What A Week!

I am a bit cross.

We went away to London for the half term break, and today I managed to find the time to upload the pictures to the computer. Unfortunately the computer denies knowledge of more than half of them, so I only have the ones taken on the last day, when we had to change photodiscs. So I am miffed.

Gone are all the pictures taken at the Aquarium. And Big Ben. And the Natural History Museum. And the London Eye. And all the other lovely pictures we had taken.

Grr...

I have had quite a week.

When we got back from London there was a letter from the library saying that the book I had ordered a month (!) previously was in. This was our book club book The White Tiger, and the meeting was set for Mon 23rd. Two days later. Eek!

So I went to the library on Monday, got the book and tried to read as much as I could before that evening's meeting. Amazingly I managed 2/3, but still. Not really enjoyable, enforced speed-reading.

I also had to prepare for our church's pancake party to be held, not surprisingly, on Pancake Tuesday... the 24th. I was in charge of decorations and mask-making. I spent a lot of tuesday cutting out card masks for the kids to decorate that evening. Also on Tues was Pip's swimming lesson, so I took them with me to cut while I was waiting for him... and left the lot at the pool. Doh! Still, the party was a hit despite the lack of masks to decorate. Over 100 people eating pancakes with the kids in fancy dress running around, playing with balloons and enjoying themselves. Phew. The fact that Spike threw up in his bed that night and I had a load of unexpected and stinky laundry and a vomit covered child screaming through his unwanted shower was not a problem. (!)

Wednesday. I produce our church's monthly magazine. The next month starts on Sunday. Hence this is the next magazine's due date. I was still working on it on Wednesday. Not at all stressful...

And Dude had his swimming lesson on Wed (he's doing really well, by the way, swam 3 m completely unaided by floats or anything!), so there was that to get ready for, and the general annoyancy of the 'no outside shoes in the changing room' rule, which meant that not only Dude had to have his shoes off (no problem) but I did (cold wet floor - yuk!) and so did Spike! Yay. Then Spike spilled his water cup down himself while we were waiting, so he was wet and cold. And I noticed while dressing Dude again that he was covered in a rash... so we tried to drop in at the doctors on the way home for them to check. He is absolutely fine otherwise, and didn't want to keep him off school if he was ok. Doctors close early on Wed. Arg! So raced off to the pharmacist. He said probably just viral, and not infectious... yay. So we made it through to the delicious home-made pizza waiting at the end of the day. Well, not quite the end of the day, because the magazine was still not finished... oh joy.

Thursday. Today. Spotty Dude all moisturised up and sent to school, happy as a lamb. Spike snotty as a slug, me trying to get the magazine sent off finally.

Got it done! Yay! All is good!

But not quite. We have the computer which ate my photos, and just now, Spike, playing happily in a bubble bath says 'Oh no! Poo!' Yes, you guessed it... IN the bath...

So now I am going to count my blessings.

1. GardenBoy in no danger of losing his job. Very good blessing.
2. Pip is healthy... no spots or snot from him!
3. I am well too. Very good thing.
4. The magazine is done.
5. The party is over.
6. Washing machine has not broken despite lots of wash sent through it this week!
7. Very good memories of London, despite having lost most of the photos.
8. Spike currently happy, snuggled up on the sofa with warm juice (in a leak proof cup!) under a fleecy blanket watching Charlie & Lola.
9. Dude's spots not dangerous, just unsightly.
10. Big warm house on a cold day.

There, see? That wasn't too hard. A good exercise for me.
Now, please excuse me while I go and disinfect my bath and start another load of laundry. Here are two pictures of the lovely Pip in London.


UPDATE: Would you believe it? Another bath poo from Spike this evening. My dishwasher is full of bath toys. Not something they tell you about when you sign up for this parenting lark!

Snowy Garden

Here is my vegetable patch. Can you tell it's a vegetable patch? I can't.

And here are my onions and garlic. Note the footprints. Obviously the kids can't tell it's a veg patch either.

Frosty...

King of the Snowball...

Enjoying the sled.

At least we have been having a 'proper' winter. But hopefully it will soon turn into a 'proper' spring. The snow is fine for now. It's a novelty. But novelty wears off, and I could do with the novelty of spring flowers. I know, all in good time... but I never said I was patient, did I?

And repeat...

It all disappeared... except for in the hills. Must have been the fact that we bought a sled (finally).

But it's back! Started about 10:30, and has continued. The boys will be thrilled when they get home. Get the sled out again.

And I got them some Warm Wellies the other day, so they won't have frozen tootsies. Again, like with the sled, glad I did it, even though it seemed a bit belated at the time.

HOORAY!!

Snow on Snow!

It kind of flurried yesterday in a very haphazard and not very impressive way. In a very English snow sort of way.

But we woke up this morning to a good inch-and-a-half, which, although still not very impressive compared to, say the sort of snow they get out at the Big Green Barn, but still, for England, very impressive. Well, we were impressed.

The boys were dressed and out in it like a shot. (Note the abandonded wheelbarrow. Not been in much use recently. Oops.)

They are off at school now (hooray) and it has continued to snow lots. In fact when I opened the window to take this shot there was snow blowing in, like you would imagine on Little House on the Prairie.

It is very pretty out there, and we are having a nice warm day watching the snow, and watching the birds who are cold and hungry. We have even had dedicated groundfeeders like robins and blackbirds feeding off the fatballs in the tree. Now that means they are very hungry! Here are three very pretty goldfinches. I love their gaudy YELLOW feathers, and RED heads.

And here's my Rosemary covered in snow.