*waves from over here*

Not wise, but beautiful.

On Saturday, I was rushed in to hospital in a lot of pain, feeling like I was miscarrying and saying shakily "but I'm REALLY SURE I'm not pregnant". I wasn't pregnant. I did have a kidney infection.

What you're supposed to do, when you have a kidney infection, is take the antibiotics you're given, take painkillers, and rest. The first point was easy enough. I'm not so "natural living" that I don't take medication for a good reason. However, Sunday was my thirtieth birthday and I had plans, so I sort of thought, "we'll just walk a *little* way, and I'll be fine!" I was fine, and the kids were SO enthusiastic, so we walked a bit further. By the time I realised I'd missed a dose of pain killers we'd walked past the half way point and were at least an hour and a half away from the car.

Oh but it was SUCH a beautiful day, and such beautiful surroundings, and such great company. And I don't regret it, not one little bit. I set back my recovery a bit, though, and I wouldn't say it's particularly wise to walk six miles when you're supposed to be on bed rest for a couple of days.









So, I had a memorable and wonderful birthday. I also feel slightly like I've been beaten up, even though I'm pretty sure the antibiotics have done their job and I'm no longer in pain (just sort of low level all over ache and extreme tiredness). Isn't life just full of curve balls?

Seven Days (belated)

Just over a week. Seven pictures that sum up our everyday.














1. Into Film Festival
2. Walk
3. Magnetic play
4. Yarn Colours
5. Post Office again
6. Knitting/painting
7. Winter

Space Centre

Martin took time off, last week - so that we could get the house sorted out and finally do some of those jobs we've been saying we'll do for ages (like sort the junk on top of the wardrobe out, and paint the inside of the fireplace, and tidy the shed). And then we both had great ideas for trips we hadn't taken for ages (FREE trips!) and things we wanted to enjoy as a family, and of course the mess got pushed firmly into second place.




When we went to the Doctor Who convention at the Space Centre earlier in the year, our tickets were validated to return for free any time within a year. So that's where we spent one of our precious family days (with the welcome additions of Emma and Connor). We took a huge picnic, and the kids set the itinerary. Mainly, that involved about six turns in the weather reporting station, and a very long time playing all of the skill tests in astronaut training (my least favourite place to hang out, because it's so loud and echoey and always very busy)!




Check out the wallpaper in the replica living room from the moon landing exhibits!


And Connor and Rowan (always partners in crime) enjoyed climbing on the model of a gravity-squashed Venus probe.


:)

process/experience art love

It has been an arty sort of month so far.















Art with friends. Art with LOTS OF MESS. Art with several different kinds of paint and just as many different kinds of brush. Art outdoors and in. Art that was cut up to make other art. *happy sighs*

Wollaton in Autumn

I never get tired of this picture. I must take it several times a year - these beautiful wild children running up this hill, with that gorgeous building in the background - all the memories... How they've changed over the years! This is one of the places we come to time and again, and hence one of those places I think "wow, I remember coming here when this one could barely toddle, or that time this child ran with the autumn leaves in her hair and I thought how suddenly grown up she was and that was THREE YEARS ago"...

a quick tour through our October...

At the start of last month, I lost my camera. At the very end of the month, I found it hidden in my craft drawers (by the small person who had been filming herself singing). I had sporadic access to a phone camera, so I kept taking pictures, I just couldn't work out a way to keep journalling here when my photographs were inaccessible. Thanks to Dropbox (and actually now owning my very own mobile phone so I'm not borrowing Martin's once a week or so), full connectivity is restored! So, excuses made, and yes we're all very well and no I've not been hiding out due to depression or circumstances or anything like that. :)

Last month... Well... Trains, trips, leaves, parks, climbing, running, hot chocolate on train stations, building block towers, painting, den-making, visiting, a dance show, all kinds of craziness and mess, babysitting, Diwali, a big girl who went off on her very first Church camp without us, and a Halloween party. Yes. Autumn has been amazing and beautiful and busy and peaceful and perfectly imperfect.






























Two weeks into November already, and the world is turning to Winter. I will be thirty in a week, and my mind is turning towards festive planning already. The year is flying by.

Bonfire night (backdated!)

Book Sharing Monday: Leaf Jumpers

Look, two weeks in a row might be the beginning of something reliable, but I doubt it so enjoy/put up with it while it lasts. ;) Seasonal book sharing: Leaf Jumpers.


Bright, colourful, and simple. Talia quite likes this one, but Rowan thinks it's boring, so I'd not put this firmly on a wish list for a child past toddlerhood. The illustrations are sweet and lively, though.




Autumn is, for some reason, the most sparse in terms of our seasonal book collections. My grandma kindly sent money to buy new books for the children, and I bought a couple of new ones with that, but there really aren't as many out there as I'd have thought. It feels like a good time of year to be pulling out a basket of stories, and Talia clearly agrees as she is bringing me bigger stacks of picture books every day (or at least it feels like that). Of course, I can't complain about not having enough Autumn books when the box I store them all in on top of my wardrobe contains so many Winter books I've taken to stacking some in my journal/ephemera/paper/collage basket... I should probably go through that at this time of year. I might be able to bear to let a couple go, and make some more room!

(Apologies for the extremely dark photographs! I'm rather lacking light here right now...)