Rose tinted tarmac

It's so hot at the moment I can barely think. Words keep coming out wrong and I'm getting (more) forgetful. Can't wait to just stop and stay still for a few hours in the summer holidays next week

Managed to stop a moment to snap this lovely at work yesterday 

Time passes

What a difference six months makes.

All good in terms of pots.

Mostly pants in other parts of life.

Mum has been gone for most of those six months and it daily floors me and dissolves me into tears.



The summer holidays start next week and for the first time in ten years, well, six I suppose of school holidays, there is some serious juggling to be done as I no longer of the option of giving Mum the school term dates and knowing she'll just be there, doing it all, filling in the days with fun and sunshine.

I just hope that in another six months, or even six years if it takes that long, that my life can fill out and bloom again.

Pin It. Done It.

I was actually a bit more creative in the first week of 2013 than I gave myself credit for. Which is handy cos nothing has been done in week two.

I've actually followed through on a couple of ideas from Pinterest so far and once we took the Christmas decorations down some form of colour was needed on a wall in the living room. So this pin was dug out.

Obviously I took no tutorial photos. And the light in the finished pictures is pants. But it's up and I kinda like the results. The smaller of the canvasses was our test run which the three of us liked too much to just ditch. No one else has commented on it yet so maybe you just had to be there.

Pot luck

I'm not doing hugely well with my 'do something creative every day' resolution.... which should come as no great surprise to anyone really. But rather than dwell on it, I'm going to keep chipping away at forming new habits and notice the things I have achieved for a change. When it's even remotely light enough I'll take photos of the two (2!) pieces of jewellery I managed by last night... but for now I'll flag up my third creative thing from the first week of 2013. 'Three out of seven ain't bad' as nobody as ever said after all. 

The pots by the front door are a bit a bugbear of mine. Obviously they should be fabulous antique lead massive pots with some kind of stunning standard tree or maybe a Buxus pyramid in.... but they're not, they're cheapie fibreglass lookielikies and the conifers I've put them in over the years always eventually give up and are then a bugger to get out. So last Autumn I filled them with Chrysanths, but they'd finished before Christmas even and could be ignored no longer so it was time for a do-over. I've settled on a couple of shrubs, some fail-safe Heucheras and a bit of seasonal colour which can be changed/added to etc. For now at least that's what I've settled on. They need a bit of filling out. Maybe they could try my diet, it seems to be doing wonders for filling me out! 

 















Obviously there are no 'Before' pictures. I'm not very good at this blogging malarky yet. 

Winter Gardens

Not the Blackpool kind... the garden kind. I realised today that plants for winter interest should be where they can be seen from the house as much as possible because frankly, that's the only place the garden is seen from whilst the weather is pants.

This stroke of genius came when I ventured out to get something from the shed (can't even remember what now and it was only yesterday) and saw how lovely the Garrya elliptica looks at the moment... tucked down at the end of the garden 'behind' the Viburnum opulus that sticks out miles into the middle of the garden, the Garrya just isn't seen at this time of year. And this is its moment. (Ignore the dodgy looking Christmas tree next to it.)

I wonder if I'll be looking at this garden this time next year, or a new one. This one I should imagine since Mr. Moneybags doesn't like spending too much money on anything (apart from new computers natch).

Day 8 - Broadstairs

A lovely day out in Broadstairs today.  Fish and chips for lunch as soon as we got there. Boys chasing the seagulls along the beach. Testing the new wetsuits. Blue lips. Digging holes and building castle reinforcements. A wedding in the beach bar in the corner, which provided the soundtrack to the end of the day. When the tide went out we did a bit of rock pooling (whilst the eldest stayed with the bags to chase seagulls and try and make friends with the boys with the better whistling-ball) and mostly found dead starfish - which the youngest said we were mean to point out their deadness as it wasn't their fault cos they didn't know the tide was going to go out. He was mollified by the boys who yesterday had caught 409 live starfish and 3 crabs in their bucket from the sea-pool on the edge of the beach.

It goes without saying that a fleece was more appropriate attire than a swimsuit. Sadly only one of us had planned ahead enough to bring one, but he was very willing to share. (Not that I took my swimsuit either I hasten to add.)

Day 7 - chores

We cleaned the car today. I wish I always had a clean car. It would be a start I think towards feeling like a proper grown up with proper grown up things, rather than an imposter who is always somehow lagging behind and not quite getting it.

And looking at this photo it's easy to spot that even my clean car isn't actually that clean at all. Doh!

Day 6

A morning spent in the pool and jacuzzi (already at 8 and 5 the boys appreciate the benefits of that rather than the opportunity to exercise after their enormous inclusive breakfast!) at the Holiday Inn, lunch with an old friend we finally headed home and straight to Bromley Town FC play Charlton in pre-season friendly. Sadly Bromley lost 0-3 and the youngest was fading fast by half time.

Day 5 Legoland

It took a fair amount of persuasion to get us to Legoland, the number one (but not the only) stumbling block being the price of the whole experience.  But once we'd come to terms with the new currency concept (somewhere in the back of my mind I think I will now always be thinking in Legolands - his new bike helmet for example cost a tenth of a Legoland. The new blender I want - which I'm not buying even though my old one is actually broken and not just slightly "lumpy style wise" - costs 0.16 Legolands etc), it was a great holidayette and I'm really glad we did. I'm pleased that it was this year too - the eldest was probably at the top end of the age range, able to enjoy it without it being lame, and the youngest one was tall enough for all the rides and will remember the whole day. Meaning we never have to go again! 

But all in all, a grand day out, as they say. Really chuffed with our picnic planning skills and v. pleased that we'd booked to stay in a nearby holiday inn instead of driving nearly two hours home after a tiring day.

p.s.  Once you're that far into the credit card, adding the Q-Bot is well worth it. 

... continued

Day 3
I went to work at the garden centre while the others went down to the coast. Work always makes me come home and look at my garden with a critical eye but this week a couple of things stood their ground nicely.

Day 4

Today was a day to do some odd jobs and start tackling the mammoth of house jobs we made at the beginning of the summer.  I attempted some craft with the boys. Of course in my head, after I got the idea from a perfect life blog, I imagined a beautiful day spent creating something magical and inspiring my children. The reality was slightly shorter and in burst of about 2 minutes, with stretches in between for them to have a sulk when their picture didn't turn out right first time, I asked them to do more than one idea, or their brother got to go first.  We got there eventually though. And the shed has a shiny new waterproof roof at last.

The Summer Holidays Survival Camp - week one

Clearly I meant to post something every day in a proper diary style, but we all know that was never going to happen in real life so here we are one week down already.  It's been pretty cool so far. Amazing how thinking about finding one image to capture a day in makes you think about the good bits of the day more than the mundane and irritating bits. Hard to take a photo of the irritating, almost constant noise the boys make from the moment they wake up; or the mess that they leave in their wake; or the one-man-ship involved in being brothers. I could have taken a picture of the clock that said 05:30 when the eldest woke up the day after we'd been to Legoland for a full seven hours but I'd rather not revisit any of those moments and will probably always be able to remember them without the aid of photographic evidence!

Day one
We started slooooowly, after a proper 'King's Breakfast' as this was christened a few years ago on a camping holiday. I told the boys they were allowed to watch as much telly and go on the computer as much as they liked today.  They took me at my word god lov'em.  It allowed me to get some kind of order going in the house too.

 

Day 2

J's third birthday party.  It wasn't meant to be this way, but once we'd organised a trip to the Southbank Centre free-running show, complete with sleepover, and the last minute friends round after school on the actual day of his birthday, the family party, two weeks after his birthday, ended up being the third time we made a cake and sang Happy Birthday.  It was a lovely day though, we all ate way too much bbq but it has to be done. 

P.S. It's a crock of shit

Men like Harry Connick Jnr don't just fall into your lap.

If he was that organised in death he wouldn't have been that flaking in life. One hopes.

If he had that much stuff to fill the boxes when she clears the apartment, then it's no wonder they had no space.

That accent is not Irish charm, it's just weird cos it belongs to a Scottish Canadian. Thickies. And we're only half way through.

No finer sight of a Friday evening

Especially when it comes just before bath & bedtime. It's Friday night and because he was out last night and tonight, they didn't want to go swimming and I didn't want to make them go, we picked him up from the station and stopped off at the supermarket and bought the bottle of wine I wasn't going to drink tonight.

They stayed up til 8 before they both fell asleep in front of the opening night of the rugby world cup, which was about 15 minutes after I did. Am now watching P.S. I Love You on tape, which if it and this week's Brothers and Sisters is to believed, then if he ever dies I'm in like a shot to meet intellectually inferior physically superior men and rekindle my love life. Hmm.

That's better

I started a blog last week but wasn't happy with the name I had. I like this one better. Now to work out how to transfer my wonderful words of wisdom from last week into here.

Three cuddles

... or to be more correct, three observations:

1 - Apparently, people pay money to attend cuddle therapy to make themselves feel better. This morning I woke up with three warm and snuggly bodies in bed with me but instead of getting my money's worth I got out of bed, put on my running gear and dragged my fat cells round the streets for 40 minutes

2 - When I started running a year ago I always did it first thing in the morning, before MrQ left for work. Didn't know any different. Now that I run more, I tend to do it during the day or in the evening and I found this morning, running on one quick cup of tea was really hard work, I felt dehydrated and energy less. Does that mean I'm a more serious runner? Or just that I wanted my cuddles?

3 - I heard what I thought was someone behind me beeping to move me out of the way this morning.  I looked but saw no-one. On reflection, I think I should have looked up for the bird who was busy announcing the break of day.

Wishing my life away

I wish the computer had worked and let me do this yesterday.
I wish I could get up in the morning, eat my breakfast, get dressed and leave the house... instead of being woken up, drinking three half of three half cold cups of tea, get dressed, ask, beg and then shout at two other smaller people to get dressed, pay the dinner money, sign up for school clubs, check small people's homework, correct homework, practise reading with other small person, fill up water bottles, find shoes, put on coats, and then leave the house.
I wish I had more willpower... because I wish I was slimmer.  
I really wish had a job I enjoyed more.  
I wish I was more sure of myself.
 I wish I was better at the things I enjoy.  
I wish I had more energy and got more done, because I wish my house was tidier and I felt more in control.  
I wish I could go on holiday somewhere sunny tomorrow.  
Maybe I just wish it wasn't January.