Until Then...

I use this blog as a space to share our family adventures with absent family and friends, and anyone in the wider world who wants to come along with us. I have always focused on the enriching and positive aspects of our lives, even when times have been hard, but we are facing some huge changes and unprecedentedly tough time here in the woods.

Because of this I have been absent from this space for a while, and will continue to be for a little while longer, just until things settle down.

I will return before too long, with tales of a new home by the sea and positive happenings again.

Until then..

 x

This Moment :: Evening Wanderings

{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 Soulemama

Take Me Farming, Barefoot in the Rain

Is it because I is red?

YES! you are so beautifully red.

Amaranth 'Red Army'.

This is a poly-culture. In here we have squash, sweetcorn and a climbing french bean called 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'. The idea is that the squash spread over the ground whilst the sweetcorn grow up strong and tall, and the beans climb up the sweetcorn.

We wait to see.

Today was hot and humid, and interspersed with bursts of rain. I started the day with hoodie and wellies, and by the end of it I was down to bra and rolled up trousers. The morning rain showers had ceased by the afternoon, and despite the deep grey menacing sky that threatened to dowse us at any time, they didn't return.

The soil felt warm and alive under foot.

Half Term in Cornwall

My Birthday and half term in Cornwall.

sea,

rock pools,

raw birthday cake,

woods,

Pimms,

barbeques,

kick the can,

seaweed,

evenings,

lobster,

beautiful days,

beautiful people,

happy children,

delicious food,

and laughing.

Lots and lots of laughing.

And all over far, far too soon.

More photos to follow when I find the cable for my phone!

And now 31! I have issues with that that I didn't have with turning 30. I couldn't begin to fathom why.





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!