Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

Today has been my least favourite day of the holidays so far. I've had some sort of allergic reaction to something and my joints are all swollen and hurting a lot. It hurts to do everything, especially stand on my feet and use my hands (completely rubbish). I have to go for a blood test tomorrow and spent most of the day laying down feeling sorry for myself. I take hundreds of photos so I spent my time sorting through them and deleting some as typing takes limited hand movements and doesn't actually hurt. These are the paintings that I did at the weekend.

Josie and I cooked breakfast on the camp fire at 7am which was a little early but the sun was out, we had a view of the sea and it was our last morning at the campsite.

A day out in Deal. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Location: West St,Deal,United Kingdom

We are camping :) - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Today I was pleased to do not much at all, very little was planned and we had a home day. It was lovely, I got lots of jobs done, did some packing for our camping trip tomorrow and a little bit of sewing. At 08:12 this morning, we joined the rest of the over enthusiastic, in the make some noise for the Olympics craziness. In the absence of any bells, Josie and Charlie put together a cacophony of pots, pans and tins to hit with spoons, in honour of Twenty Twelve . Charlie earned 60p doing chores like tidying his room, pairing up shoes from the shoes place in the kitchen (a dumping ground for shoes), shelling broad beans and painting chicken with marinade. He did very well. Thanks to the lovely Sophie who runs our WI knitting and stitching circle I had a much better idea how to make a top out of the beautiful 1/2 meter of fabric that I have been very keen to use. As you can see used a professional pattern, a curve drawn on a scrap of paper to make the arm holes. ...

I sometimes tell my little ones that there are children who have never been to the beach. They look at me as if I have lost my mind, in their world there is no reason why someone would not have been to the beach. It takes less than an hour to get the beach from our house and if we are going on the train, we usually go to Broadstairs in the summer. I imagine that this will be the first of many trips to the beach this summer holidays, especially seeing as we are going camping over looking the sea this weekend.  Broadstairs high street is still very much like a high street from my childhood and that is why I love it so. Greengrocers are my favourite; the colours, the shapes and the hand written signs are just so much more sincere than the supermarkets' over packaged produce. And then there's the baker's, with more handwritten signs on neon stars, paper doilies and cakes such as the almond deluxe (which is what Josie chose), the wool shop and so many ...

At 9am this morning I packed Charlie off with his lunch to Super Camps and Josie and I had a girls' day. Whenever Josie has mummy time she always wants to do the same thing, go to town and browse the shops. We like the same things and enjoy looking at discussing beautiful things. I have loved this one street in Canterbury every since we have lived here. When Josie was young we looked at the coloured doors and now we look at the flowers. She thinks that this house with it's climbing rose and lavender looks as if it's out of a fairy tale. For quite a while Josie and I had days to ourselves in the summer holidays whilst Charlie was at nursery, but now he's a school boy, those days are rare. Josie is getting so grown up now that I want to cherish every precious moment that we do have together. With it being another gloriously hot day, Josie went swimming in the afternoon and I sat (well got up and down, moved around a lot and did other things too) in ...

It's not only the warmth that is special about hot summer weather, it's the light. Colours seem more vibrant, the blue of the sky is more intense and everywhere is bathed in glorious golden sunlight. We are very lucky to be sandwiched between two swimming pools and with our family membership, Josie can go with a friend, Charlie can join the supervised swim and I can go to a class. Between the trees and across the stream is the leisure centre car park. We can see the children's bedroom windows from the beach pool. Josie can even go swimming by herself. It would be almost criminal for swimming not to be a big part of our summer holidays, especially on health and fitness day. Other healthy activities today included roller skating for Josie, activities in the sports hall at the leisure centre for Charlie and plenty of running around with Nerf water guns for pretty much everyone who came in the garden. As part of the healthy day I also made some rather ...

The inspiration for the lino print   Today I can truly say that I have kept myself, my own children and some other people's children entertained. After suffering from the overly high expectations of my children in previous holidays and constant pestering to do this and that and generally hand over all of my hard earned cash, I have made a plan. This is more of a survival guide for me, really as pester power is my downfall. I have still not built up enough stamina to deflect the constant requests for time, money and attention my children pile upon me until I snap and the "no" button is pressed. It is not uncommon for me to loose my temper in these moments and then feel so awfully guilty that I over compensate with niceness and fall into the trap of giving in to the pester. Not this year though, I am determined to enjoy these holidays with my little ones whilst they still want to spend any time with me at all. I am being organised. We have a schedule and I ...

Today was finally one of those glorious summer days with deep blue skies and warm sunshine. It felt like summer and we had a chilled out relaxed day at home. Josie got herself comfortable in the teepee to do some more finger knitting which she has named "ningering". Both her Dad and brother have been wearing scarves today that she has knitted. I did some lino cut printing. These are ready for our Making Monday day tomorrow. Charlie wanted to go for a bike ride. And as I took this snapshot of him riding off home, I knew that this was one of those precious summer holiday memories that I would remember forever and in years to come, it would be that moment that I would wish to come back to. When you are five years old and the summer holidays have just started and stretch on endlessly in front of you for the first time, you've learnt to ride a bike and the sun is shining, life really could not get much better.

My husband had a very busy day ahead and left at 7am this morning, so the moment the children were awake, they took advantage of the empty space in our bed. The three of  lay there pinning kids crafts from other people's cool boards onto our Summer Holiday Board . Today was our planning and ideas day so I was really quite insistent that we didn't do every single idea on the list before breakfast. Picture courtesy of Barbapapas Balloon family filled with flour Charlie made these little balloon friends. He made them pretty much by himself with a minimal amount of mess and it kept him occupied for quite some time. Picture courtesy of Little Bird School of Stitchcraft Josie has been trying to learn to knit for a little while but can't quite put the whole thing together but she learnt to finger knit in about 5 minutes, it kept her busy for ages and she has already made two cute little scarves. And I made a skirt out of a pillowcase (photo to follow) and knitt...

It is now the last Feet up Friday of the academic year. College closed a couple of weeks ago and the children's last day is today so Charlie and I were out in the garden shortly after 7am picking flowers for the teachers. They did look so beautiful in my vase, that I was quite sad to see them go. If I don't put my feet up before the school run, I am unlikely to get a chance until September. Last week I did attempt a feet up Friday along with a post but was ironically too busy. With my "to do" list bursting at the seams and my "wish to do" shouting with the louder voice, I think my feet are actually going to have a rather busy day. Fortunately I am unable to do any cleaning because the bathroom is no. 1 on the list and my husband is currently fixing a tap in there, so I'm tackling the sewing room instead. This room is full of distractions and unfinished projects however I intend to try a before and after picture and hope that there is some differenc...

Last night was our first general meeting for the Jubilee WI and there alongside almost 100 like minded women, I felt utterly proud to belong to an organisation that has been running for close to 100 years. To be serving tea through a hatch from an over-sized brown enamel tea pot into those very same Woods Ware green tea cups my beloved Grandma adored, made me wish that I could be pouring her a cup of "Windsor Soup" and "just showing it the milk".  As part of the fantastic first refreshment team, I felt truly privalaged to be grouped together with such lovely women. There were scrumptious cakes galore and mouthwatering savouries and my offerings did not look out of place. It was in fact a pleasant change to have my domestic science achievements valued and complimented unlike the way they are usually ravished and demolished as if under attack from a swarm of locust. There were also the talks by two lovely and experienced WI advisors and although I appreciate t...

On the 1st January this year I swam in the sea which has long been one of my ambitions. It gave me that boost in confidence to go back to ballet classes. Ballet is just one of those things that I have never stopped loving. It was even more exciting to discover that I could take part in the dancing show and be on the stage again. This time last year, it was a challenge for me to go out of the house. I would not have even dreamt that I would be dancing on the stage at the Marlowe Theatre, so it has been a bit of an achievement for me. The first time I danced on stage was in 1974 at age 4, it is one of my earliest memories and that buzz of performing in front of an audience is a feeling I still love today. Very much like the words of the song which I danced to this weekend, time has rolled on and my youth has gone, in fact I believe that I was the oldest performer in the Dance Warehouse's production of the Glass Slipper. Unlike diamonds, I have grown old and lost my shape b...