That Monday feeling!

I don't like Mondays at the best of times.  The kids go back to school and Mark to work, if he managed to have any time off at all.

I dislike today even more.  The kids returned to school after a week at home, Mark had a few days off  and being at home today is far too quiet.  The weather is awful and the clocks going back on the weekend meant it was very dark when the alarm went off this morning.  Even more annoying, it will be dark not long after the kids finish school and Mark is working late.

Some people like this time of year.  They can't wait to light the fire, close the curtains and listen to the rain hitting the window.  I would much rather make a picnic, grab the kite and get on out there!

I'm not put off by the rain and like my grandmother says, "your not made of sugar or salt, you wont melt".  But, the waterproof coat/trousers/wellies thing is all a bit faffy for the hour the light will allow us after school.  We could go to the cinema but Carys and I don't really do films.  I think we agree that the time spent watching a film could be better spent elsewhere, like reading a book, trying out a new recipe or in Carys' case something involving glue and large quantities of glitter.  We could go to softplay....on a dull, damp, dark Monday evening when the entire school aged population will be there - no thanks!  I guess we will have to settle for tea at Grandmas followed by children's TV, let's hope that 'the ooglies' are on.  Carys, no doubt, will have something that she 'needs to make'.


Anyway, enough moaning because there is one thing that I love about this time of year and that is the drive to and from school.  It is so pretty that I don't think any words would do it justice.  I shall leave home a little earlier today, take my camera, brave the elements and hopefully return a little happier.

(will post photos later)

Westonbirt Wows!

The autumn display at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, never fails to wow me! 

October is the best time to visit, to see the spectacular autumn colours before winter kicks in.  The arboretums 16,000 trees come from Britain, China, North America, Japan, Chile and other temperate climates.

The Maples (Acers) are my favourite and they certainly didn’t let me down yesterday, their colours ranging from dark green to light green, burnt orange to pale yellow, pastel pink through to the deepest of reds. 

With 17 miles of pathways, the arboretum is the perfect place for a day out with the kids.  There must have been tens of thousands of people there yesterday yet it didn’t seem crowded  at all.  The kids made use of the play areas along the way.  I love the play areas because they offer a completely different experience to that of your council maintained park. 

We didn’t visit all of the play areas, we were meeting my Mum, Grandmother and Aunty for lunch but what we did use the kids thoroughly enjoyed…..and so did we!  Jamie and Carys were keen to find the Trolls Bridge, described as a special bridge with secret paths for families to explore.  So secret in fact, that this family couldn’t find it at all!  Their disappointment soon passed when we discovered the Tree Forts.  Lots of other kids were defending their dens, hiding in their forts and planning their next attack.  Not Jamie and Carys, they used theirs as a horse, but that is what makes it so special.  At our local park the swing is a swing, the slide a slide and very rarely the climbing frame may be a spaceship.  Here, the opportunity for imaginative play was endless.  The giant bamboo was the perfect place for hiding.  Carys and I went in search of a panda but instead found her Grandmother, Great Aunt and Great Grandmother. 

Last night, when the kids were in bed, I was thinking about what had made the day so special.  I had to agree with Mark when he said “it was good, old fashioned fun” but I think what made it so special for me was four generations of the same family playing hide and seek inside a giant bamboo.

Curious Carys

People often say that Carys is very much like me.  She is confident, talkative, inquisitive, philosophical, she thinks a lot, she insists that there must always be a reason, she asks far to many questions and is naughty more frequently than Jamie ever is…….I like to think she is like me too!

A friend of mine always said that I should write down the questions that Carys asks or the statements that make us smile, baffle us or have us thinking for the next 2 hours.  We joked that we would call it ‘The little book of Carysisms’.  I didn’t write them down but really wish I had as most have now been forgotten.

Carys and I had the following conversation about 2 months ago;

Carys  “Mummy, what colour is our energy?”

Me “I don’t really know but I think bright orange, a bit like Lucozade”

Carys “What is Lucozade?”

Me “I’ll show you next time we are in the shop”

I had completely forgotten about my promise to point out the colour of Lucozade when we next went shopping.  However, last Monday when we were in the shop Carys remembered and we spent the next 5 minutes in the drinks aisle of the Spar.

Me “This is Lucozade, look at the colour of that, bright orange, just like energy”

Carys paused for about 30 seconds whilst looking at the bottle in her hand.

Carys “Is that why goldfish never sit down Mummy?”

Me “Why do you think that?”

Carys “Because they have energy on the outside too”

Me “Maybe, but we can’t stand around here all day talking about the colour of energy”

Carys “Why can’t we see our talk Mummy?”

Deciding that I needed time to ponder on this one I asked Carys if she would like to choose a magazine.  I must have been desperate, I don’t normally do magazines, what a waste of money.  The £3.99 I ended up paying for a Hello Kitty magazine with a sparkly pencil that never sharpened properly and a ruler that snapped as soon as she looked at it would have bought a book that we could have enjoyed together.

Later that evening there was a discussion about bed time.  To cut a long story short, I said it was bedtime and Carys said it wasn’t.

Me “If you continue to be naughty I will take the magazine off you”

Carys “It’s not my fault that the naughty fairy has been to me again and put all of the naughty things in my head.  She always comes to me”

Me “There is no such thing as the naughty fairy, the only person that makes you naughty is yourself”

Carys smiles a cheeky smile and pokes her tongue out.

Me “And don’t poke your tongue out, it’s rude”

Carys “I was just licking my lips”

Every evening,  when the kids have gone to bed,  I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about the questions, the answers, the statements, the replies but what entertains me the most are her reasons. 

Birds and Blackberries

On Tuesday Mark and I walked for about 4 miles around the RSPB wetlands nature reserve in Newport.  We often come here with the kids, it’s one of their favourite places.  The kids enjoy making use of the play area, take great pleasure in the freedom in which to run and very rarely do we leave without a visit to the shop, more often than not leaving with 50p worth of polystyrene Starling. 

I felt a little guilty that we had chosen one of their top ten as a place to visit during school hours.  “Think of all the lovely things that they do without us” Mark said.  He also said “it is unusual that we are able to find time just for us, taking the route we want to take and pausing to look at the things that interest us. Enjoy it”. 

There is a fascinating variety of wildlife to see at the wetlands, from elusive bearded tits and wonderful waders, to colourful dragonflies and beautiful butterflies.  I felt a little deprived yesterday, there wasn’t a great deal of activity in the reed bed, water, saltmarsh or mudflats.  We saw a few mute swans and a couple of coots.  Then I spotted a Blackberry, and I don’t mean the annoying little gadget of Marks that had accompanied us.  The further we walked the bigger and juicer the blackberries got and the more plentiful they become.  August and September are prime months for blackberries and according to some people, on the 10^th October the Devil pees on the blackberries and they become unfit to eat.  I thought about this for a second or two and decided that he wouldn’t possibly have had enough time to pee on all of these, got a plastic bag from my rucksack and began picking.  They are undoubtedly past their best by now, not comparing at all to the ones we picked from the hedgerows of Trostrey back in late August.  You wouldn’t want to sprinkle these with sugar and have them for your pudding.  Anyway, I wasn’t thinking pudding, pie or tart and the more we picked the more frequently Mark asked “isn’t that enough?” 

I was thinking Bramble Jelly……. “Nowhere near enough, keep picking Mark”. 

We strolled back towards the car through the woodlands.  The last two hours had been spent completely on our own.  No walkers, no birdwatchers, no photographers.  Just Mark, myself and the pheasant that had began to stalk us. We paused at the kissing gate for a moment, and as I pulled away from Mark and shouted “last one back to the visitor centre has to inspect every blackberry individually” the pheasant gave a quick flap of his wings and hurried off into the hedgerow.

After two hours of simmering, sieving and boiling I am now the proud owner of numerous jars of Bramble Jelly.  Some I shall give as Christmas gifts, most I shall keep for us, after all, there is nothing quite like home made jam on hot buttery toast.