Along the Canal

Long conversations with Jenna and Morgan about how the locks work, why the gate sections form a point, how the lock fills and empties, the history of the canals etc. So many interesting things to see, old buildings to speculate about, and a handful of fluffy Moorhen chicks too.



Fairy garlands of White Briony hang in the hedgerows.





And foraging to be done, always, at this time of year. Tiny bright green hawthorn leaves tasting of walnuts, sharp end-of-summer blackberries and wine-tasting elderberries plump, black, and fragrant.

When Talia asked to go in the sling, we turned back for home. Just as we drew close to our starting point, it started to rain. Good timing, sleepy toddler.

Show and Tell

1. Post-show Morgan
2. Moon
3. Colour wheel
4. Outdoor sisters
5. Grandma
6. Knitting
7. Tali ("Kitty lie down me kitchen!" Also, she totally has a little chocolatey beard from "helping" to make truffles. The baby, not the cat.)

Yes, not really over seven days, just a sample of our week. :)

Outside

Spring walks in various parks and woodlands are such a joy. This week we had chance to take a meander with my mum and her dogs, including lots of daisy chain making and running around. Also including me trying to get the extremely elderly dog out of the lake. Thank goodness she managed to get out again, as she's almost blind and quite frail. Given the split second decision to catch the baby or the dog, mum saved Talia, and was then quite insistent that I not go in after the silly fur-baby.



Good memories and bad ones all together. Isn't that just the way?



I can barely believe that we planted that little stringy cutting from my mum's willow tree when Jenna was just a baby. When we moved in to this house we planted it from its big pot into the garden, and now it stands as tall as the house. I remember speculating as to how old she would be before she had a tree large enough to climb, and yet even by the time she was three it was sturdy enough for her first brave attempts. It has grown up with her, with all of them.





The garden is such a blessing. The grass is still patchy (as in, there are actually some small patches of grass in places), and the bushes are leggy and unpruned. It's a wild space, mostly. But there is the promise of fruit in the pink on the apple tree, and so much laughter out there every day.

Signs of Spring in the Bluebell Woods

The blackthorn is in flower and the bluebell leaves are showing through. Leaves are budding, slowly and softly the green is creeping back. Catkins swing in the breeze. One drop of rain, two drops, then stillness again. The banks are slick with thick dark mud, and the ponds are without a single ripple to disturb the murky grey-green.

Rowan tells me that there are no unicorns in these woods, only fairies and pixies. She tells me that when she slept over at grandma's house, she looked out in the middle of the night and saw a fairy flying by her window. She said it looked at her and then flew off back to the woods. She skips and dances as she tells her stories, one memory or event merging into the next, like a robin's song of lilting enthusiasm at the world and everything in it.

Talia holds Ashleigh's hand for a while, before flinging herself at my knees and barring my way with raised arms. Muddy shoe prints on my grey dress. Sleepy weight of her in my arms as she rubs her eyes and dangles her dusty leaf-embellished mittens against my cheek. I kiss the curl at the nape of her neck, and a little further on try to distract her with drawing in the mud with a stick so that my arms can recover.

Rowan pokes a big branch into a swampy puddle and informs me laughingly that there are no alligators in there. Jenna and Morgan are up a tree, escaping from a minotaur. I gather handfuls of discarded hats and mittens. I holler back to them to remember to bring their coats and cardigans when they come to catch up, since all of their outerwear is now hanging in the bushes.

We meet up with my mum, and Talia flings her arms out in greeting to the dog. "Come me, come me Loo-shee!" The dampness in the air, and the brief glimpses of blue in the white-grey sky, foretell the coming blossoming of Spring.

So far this year...

... we've been very busy with all the usual kinds of craziness.


These beans decided to stay up "all night" on New Year's eve. Roo made it to nine, Tilly to ten past nine, and the bigger two made it to half past midnight! Talia was kindly decorated by Jenna at midnight...



We all wanted to make the most of Martin's day off yesterday, and planned to go for a walk with my mum. With one pair of shoes down and me getting increasingly cross and stressed with nobody else so much as putting on their own coats, I shouted at the world in general that I didn't want to be the responsible adult any more and I QUIT! *sigh* So much for doing so well at not shouting these days... I guess it was the typical trigger, feeling overwhelmed with trying to get everything right. :/





Not so much of a walk, in the end, as by the time everyone had picked up their coats and the missing shoes were located, it was raining. But we fed the ducks, had some fresh air, paddled in the gravel pit lakes. And I had apologies to make.



Then a couple of friends came over for a play date (Jenna loves the schools being on holiday, because her friends are suddenly free!) and on impulse decided to take them to the cinema with us as the girls so wanted to see Frozen again. It involved me walking there (and back) so that they would all fit in the car. I took five of them (minus Talia, who had a date with Daddy while we were there) and they squealed and giggled and were so so thrilled. I'm enjoying Disney's streak of self-rescuing princesses! :) I could probably do without hearing the soundtrack *all day every day* though...

While we had friends round we also had to break out more science experiments. We've done baking soda and vinegar several times over the years, but this time measured and used Jenna's new proper equipment. There was some speculation amongst the children as to what *else* they could try from the cupboards, and we also mixed lemon juice and bicarb, lemonade and bicarb, and fizzy water and bicarb. Each time they made their predictions (and revised them based on what the others were saying). I have to say, I didn't really expect the new chemistry set to be used as a group playdate activity, but then I didn't really plan to head to the cinema yesterday either.



After one set of friends went home, Jenna headed of for a sleepover with another. As Martin was working again today it was really rather quiet to "only" have three children here. Two, for a while, because Morgan went for another walk with grandma. Just as much mess and chaos, though. And more Minecraft. Morgan started her first survival mode world, and died twice within the first five minutes!



Now Jenna's off to sleep at my mum's house, and we're tidying up around the little ones to make space for more play and mayhem tomorrow (with yet another friend). I think the children are keen to compensate for last week the six of us barely being apart and staying at home a lot!

If we carry on like this, either Talia will have to start sleeping longer in the mornings or I will need to learn to like coffee...

Seven Days - turning to Autumn

1. Art time
2. Jam delivery from my mum
3. Rosh Hashanah
4. Umbrella
5. Sleepy
6. Party fun
7. Morgan's choice of date with mama

Seven Days

1. Spin and knit
2. Baking with grandma
3. Quirkle with my Morgan
4. Clay
5. Favourite shelf
6. Party hat making
7. Birthday presents and out for dinner

Week in Pictures

1. What happens when you ignore a four year old. (That's the contents of my spice rack allll over the garden!)
2. What happens when you don't enforce chores in any way.
3. What happens when you underestimate the English summer!
4. What happens when time flies. (That's a photograph of my family when I was about seven years old.)
5. What happens when you ask everyone to get ready to go out.
6. What happens while baby sleeps in mama's arms.
7. What happens when I get new fibre for my spinning wheel! (Craft obsession of the moment!)