Lily's 6th Birthday

Lily turned 6, so we were in the woods just like last year.

Only this time they were all a bit bigger. This big one at times almost indiscernible from the adults, and last years babies up and everywhere. The slightly advanced years of the older little ones was really noticeable, as they were all just that little bit more independent. Disappearing off in groups and running their own games with little input or awareness from the adults.

We all bought food and Frankie cooked pasta on the chimenea. What a brilliant outside stove that thing is.

Sneji brought salads and a really yum bean, garlic and mushroom salad that reminded me of France.

I made a coconut, blueberry and cacao torte and widely publicised that fact that it was not only raw but also good for you. Despite this, the men still ate a huge portion of it. I would have been pleased that it had been so well received, had it not meant there was considerably less for us, and nothing in the way of leftovers.

Lily's birthday present began life like this,

and ended up like this. Again, no working camera and reliance on my phone for photos really takes it's toll! especially on a dusky May evening in the woods.

Lily looked perfect in trousers and skirt and crocs and mud and leaf litter. I always think a girl misses out if she doesn't end her birthday party with leaf litter in her hair. Beats a tiara any day.

And just before bed we went to the end of the woods and released a purple sky lantern. We all made a wish for Lily as it floated up into the evening sky. Well, we all tried to make a wish, but it took so long to light, and kept coming down causing Simon and Fin to dash about the neighbouring field after it, that by the time it was truly air born we were mostly doubled over with laughter. I laughed so much I cried.

Happy 6th time around the sun Lily. x

Easter

There have been eggs hunted at my Granny and Grandpa's house on Easter Sunday since time began, or certainly since I could walk.

There has never been a shortage of children and adults willing to race against the sun to find the slowley melting chocolates, and there has never been a year when all the little foil wrapped mini eggs were found. My brother and I used to delight in finding the remains of them in obscure hiding places throughout the year! 

Big Change For My Little Boy

I know it's Easter Sunday, and I really should be posting about our egg hunts and family visits, but something more important happened today. Something I wasn't at all prepared for, and something that I am still having to adjust to even as I sit here typing.

This morning produced a conversation which went like this:

Fred:  Daddy, my lego man is stuck in my hair,

Daddy:  Ok, I'll get it out. It's because your hair is too long Freddie,

Fred:  I want a haircut,

Daddy:  (To Mummy) Did you hear that darling?

Mummy:  Freddie, do you love your floffy hair, or do you want it cut?

Fred:  I want it cut

A lot of things happened quite quickly after that, and before I could think of a way out, or leave it a reasonably length of time so that he forgot all about it, we wound up in Auntie Ann's salon.

I know everyone else thinks I should have cut it ages ago, and I never intended to grow it long, but I just couldn't bear to cut off his beautiful curls.

No one else could really understand that as no one else had ever spent hours twirling his ringlets around their fingers as he breastfed.

But it was his hair, and so in the end it was his choice. To say I have shed a tear would be a lie, in truth I cried a lot, and have been doing so on and off for the last few hours!

So here he is, my big boy, my last baby, my last ringlets.

Doesn't he look so smart!

This Moment :: Lamb Spotting

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by Amanda of Soule Mama

Wishing you all a very Good Friday



These Old Hands

These hands held my mother when she was tiny, and delivered her younger brother, my uncle, when my Granny went into labour in the middle of a snow storm.

They've built kitchens and extensions and stair gates and caravans,

They've mended broken furniture, and improved things that didn't work as well as they could.

 And last week they helped me plane off the runners under some lovely old oak drawers that had decided they had fitted for long enough and were going to get a bit big for their holes.

I love my Grandpa's workshop/garage. I love the rows and rows of ancient jars with hand written labels full of every fixture and fitting you could ever want.

I love the tools all stored in their original boxes, and the piles and oddments of assorted woods just waiting to be put to good use.

My Granny says she's a 'garage widdow', I can think of worse things to be!

These hands haven't been idle in the last 88 years, and they certainly weren't going to stay put long enough for me to take a picture.

Early To Rise

Sometimes Fred gets up very very early, and sometimes that is no bad thing. Especially if it happens to be a weekend when everyone else is sleeping and it's a beautiful morning outside.

The mist in the Torridge valley was spectacular. My camera couldn't catch it, but looking over towards the moor was like looking out over a sea dotted with tiny islands.

The field at the top is the one I am trying to persuade the owners to let out as allotments.

Fred was various things on our walk, but mostly a pirate. He was wearing his pirate trousers after all.

 He declared that we were on a pirate island, and that we had to go down to the water, by which he meant the mist. We did walk down into the valley a little way, but the mist was freezing, so he quickly changed his mind.

Clearly a fair weather pirate.

Just A Little Flood

The day hadn't gone well. Firstly, the book I am waiting for still didn't arrive. I'm sure it will be here tomorrow, but I was sure it would get here this morning as well.

The craft papers I ordered may or may not be here in time for making our Easter bits and pieces as planned, as I had bought what we needed on e-bay, but neglected to actually pay for them at the time!

We went up to our friend woods this morning to put up a 5 meter bell tent I had been given by other friends. I have wanted a bell tent, specifically this exact bell tent, for at least 7 years now, so I was fairly excited at the prospect of getting it up and using it. They gave it to me as it had been sitting in the corner of a shed in a sad heap for an age,and it was doing it no good.

Unfortunately it had done it slightly more 'no good' than was originally thought, and large areas of the canvas had started to rot.
It was gutting as it looked so beautiful once it was up, even green and grubby.

The day didn't get much better until we were driving back from Bideford after dropping Fin off with his friend for the night. We had noticed the tide seemed quite high in the estuary, but as we drove along the Torridge valley we found this!

I know that it isn't entirely healthy to love floods so much but I just can't help it. I know I have said it here but the sight of a flooded river valley, or even better a flooded football pitch, really does lift my spirits.

The picture above is someones garden, and they were watching the river from their porch across the road. I stopped and asked if this was unusually high. The man smiled and said in broad Devon "no, no, does get higher, thank goodness. Tis' bootiful".