Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

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

Just the little lift I needed. A message from Paula Radcliff I've now run 500K this year and that includes the 5 months I took off running. Firstly I tore a muscle in my calf  (I do have old calves now and they've done a lot of work since I started dancing at age 3 years)secondly life was just too much to go out running. As I said yesterday though, Nike+ is addictive and now I'm back on the road, I've already started setting myself new targets. I want to run another 50K by 23rd November. It maybe a bit optimistic since there are such tough times ahead but I can always extend the date if I don't mangage it. Josie and I had a craft afternoon but the results wont be ready until tomorrow but it was a lot of fun.

Today we invested in a family membership for Wildwood  and it truly is a magical place set in the most beautiful Kentish woodland. We hadn't been since Josie had her fourth birthday party there as an individual visit is quite expensive. However for two adults and up to six children, it is only £6 per month and worth every penny. A good friend gave me a leaflet about the upcoming events after reading my blog about wild mushrooms because there is a Fungal Foray there next week. Apparently it is sold out but people do drop out and I'm sure that if I'm persistent, I'll get a place. I've also booked the children in for Hallowe'en crafts later in the week. They have a fabulous collection of native British animals: beavers, badgers, deer, foxes, mink, otters, owls, pine martins, pole cats, squirrels and wolves. I especially liked the cavern you can enter to view the pole cats sleeping in their dens. There's also an adventure playground which the children loved.

Despite the beauty of the first frost, there have been some garden and allotment casualties. Until Thursday morning, my garden was filled with more glowing nasturtiums than I could pick, but now they look sad, withered and frost burnt. Some flowers and plants remain in more sheltered areas but more than 90% have died. The lovely thing about nasturtiums is that once you have them, they self seed and come back year after year, with more vibrant and unusual hot colour combinations. It was more upsetting to learn that dahlias don't like frost. This is my first year growing dahlias and it was so sad to see my beautiful orange dahlia, still in bud which will now never flower. As soon as I got my second allotment earlier this year, I was able to start growing the flowers that I have always dreamed of and as the dahlias fade, the chrysanthemums seem unaffected by the wintry weather. The buds are about to flower which is very exciting. I have also planted a flower den for Josie made f

I was so inspired by my reminiscing yesterday, that I dusted off my trainers and went for a run. There is something about putting thoughts into words, that completely clears issues up and makes everything seem so simple; if I love running, then I should go. However for those lovely friends who know me well, my life is not quite so simple as to 'say and do' at present. I too yearn for simpler times (quoting Viki) where I can think and see clearly.  If I stop still for a minute and take a good look in the mirror, then I can say that I did Stay Gold , a little pale, plenty of wrinkles around the eyes under the grey bags and hair that Lisa Lovelikins would be ashamed to have ever been associated with but there is a glimmer of gold. I am true to myself, if a little harsh and will always march to the beat of my own drum. It was such a challenge to even get out of bed to go for a run, that I couldn't possibly have remembered my camera. I did have to dig my trainers out of the mo

When I was young and used to spend a lot of time with my Grandparents because they lived around the corner. My Grandma, Grandpa and Dad always used to say that Jack Frost had been out when there was a frosty morning. The way my Grandma used to describe him as impish sprite who danced around the garden painting everywhere with his frost crystal paintbrush appealled to my imagination. I could just see him with his paint pot full of sparkles adding glistening flourishes around the garden. There is something magical about gloriously bright crisp frosty mornings. I particularly like seeing the frost on the pavement. Concrete and tarmac are usually so dull and grey but with a glittering of dust from Jack Frost they become dazzling. White frost crusted grass, bright sunshine and clear blue skies definately make me smile. I even like the feel of the cold air on my cheeks. I wish I could get out of bed early in the morning to go for a jog, because there is nothing I like more than running

There are positives and negatives to having intelligent, inquisitive, confident children. I could go on forever listing how having these attributes can help in life and happiness. I am naturally a proud parent. What parent doesn't recognise and celebrate their own children's achievements? Yesterday I heard talk of the 'Josie show' from Josie's school teacher and could only picture what she meant about her ability to organise the whole of her class in drama session. Josie was indeed born into the role of Drama Queen and has successfully chosen a best friend to share / compete from the crown. For those who know Josie, the best adjective to describe her would have to in fact be 'Josie.' With such a lively, charismatic and incredibly loud first child, I foolishly thought the second would be more quiet and reserved, surely none could be as noisy as Josie. And then I had Charlie who in his own right is just as creative and confident as his sister. I love to hear C

I am going to have to admit to being the type of girl who does not always finish what I have started. Well, not straight away. I believe I do finish each project eventually or at least I hope I do. I definitely do finish things if they have been promised to people, so Theo I will certainly knit your second bootie before I start making Joe's bag, although I already have so many great ideas for it.... One of the best things about crafting and being able to make stuff yourself is that you can make it exactly how you want it, in exactly the colours you like. How else would I be able to find a quilt to go with the new room that Charlie would like with farm animals on one wall, dinosaurs on the second, zoo animals on the third and pirates on the fourth? My new project is a quilt for Charlie's birthday; a dinosaur, pirate, zoo animals quilt in 'boy' colours with stripes. I have already cut out all the pieces, sewn more than half together and plan to use an old sleeping b

Once you have started blogging, it is hard to stop, especially if you have a creative mind. The world is such an inspiring place and there are so many things I would like to talk about, but today I have chosen something short and sweet and simple. It is another make over with a 'before' and 'after' photo and not much work in between, which is the best part. The 'before' photo This watering can had been knocking around in the garden for a while, looking a little sorry for itself really, so I thought it could do with a bit of a makeover. I got some decoupage paper from the brilliant art shop Chromos  in Canterbury, cut it to fit the watering can and used Mod Podge  to attach it. Then whilst it dried we went to Howletts Zoo, which I love. We have a season ticket and go all the time, but see something different everytime. The 'after' photo

There is always such a big debate about what is down to nature and what is nurture. I believe it has to be a little bit of both. Perhaps it's as simple as loving doing the same things as the people you love like doing because you get to spend time together being happy. My Grandma and Grandpa both collected seeds at the end of one season to sow for the next season. I used help Grandpa take the seeds out of the runner beans to dry in his shed before we had a big bonfire with the dried plants. Now Charlie likes to collect the seeds with me. He's been carrying around some borlotti beans in his pocket all day after he found the pods that I collected from the allotment earlier this week. My Grandpa took the business of growing runner beans very seriously and his beans were dried on his work bench before being stored in paper bags. In our house, it wouldn't be summer without sunflowers or autumn without the house and garden being covered in sunflower seeds that we've collect

Canterbury is like a mini City, everything that you could want from a City but in a much smaller version apart the cathedral, which is actually quite grand. There is a museum full of little bits of everything from the ice age right the way through history to our favourite part, the Rupert Bear Museum. The museum is so sympathetically designed that you can in fact skip all of the history and go straight through a second door to the "kiddie area", as Charlie calls it. On the second Thursday of each month, it is the Little Rupert's story time in the Rupert Bear Museum. The children sit on the lily pad cushions and are read a story, Rupert Bear and his friends, which includes his best friend Bagpuss (who also has his own little area of the museum) are invited out of a story sack for a sing a long and then it's the craft part of the morning. Today's theme was Halloween and all things spooky which meant we read " Room on the Broom"  by Julia Donaldson an

In general my blog, Ridgeway Cottage, doesn't really comment about news. I feel I am mostly too sensitive for it. It upsets me and reflects all of the sadness that goes on in the world. However I have been closely following the story of the trapped Chilean miners. To be confined to a small space underground would be my worst nightmare and I could not imagine having to be a miner as a job. But here they are, all 33 men, living together, sharing experiences and waiting for today. For this news story is one of great happiness, smiling faces, love, hope and reunion. To see the face of someone you love after such an ordeal must be incredible. Each man will appreciate everything they see around them, like seeing again for the first time in weeks. Sometimes we take the world around us for granted and don't always see it for what it is. Life is precious and fragile, one moment can change it forever.

Every morning I wake up and I feel sad. I think about Jack and I cry, but then I hear my children's laughter and my husband brings me tea and I think about all the things I do have, how wonderful life is and all the things I want to do. I drop into Ridgeway Cottage to refocus on what is good about the world and there waiting for me most mornings is a comment from Lisa about yesterday's post. It makes me smile and it cheers me up and makes me glad that I write my blog. This morning her comment was so positive that I decided she should be the winner of the Mod Podge Paperweight. I would have loved to have given it to every single person who left a comment but I think for the giver of the most love on my blog, she deserves it. Sometimes you just have to open your eyes and look close to home to find the most precious things in the world.

It wasn't until I got an allotment that I realised you could get fresh vegetables around the year and since then I've become a real winter veg grower. Last Christmas Eve we picked carrots, leeks, parnips, kale and cabbage from our allotment for Christmas dinner, the Christmas potatoes were a disaster though. The key to growing vegetables all year round is being organised. In the spring, I sowed the summer cabbages, then autumn ones, followed by winter savoys and then in the summer I planted the spring cabbages, but I think they got eaten by slugs. In the autumn it's time to plant the spring bulbs, broad bean aquadulce  and onion-senshyu . I had already planted the daffodils for my cutting flower bed and today was the perfect weather to finish my autumn planting. Last year the broad beans suffered badly from the cold winter and had all died by the start of the growing season, so this time I am taking precautions and over the next couple of days I'm going to plant so

The Kent Coast Line is hugely diverse and incredibly beautiful especially on glorious Autumn days. Each year there is an opportunity for one last paddle in the sea in October. It is definitely good for the spirit. Botany Bay is our favourite unspoilt sandy beach. From the end of the summer to Easter, there is nothing there other than dog walkers, kite flyers, the odd canoeists and us. The combination of the clear blue sky, pure white chalk stacks and frothing surf with the gentle warmth of the sand is one of nature's masterpieces. More often than not the sea is very calm but on the odd occasion there is a really windy day which creates crashing waves and they are so much fun. Josie and Charlie couldn't resist and ran straight into the sea. Even Mark and I went in the sea. It was so much fun and we all got soaked. The sea wasn't really that cold either and the sun was so low in the sky that it made amazingly long shadows across the beach. I got a chance to do

Some days are good days and some days are bad days and some days are golden, to be etched into the memory for a life time. Today was a golden one. If there was a recipe of things to make me smile, today had so many of the ingredients. If you are ever feeling sad about life, a good piece of advice is to surround yourself with your favourite things. For those who are in love, the memories of where you fell in love are precious places. For those with children, the memories of where your family began are dear to your heart. Alexandra Palace is a place full of those happy times. Mark and I lived in our first flat together about 20 minutes walk from Ally Pally, we were married in Muswell Hill which is next to Alexandra Palace and Josie and I went on our first ever Mummy and baby outing there. It is a beautiful place, an amazing building, stunning views, a breathing space above the city and today it was full of fabulous fabric and sumptuous yarn as well as some incredibly talented people. T