Ramblings of an absent blogger.....

Time ticks on doesn't it? Here we are in mid June and I feel slightly shocked. How did this happen? I mean I'm still missing the Christmas tree for goodness sake!

There's also nothing like your teeny tiny baby suddenly needing SHOES. What? What ? Hey?????? How can he be walking, surely he was only born two weeks ago.....gosh time is whizzing. Which leads me on to why I love yet loathe Summer. The days are longer yet I get less done. Why is that? There seems to be more ironing to do, dirtier children to wash....and a garden to do stuff in. Stuff which I am hopeless at. I don't want to be gardening, I'd rather be blogging and reading blogs and making stuff. But I shall not moan here. This isn't the place for it. Anyway I have other nice stuff to talk about.

I have new wheels and so has Mini, who tends to get called The Kid these days. We are rather pleased. I ride about and he gets dragged along squealing with glee. I realised sometime ago that having three little boys means I am going to have to step out of my comfort zone and do stuff I'm not really into. I'm not sporty. I don't enjoy being a sport spectator either. I'm not outdoorsy. I don't like getting puffed out or sweaty unless it involves a crazy coloured cocktail and a dance floor. So I am trying to embrace the activities the boys want to do. (edit: The chariot will not be used on the open road where there are cars. It too scaredy. We will go on those lovely flat cycle routes that used to be railways once upon a time. Or through somewhere like Leigh Woods)

Recently Mr C got himself a new bike and at the same time we got the next size up bike for the boys. Whilst in Halfords I spotted the sweetest bike. I said I'd only get a bike if it looked something like that one.

My requirements were that I could wear a skirt and get on it easily, it had to be a nice colour and it needed a basket. So a few weeks later I collected this baby:

Sweet hey? She is called Lou Lou because she is the same colour as the Cacharel perfume bottle of the same name. 

When I got it (her) I got straight on and rode around the garden. I hadn't been on a bike for so long. Don't think I have even had a bike for twenty years. Oh how I laughed. The baby was asleep in the car and I was riding around the garden giggling. I felt really silly and elated and free and excited and nervous. Then I attached The Kids chariot to the back and once the school run was over, the boys and I spent forty minutes doing circuits and follow the leader around the garden. It was great fun. I'm looking forward to going on a family bike ride soon, providing of course that there is a picnic in the basket rather than flowers and yarn. I did have fun prettying the gal up though. That was a pleasurable ten minutes.

Another lovely thing to have happened lately is we looked after our friends Norfolk Terrier, Otto. Oh my word how I enjoyed having him around. Such a delightful dog. I am missing him way more than the Christmas tree. I keep 'seeing' him out of the corner of my eye. I would love a dog but we had a bad experience with a dog we got from a so called reputable breeder and she was utterly mental and we had to rehome her. I still feel guilty.

A little packed lunch for me. Tea and couscous.

We have had to have a soul searching long think about schooling for our boys. In a nut shell Big has been struggling in mainstream education. He is falling further and further behind and it has been effecting his self esteem. He gets considerable support from the special needs department but having had a review by a really super educational pscychologist we have realised that mainstream isn't what is best for him. Therefore in September he will start at a school that is specifically for kids with additional needs. It's over half an hour away in the morning traffic so there was no way I could drop Big off and get Little back to the school where Big currently goes in time for the bell. Little will be starting at a school fairly near Big's but the school runs are going to be, at least I anticipate them to be, pretty long, what with the bundling in and out of the car and into two different schools and driving through the busiest times of the day. I'm dreading it. I was talking to my friend Princess about it, saying how I need to get really organised and probably have to drink my tea in the car on route as we will be rushing out of the house before 8am. So she bought me a little gift. A brilliant thermos cup. A pretty one. I love it, I have been using it a lot already. I seriously don't know why I haven't had one before.

Last week I had to pop to one of my favourite shops, Fanny Adams, to collect a dress she had altered for me and a skirt she had repaired. It's always joyously dangerous going over to Fanny's. It is a delightful shop full of stuff that is just my cup of tea. She serves yummy drinks too. I thought I'd snap a few pics while I was there to share. I'm afraid all the photo's on this entire blog post are from my phone and most have been seen on Instagram already, I apologise to those who are having deja vu moments.

Stacks of cashmere cardigans trimmed with vintage liberty lawn are too attractive to me. Luckily none of the ones I really liked fitted. That's the thing with Fannys, they are all one offs in varying sizes so you can't always have the thing you love.

That's a rail of divine coats. I am not allowed to buy any more coats. I have way too many. The trouble is because they are all one offs I feel compelled to buy what I love as I have gone away to think about a little jacket in the past and when I returned to buy it someone had snapped it up just ten minutes earlier.

So last time I was at Fanny's I ended up buying two dresses, a hat and a 1950's vintage dresser. Gulp. You understand what I mean by a visit there being dangerous now huh!

My excuse for buying one of the dresses was that it didn't fit the last time I was there but due to having a  poorly tummy for five weeks it fitted this time and I had the perfect excuse of having a wedding to attend at the weekend. I couldn't believe it hadn't been bought. There I am, in the dress of deliciousness, at the wedding, eating a bacon butty, looking like a gorky scarecrow. 

Crafting wise I have been trying to finish off WIPS but mostly I have been making thoughtful gifts for the husbando. It's his 40th next month and I can't plan anything like a meal or a party because he wants to go on a windsurfing holiday and wants to get a last minute deal. Therefore I have no idea when we will be out of the country. I have pointed this out to him and he has said he isn't bothered about having a celebration of sorts. I just hope that come the 11th of July he doesn't turn forty and feel a bit short changed.

We were supposed to go to Salcombe over half term but it rained and rained and RAINED. So we didn't go. Shame really as I'd made a heap of rustic bunting to jolly up one of the bedrooms. It was a good job though as my tummy is still very tricksy in the mornings and I have to be near a toilet. Going to the beach would have been out of the question. I have been to the doctors and I got the results back yesterday. No infection present. The Doctor says I have had a bug and it has left me with sensitivity and inflammation and suggested I eat probiotic yogurts. More worryingly I have been getting really bad pain in my right lower ribs and this is suspected to be gall stones. Arse! At least it is very intermittent so I can bury my head in the sand about it, or more sensibly, eat a healthy diet to avoid aggrevating it.

This is a terrible photo, very grainy but I'm including it so you can see the bonkers socks I am knitting for Mr C's birthday. I'm also very pleased with my outfit here too. Summery! Except where is the bloomin' Summer? Seriously. I really struggle with the disappointment that Summer invariably is. We all look forward to it with anticipation, imagining long warm evenings outside yet it piddles it down way too much. I find we British are so optimistic about the pursuits we will enjoy in the Summer. We buy picnic things, sunscreen, floaty clothes and bottles of Pimms and yet we only get to give these things an airing occaisionally. Still there truly is no where better than England when the sun shines.

The colour is so rich and vibrant it sent my camera funny

I have been trying quite hard to get the garden looking nice. We have a large garden and I am overwhelmed by it. I have decided to have a word with myself this year and just try to get the flower beds looking lovely and maybe get some huge pots of loveliness on the big front patio. I have potted on between 70 - 80 plants and added a dozen to the borders already. I've sown cottage garden mix packets and planted lily and gladioli bulbs. I will not stop. Now I have the bull by the horns I am just getting my head down and getting on with it. I HATE DOING IT. Bloody, bleeding, bloody, flipping HaTe it. I hope I will be rewarded by nice plants and flowers but I don't have green fingers and I make way too many mistakes even though I read the labels and do as I am told.  I've had a tomato tumbling bush thing die already and my dwarf green beans have been eaten by wildlife. I'm imagining rabbits but I know it must be mice (or worse). My roses aren't very happy either. However the seed swap poppies I did with Bunny Mummy have sprung up and are looking gorgeous. There's only a few of them but they are lovely. The peony style poppies I had in abundance last year haven't done so well this year. I think it is because they look like weeds when they are seedlings and got pulled up by the chap who is helping us maintain the garden this year.

I've got a few bald areas in the borders where I have dug up things that weren't what I like, the landscaper put them in four years ago and they are not cottage gardeny. I'd like to fill the gaps with big blousey flowers that grow really quickly and well. What do you suggest? What looks good in your gardens right now? What looked good last month? Through out April and May our garden looks pants.