Blue goes to London – and doesn’t break the BBC!
We did it! We made it to London and back without breaking anything or losing ourselves! We left home at just after 6, collected by a taxi to take us to the station. When I got up, Blue opened one eye and sighed at me in a ‘you-have-to-be-kidding-can’t-you-see-it’s-still-dark-outside fashion, but by the time I had her lead on she was willing (ish) to go. The show itself was, on the whole, annoyingly pointless. Unlike the normal watchdog show there was no investigation, no resolution, and they simply skimmed the surface of the issue with some platitudes. I’ll write more tomorrow about why we were there i the first place – and I’ll try and video the clip so that you can see Blue-the-TV-star hogging the camera...
The Fire Garden at Stonehenge. Utterly Enchanting.
I have never been to Stonehenge. There. I admit it. Despite living less than an hour away, and driving right past it whenever we go anywhere except to Wales or further West… I’ve never stopped. The thing is, I’ve never really seen the point of wandering around it in a carefully fenced ring a long way from the stones. But. Last night we went to Stonehenge. Oh yes. And it was… magical. Amazing. And probably indescribable. The Fire Garden was part of the Cultural Olympiad, and all we knew was that as well as the fire installations we would be able to ‘get closer than usual tourist access’. What we did NOT realise, until we walked through the gate, was that this meant complete, unrestricted, wander-right-amongst-the-Stones...
Holy Moly – I only went and won a trip to Disney!
Remember that magic evening up on Win Green, playing cricket in the sunset? Well, I saw P&O were running a photo competition on their Facebook page for images of ‘My Magical family’ – it only had two days to go, so I entered one of my photographs of that evening. Well. It only went and WON the judges choice! WOOT! We’re going to Disney! To stay for three days! Here’s hoping it’s better than our last disastrous...
Silly. And We Like Silly.
Take one field. Full of large round Straw bales. The REALLY BIG kind. Add four children, two *cough* grown ups, one dog and a dose of Autumn sunshine. Hey Presto – mix it up and you get Four Hours of Silly. And then we *might* have decided that enough wasn’t quite enough, and that maybe a little stop at the park on the way home was in order… It *might* have been at ths point that things got a little out of hand, and C decided to jump onto the weird spinny-pole thing to see how it went. And got stuck. Spinning faster and faster whilst I laughed till I physically hurt. Then he fell off and stayed on all fours, moaning, hands gripping the earth to stop it tipping. At which point I may have been unable to breathe as the tears poured down my...
Wardour Castle
A couple of years ago, we visited Wardour Castle at Easter. Nothing unusual there – we go a couple of times a year, it’s our nearest ‘proper’ castle for exploring and picnicking, and it’s a fab afternoon out. But while we were there, we saw a family. A large family. Three generations at least. Laughing, playing, chatting, arguing… grandmother holding the baby, Grandfather poking the small boys in some kind of complicated game which involved much giggling, a posse of girls making daisy chains, teens who were too ‘cool’ to do anything but watch desultorily (until they got dragged in), the grown ups involved in an uproarious game of Bulldog. Their dog escaped and came to visit us, and the grandmother wandered over to...
Mothering Sunday chez Mamafour.
Scrambled eggs for breakfast – perfectly cooked by no.1 Jolly offered me a cup of tea – and then whispered loudly to No.1 “will you show me how to make Mummy a cup of tea?”. Sofa time with my small people, with the most magnificent cards and gifts any mother got. Sorry, I know your love yours, but quite clearly – mine were Best. An afternoon exploring and running and jumping on a hill fort – and the obligatory game of Block. Which Blue was particularly bad at, giving away every hiders position one after another with smug irrespressibly bouncy glee, no matter how often we hissed at her to go away. Home for movie night, and the boys ‘treating’ me – to their very favourite burger-and-chips-from-the-pizza-shop....
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