the last day of the holiday

Today is the last day of the holiday as the children return to school tomorrow... hooray!

Don't get me wrong as I have really loved having them close by but i must admit that now at the end of a lazy Summer we are all looking forward to an ease back into a more daily routine. I know that i shall miss them but i know too that it will enable me to get into my new workshop and to start working on some of the new ideas that have been buzzing through my head all Summer.

Today is also the last day that my youngest is 7 and the last day before she goes to junior school. Yes, she is starting a new school on her 8th birthday, but is pretty cool about it all as she will have her elder sister there looking out for her. She will have to wear a tie, but she is confident that she can construct this without help. I still have 2 boxes of their school clothes to label, which somehow got lost as my crocheting addiction took over. I now have 18 grannie squares, 2 of which use 2 colours! ... may attempt 3 next time.


For those of you who love crocheting here is a sweet link for making some crochet trees from a lovely blog called resurrection fern... i am tempted to try but i will have to wait.

Thank you for all your comments on my last post and the suggestions of ticking off things on my list before i move onto the treats (ie, crocheting ). I have finally ticked off the buy school shoes, although my eldest is developing her own sense of style, which is great, but even finding shoes which fitted- a mammoth task in itself- then there was the not liking them to deal with. I must admit i knew what she meant... well would you want to have shoes with a toy in at age 10? how i hate those toys in the heel anyway... i am sure it interferes with the comfort and structure of the shoe.... a rant i know is shared with many other mothers in search of suitable shoes. I also expect that many school teachers find them a trial too. So we have opted for a fill in 'cheaper' pair until we can find some nice plain ones that fit.

Today i need to food shop , make a school P.E. shoebag (still on list), make school bag with eldest (new addition to the list), do some laundry (always on the list), sew on all those labels, wrap and prepare some birthday presents and organise a bithday party. Wish me luck.
How are you filling your day today?
ginny x

Summer fun

Despite the weather being pretty crappy we do have some summer fun to report.
Our little camping trip went well and most importantly the tent went up on a sunny day and thankfully was packed up on a dry day too. So no tedious airing it in the back garden when we got home!



We stayed on the east coast of the Isle of Wight this year and explored from there. We didn't plan each day rigidly but rather let them unfold gently. This worked so well and kept everyone happy. The girls were a delight and we all enjoyed this holiday and easily adopted a much slower pace.

The first day was a scorching beach day, with deckchairs, picnic, warm sand, swimming and ice cream.

We also made it to the garlic farm this year and the lavender farm.



Elephant garlic flowers.


lavender farm

A fantastic time was shared with friends here at a fabulous Medieval day. There were demonstrations and activities for the whole family. We all had a go at archery, watched some Medieval dancing and talked to the costumed exhibiters about Medieval life from herbs and food to dress and latrine pits. The company who run these events have a website which has some great links on and this event is planned at the end of August too. Looks great!? I was particularly drawn to these as you would imagine...

Medieval poppet dolls made from wool and linen and stuffed with moss.

Many hours also were spent looking out to see and waiting to catch the waves as they crashed over the rocks. So exhilerating!

waiting to get wet!

and finally here is a photo of a friendly tiny rabbit who with it's friend were seen nibbling leaves just 50 yards from our tent. The girls were over the moon to see wild bunnies so close.



They are so desperate for a pet and now that i am going to be at home more we are looking...
there is a possibility of a friends kittens (they are sooo sweet!) but we think R is allergic to cats. We have arranged to borrow one when they are a bit bigger (only 4 weeks old now) to check. Although we may not need to as black cat appeared on our doorstep last week wanting to get in... it has been back a few times and when i got home at 12.30 the other evening there was a loud miowing ... we are so soft that we let her come in. She (we think it's a girl ) had a look around, brushed up against our legs in that affectionate moggy kind of way and went upstairs and curled up on the end of the girls bed and settled down. It was like she had always done that. We both think that she is here for a reason.. maybe she is a magic cat says my eldest, come to test daddy's allergy. I have always loved black cats.

We made her a bed and let her sleep downstairs. She went off a little reluctantly in the day and appeared back last night and appeared hungry. We fed her outside the back door and then another black cat appeared! almost identical. Our feeling is that some folks may be on holiday and that she is being fed but wants some petting (although she did seem hungry). She is very friendly. She has no collar but i understand that cats can be microchipped nowadays. I have a contact of a local cat protection lady and i hope to talk to her today. I would be gratefully if anyone has any advice on this and on cat allergies too. I will let you know what happens.

Nearly the weekend. Hope yours are good.

Will be back soon with book news... very exciting as it is nearly September!
ginny x

thank you's and moving on...

The school term has now finished for the Summer and brings the mixed emotions of the excitement of lazy days and holidays but also the sadness of saying goodbye to special teachers and of the anticipation of moving on to the next stage.

My youngest will be moving on to a different school in September so it was a final goodbye to the fantastic infant school which has nurtured her for the past three years and her sister for three years before that. It was also time for me to say goodbye as a parent. We are all ready to move on but will remember this very special school with such gratitute and warmth as it truly has given both my girls the most amazing start to their school lives.

On the whole I believe that a School Education is a good thing but feel that it is so important for schools to give each individual child the freedom to experience and develop in their own special ways. I base less emphasis on the academic results but in nurturing a child's spirit and desire to embrace the world and everything around them. I do not agree with the testing as i know many teachers do not either, especially with such little ones!

I wish for my children to have a good all round experience at school, to be inspired by the wonder of nature, to learn by doing, to build their confidence and excitement about life, to follow their dreams and to be sensitive and caring to others. This school has provided the tools to inspire learning and really has complemented the philosophies that i hold and that we practice at home.....except the large amounts of homework!... i do like my girls to have lots of unstructured down time when they drift off into the most amazing imaginative play.

My youngest who loves to sew wanted to make some thank you gifts. She had a clear idea of what she wanted to do and designed some lavender cushions with each of her teachers in mind choosing the colours that she thought they would like. She stitched and stuffed them herself and i just helped when instructed.



My eldest also made a gift for her teachers (sadly no photo). It was a lovely fimo plaque with the words 'the best teachers' on it. She said that they really liked it and were going to put it up in the class. Her teachers have been fantastic too and she has grown so much this year.

All the teachers got some 'divine' chocolate too... it felt mad buying so many bars at once and if you are wondering... yes we couldn't resist getting a bar for us to enjoy too! Some special teachers received green and blacks mint or orange chocolate instead. And the caretaker even got some dark chocolate accompanied by a hand written card thanking him for , 'cleaning up my sick'! Not a nice job and definately deserved some chocolate don't you think?



So today is the first day of our holiday... the girls are playing in the garden, the collared doves are cooing, the sun is out , i am just about to hang out my washing, which is one of my favourite household jobs. What bliss.
Have an appointment to sort through fabrics later as i am finally moving into the new space... will be back later in the week with more on that.
Happy days and happy holidays to you all!
g x

That festive feeling...

Things have finally slowed down folkydokee wise..... the last orders have been sent and the book text finally finished. Now is the time for my own family Christmas preparations....




These beautiful glass vintage baubles were a charity shop find about 10 years ago... Each year as the Christmas box is brought down from the loft i anticipate their beauty and am never disappointed. Our other decorations are a collection built up since the girls were born. Each year they both choose a new tree ornament. Their Advent calender also over the past 6 years has included some tree decorations. The tree is now looking quite full!




I love colourful Christmas Trees and this year the girls took charge in decorating ours.
We went to a local farm to choose our tree, last Sunday. It was charming and there were a few animals to see including reindeer. We spent ages (as always), looking at each one and then returned to the one my lovely man had picked out in the first place!




When we got home we got out the lights and after securing it in the stand and pruning out a few branches the tree came inside, then to be twisted round and round by 'daddy' (about 4 times.. with him lying on the ground underneath) before us 3 girls had decided on the right angle... well he did ask us!
The coloured lights no longer all worked so we decided on the white lights.. they looked lovely all alight. My eldest and i both decided that a funny bit of tree sticking out would have to be pruned off. Well off i went for the garden secateurs... well you can guess can't you.. For a person who is so safety conscious to the extent of being annoying, i couldn't believe what i did next...... pruned off the offending sticky out branch and cut through the cable of the lights! The cable was green and i just didn't think...so very scarily easy to do. Luckily this was an indoor/outdoor set so went through a transformer so the voltage was small. If it had been a basic straight into 240 volts type string of lights then it would have been a very different story.
Consequently we couldn't decorate the tree as planned on Sunday evening.... as in my husband's words.. 'mummy's killed Christmas '.
To make matters worse in all this excitement i put my back out and have been unable to do very much these past few days, although it is improving and today i feel much better... so tidying the house can't be put off any longer!




After a new string of lights was purchased (with a silver cable) the girls decorated the tree on Tuesday evening. Here is the result...



All we need to do now is put the angel on top and then finish decorating the rest of the house.

The wreath for our front door is the next job using my twiggy circle.. made from wisteria prunings about 4 years ago.. it feels great to recycle it each year.




I like a simple natural wreath and usually use my sweet myrtle which is covered with dark glossy berries at the moment.



I dried some oranges the other evening and will perhaps include them too...



Solstice and Christmas wishes to you all. Have a wonderful holiday week with light, warmth and peace.
g
x

Holidays... Lazy days...

Hello .. it's been 2 weeks since my last post...and this is why...
We have been relaxing and holidaying both at home and on The Isle of Wight. It has been wonderful just to switch off and be with the family. We returned to the Isle of Wight and hooked up with friends and the girls met up with their penfriends (also made last year). It was great to have no plans and just to see what each day brought. We were so lucky as the weather was glorious.. suntan lotion and sun hats all week!

Freshwater Bay

This Island has so much to offer. Last year we did the whole Jurrassic, dinosaur thing as our youngest was obsessed with dinosaurs but this year we didn't do the things we intended to,like visiting the Lavender and Garlic farms and revisiting Black Gang Chine (memories of the early 70's as a child here!)
No... we just let the days unfold and had a few beach days, a few sightseeing days and time just hanging out together and with friends.

Freshwater Bay.. ( looking the other way)
Great beach for swimming ( steep gradient and deep water)

We saw lots of yachts as it was Cowes week.

We walked around these walls at Carisbrooke Castle.


Painted these at Chessell pottery.




And enjoyed an icecream or two.



We also saw this open air performance of the Pied Piper at Mottistone Manor with our good friends. We took a picnic and the boys went off to the NT cafe and came back with tea in china cups .... .. sipping tea.. on the lawn.. in the sunshine.. what bliss!

So i am now so rested that i'm mostly horizontal. 3 more weeks left of the Summer hols then back to reality. How i wish everyday could be like Summer.

We have a few new projects on the go at the studio and at home we are harvesting courgettes.. although some of them are now marrows due to the recent rain!
Hope you are having fun wherever you are!
G
x