3 on the 3rd

Little Spike is growing up... he's now a big 3 year old! And it was his 'magic' birthday - he turned 3 on the 3rd of August...

Chocolate cake for breakfast

Birthday party with friends

Checking out his brother's ears with his new Doctor Set...

He had a great day.

Thanks to everyone who was involved.

Taking a break from the blogging for the next couple of weeks. We are off to a family reunion in Barbados!! We have been planning this for two years, and we are so glad that none of us has come down with Swine Flu because we are GOING!!

Cake and Beans

It's been a long time coming...

Garden Boy's birthday cake, that is.

But finally, today, I made it. And although it wasn't quite the aesthetic masterpiece (icing a little lumpy, cake very gooey so didn't hold well when cut) it was delicious - if I do say so myself. Not that I take much credit. I can follow a recipe like the best of them!

So thank you to Nigella Lawson and her Feast cookery book for the Chocolate Honey Cake... YUM!

Today I took Spike and Dude down to the allotment. Not to do any work, you understand, but just to check up on the poor neglected thing. We have had poorly tummies etc and to be honest I find it difficult to spend much time down there with my three little darlings. There isn't much to do that they want to do (dig weeds for 3 hours, boys?) so I spend my time fretting about them not getting nettled/ thistled/ stepping on my few remaining plants/ wandering off/ messing with the newts (newts!) in the communal water-butts etc...

But we went down today to look around, and, if you ignore the weeds that are thigh high in places it is actually not too bad. In parts. For example:

my butternut squashes, grown from seeds from a supermarket squash! Getting bigger all the time! And the borage which self-seeded from one we grew last year in the home-garden, which I transplanted - successfully! Hooray!

And the bed I did last time, and have since ignored: bordered with hand-me-down chives from a generous allotmenter and 25p tomatoes and sweet peppers (all of which said they would rather be in a greenhouse - which I don't have, so they have had to suffer the indignity of being outside in the real live weather!) which are growing nicely, and really could use a prop so they don't sprawl in such a slovenly manner.

And the calendulas are flowering very prettily... and the cosmos are getting nice and big, which means that not everything is being eaten by the slugs and snails... very promising!

After that I treated the boys to a trip to Butterfly World... nice and warm on a rather unpromising day. Full of beautiful butterflies, and I would have taken more pictures, but the camera batteries were dying and the focus was suffering because of that. The meerkats were a big hit too. They are such funny little creatures...

And last but not least, here is an update from the home-garden. The Cherokee beans and the Runner beans are getting tall and lovely. The Cherokees are producing beans, and the Runners are flowering like mad, but no beans from them yet.

Cherokee bean flowers and baby beans

Young Cherokee beans

Grampy's heritage Runner Beans, in flower

The mangetout and sugar-snaps, after a glut, seem to have quit almost entirely. I think some of them got something attacking the root systems, because they have totally died, gone all brown and crispy. Some of the survivors have also been suffering from leaf-miners. So they aren't looking too good, and not surprisingly, I guess, they haven't been producing well for the past week or so. Hmm...

Rainy Days and Birthdays

As you can see from the water accumulated in the wheelbarrow, we have had quite a bit of rain recently. In fact, it started raining on Thursday around 4:30pm (I brought the washing in hastily as the first fat drops fell) and didn't stop raining until about 7pm on Friday evening. It poured and poured and poured. I couldn't believe that the sky hat that much water available to dump on us!

Still, the mangetout and sugar snaps like it, and they are putting out peas faster than we can eat them. We have a ziplock baggie in the fridge full, and we keep on eating them. The veggie of choice everyday, but they are growing faster than we can eat them. And we can eat them pretty fast, let me tell you.
Actually the mangetout are doing a lot better than the sugar snaps. They are far more prolific, and bigger, so although the sugar snaps are tasty I don't think I will bother growing them again because you get so much more pea-for-your-penny from the mangetouts! But that's by-the-by.

Yesterday was the GardenBoy's birthday. I was going to make him Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Honey Cake, from her Feast recipe book... But he was given a big chocolate cake from some friends... so I have promised to make him a cake later in the week when the gift-cake is finished. We went out to Betty's Tea Shop in Northallerton for his birthday treat... the whole lovely experience was topped off with a gorgeous Eton Mess for him, a mini lemon cheesecake for me, and milk-shakes for the boys.

It was all just too much for Spikelet. They all crashed out early and were still so full that they went to bed with no supper!

Busy Week

It has been quite a week.

I took my car in on Fri because it wasn't driving right and the fuel injector light was on. Boy was it not right. Needed a new head gasket (apparently that's a big deal), was only running on three cylinders and the clutch was going. So bye bye car, helloooo car hunting. We needed to get a bigger one anyway because 3 car seats in the back is not possible in our car. But not so keen on making car payments again after 2 years off... Oh well, ho hum.

We had birthdays over the weekend, mine and Dude's. We're twins, just 30 yrs apart, which makes it very easy for me to remember how old I am. I never believed my parents when they said they couldn't remember how old they were when I was little. Now I know they weren't faking...

We took 8 kids bowling and then to BK next door. Sounds easy? Try it.

Then my lovely auntie came to stay the night on Sun, and we went for a long walk, getting a bit lost, finding our way, then stopping at a friend's for an impromptu coffee.

Monday was the day that Dude had his first day at Beavers and that Pip had his last day at Beavers and first at Cubs. Big, big deal. Dude has been hankering to get into Beavers for 2 years and he finally made it.

Monday was also spent car hunting on the internet. We knew what we wanted but couldn't find a car to fit our simple (!) needs: 3 carseats across the back. Not a bus. At 10pm we found the Honda FR-V. Tues we went to look at one and decided to get it - Hooray.

Today and yesterday were spent finishing up the parish magazine that I produce monthly. Needs to be in church for Sunday. Not cutting it fine at all... who me?

And now the weather is lovely and I am going to get out in it because I can! Finally! I don't have to do anything, except perhaps continue digging the garden, but that's ok because it is SUNNY!

Apple trees are budding!
Early tulips have started flowering!

Look at what the kids at school have been producing. Not my kids, I regret, because I have been WAY TOO BUSY to be so creative. They have been lucky to be fed and to find clean socks in their drawers in the morning.

And here is Spike, to brighten your day.