Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

In April we bought a new tent. We got the whole kit, new tent, extension (for rainy days), sleeping bags and air beds. We have been going camping since Charlie was a baby, with a fabulous tent that my father in law bought us, but it had definitely seen better days and we love camping so much that we invested in a new one. We got a lovely new tent and then it rained and rained and rained. It was cold and the weather was really just not the right kind of weather for camping. Then it changed, the sun came out and the summer began.This weekend was the perfect for camping at Kingsdown Campsite near Deal Kent. I have recently dipped my toes into the world of craft blog linky parties where wonderfully creative people share their ideas, makings  and fabulous stuff with other people. You are allowed to comment and ask questions and even copy. I think that they may well be quite addictive. There is also the added excitement that someone may well even visit your post and leave a co...

By the time it comes to tea time on most days, my brain has pretty much turned to mush. What with getting up early, work and the battle of the school run, I am not really capable of any in depth thought, even after a cup tea. That "What's for tea?" question used to give me a bit of a panic attack but then I sorted out a menu planner. I wouldn't say that I was exactly qualified to give good mummy advance but when you have an eating machine like my Charlie, being a little bit organised seriously reduces the amount of stress. If they want to know what is for tea, I look on the fridge and that is what's for tea, no discussion, no negotiation and no arguing and because my husband is such a complete star and does the shopping, everything I need to cook what the fridge tells me, is in fact in the fridge. There is a little bit more to it than that, like deciding what meals are going to go in the menu planner and writing the shopping list, but I am so grateful to have the ...

For the third night this week I have escaped to the allotment after tea and it is so lovely. There really is nowhere that I would rather be on a glorious evening in May. On Monday this whole area was covered in weeds and waist high nettles. My lupins (now in their 2nd year and truly established) have room to breathe and flower and I have a lovely view of the river. If the weather continues to be warm and sunny, then these lupin spikes will flower and I will just be so happy. Lupins are truly majestic and I do love them especially because I grew these ones myself from seed. I have finally replaced the strawberry patch that Charlie destroyed the first year we had an allotment. As a toddler he picked strawberries by pulling out the whole plant, eating the ripe strawberries and then pulling the plant apart. He has learned a lot about strawberries since then and even knows which ones are strawberry plants just by the leaves. I did love him, when in the middle of winter, he wa...

I love my bike. I use it almost everyday. It's not fancy although it has had a make over (check it out here ). I did think that the make over was complete but I have recently added a crocheted seat cover and embellished the bike lock with crochet stitches. The bike seat cover The bike lock I have been riding around with a little one on the back for 8 years so I was really very sad recently when I finally admitted that Charlie is now too big to ride in the seat on the back as it is way to dangerous.   I started teaching Charlie to ride a couple of weeks ago but then it rained a lot and last weekend was devoted to Josie's birthday and roller skating so on the second day of actually trying to teach him, he has pretty much got it. I do have to push him to get him started but I am looking forward to riding bikes in the summer holidays.

April and May have been rather wet, resulting in an explosion of growth at the allotment. I have two rhubarb plants, one is only a year old but the other I inherited with the plot and it produces the most enormous stems. Rhubarb likes rain and stinging nettles seem to grow really well around the rhubarb so with the huge amount of growth over the past few weeks, the nettles have kept the sunlight off the stems. This means that not only to I have giant rhubarb but the stems are a beautiful dark pink colour. Last year the rhubarb champagne I made was not as explosive or as nice as the year before. I couldn't work out why until I checked my blog post from last year for the recipe and it was not the one from my recipe book. So I thought I should share the more explosive recipe because it is delicious and has been known to make holes in people's ceilings. I am very proud to say that out of the 5 ingredients needed to make rhubarb champagne, 80% were sourced from the UK. Up...

Seriously by the middle of May, I really think there should be a little more sunshine and warm weather. I know... how very British of me to be talking about the weather but I do like to spend time in the garden and there is a whole host of summery dresses that I would like to be wearing. Ever since our Yellow Day last summer, I have been rather enamored with yellow , probably because it is such a sunny colour. I've recently made a couple of yellow hair clips in preparation for the summer. This one is a made from an old t-shirt and some left over yellow ric rac.   And this is one is crocheted lemon yellow roses I've added these to my Etsy shop and whilst I was there I thought I might as well make a treasury of all the lovely yellow things on Etsy that I love but can't afford.  Check it out here

I recently discovered a blog, with brilliant titles for each of the posts, either witty or a play on words and I was really quite envious. Inspired, I thought that Rollerama was an accurate title for a blog about Josie's birthday weekend. The suffix -arama, originates from Greek and has something to do with a display or exhibit and there has definitely been a huge display of roller skating since Josie got some roller skates for her birthday. Yesterday was her roller disco at Herne Bay Arena. I was slightly disappointed that the roller rink is no longer at the end of the pier but now located at the local high school. However once I was whizzing around, I could have just as easily been at my first roller disco in Australia 1980. This is Josie outside the arena, trying to create our own special Xanadu moment. Actually Charlie paid Josie a genuine compliment which I have to record for posterity as I doubt that in the future he will always be quite so lovely (I've heard the ...