Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

I like to watch the weather. I am a gardener at heart so I like to know what's going to be going on for my plants. This autumn, the weather, has apparently been perfect for leaves, although I haven't ever known an autumn that isn't good when it comes to leaves. This year though, the trees have been holding on to their leaves until today which was definitely a kicking leaves day. As ever my own interests were reflected in Charlie's conversation topics and he did comment constantly about how windy it was and how the leaves were coming. We have a favourite game. It's quite simple. You stand under the trees, wait for the wind to blow the leaves off and try to catch one. The idea of the game is simple, however it isn't easy to actually catch a leaf, but I did today and I wore my turquoise wellies, perhaps they're magic. After we'd been kicking leaves we played in the garden and did a few autumnal jobs. Charlie planted some bulbs in a pot and collected the ...

A year ago today, we sadly saw that Baby Jack's heartbeat was gone and discovered that we had lost our third baby at 6 months. I was then and still am now totally devasted, but I am finding my way through the dark days and teaching myself to look at all the wonderful things around me. Most of all I am cherishing what I do have: days filled with the love, laughter, tears and happiness that I share with my beautiful children and incredible children. I think the recipe for happiness has something to do with loving what you have, living for the moment and doing whatever it is you need to keep the clouds from covering your sun. Today I wore my turquoise wellies to Sainsbury's just because they are shiny and I collected some smooth stones from the beach at Whitstable. The other day when I was reading Charlie's bedtime story, he noticed I was wearing the memory bracelet I made for Jack and asked if we could look for our star angel. I always point out the brightest star in the...

I love books so what could be more exciting than a package from Amazon. I would never particularly want a large house but it would be rather special to have a library in the old fashion sense of the word, with a Victorian fireplace, comfortable armchair, writing desk and floor to ceiling window looking out over the sea. I could quite happily live in Bleak House  in Broadstairs, in fact a previous home of Charles Dickens would be the perfect place for my personal library. Today the book I received in my Amazon package was Make you own toys  by Sue Haven. It's quite delightful and Charlie has already chosen a sausage dog toy that he would like, but I really have to finish some of the projects I already have on the go before I start a new one. I shall just put a book mark in and then place it on the shelf in my imaginary library in Bleak House.

Hallowe'en is now such a bitter sweet time of year for me which hangs heavy on my heart. Throughout my childhood it was always a time for celebration, as it was my Grandad's birthday and we lived in a street full of family friends so trick or treating was quite an event. Last Hallowe'en we went to Weston Park with my brother's family and it was such a magical time.There is nothing more lovely than seeing your own children with those of your siblings. I remember how truly happy I felt and that everything in my world was better than I ever could of have imagined. And then during the next week, my life changed forever, events beyond my worst nightmares shaped the rest of my life and my heart was permanently broken. Soup is always so comforting and seeing as I'm a vegetarian, chicken soup isn't really on my menu but I do love pumpkin soup. Especially when the pumpkins have been home grown. This is the pumpkin happily growing amongst the weeds at the allotment....

We've been quite busy over the last couple of days going out and about to take part in Hallowe'en activities. This time of year really seems to inspire creativity in people and my children love making things. Hallowe'en is perfect for Charlie and has so many of his favourite things attached to it: the colour orange, pumpkins and sweets. Yesterday we went to Wildwood for Hallowe'en crafts in the Education Centre, which a fabulous place full of exciting wildlife related stuff, like a huge pile of deer antelars. There were far more activities than you could possibly complete within an hour and Charlie wanted to do his own thing and make a Hallowe'en book which turned out so well that several children, including his sister copied him. Charlie's Hallowe'en book, two bats flying across the moon and autumn painting. Today we went to Canterbury Museum for pumpkin carving and it was so much fun. Charlie and Josie did an excellent job. There were slime experimen...

Today has been such a wonderful day full of all the good things that school holidays are made of it would be difficult to pick what to blog about. We've done some historic visiting for Josie's half term school project, piratical rubustifications for Charlie to enjoy at lunch time, discoveries and a little bit of sewing. A day jam packed full of happy members with my lovely children. We chose very carefully when we wanted to move out of London and Canterbury is perfect. We can walk everywhere including a Roman Museum which is right in the centre of the City. Josie liked the museum because it was full of information about Romans, she was able to make lots of notes in her secret diary and learn. Charlie liked it because there were displays about food, cooking and kitchens and you could touch some of the displays. I liked it because there was one door in and then you had to go downstairs to Roman Street Level and therefore there was very little chance of either child escaping an...

It just so happened that Josie's and my craft afternoon, continued into the whole of the next day, following evening and everything was finally finished off today. We bought a fabulous book, The Girls' Book of Secrets , it was really good for reading with Josie and opening up discussions about surviving bullying, how to win an arguement and the secret to understanding your mum. So over the past couple of days we've made a secret diary, a secret den and a secret den wall organiser and all whilst Charlie has been unwell (poor little thing). Josie chose the fabric from my fabric trunk and we made a secret diary with padlock to keep Charlie out and a matching pencil. Then we made a secret den in her bottom bunkbed and a secret den wall organiser to keep the secret diary in. Finally we made a Halloween plate and some Halloween biscuits to go on it. Sadly now Josie is feeling unwell so I think both of them must have had some kind of nasty bug. I hate it when they are il...