(extended) Weekending: woodlands, fruit, and the carnival of the bizarre and beautiful

What a busy crazy few days!  Well, I don't even know where to start.

Raspberry yoghurt icecream, plum and pear crumble, we have been baking - and using up a glut of fruit both gathered and bought.

We even had leftover crumble for breakfast this morning.  What better way to start a cold Autumn day?



Derby Feste was brilliant and kooky and fascinating.  From the strange man dancing with leeks, to the giant over-engineered machine, to the marble run the kids were encouraged to add bits too with wood and nails and elastic bands and various bits of junk...  Oh, and of course, the man with the giant balloon...












The baby emptied the picnic bag when we got home and finished off the Tzatziki...


Then on Sunday it was the Woodland Festival, which was if anything even more wonderful (and occasionally even more bizarre).

As last year, we stayed and listened to the Wild Man of the Woods for a long time, spellbound.




The girls helped to make their own besom brooms.


And we finished off the day with the duck race, which was less a duck *race* and more a duck *push*.  Never have I less envied any person their job than the poor lad knee high in duck-smelling water, trying to shove the plastic ducks in the right direction with his rake...






(I love this window.  I can't help take pictures of it; uneven, reflective, worn, beautiful.)


Then yesterday was Connor's third birthday (I know!) and we stayed most of the day for one extended party.  Talia had a twelve hour nursing strike.  And I had no sleep whatsoever because I finally persuaded her to dream feed and she made up for lost time!  So.  Four days.  This week really *has* to be a slow-down kind of week...  (On the other hand, I *know* I have sat down at some point this weekend, because I have nearly finished the socks I'm knitting!)

Seven Days: sweet new year

1. Talia.
2. Jenna on her way to sling meet with her baby in one of my slings.
3. "Fairyland."
4. Hat knitting.
5. Cress (though Morgan keeps telling me with some irritation that it is GRASS).
6. Ruby cuteness.  "Oh, Rowan, looks like you shared your cold with the baby - how kind!"  "Yep, I shared my chocolate with her too!"
7. City.

Baby pictures for Jenna

Jenna has her first plastic doll.  He is totally and utterly real to her, instantly loved and imbued with that special magic as a toy takes on its own character.


She keeps absently kissing the top of his head as she carries him around.  He gets worn in a sling all day, and rocked and sung to.


I remember people beginning to tell me at a similar age that I was "too old for dolls".  If anyone says that to Jenna I would probably be rather rude.  My doll slept beside my pillow until I was at least 12...

I was a little sceptical about buying her a plastic doll after all these years, even one she so clearly wanted and liked, as she has two mama-made Waldorf dolls that are truly old friends and loved ragged.  Well, now Lily and Rachel are big sisters, and have had to make room in the bed for Jude!  One of those moments when you see them so wildly intensely happy and think that yes, it was the right time to gently compromise an old ideal.  :)

Yarn Along: socks and hats

I have been knitting like crazy this week.  I have commissions I want to get done in timely fashion before the weather turns cold, and I had a sudden urge to make pixie hats - and when the urge to knit something strikes, I harness it fast before it leaves me with a half finished something or other again.  ;)

One great thing at the moment is that I always have an excuse to knit something random just because I feel like it: "It's for the shop!"  One bad thing about this is that my to-do list gets longer while I indulge myself (another is that I need to actually sell the randomness that my addled brain comes up with)!

Anyhow...  Socks!  I have officially mastered two at a time socks.  Officially.  :)  In four days I have knit two pairs (and two hats).  I turned both heels on the second pair on our trip back from Lincoln where we spent a blissful day with friends.




Still reading fairy tales, and lots of different things to Jenna!  A couple of days ago I found her snuggled up on the sofa with Morgan, reading The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark to her.  Now that is just heart-achingly sweet.  I wish I had a picture of it, but just couldn't bear to disturb them.  <3>

Book Sharing Monday... Tuesday... Whatever.

WHSmiths vouchers bought the girls some new colouring books.  I fell in love with these doodle books, really and truly the nicest ones I've seen.  Now *there's* a worksheet I can get on board with.  ;)






Well, let's face it, filling squared paper with little arrows and similar is what I spent a surprisingly large number of hours doing in college maths classes...


The children know how much I like the books.  Any time one gets pulled out, a little person comes and sits next to me and says sweetly, "do you want to colour in with me, mummy?"  Yes, yes I would!


I suspect they only ask me because they want to borrow my nice (expensive) fine liners, but ah well.  I'll take what I can get.

Weekending, brought to you by the letter C

Church.


Chips with cheese, on the park


Conkers - our first tiny one of the season (and a hazelnut left empty by a squirrel)




Characters: this one spoke like a pirate ALL DAY (and startled some elderly ladies on the park).


Choosing new shoes.


Cress seeds beginning to sprout.


Today is Rosh Hashanah and, well, I'm not feeling very new-year-y today.  I'm blaming sheer tiredness and a very busy weekend.  I wish I'd spent more time preparing myself and creating sacred time/space and less time trying to get Everything Else done (like shovelling snow while it's still snowing - there is never an end to the Everything Else that needs my attention).

Lesson learned, or at least, I'm taking note right now, and will probably go and make the same mistake next time a festival is coming up as an excuse/reminder to seek the good and start afresh and all that...  Belated round Challah is rising right now, and perhaps I just need to make the effort to start again from now.

Shana Tov, all.  xxx

Seven Days of crazy

1. Peter and the Wolf scene
2. Favourite spotty suit
3. New coats (from Asda, actually)
4. New tricks (baby is now taking her first steps, banging bricks together, and CONSTANTLY has her tongue hanging out!)
5. Using a pencil to crochet, whilst watching dancing on Youtube
6. Jenna's new bag, decorated by the two of us.  :)
7. A scene set up for Rowan, with her favourite little plastic toys!

To my darling beautiful daughters, I am sorry that this week I shared pictures of you all pulling adorably silly faces.  But there were just too many dorky faces being pulled this week to resist.  Sorry.  Put it down to motherhood melting my brain.  ;)

Saturday Thoughts

Outside my window... the hedge is bare and newly cut.  The sky is grey, and the reddish tiles of the terraces across the road are oppressively close.

I am thinking... about how very blessed I am to have these wild free beautiful children.  I am dreaming in fairy tale archetypes.  And planning new ways to work the tiny space of this house into a restful place I actually like to be.

I am thankful... for baby smiles and the colour yellow.  For cups of hot tea, goodbye kisses, picture books and cotton yarn.  For spiritual encouragement and cold wet grass under my feet as I run to the washing line in the early morning.  That Morgan's trip to the dentist went so well and easily, and she felt so very confident and calm.


In the kitchen... the dishes are piled rather high, and all of the food plans are in disarray, and lunch ended up being rice crackers, cheese, boiled eggs, mince pies (my first this year!) and strawberries.

I am wearing... stripy pyjamas!  Comfy and warm.  :)  It's just not a getting dressed kind of a day.

I am creating... I just cast off the last of some little collecting pouches, and some toddler welly socks are next on the list.  I just finished some more custom dyeing, and I have a list of Christmas knitting barely started.  I hand-sewed a kit bag for Jenna's new dance class, but it isn't quite done yet.

I am wondering... what goes through this funny little baby head.  She seems to have forgotten that her tongue is hanging out again...

I am hoping... we find the document for the car key code so that we can get a new key.  The alarm goes off every time we open the car at the moment (yes, this IS the new one!) and it's grating on my nerves.

I am looking forward to... some fun outings for the kidlets hopefully, this month.  But mostly I am SO looking forward to Martin getting home this evening, and beyond that, Martin having a few days off.  We planned for him to take holiday this week, but now it looks likely to be at least another week before he can.

I am learning... all over again the slow steady dragging crawl out of depression, how to cling to the good, and how important it is to remember to meet my own needs in the tug of small hands and chorus of small voices.

Around the house... I have one less child for a while, as she walks around the reservoir with my mum.  Morgan is drawing while she listens to some classical music, and Rowan is running around rescuing sea creatures with the help of some small plastic Octonauts.  Talia is crawling around with a crayon in one hand and an expression of determination.  Where she is taking that crayon is anyone's guess.

A few plans for the rest of the week... going to visit friends further away (just for a day trip).  I think a fairly normal week this week.  Library, swim, that sort of thing.  Next weekend should be fun, as it's Derby Feste and the Woodland Festival at Elvaston Castle, all rolled into one mad weekend.  :)

A peek into my day...



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