Just Jo!

….when you step on the edge of the cat’s litter tray and it upends all over the back of your leg and the bathroom floor???
But don’t you just love it when that’s the worst thing to happen all week?
Apart from missing the last bus home when you’ve got four girlies in tow??
Which is what happened last Friday after a lovely day out at Castle Drogo with one of our groups.
And very nice it was to see people I haven’t seen in a while. Although, as I was being responsible for children other than my own, I didn’t get much of a chance to chat, because every now and then I can actually be quite sensible….

Love this one, although I got woefully left behind.

And just after this is when we missed the bus. Not so much ‘missed’ as much as Stagecoach suddenly deciding that they were going to stop running the bus. A bus we’ve caught countless times coming home from Chagford after seeing Olivia’s grandparents.
The girls kept me entertained though….

After witnessing a quite spectacular sunset, not that the girls were overly impressed….

….we wandered up to Drewsteignton to partake of liquid refreshments and await our lift home.
A bit of a late night, followed by what was supposed to be an early start the next day. But we overslept and it was far too hot and humid to be rushing about, so plans got changed. Fortunately we’ve got very accommodating friends who are very lovely!
Instead of going to Newton Abbot to visit a World Music Festival (which by all accounts wasn’t as good as hoped), we got the train straight to Totnes, then got a steam train. Which pleased Olivia no end, because she’s suddenly Harry Potter mad and kept saying it was just like the Hogwart’s Express. Repeatedly.

We met up with our friends down by the river….

Then it was back to their’s, a lovely meal, chatting and staying the night, followed by a day up on Dartmoor….

We could quite easily have spent much, much longer there (including more shared food at our friends house!), but we really had to get back for Olivia to get an early night. She was very tired. She’s not good when she’s tired. In a whiney, moany, tearful not good way when she’s tired. She proved my point when I said we really had to get home, she wailed. So did B. Yes, I managed to make two girls cry that day!
But she needed her sleep!
For this!
Windsurfing!
Another one of the activities that yours truly has organised.

A very successful day, very much enjoyed!
After she’d finished, we did a bit of shopping. A new tent. One of life’s essentials.
It is! Honest!
We discovered on our last camping trip, that our tent wasn’t quite big enough. We had to put our bag in a friends tent. See? We needed a bigger tent!
And on Tuesday, I needed a new phone. I did! Honest!
Especially one with a camera!
Which I had to test out while we were seeing our friend Di and checking up on her allotment….

I like my new phone almost as much as my new camera!
A Sony Ericsson, but go to Phones 4 U, so much cheaper than Amazon!

Big news last night was that Adam found out he did very well in his trip up to London last week.

Can you read it? He’s practically got the job! So he’s a happy little camper. Except you’d never catch him in a tent. Ever!
But we (as in the girlies of this household) tested out our new tent this morning….pleased to say, it works! Which is jolly good as we’re going camping again very soon.

What other news?
Ooh yeah! We saw one of Olivia’s school friends while at the river on Monday. Except he’s not a ’school’ friend any longer! They’ve taken the plunge and he’s now being home educated! Yay! Perhaps all my ’selling’ has paid off! So we’re looking forward to seeing lots more of them.
And the kitchen? Yep, lady from the council came. I’m having pale cream flooring, beech units, very dark blue marble worktops, white tiles and I’ve got a funny feeling I’ll be providing the white paint for the walls, ‘cos they don’t do white. It will be taking three weeks (give or take a few days), but they’re taking everything right back to bare floor and bricks. New wiring, new plumbing, everything.
No idea when of course….
But like I said, do I care?
Absolutely not! Oh life is indeed good!!
And today (or yesterday, now that I’ve seen what the time is), seeing as my new phone is on the Orange network, it’s (it was) Orange Wednesday. So we went to Vue to see The Simpson’s Movie. Buy one, get one free. So I was assuming I’d pay for an adult and Olivia would be free as she’s a child and therefore cheaper than me. But no! I am apparently cheap! Shut up! I got in free! I’ll make Olivia pay next time then!
And Olivia started back at drama. And very happy she was to see all her friends again. Athough, as some of them pointed out, they have seen her over the summer holiday….
Oh yeah, and I’ve booked our tickets for the Tutankhamun exhibition in London. The second week of December. Maybe Adam will put us up overnight. Or not….

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.

I like all things froggy.
I collect froggy things.
I needed new knickers.
We went to Primark.
They’ve got froggy knickers!
For £1.50!!
I am a happy woman!!

That was Monday. I’m sure other things happened as well, but I was too busy waving my knickers in the air.

Olivia broke two bottles of sauce in the fridge….
“It’s not my fault!”
“Um….perhaps if you opened the fridge in a normal manner, and not yank it open in the hopes of scaring any fridge monsters into complete submission, sauce bottles wouldn’t then leap out in a Hari Kari style….”
“Why are they even in the fridge anyway??”
“It says on the label, ‘Once open, refrigerate.’ I’m guessing the fridge will do a better job than the cupboard.”

We’ve also eaten things again…
Jam sandwiches.

Jam on toast.

Jam tarts. But they were eaten too quickly to get a snap.
We like our blackberry jam.
More things made with blackberries, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen via Eleanor, and then veganised quite easily.

Some of us, needless to say who mind, may possibly have been eating too many blackberries….

We’ve been attending various workshops of one kind or another….

Think the most popular with the two of us was gargoyle making and brass rubbing at the Cathedral. Especially as I got to have a go too!
Also think that was the day we made a wondrous discovery in Sainsbury’s, whilst hunting our picnic down….

Oh, ’twas indeed good!!

We found a moth in the back garden, maybe not as cute as the hedgehog, but still quite impressive none the less….

From this point on you may notice a distinct lack of pictorial reportage….

Friday, we had Lisa’s girls for the afternoon. We picked them up, stocked a picnic hamper with Lidl’s goodies ( a picnic hamper that looked remarkably like two Lidl’s plastic bags….), headed up into the hills, plonked ourselves down on a rug and stuffed ourselves silly with said feast. Then meandered down to a free fun day by way of more paddling in the panny, ’til all four girls were convinced they were being sucked dry by leeches and came squealing out.
Fun day included juggling, hoop spinning, free drinks and biscuits, throwing beanbags, building a tower, skipping, plate spinning, parachute games, oh and art, but none of the girls did that. They all had a go at building the highest tower possible out of giant dominoes to win a prize of a T-shirt. Three of them managed it. But not D. Who sulked. Because her sisters had both won one, “I never win anything! They always do!!” So Olivia donated hers in order that all three sisters would then have the same. Blimey, sign of maturity in daughter!
Nice chat with Lisa before they all scarpered off for the weekend.
Our weekend yesterday started off gloriously with a train and bus trip down to Brixham to meet up with some friends. I’d printed off another Treasure Trail (more of a murder mystery though), the first clue being right at the bus stop as we stepped off the bus. So we got going with it straight away. The trail took us past the Golden Hind, so we made a detour to step onboard. Then our friends phoned as soon as we stepped off again, so we finished the rest of the trail with them.

*** SPOILER ALERT***

Just in case you ever feel the urge to do the same trail….

Marilyn Edwards poisoned a local trawler man, Rod Fisher!!!
Awful woman….

Olivia and Elliot (he’s two) bonded big time, with Elliot holding Olivia’s hand at every opportunity and doing what ever she asked of him.
Down to the beach for a paddle and late lunch. Then up to Berry Head to watch Brixham’s Castle, which told the story of the Napoleonic Fort there. Built by a woman it was, scandalous in them days apparently. And it got a bit nippy towards the end, so Elliot sat on Olivia’s lap.
We were given a lift back to Paignton to catch the train, which was jolly decent, or we’d have had to leave the show early to get the bus in time to catch the last train home.
We got back to Exeter about 10:40 and Olivia wanted to get a photo of the pebbles that light up. She went to get the camera out of her bag….
And this is where our wonderful day went completely tits up….
She left the camera on the train!!!
On the bloody train!!!
I am seriously not amused.
So the money she’s been saving up for her own camera is now being put towards mine. Well, half of it is, because I was planning on getting a new one anyway. But that’s not the point!
Almost 600 photos on that SD card!
Thank God for Flickr is all I can say!
Except for the photos from the last two days.
So she very gently tapped on my door this morning, “I made you a cup of tea, mum.”
And made my breakfast.
And she’s hoovered all of downstairs.
Think I might even get lunch as well.

Yay!!
I got my phone back last week and my broadband back yesterday!!!
I would have blogged yesterday, but I had 505 emails to trawl through, some grotty e-mails to send off to BT and a hundred and thirty something photos to upload to Flickr. Which was more important, because if I’m honest, I’ve missed being able to Flickr seductively a whole lot more than waffling on me blog….
I also caught up with reading blogs, but only skimming over them, and then it got to gone one in the morning, and I thought I probably wouldn’t be able to comment sensibly by that point, so I didn’t, will try to today….maybe….
So…..what have we been up to???? A whole 20 days to catch up with!
I’ve got to think back to the beginning of the month….

I rebooked windsurfing, which meant we had a walk along the river and said “Wow!” a lot as we marvelled at the river rushing along….

Fell in love with a tree (although Olivia wasn’t equally as smitten….)

Olivia had a Guides trip to Bicton where they did canoeing, den building and other stuff. Lisa’s girls came back here after, so I put on a few DVDs (Monster House and Over The Hedge) and made a big bowl of popcorn. Think the microwave did most of the work though.

Went to Totnes for an Historical Visit, which included a visit to the castle (duh!) and a Treasure Trail around the town….

A very lovely day out with friends. About halfway round the trail, there was only the two of us and Hannah’s family left, which meant we got time for a proper good chat and half a shandy down on the Plains. More photos here.

Spent another Saturday afternoon with friends, but the weather was oh so much better, so we went to the park and watched the kids bashing each other with tennis rackets….

Adam helped a friend celebrate his 18th birthday in Exmouth and spent quite some time in the bathroom when he got home. Almost gave me heart failure when I came down for a wee in the early hours to find him sitting on the edge of the bath.
He felt somewhat sorry for himself the next day, as he went to the shop, he said “If I’m not back in ten minutes, call an ambulance….” Hee hee. I can laugh because it’s by far from a regular occurrence. Once every three or four months? If that. Which I think for an 18 year old isn’t bad at all.

We had a group trip to The Rock Centre, a climbing/abseiling/caving/camping wonderland. The kids only did the first two though, with a bit of zip wire and Tyrolean thrown in for good measure.

So much fun! We’re definitely going back, Olivia wants to go camping there too. I’d be up for that, ’specially as it’s so cheap. Oodles more pics here.

We didn’t go to pottery because I had a flat tyre. Which I didn’t realise ’til about 15 minutes into the ride. So we had to come back, and find out we didn’t have a pump at all (well, only a football one), by which time it wouldn’t have been worth going over there. so we didn’t.

We did, however, go to Exeter’s Green fair in the Bishop’s Palace garden….

We saw lots of friends there and joined the Devon Wildlife Trust. We had a long chat with the woman on the DWT stand, who was very impressed with Olivia’s knowledge of natural history (I was too, she sounded quite intelligent on more than one occasion!). The woman was so impressed she was going to ask which school Olivia went to that she knew so much, found out she’s home-educated and said “Ahh! That explains it then!” One up for home-ed methinks.
Oh yeah…. pics here.

We both cooed a lot at the sky that evening and kept snatching the camera off each other….

Hard to believe they were all taken over twenty minutes or so. We’ll conveniently forget the fact that all the wonderful colours and effects are due (more than likely) to pollution.

I had a horribly bad stomachache for a few days which meant I had to lie down and cuddle my froggy hot water bottle loads. Adam took Olivia to play tennis while I was being wimpy. He said she did OK for her first proper tennis. And Adam knows about these sporty type things, him being a fully qualified fitness instructor person.

Olivia had a birthday. Just the one. She’s 11 now. Last Wednesday (the 18th). We met her Nan in town, had lunch in La Tasca and did plenty of girly shopping for lots of clothes and shoes. Met Adam in town, who gave Olivia her birthday pressie, a very pink MP3 player. Managed to persuade her that Build A Bear is a complete rip off, and if she was just going to buy a bear would she really want to pay that much? “Um….no.”
And have you really got room for anymore cuddlies? “Um….no.”
And wouldn’t Ted get a teensy tiny bit upset and jealous if you ‘adopted’ (Adopted?! For crying out loud people! Get a life!!! Don’t even get me started on Cabbage Patch Dolls!)another teddy? “Um….yes.”
And isn’t there plenty more stuff you’d much rather have instead? “Um….yes.”

The three of us went bowling in the evening. And the two of them played lots of arcade games.

Home for trifle and National Treasure on DVD.

A very yummy trifle indeed! All vegan too. It even passed the Adam-who-won’t-eat-vegan-food-if-his-life-depended-on-it test. “‘Salright….” he mumbled.
The next day, we had the rest for breakfast, like you do. Lisa’s girls came over in the afternoon. They made cards for Brown Owl who was leaving. Two of them did. Olivia made one for herself which she is also going to post to herself. Just to see how long it takes.
They watched the rest of Over The Hedge, with the required amount of popcorn dutifully supplied. They all disappeared off for a barbecue, with the veggie and vegan having to take their own pre-cooked (by yours truly) burgers. Lisa brought them all back again for chocolate cake and “Happy Birthday to you”.

She’ll be having a proper party when the weather is slightly more predictable (just in time for her fiftieth then), because she wants to invite everyone. And my house is too small so they’d all have to be banished outside. With any luck she’ll forget she wants a party at all. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Almost caught up now….yay!

Friday we went on a Natural History trip to Staverton to do a bit of pond and stream dipping. Ooh looky….photos….who’da thunk??

And ooh looky again….more here.

Whizzed back to Totnes to catch the train home, only to find out it had been delayed due to ‘adverse weather conditions in other parts of the country’. Then finding out on the train just how adverse the weather had truly been. Not nice.
That evening was spent at a cocktail party. Ahem. Which gave rise to a classic quote, “I love watching Supernatural when I’m drunk, ‘cos there’s three Jensen Ackles.” I won’t say who said it, just that it wasn’t me. And there’s no photographic evidence because I purposefully left my camera at home.

So….in between all that lot, Olivia has been doing tons of workbooks, finishing her last maths one the day before her birthday. Which meant we just had to buy another one on her birthday. Because I’m evil like that. And yes, I made her carry it home too!!
We’ve got through about half the library. Olivia finally discovering the joys of Swallows and Amazons.
Olivia finished her unicorn picture at Di’s.
We’ve both had haircuts, Olivia’s built a den out in the back garden (that’ll be Swallows and Amazons then), of which I have yet to take a photo. Bad mummy moment. Oh well.
We’ve been enjoying some of Olivia’s produce from the garden, sharing carrots with Lisa and the girls, a few broadbeans, onions and peas today. I’ve got a funny feeling we won’t actually be getting an entire meal all in one go, because Olivia is eating things as soon as they’re ready straight off the plant. Hmmm…..

Yesterday was obviously spent in gleeful enjoyment of broadband (and completely ignoring anything Harry related, sorry, the more the fuss and hype about something, the more I dig my heels in and resist, I’m perverse like that) and now I have to go. Olivia is desperate for Adam to show her how to put/download/upload (whatever!) music onto her MP3 player. It’s pink don’t you know.

….fantastic in fact. We are now full of confidence regarding our abilities to camp in a field with basic amenities….ie a tap in a corner. And the field was full of thistles. And poo. And it rained. Nothing like being chucked in at the deep end on a first camping expedition.
But we had lots of fun, and can’t wait to go again.
Lots of walks and scrambling over rocks to get to beaches, great views all around the site. Lots of nature and wildlife, kestrels hovering over the field, swallows swooping low, curlews calling out, magpies raiding rubbish bags at 5 in the morning, bugs and beetles aplenty. Very funny evenings around a torch making up stories and laughing loads, playing games in tents with the rain pouring down outside, Pit and Settlers of Catan being favourites (even though I lost dismally). Friendships very firmly forged. No mobile signal, apart from one spot up in the village. The joys of a shared portaloo….
A few photos…. there are plenty more here on Flickr….

Oh yes, camp was good…. shame being back home is total pants….

There was a problem with the phone before we went away. It’s not taking incoming calls, Olivia gleefully telling everyone at group last week, “She (meaning me!) hasn’t paid the bill!”
But I have! Honest!! Couldn’t get broadband if I hadn’t, could I?? We’ve come back, and now I can’t phone out, every single number I’ve tried dialling is not recognised. Even the BT helpline number….
And now….no gas….which means no hot water!
Which after a long weekend of camping in a field with one cold tap is on a par with….with….with….ooh….something really, really bad!
I made the mistake of calling EDF after 8pm, which means no-one’s coming ’til the morning. Between 8am and 12 noon. I could cope this morning washing my hair in cold water (which was actually colder than the water in the field!), but I was kinda sorta looking forward to a hot bath tonight. A long hot bath. With a bit of Lush thrown in. Quite a lot of Lush to be honest….
And I left our pretend chicken slices for lunch tomorrow at Di’s this afternoon.
Please excuse me while I go and sulk….

Oh yeah….I remember….I think….
Monday, we were being all arty again….I think….
Tuesday, we went to see Di and we did….um….not a lot really….we did eat cake though, a huge great chocolate affair, so we obviously had to eat a lot, ’til we felt sick in fact….and drank tea….
Wednesday was group day. There was supposed to be yoga, so we got there in plenty of time, Olivia with her mat tucked under her arm. But blokey never showed.
But Louise did….with an addition….

Guess what she had? Can you? Can you really??
The afternoon’s entertainment was provided by Dan the Hat….pic city central….

Lots of fun. Then Olivia’s community garden, where I meant to take some progress photos, but I’d run out of memory. Not me, the camera….the SD card to be specific. Then drama and home again.

Thursday….what did we do Thursday? Slightly worrying blank….nope, I’ve already blogged it….most confusing. Adam (the fitness instructor) got the results of his practical.

Friday, we were out early to set off to Dartmouth for the day with the photography group. Not as early as it could have been, because the bus goes past the end of the road, so we didn’t have to haul ourselves into town. Most convenient. I like buses like that.
Yes….photography group means photos….
We met up with everyone and had a walk round part of the town, snapping away.

Then got the ferry to the castle….to take more photos….and have lunch on the beach….

The plan was for the two of us to leave in time to get the last ferry back to Dartmouth (Yeah, I know we could have walked, but ferries are cool!), but Olivia and B had bonded big time and persuaded us to stay longer. Mainly because B accused me of being completely unreasonable.
So back to the beach it was after everyone else had gone. Jolly glad we did too, we spotted a seal out at sea (well, Gordon did…), but the photo was ridiculously small. A blob in the water, not worth the space it took up on the memory card….
And we spotted a jellyfish (well, Gordon did….)! Olivia caught it and it was deposited in a bucket for us all to have a look at before releasing it back into the wild. Olivia, oh so bravely, conquering her fear of jellyfish. Where it comes from I have no idea, it’s not as though she has been viciously attacked by hordes of them in the past or anything.
But she was viciously attacked by all the barnacles on the rocks….although she remains completely unconcerned about them….

The other 37 photos are here in a set on Flickr. Look, it was a photography trip, I had to take lots of photos!
We got a lift back to Totnes (bizarrely finding out that Hannah knows my uncle Nick from the jazz band he used to play in at the Seven Stars in Totnes!) and caught the second to last bus, getting home at almost nine. As in 9pm. About a 12 hour day. But a very lovely 12 hour day.

So….yesterday….we left the house even earlier to catch a train to Bristol. To visit the Bristol Vegan Fayre. More photos….

A recurring theme throughout the day was the repetitive questioning by a certain Olivia child….
“Is it really all vegan??” (We’d seen a milkshake stand)
“Can I really eat everything??” (First stop was the central market with lots of food just begging to be tasted!)
“How can he do that??” (We were watching a contortionist)
“Is everyone really vegan??”
I lost count of the number of times she asked each question!!

We missed lots of talks….all of them actually, we were there for food and entertainment. We got both in bucket loads. We did catch a cookery demonstration by Jane Easton from VIVA. She was doing a mushroom risotto, followed by raspberry syllabub. She made a huge fan of Olivia by letting her have the glass full of syllabub that had been used for presentation purposes.
Cue more repetitive questioning, “So, mum, how much syllabub did you get?? Ha!!”

It was extremely hot and muggy the entire day. Fortunately, there was cool wet water aplenty just outside the venue, so we had a paddle midway through the afternoon.

Mr Brett, him of the stripy outfit, sat on my lap. You can imagine my joy at having a sweaty man sitting on me. Just think ‘armpits far too close to my face’….yeah, you get the idea….

We’d missed the display by the Sikh martial artists because we’d been watching Jane Easton. But we did get to see Harem Nights, a North African band complete with belly dancers. Olivia was fascinated with them and got as close to the stage as she could to take photos. Lots of photos, I had to whittle them down a bit….

Another very enjoyable day, even with the sticky weather. We saw a few friends from EFFA, one was working on the Animal Aid stand, the other two were just up for the day like us.
It started raining as we went back to the train station. Those big big raindrops that seem to fall slower than the others. My favourite kind of rain.
So….we got back even later than we did the day before….and went straight to bed. There’s a surprise.
I seem to remember saying something about doing a photo prompt catch-up today. Think that’ll be happening tomorrow now! As will Sarah’s kind tagging. ‘Cos I’m still tired. And we blitzed the bathroom this afternoon. Which means that I may have need of a glass of wine. But I don’t have any in the house. I’m feeling too lazy to go to the shop. Olivia’s too young to go for me. Adam’s already gone out. Looks like a wine free night again tonight. Which is not fair, seeing as I resisted the Apple Bar (lots of cider!) so nobly at the Fayre yesterday. Looks like I’ll be sulking then.

Fruit
A sweet product from a tree or plant to eat. Show us fruit in your space.
A strange lack of fruit in our house today. Definitely in need of a mega shop tomorrow. Whoopee doo…. Regular readers will be aware of how much I dislike shopping. Detest might be more appropriate actually….

Her Space
Olivia grabbed the strawberry ‘flavour’ washing up liquid. Not that she makes a habit of drinking it ….

My Space
I made do with an abandoned half eaten apple in the alley beside our house. The fact that someone on this GCE eats (however half-heartedly) fresh fruit is encouraging however….

I have been indulging my healthy obssession with Flickr by uploading most of the photos from our jaunt to Spain last year.

So here’s a few of them…..

The rest of them are in a set over here.

I shall now jump on the bandwagon, and ask any lurkers to de-lurk….. ‘cos I’m starting to get curious….

A quick conversation with Olivia on Saturday…
“Mum, I forgot to say that when K was doing my hair, she said Adam was well fit. Should I tell Adam?”
Hmmm….methinks there may be ulterior motives in her willingness to do Olivia’s hair for free….

So for the rest of the catch up….
Because I’ve still been feeling sorry for myself and too tired to blog lately.

Saturday was mostly just pottering about, no art club because the teacher was ill, so it was postponed. Yay! Lie-in!!! Ooh, and hope she feels better soon….
Olivia did some kind of arty thing I’m sure. I really just wafted….
In the evening we headed to the museum for the showing of Night At The Museum. Great fun! We saw some friends from Wednesday group, they thought it as great as we did.
Oh….and I finally received the grant cheque for the activities that I booked up months ago. Which is a bit of a relief, I thought I might have to start getting stroppy….”Well, where’s our money you promised then??!!”

Sunday, we got our tent out for an airing because we’re going on a camping trip in June. First time for both of us. Well, first time proper for me, I went overnight on a school journey once….

Once the tent was up, we both felt confident and strong enough to deal with the grotty long division from the other day. Had to be done in the tent of course. All done now….yeah, think we’ll be sticking with the way we’ve always done it.
Olivia also read through her G-file and we came up with a kit list for our camping trip, that then got typed up on the ‘puter.

One of the wild strawberries has produced fruit, one of which ripened on Sunday, meaning it got eaten within seconds. I sulked, ‘cos it wasn’t me who ate it, but then cheered myself immensely with uploading old photos from my camera’s internal memory. Yes, I am fully aware that for most this is not a vast leap forward into the modern age, but it is for me!!

Monday morning we bought almost all of the camping kit list. We’re all set now!
The afternoon was spent kayaking. The second of the activities I’d booked at Haven Banks. The adults didn’t get a go this time though. And I’m slightly peeved that a couple of people didn’t turn up. There were other children on the waiting list who could have had a go if I’d known they weren’t going to show….
Anyway, photos….

Great time had by all….except for the chaos surrounding the changing rooms at the end. No idea how many school groups, and our lot, were all trying to get changed at the same time….

Got home with all our newly purchased camping goodies, so just had to test them all.
Olivia was in charge of packing the bag with food, making sure we had everything to eat with, cook with and wash up with….
Then I locked the back door, and if she’d forgotten anything, well….that was just tough, wasn’t it?!

She really wanted to sleep in it that night. But I said no, because I knew we’d be having a long day today….

So….today….lovely day….very lovely day….that was made much much shorter (in a good way, I hasten to add!) by Sarah picking us up at 9:30. If she hadn’t, we’d have had to leave the house about three hours earlier. Which in my book, makes it roughly the middle of the night. So huge, huge, huge great thanks to Sarah!!! And Joe and Robyn who happened to be in the van with her.
We were off to Overbecks, a National Trust place down (way down) near Salcombe, Sarah coping admirably with the hairy scary twisty turny steep declines and inclines, and silly drivers who wouldn’t/couldn’t back up.
More photos, a lot, because it was just such a gorgeous day with all round gorgeous views that I couldn’t decide which ones to use and which ones not to use….

We were meeting up with the historical visits group, most of whom come from down that neck of the woods, but Exeter was well represented by us two and Lisa.

We went into the house first for the kids to do a quiz trail and find a ghost in the secret room. Lisa found it first and squealed, giving the location away a bit!
Lunch up in the picnic area, which was ever so conveniently situated high up on a bit of a slope, meaning even more photo ops and plenty of rolling down hills….

After lunch, it was back to the house to finish the quiz trail, Joe tagging along quite happily with Olivia and M. The benefit of that being that I felt guilty only buying icepops for Olivia and myself, so they both got one too. I told M to eat hers quickly before her sisters saw it. Which she did, but then told them later anyway.
Anyways, the four of us then headed back to the gardens for another quiz trail, slurping icepops as we went….

We seemed to pick up a few strays in the gazebo….

And then…. it was down to the beach…. see, told you it was a lovely day….check out the blues!!

It’s been a very lovely day (I may have already mentioned that) and I hope Sarah didn’t get into too much trouble for getting back late.

What I thought was Olivia going to be ill, wasn’t. It was me. She woke up about half past seven, Wednesday morning, banging on my door, “I feel great!!”
“I don’t! Go away!” (Or words to that effect….)
I’d had a grotty tummy on Tuesday at the organic farm, barely making it to the loo in time at one point. Wednesday, I woke up with a splitting headache, hence my dismissal of Olivia. It carried on throughout group…. whoopee doo…. making me feel like a complete fraud sat next to Lou, who must be about 12 months pregnant by now….
And oh joy, it carried on through drama as well….
I woke up with it slightly abated yesterday morning. But by then I had a wonderfully stiff, sore and very painful neck to make up for the slight decrease in head pain….
Decided to give pottery a miss, not being able to face the bike ride. Olivia got on with workbooks, maths, English, science, history, algebra…. and started another maths book. The first one, she had two pages left to do, but the second to last page involved long division. It also involved an introduction to a method that I am total crap at. Well, it would, wouldn’t it?! Olivia really couldn’t grasp it either. It was far too scary and painful for me to talk her through, which is why she started a new book. She also finished painting the bird feeding box and did a water colour painting of a fox in the garden. Not a real fox in our garden, it’s just where she happened to be when being struck by artistic inspiration….
I made a pathetic phonecall to Lisa around about that time, “Can you do me a favour, please? Can you take Olivia to guides, please?”
Lisa, being Lisa, said of course, no problem. I like my friends.
Then Olivia grabbed the camera to take a few photos in the front garden….

Adam had come home at some point while I was trying to sleep off my headache in the afternoon. He hid at the top of the stairs and yelled “BOO!!” when I made a reappearance…. Sometimes, I really hate teenage boys….
He’s very excited about his weekend though, he’s getting another tattoo done (yeah, you can imagine my enthusiasm when he shared that little nugget with me….) and he (with a bunch of friends) is going to Wembley to watch Exeter play on Sunday.

My headache had more or less gone by this morning, but I still had the pain in the neck (see how I’m resisting the urge to mention Olivia in the same sentence??!), meaning I could barely turn my head. The pain sort of reached down to grab my left hand, leaving my fingers numb.
So…. feeling like that…. we set off for the Devon County Show at 8:30.
Yes, I really would have liked to stay at home. In bed. But I’d already bought tickets a few weeks ago. And there’s absolutely no way on earth that I could possibly be persuaded to go the County Show on a Saturday. The crowds, you see. Of people. I don’t like people. Especially in crowds. And there’s a lot of them at the County Show. Lots of them reminding me exactly what it is about crowds that seriously get on my ti…. nerves.

A few examples….
People who take dogs to huge crowd filled places.
People who take unreasonably huge pushchairs to huge crowd filled places.
People who then ram into your flipflop clad heels with unreasonably huge great pushchairs.
People who stop suddenly right in front of you.
People who stop suddenly right in front of you meaning you then have to jump backwards over huge great piles of cow poo.
Or horse poo.
Or any other kind of poo.
Which, believe me, is abundant at a rural county show.
People with umbrellas.
Because it always rains when it’s a County Show weekend.
People who reallyreallyreally have an urge to sell you their pile of crap merchandise.
Even if their crap merchandise is shoe polish, and you’re wearing flipflops.

On the plus side however, it’s DEVON.
There will be cider.
Your daughter has finally learnt not to ask for everything she sees.
It didn’t rain as much as it did last year.
There is a Pimm’s tent.
‘Nough said.

A few photos….

This one has to be big because it made me go “Wow!” more than anything else today….

What? You think that’s it?? We left the house at 8:30, not returning ’til gone 7…. and you think that’s all the photos I took?!
Ohhhh….. there are more…. trust me…. plenty more…. they’re all here.
Feel free to comment or ask questions here…. or on Flickr…. and I’ll fill in any gaps…. I’m too tired to do it now. But my head and neck are fine again.
Oh, but Olivia’s still snotty….

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….