more baubles than you can shake a stick at and posh nosh

Sooooo, a further telephone call to the Doc on Thursday and a visit on Friday morning cleared us to take our annual Otter Nurseries Santa visit.  I love the way they make a really good grotto, and they have the Santa gift falling down the 'magic chimney' - it's brill.  They also have a fantastic range of Christmas decs and displays.  This one made me titter, I like to imagine that the star of the show has walked out in a fit of pique.  Over pay, or something.

The Santa gift this year was a good one - cuddly toys are always appreciated!

I was drawn to this candy shoppe display:

as well as the more traditional flavours:

And Saturday saw us taking a trip to Axminster (bit of a pit of a town - sorry if you live there) to have lunch at the River Cottage canteen.  This was supposed to happen last weekend, for Mark's birthday, but was postponed because Oliver was ill.  Can't say he is much better now, but gotta get on with it...

Oliver chose pheasant:

Mark, polenta with mushrooms:

I didn't photograph my dinner, I was too greedy hungry to wait any longer.  I had mussels with a side of chunky 'real' chips which were so hot I burnt my mouth.  This temporarily distracted me from the pain in my back, which I seem to have injured in some way. 

Oliver didn't eat all of his pheasant, which I think tasted weirdly chicken-like, but our dishes were good.  The puddings were very grown up - bitter chocolate and cinammon cream in a parfait jar (!!!) and vanilla cheescake with apricots.  Both great, but both very 'grown up' tasting.  Make of that what you will.

Excitement of all excitement:

I have wanted a little typewriter like this for years - for scrapbooking labelling purposes mainly.  Saw this in a recycling shop in Axminster, asked how much it was (expecting around £25, which I wouldn't have paid - would have gone to £10), and the bloke said a couple of quid!! I was saying done and reaching for my purse before the end of the word 'quid'.  Mark, who will surely sprain his eyeballs one day by rolling them so fiercely, muttered and mumbled alot about this purchase, but I am smitten.  Mwwaahh to my little SR180.  Here's to you my tippety tappity friend.

Yeahh, my back hurts.  Those who know me, will know I don't bear pain well at all.  Think I have twisted something out of place, and putting my shoes on, driving, lying down and sitting in certain positions hurt.  Annoyingly, walking around and standing in the kitchen doing mundane domestic chores don't cause pain.  Well, that's alright then.  Off to an Osteopath as soon as they open tomorrow morning.

December 2nd. Nuff said.

Just a quickie, better way post daily wherever humanely possible, or the days will just fall on top of each other and I won't remember sod all about what we've been up to.

A very early start to the day at 5am with Oliver in our room panicking because he couldn't breathe very well.  This has happened before a few times - a simple sniffle has led to a dash to A&E in the throes of an asthma attack.  This was the situation this morning, but being a little older than the last time, we managed to control his panic with calm words and a good measure of inhalers, and he fell back to sleep cuddled by Daddy whilst Mummy sat on the edge of bed watching him breathe for a while before slinking off to a restless couple of hours in a single bed surrounded by cuddly toys, pillows and remote controls.

Kim came over for lunch and cups of tea, which is always nice because she is a guest who doesn't mind me just sitting and crocheting while I bend her ear on every subject under the sun.  I have just taken a stroll over to Whipton to pick up 3 new balls of yarn for my lovely new blanket and I am hopeful of squeezing in a bit of Christmas journalling (my very boring A5 folder turned up today) before my next domestic duty calls.

Have worked out the piccy problems, so will be boring the pants off you with visuals on a screen near you soon.

pockets of sadness and a creeping of yuletide cheer

Still feeling pinches of deep sadness.  Thank you for the kind comments on my last post - that's really nice. 
Today I am going to start Christmas.  I don't feel very Christmassy - largely due to feeling bloody miserable I suspect, but Oliver has his Cubs Carol Service tonight (early this year) and he has a reading to do.  This is very exciting for me, being that type of proud parent, and he will also be receiving his cub silver award from the district commissioner (who?!), which he doesn't know about - so he will be extra chuffed.  So, because of the inevitable singing with joyful voice tonight, and because Mark chucked down the Christmas decs from the loft at the weekend, today the tree will go up and we will have crossed the threshold of Yuletide blessings....

Even though I am two days earlier than normal, and this is waayyy ahead of the rest of my friends,  romans and countrymen, Julia 'I can't be doing with Christmas' Pollard has stolen a march on me and been and gone and Started.  Christmas.  First.  Wow.  Get her mantlepiece.  I am, of course, jealous.  I have no mantlepiece at all. Sniff.

I can't even blog you a pic of the finished decs later, as we have a new computer following last week's minor explosion of compu-innards and Lordy knows how to cyber-transfer pics from my memory card into this baby.  No doubt Mark will know, if I can persuade him to assist.  He hates my bloggy love affair - he blames it for the demise of the last computer.

I have taken the plunge after years of being a bit scared of it - and taken my first steps towards joining the local WI.  Oh yes - I shall be knitting macrame baskets from my knickers before you can say 'pass me the pinking shears Marjorie.... '  An update on that after Thursday.

And this morning I have 'done my roots' and I think that this particular (crap) brand has just dyed the rest of my hair the same colour as the roots, and not the other way round.  Why I am even surprised at this eventuality I really don't know.  You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  Bet I will be able to macrame a basket from knickers soon though tee hee.

Et voila!

Not quite the done to death 'ta dah' - but boy, am I feeling just a little bit smug today!  It has taken me four months to do, and it is the first real proper hobby I have embarked upon, stuck to and finished something 'real' and usable.  Hurrah for me. 

The granny stripe blanket - 87 stripes (a teeny rebellion in the final number there), edged with a deep shell of my own tweaking.  To fit our king size bed, and to drape artfully around the sofa.  Ahhhh.  sigh. 

We have had Halloween since my last missive: 

He was Darth Maul, for the non Star Wars aficionados.  And the annual pumpkin mess amid much cutting, scraping, puffing, panting and swearing. 

Would show you the bonfire night (Guy Fawkes night for the puritans) pics, but they are so crap, it is embarrassing.

There was a resources day with the home-ed group yesterday - a good idea,  where people bring in the things they use as educational aids/materials.  Always interesting and encouraging.  I have come away feeling freshly enthused.  Have felt like that about home-ed quite a bit lately.  I have bought a couple of sketchbooks for Oliver and I to use together.  I have read several times that it is a good idea to work alongside your child, so they will follow your lead in methods/means blah blah.  I am no artist, but think I am quite capable of expressing myself visually well enough to encourage Oliver to do the same.  We shall see. 

Tonight Oliver will be attempting to swim 800m during his swimming lesson, which I am impressed with.  I love watching him swim - he now looks like a real swimmer when he streaks up and down the pool doing front crawl.

it never rains, but it pours.

Well, it's pouring now, that's for sure.  It's half term this week and it's been raining heavily all week.  Personally, I love the rain - it keeps people inside their own houses and not outside in the great blue yonder annoying me, and I love the cosiness of indoor life anyhow, so win-win for little old selfish me....

It isn't too bad for the boy though too, since he likes a fair few indoorsy things too.  We have started to play Gin Rummy together (is that how you spell it??? never had occasion to write it down before) and it's a pretty cool means of getting him to write figures and add up disguised within a game heh heh heh.  Also starting watching our way through Lord of the Rings again, but he has got twitchy and nervous about it (again) so we have stalled halfway through the Two Towers, annoyingly.  All that viewing allowed me to crack on with my big granny stripe blanket, and I am happy to report that I am on stripe 81.5, so a completion date is almost in sight.  I have had to order more yarn (which I do sooooo love to do) to carry on with Oliver's stripey too, and I reckon his is about a quarter ways through.  Think his will be around the 75-80 stripe mark. 

Last weekend saw my little angel head off to cub camp for a weekend of cubbyness and independence.  I think he enjoyed himself - he had a hard time coming to terms with the fact they didn't have the promised disco on Saturday night and instead had a camp fire, but apart from that I think it was a success.  These times away from home, and particularly away from me, are good for him, but I often have to close my eyes and breathe deeply and swallow hard when faced with the misery of his absence.

And so to finish, some cub snaps taken 'en camp':

hooky love (just for you Kim, tee hee)

Before I forget, here is my latest show-and-tell blanket, colours chosen by Oliver:

I had serious misgivings over these colours, and fought bitterly for a multi-coloured stripe.  He originally wanted just three colours, but grudgingly conceded to add in the blue.  I thought it would be very dull.  Shows what I know. And it is for his bed after all....



The granny stripe for our bed is 20 stripes away from completion!  Tres exciting.  Then it's just all the ends to sew in and three or four rows all the way around the outside to finish off.  Onwards and upwards.

Oliver continues to enjoy the social aspects of the home-ed groups he attends, and seems to really enjoy the tutor-led subjects - spanish and science.  These are small groups and I think he is getting alot out of these.  There is talk of a french group starting, using conversation, games and songs mostly, so think that would be great too.  At home he gets on with maths and english stuff (english less willingly, I must admit), but I am trying hard to work on spelling and writing by getting him to work on presenting english in a different way.  His cousin (of the same age) produces the most brilliant handwritten magazines and books on subjects she is passionate about, and inspired by this, he did actually spend time creating a comic strip type story with speech bubbles, which is fab.

I do have other blitherings to share, but really feel to lazy to tappety-tap anymore.  I'll leave you with a pic of Oliver and the first of  his daily activities.  Bloody Pokemon cards.  These are my personal pet hate of toys - loose cards.  I like them stored in boxes, in types.  Oliver likes them stored around the house in random piles and strewn across the usable floor space.  ha ha.  bless.

So, here we are then, the start of the Autumn 'term'.  That is, some things that we do kick off again - Cubs, HE group, regular education at home (?!)........  I love Autumn.  I love that wintry feel which creeps in around late afternoon - that nip in the air that says the cold is a-comin' and the smell of bonfires gradually creeping into the chill of the night......oooh, lovely.  I love the wrapping up warm, the cosy afternoons, dimpsy evenings and life in the great indoors.  The falling leaves make it harder to spot the dog poo on a walk however.  You can't have it all.

Current crochet progress:

on my 58th stripe of the granny stripe blanket:

and I have completed 5 big squares for another blanket:

I have had to order in another 'yarn' pack as I will be running out soon - oh frabjous day.

Oliver back off to Cubs:

He didn't get 'Seconder', which he was expecting to get (literally second in charge in the pack) since his 'Sixer' (head pack honcho) had gone up to Scouts and the current Seconder moved up to Sixer.  Instead they moved Oliver's close friend into the pack and made him Seconder instead. Gulp. I could hardly sleep that night (I didn't find out til I arrived home from work late) for worry and anger over Oliver's upset.  It seemed so unfair.  Through a couple of emails to the Cub leader, understanding was restored, and although the position remains the same, Oliver was happy with his leader's comments and I am happy that he is OK with it.  More than anything though, I was pleased that Oliver's disappointment was focused on him not getting the position rather than on the fact his friend did get it.  That seems wholly sensibly proportionate to me, and I recall that as a child I think I would have been eaten up with jealousy and bitterness in such circumstances so I am so happy Oliver is not of that ilk.

Mark has decided after seeing a nutritionist to try a period of wheat and dairy free eating.  First a pricey shop at the local weirdy food store:

Muesli is homemade by my own fair hands (toasted and everything, I'll have you know) and in addition he must have homemade vegetable soup daily.  Fliparooney.  It requires a fair bit of thinking ahead, although I enjoy the challenge of cooking good, wholesome stuff.  I am very interested to see if he loses weight, because if he does - I'm in for that.  It doesn't seem too beyond the pail.

What else, hmm. I managed to pick up Gastritus earlier in the week and endured two days of stomach ache and headache.  It really doesn't look too unbearable written down, but boy, the last few days have been well miserable.  Thankfully friends and family have been able to ensure that Oliver hasn't been too badly affected by my maudlin weeping and wailing and taking to my sickbed, and he has got out to do his normal things.  Thanks to them who know who they are....  And actually, that is a big bummer for the HE family - if you fall ill, you are stuffed.  No shunting your kids off to school and falling into bed for the day, getting a fellow school-run-mum to take your offspring home for fish fingers and chips til the hubby finishes his day at the office.  Phew. Another load off....

As I say, you can't have it all.

Laters.