didn’t leave a comment!

Bussed over to Di’s allotment, too traumatised by yesterday’s puncture to face getting my leg over (Calm down at the back please! Such filthy minds….) my bike.
Di had made some veggie burgers and bread which she’d brought along. Olivia went around the allotment seeking flowers and other edible wildflowers to add as salad in the burgers. So we had another picnic. Yay! Olivia planted some more seeds in her bit, sunflowers, fat hen and greater plantain. There were a lot of robins flitting about today. Olivia spent more time up the apple tree, eating apple blossom this time. We got showered on by cherry blossom, which made us all giggle for some reason….
Back to Di’s for Olivia to fill in her allotment diary. And eat cake and drink tea as well!
Got to the shops just before they closed to pick up two bags of compost. See, I knew there was a reason we didn’t cycle! I found out two bags are twice as heavy as one bag when you’re lugging them down the High Street to Tesco’s to get a bit of packed lunch fodder….
We got home and went straight up to bed to watch one of the latest gifts from Lovefilm, Stormbreaker. Olivia now has a new object to drool over in the shape of Alex Rider. She quite liked the baddie too, Damian Lewis I believe. But he doesn’t do a lot for me. Although I do usually go for the baddies….

A quick bath now, candle lit (I remembered to buy a lighter), ‘cos the light fitting is so old and brittle it snapped yesterday as I was changing the bulb.
The kitchen one did as well about a year and a half ago, but I plug in a little spotlight and cook ‘atmospherically’ most of the time now.
After me bath, I’ll be watching the second offering from Lovefilm, The Da Vinci Code (Did I really need to put in a link there?! Or for Stormbreaker?!!). I’ve read the book a few times now, but I’ve yet to see the film. Which will be tonight. As long as I don’t fall asleep. Which I probably will. Well….two bags of compost is heavy!!

Olivia spent the morning with a new found enthusiasm for her keyboard. It started last night actually, but she has already taught herself one of the simple tunes from her Usborne book. Which she played over and over…. and over…. and over….
We cycled to get some cash out, but Lisa and the girls drove past so we stopped for a chat. The girls very excited because Olivia is joining guides on Thursday, the exact same group and pack as D, M’s in the same pack, but a different group.
Most exciting was the proposed evening at Lush. It’s not been confirmed yet, but if they need any helpful volunteers, I’m sure I could spare an evening….lend a hand….whatever….just so the girls aren’t disappointed or anything….I’d absolutely hate for that to happen….
We stopped too long to get any cash, so cycled straight down to the activity centre. Olivia designated herself as register and money taker. Slight delay as we waited for some people, one not even turning up. Which was most unlike the family. But it pleased one of the boys who was there to see a friend of his, because he got a go as well.
We walked out to the flood plain where the butts had been set up. This is where the photos take over….

They got themselves into three groups of four, the Red Arrows (Olivia’s team), Freckles Galore (I think! The older girls) and Team Rocket (the rest of the boys).

Great fun was had by all. Especially at the end when Jules asked if any of the adults wanted to have a go! We were all a bit hesitant at first, but he insisted, so we all had a go.
He pinned some balloons to the butts and we had to try and pop them. Two of the boys managed it. I got my last arrow centimetres away….
I think the general consensus is that we really, really need to arrange an adults trip there. Definitely!
We started cycling home, stopping to chat to one of Olivia’s friends and his parents, then I realised that my bike had a puncture.
Really not very happy!! I asked Olivia who’d been using my bike as target practice….
The cycling place across the river was too busy to do it there and then, so we had to walk up to town, with my tyre flapping away. £9.42!!!! Even less happy!
We got some food and went to Cathedral Green while it was being fixed. Me sulking. A friend crept up behind me, making me jump. So we had a nice chat that cheered me up. Her son is Olivia’s friend from school, so we’ve sorted out a visit soonish, going for a bike ride along the river.
So, apart from a dead tyre, we’ve had another lovely day. It’s obscene the amount of lovely days we have.
Olivia went straight to her keyboard again as soon as we got in. Then went outside to water the garden, despite the torrential downpour we had during the night and forecasts of more rain again tonight.
I’ve located some spare longlife bulbs under the kitchen sink that I’d forgotten about, so I’ll be changing the bathroom bulb. So I can have a bath, even though I had a bath this morning. Morning baths are just not the same as evening soaks. Nowhere near the same….

We left the house at 9 this morning. On a Sunday? Scandalous!
We cycled over to Mincinglake Valley Park to meet up with Exeter Watch, part of Devon Wildlife Trust. We meandered up into the woods, listening to and spotting lots of birds, willow warblers, chiffchaffs, blackbirds, sparrowhawk, great tits, carrion crows and two buzzards. There was a bloke, Chris, from Exeter City Council who explained a lot about the work that was going on. Why they’d been cutting back trees and having bonfires and stuff.
The point of today’s happenings was to set up some dormice nesting boxes. There’s been some evidence of them around there lately, so we learned how to tell the difference between gnawed hazelnuts. Dormice, woodmice and squirrels all have varying methods. We are now experts!
Steve showed us how to attach the nesting tubes to branches and we were away….

Olivia made some new friends, a few girls about the same age. They all seemed to be far more fascinated with the millions of ladybirds lurking in the undergrowth than anything else.
Apologies for the very blurry photo….

After careful mapping of the boxes, we did some pond dipping. Always a great favourite.

Chris braved the cold pond with a leaking welly to catch newts, most of them pregnant, and a frog. Lots of tadpoles, water nymphs, a mayfly nymph, water snails, caddis fly nymphs, blood worms, beetle larva, water boatmen….um….lots more beasties, but I’ve forgotten now….

Discovery of the day was the hugely soggy and boggy area between two of the ponds. Second discovery of the day was that if I kept on walking, it got soggier and boggier….oh joy….
It wasn’t too bad for me, but Olivia ran through it. Yeah, she got a soggy bottom, while I kept sogginess to a minimum.
Olivia was desperate for a wee by then, so we said thank you very much to everyone and located the nearest discreet bush. The next event is in July, something to do with glow-worms apparently. Should be quite good, so we’ll be going along to that one too.

Cycled home a different route, taking in Olivia’s old school. She’s not happy. They’ve got some “reeeaaallly cool” playground equipment now…. “Why did they get it all after I left??”….
“They were waiting for you to leave….”
“Shut up!”

We got home with clothes that were in dire need of a wash before they started growing a new species all of their own. Then I remembered that Adam had used the last of the powder last night….gnnnnh!! B****y thoughtless teenagers! Yes, OK, he does his own washing, but he also woke me up at four this morning when he came in. So doing his own washing means absolutely nothing….
Soooo….big news of the day….drum roll please!!! Olivia got to go to the corner shop all on her own to get washing powder!!! She was so chuffed with herself. She came back, showed me very proudly how she’d bought exactly the right thing, told me how she’d double-checked with the staff, how they all said “Ahhh!” ‘cos she was all on her own…. “Is there anything else you need? Shall I go again? I don’t mind. It’s all right! Honest!”
Yeah, so I put the washing on, then Olivia did some worksheets. Because I’m a slavedriver and she has no free time at all!
They were very easy worksheets on spiders. Don’t know why spiders in particular, they were just lying around, wordsearches, anagrams, a cryptogram, a couple of other word puzzles and a maze. Very easy. I’m not that evil really. OK, I admit I was thinking more along the lines of hardcore maths and English. But I couldn’t really see Olivia having the brain power and energy to cope with them this afternoon. The deciding factor was that I really didn’t have the brain power and energy to deliver wonderfully lucid explanations and definitions for any of the queries that she always comes up with. So easy worksheets it was.
She’s soaking all the bogginess off in the bath, which I’ll have to clean so that I can get in it later, then another early night, because we’re traipsing around Devon again tomorrow. Medieval larks ahead.
I still haven’t watched Withnail and I, but I did watch TV yesterday.
I watched I Capture the Castle, a favourite book of mine and I liked the filming of it too. I could write an erudite review, but I can’t be arsed. I just liked it. It was good. I’m only saying this because I give Olivia such a hard time about “It was good” not really being sufficient information to grab people and make them want to read the book before they read anything else. And she’s in the bath so I can get away with it!

We (being the three of us) all had a long chat with my Mum this morning. It’s her birthday today. Happy Birthday Mummy!! Not that she actually gets to read any of this at the moment. Believe me, if she did, there’d be plenty of comments from her, “JOANNE! BEHAVE!!”….and more in that general vein!

A concious decision was made this morning to have it off. Um….That reads so very, very wrong.
I’ll start again….
We made a concious decision to take the morning off. That’s better!
So we did. I have a vague recollection of what we did this morning. Olivia washed her hair in the bath. She’s managed to remember the plug ever since Sunday’s debacle. Mainly, I think, because any chastisement this week has been, “I have only one word to say to you….”
“….plug,” she mutters, as she shuffles away remorsefully….

I had minor heart palpitations when something I tried putting in my sidebar seemed to demolish everything in sight.
But then I managed to get everything back!
All by myself!!! Whenever I’ve done anything as stoopid as that in the past, I’ve always had to send a frantic email to Lin. But I’m a grown-up now and can do things all by myself!!
Still haven’t put the grotty self-destruct thing on though….
But I have added all the Exeter photos to Flickr. Not sure why, other than I just felt like it, OK?

Adam has been very annoying today. He didn’t have to leave for work ’til about half four, so he just loitered in a very pestering way around the house….all day….
So we discussed what he’ll be taking with him when he moves out. If he hadn’t been soooo annoying, maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t have felt the urge to rub it in remind him. He’s going in September, to live with his Dad in London for six months before taking off to Spain for another six months.
His room will then be a spare room. I could start taking in foreign students for a bit of income, or I could use it as a classroom type setting. I really can’t make up my mind. More money….or….more space downstairs when all the junk our wonderful resources move into their own lodgings upstairs….hmmm….decisions, decisions….

Olivia has also developed a slightly annoying habit, but if she doesn’t do it again, I’ve promised not to blog it….

Anyways, we made up for the spectacular waste of time this morning with Olivia doing a few pages each of maths, English and science, a few basic Easter worksheets and a paper cut out thingy from Yamaha. It’s Cherry Blossom Viewing week in Japan, so we made a scene….so to speak…. Although it actually started on Sunday, we’ve only just got around to doing something today.

We completely forgot Passover on Tuesday (passed over Passover?)….ahh, but I seem to remember not feeling pukka that day….
Olivia also got her Plants With Attitude all set up.

We’ve tried growing Venus Flytraps from seed before and not had much luck. Diddly squat actually….fingers crossed for this lot. Olivia was pleased that the celery had already started changing colour by the time she went up to bed. The Jerusalem Rose had also started unfurling.

I’ve had a lovely bath this evening, now I’m going to watch Sea of Love. I got it for £2! I do so love a bargain!

As a final thought, I really, sincerely hope this dentist isn’t Eleanor’s. I feel quite ill now!! Thank goodness he’s not mine!!