Sunny Afternoon

Hello again! It's nice to be back blogging after a few days away. The children are now back at school and we are left with some lovely memories of a great Easter holidays: plenty of sunshine;

having family and close friends to visit and stay; a trip to London and meeting up with my mum; E. starring in our village pantomime.

On Saturday we went with my sister and her two children to a beautiful, tranquil garden on the edge of the Norfolk Broads - Fairhaven Water Gardens which has wonderful spring flowers and it's own private Broad ( lake) which we had a boat trip on. The cousins thought it was a magical place - "like something out of a fairytale"- and it certainly seemed so that afternoon as we walked along paths speckled with sunlight and leaf-shadows and looked out over the shimmering water.

Of course, for I. the most magical thing was the presence of my sister's Border Terrier, Findlay...

A walk in the wood

We are so lucky that we have in our village, only a 5 minute walk from the house, a 90-acre ancient wood, which is carpeted with bluebells and wild garlic in Spring, full of fungi in Autumn, and home to Red and Fallow deer.
Every weekend, I like to get I. outside for a walk, accompanied by whatever other family members are around. Today it was just me and him, and we walked down to and around the wood. Although there wasn't much wildlife to see today, I. entertained both of us by pretending we were on a train and keeping up a running commentary along the lines of "On your left you can see... In this oldest part of the forest..." all the way along the whole walk. I was enchanted.

A birthday, a cold walk, and a tired boy...

Today we...

celebrated L.'s 17th birthday:


The cake is the carrot cake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery book - absolutely delicious and easy, even though I do not own a food mixer and did all the mixing by hand ( I've developed a very strong right arm over years of baking!)



Had a cold, but lovely walk up what we (unromantically) call "The Concrete Path" - a farm track through the fields from our driveway:






Some of us a little reluctantly:

And fell asleep on the sofa, too tired to sing his sister "Happy Birthday":

Missing her already.

Yesterday, I took E. to stay with our good friends A. and M. as she is doing her Work Experience with the National Trust, which M. works for. She will be with them this week and next, although I will be collecting her on Friday for the weekend back at home (it's big sister's birthday).

I know E. will have a lovely time - she has often stayed for a night or two with A. and M. and their daughter is one of her best friends. And I know it's not for long - but it is the longest she has been away, and she is such a full-on personality that the house and family seem very quiet without her. It also feels like a rehearsal for when she (and her sister before her ) will leave home - not very many years away now - and I'm not sure that I will be ready...

Duvet day

Yesterday a pale, tired, headachey-and-tummyachey boy greeted me when I woke him up. Not exactly ill, but not exactly well either, and definitely someone who needed a day just being at home. So we had a lovely, restorative day quietly at home, a lot of which was spent snuggled under his duvet, lying on the rug reading or playing. I. loves his duvet and usually appears downstairs in the morning wrapped in it, having trailed it down the stairs like a prince trailing his cloak.

By teatime, the rosiness had been restored to I.'s cheeks and all achiness was forgotten. He ended the day happily relaxing on a makeshift "sofa" in front of the woodburner. A happy day indeed.

Look who's 9!

A couple of weeks out of date, but I. recently turned nine and I love the look on his face that sister E. captured in this picture. Oh the joy of blowing out birthday candles!

This is the first of the children's birthdays, all of which fall at this time of year when although bithday parties and teas in the garden are out, it is dark enough at tea-time to have the proper conditions for the ritual candle-blowing-out.

This year's "party" for I. consisted of going to the cinema with 2 friends to see the lovely film, "Up", and then having one friend to sleep over. Much more calm than in previous years, and because friend had gone home by Sunday tea-time it was just the family who were there to sing Happy Birthday and enjoy the chocolate brownie cake - a relaxed and cosy occasion.