20.08.10 - P.H.D. and the pinnacle of gardening

Well, we are getting back into the routine of work and the boys are gently relaxing into being out and out slobs. But we are all still suffering serious doses of  PHD..... Huh? I can see your furrowed brows from here, PHD?

Well, you can firmly rest the credit for this little family phrase on my brother and fav-sis-in-law's dog........

Let me explain.  

The dog in question is a rather enthusiastically friendly girly chocolate labrador.

A couple of summers ago we all went camping to our beloved Northumberland and had the usual brilliant time of sand, sea, surf and castles. For giddy dog and enthusiastic dog there was the added attractions of walkies, sniffies, swimmies and all other doggy -holiday-related-smelly delights. When we returned, enthusiastic dog suddenly realised that all these wondrous things had ended and sunk into the most sad lump of depressed dog. We decided that she was suffering from Post Holiday Depression. Having all giggled at the unfortunately miserable dog, we collectively agreed that yes, we too were suffering the same miserable fate......

Now that I have informed you about this little known affliction called PHD, 

I am willing to bet that sometime in your lives

 that you too

have suffered PHD - 

let me tell you - you are not alone!!

*********************************

Any hoo - Holiday musings part 2.

I love gardening and we are lucky enough to have a nice sized patch out the back of our house - although at the moment it is horribly overgrown and looking extremely out of control - this is what happens when you go gadding about on holiday and turn your back on a garden! 

But! - back to the musings, I love gardening and when I am anywhere away from home I look at other people's gardens for inspiration, for ideas and let's face it just for shear nosiness. Some gardens I marvel at their colour, style and others I look upon with envy at their size or design. Then there are those that I admire for the absolute determination of the owner to make a garden out of nothing.....

Perched high, a small shed, a bench and some pots - must have a fantastic view......

Oh... the neighbour has a shed too - 

I fantasise  about being able to put the kettle on in this shed, 

and look over towards the sea...aah bliss.

Wow, a high rise garden!

But, wait..... let me pull the picture out further..........

Amazing isn't it? 

I could not take my eyes off it, the rest of the holiday gang  just wanted to frolic on the sands and all I could do was stand and stare at this monument to the determined nature of gardeners! 

I salute them! 

Ah, now, lets go and find the icecream van and do the proper holiday thing of eating icecream whilst walking on the promenade! Yum....

18.08.10 - into day three

Today is the third day back at work and our holiday almost feels like last night's dream.

SO, to brighten my day and hopefully yours, here goes with the..........

Holiday musings part 1

We had two glorious weeks of fun, the boys had the freedom of being outdoors at any time, all they had to do was to fall out of the 'carry-van' and the games would immediately begin. It was wonderful watching them run around in the sun playing. Their busy-ness and laughter filled our days and it made me so happy to see them charging around burning off all that holiday energy. It also meant that I could sit with a steaming mug of tea and get some serious crochet action going!

I am making a blanket (again!) but this time not a snuggly-wrap-around-cuddly one. No, this time it is a tough-go-anywhere-on the floor-on-the-beach-in-the-car-in-the-garden-on-the-lawn-in-the-caravan-picnic-blanket. I started it here as an antidote to sitting in a van for miles on end.

Well now, that strip of uninspiring, unexciting 'granny-squaredom' has begun to take a life of it's own! 

I had started off not really liking what I was doing,

 but now...NOW....NOW 

all I want to do 

is to get my picnic blankie to pose in picnic sort of situations 

and it isn't even finished yet!

The boys like lying on it...

the cat likes lying on it... 

Blankie went on picnics (ball of wool still attached)

Blankie and the boys back at the campsite, lounging around (still with ball of wool attached)

The blankie went 'body-boarding', well the boys did,
Blankie and I cuddled up and we participated in serious beach crochet.

The blankie happily lounged in the 'carry-van' looking just so so right.

And, when it was time to come home,
Blankie kept me company and kept me busy all the way home

Holiday romances - hah - can't beat 'em!

Especially when you can bring them back home with you.....  :) x  

17.08.10 - Normality (in some form or another) reigns and - it rains

Hello hello hello! We are back, not entirely delighted about being back, but hey ho - life goes on and holidays are a brief jewel-like interlude in our otherwise normal happy existence.

So, here at the half way point of the six weeks summer school hols us 'grown-up's (in age only) are having to go back to being grown up, while the boys have the delightful anticipation of three more weeks of holidays filled with birthdays, sleep overs, cub camps and any other delights the entertainments officers (us) can wangle.

Strangely enough, despite the cathartic feel to our holiday, where Himself and I reminded ourselves what it was like just to ' b-r-e-a-t-h-e' and the boys enjoyed the freedom of being outdoors for hours, I am tired and uninspired to write anything um...inspirational! So in the absence of that, I am going to just list 10 random things.

1. Today, today the weather matches my mood - overcast, miserable, grey and grumpy (oh hang on - that is me!) 
2. Yesterday I climbed over snow topped mountains of  post-holiday dirty washing, today I have lovely piles of dry laundry.
3. The garden, in our absence, has taken a new career path - that of being an untamed jungle. I shall be giving it a severe talking to (and probably a more practical approach of a slash and burn policy.....)
4. I have several WIPs to report on and FOs to photograph and show off, some sadly not yet as they are gifts.
5. I have a kingsized headache - that is probably the actual cause of the lack of inspiration
6. The dog smells - despite the bath (or helped by the bath) the boys gave her yesterday and coz the weather is as damp as a wet lettuce - I don't think we will wash her again today (reaches for clothes peg for nose). Tomorrow sun has been forecast so giddy dog has been promised a  'shampoo and set'
7. Some of my giant GIANT sunflowers flowering! Taller than the greenhouse, they definitely gladden my heart with their huge smiley faces.
8. I have piles of delightful fabric remnants that I've cut and pinned and put aside ready for sewing.....sshh can's say what just yet! 
9. I am (as I type this) still wrapped up in my PJs and the boys are curled up on the settee also in their PJs - how slobby and lounging about is that! 
10. I need to put the kettle on and get my act together, this uninspired lack of motivation is not doing me any good, so.....(with determined look on face) time to get up and get dressed and get moving - 

Today is another day - bring it on!!

Woo hoo! let's hit the surf!

29.07.10 - Jollies!

Cheerio! Off on our jollies for 2 weeks - yes two whole weeks!

Well my friends, I am so stupidly ridiculously happily looking forward to my holidays that I can't stop smiling - nay grinning like a rat!

We are going to find castles

We are going to frolic in the sun

We are going to eat ice creams

Woo Hoo! gotta go and pack now :) 

Err - where's the wool and crochet hooks - (got to get my priorities right!)

He hehe he!

Now.........Who's for a cup of tea and the most spendifulous cake I have tasted in AGES! 

27.07.10 - School holiday traditions

Pyjama day:

The boys appear as I am writing my last post, tousled and sleepy-eyed. You can hardly see them under their pillows and favourite blankies. Brief sleepy kisses and hugs are given to me then they tumble sloth like onto the settee. They watch a few morning cartoons from their 'nest' as they slurp tea noisily from their mugs. Pyjama day - their favourite favourite thing for the first day of the holidays - only getting dressed at the last possible moment. Eldest lounges across the settee, draped like a budding teenager (oh hang on , he is a budding teenager......ooh err...) whilst Youngest bumbles about busying himself collecting toys, making things, complaining about the amount of space his brother is taking up. 

'Breakfast?' I enquire, half expecting a languid hand waving a consent, not expecting the stampede upstairs to get dressed. They return looking quite respectable expressing their hunger in loud tummy groaning fashion. How is it my men (of all sizes and ages) seem to appear half starved at the merest hint of food? 

Copious amounts of breakfast and more tea is consumed and then Youngest says.. 'Caterpillar calender!'

Which leads us onto another holiday tradition.

When I was little, my Mom would make a caterpillar calender - a long paper caterpillar with each segment representing a different day. We would fill in any proposed events, special days or birthdays as it led up to the big summer holiday. And as each day would come we would cut the segment off.

When my boys were small - I would make the caterpillar calender and they would scribble their token decorations on but now they are older they take over and make the entire calender themselves. And - boys being boys - their caterpillar calender is HUGE and gets bigger each holiday. 

Youngest uses the top of my fave crochet tin to make the head - 'it's going to be a green caterpillar' he cheerfully informs me.

Eldest starts on the marathon task of making each segment - a different colour per day. There is much counting and confirming numbers of days before returning to school. A serious debate starts as to which actual day the school opens and we have to resort to checking the school's details to prevent  the debate from becoming verbal fisticuffs.

Eldest - grumpy on discovering he has one less day than Youngest - returns to his circle-making then starts painting flowers and spirals around the caterpillar. Youngest slaps on bright green paint cheerfully. Sketches of caravans and land-rovers appear. Paintings of ice-cream cones laden with such generous scoops of multicoloured ice-creams are added.

While they are engrossed I sit near, crocheting - I love being just outside of their activities. Close enough to join in if invited - far enough away not to impose. They chatter away, part conversation, part ongoing game. I watch as a paintbrush becomes a jet and soars over the page and I smile as Youngest holds a conversation with a plastic dinosaur called Bessie and a yellow chicken known as 'woondachook'. 

But, now, it is time to put the paintbrushes and games aside, they are off to spend the afternoon with Granny and Bumpa whilst I go to work..........I'd much rather spend the afternoon with my boys than go to work - harrumff  :(

More holiday traditions to follow x

26.07.10 - Things

Weekend round up.

Help move a friend

Fall in love

Road trip in a removal van

Start a new WIP

Fall in love again

Start a new diet (a high fibre diet!)

Return home, tired, sad but we need to see our boys

WIP grows

Miles and miles roll under the wheels

See a large wild cat

Home.

21.70.10 - If I was........

I recently read this on summertime dreams' Friday 16th post, and instantly fell in love with the idea, so here is my interpretation and pictures.

If I was a month, I’d be June.

If I was a day of the week, I’d be Friday.
If I was a time of day, I’d be dusk.

If I was a planet, I’d be Pandora.
If I was a sea creature, I’d be a mermaid. 

If I was a direction, I’d be skyward.
If I was a piece of furniture, I'd be a book laden shelf.
If I was a liquid, I’d be the incoming tide.

If I was a gemstone, I’d be African Jade.

If I was a tree, I’d be the magickal Hawthorn.

If I was a tool, I’d be a box full of pencils.

If I was a flower, I’d be a lily.
If I was a kind of weather, I’d be a warm spring day.

If I was a musical instrument, I’d be a fiddle.

If I was a colour, I’d be the colours of nature.

If I was an emotion, I’d be the love I have for my boys.

If I was a fruit, I’d be a sun ripened alpine strawberry.

If I was a sound, I’d be the sound of the sea on pebbles.

If I was a flavour, I'd be sun ripened tomato.

If I was a  mammal, I'd be a cat.

If I was an element, I'd be air.

If I was a phase of the moon, I'd be a new moon crescent.

If I was berry, I'd be a raspberry.

If I was a bird, I'd be a swallow.

If I was an island, I'd be an archipelago.

If I was a book, I'd be a book of mythical and magickal stories.

If I was a food, I’d be an Italian dish.

If I was a drink, I'd be a mango juice.
If I was a place, I’d be a wild valley between towering mountains.

If I was a material, I’d be turquoise silk.
If I was a scent, I’d be the smell of the wild rose.

and if I could choose who to be, I'd still be me..................

Thank you summertime for the inspiration :)

And you?