Sunday

Seems a long time since Wednesday, which was the last time that I blogged.  I have been busy!  On Thursday, Coralie, baby Evan and I went went up to Stevanage to see my Mum and Dad.  Coralie drove which made quite a nice change for me.  It wasn't the best visit.  My Mum wasn't too bad but my Dad was having one of those day where he was on his high horse about all sorts of things and drove us crazy!  I think we were both very glad when it was time to leave.

We had to leave fairly early as I was having my hair done in the evening. My hair dresser James, has moved to a different salon as he is now self employed.  It is not so convenient to get to, so Simon took me and collected me.  The price has also gone up by £15!!!  I was a bit annoyed about that, but the thing is, James does do a really good job and I am used to him.  I hate going to have my hair done and need to know the person doing it, so I guess I'll stick with him.  I might need to go every 3 months instead of every 8 weeks though!

On Friday, I did my normal housework in the morning and then we went swimming in the afternoon.  It turned into a real family trip this week.  Sam, Lisa and Ellie came too as Sam had a day off.  Charlotte and Joshua came to see the 2 babies in the pool and at the last minute Saskia was also able to come as she was home from work early.  The only ones missing were Verity and Simon.

Evan didn't seem to enjoy it quite as much as last week but he was very good.  Ellie had a lovely time.  She was a bit hesitant at first but soon got in the swing of it.  The pool where they have gone before, near their house, is quite cold and that has put her off. The training pool at Peterborough is very warm. We had a great time.

 

Ellie in the pool with her Mummy

Ellie driving the car after swimming!

Friday evening after a very quick dinner, Simon and I went over to Sam and Lisa house to amuse Ellie while Sam and Lisa got on with tiling their kitchen.  They have completely redone their kitchen from scratch and done everything theirselves apart from the plastering and Sam did help with that.  It looks really good and they just have the floor to get done now.  We had a lovely time playing with Ellie.

When we got home, Joshua had picked up Verity from the station. She came home for the weekend to see us all.  She had to bring lots of school work with her which she had to get done.  We all enjoyed looking at what her children had been doing in class.  She is teaching year 4, who are 8 year olds.

Yesterday and today we have been busy in the garden.  We went to the garden center yesterday and got some winter flowering pansies to put in the hanging baskets and pots.  Most of the flowers have died off.  I have potted up some of the geraniums from my baskets and put them indoors to see if they will survive.  Last year all but one died in the winter.  If they do ok I'll plant them back in the hanging baskets next year.

We picked the last of our tomatoes as the plants had all died off.  We picked all the green ones too, but I'm not sure what we will do with them.  We were going to have a go at making chutney but we don't have any jars to put it in.  The pots that had the tomato plants in, we filled with daffodil bulbs.  We are hoping that they will come up in the spring, but they are the bulbs that we dug up this year and some of them didn't look to good.  We have covered the pots with wire mesh to prevent the squirrels digging them up as they did last autumn.  I hate squirrels!

Simon also chopped down the cherry tree.  It was very old and had gone straggly and out of shape.  It seems a shame to chop down trees but it was taking up a lot of room and preventing the sun from getting through, plus it was pushing the fence over!  He also trimmed back the apple tree.  It looks much better now but does mean that the dogs have a clearer view of the park, so they are now even barking when they see squirrels on the hill!

Today, we chopped up the tree and got it all bagged up, so Simon could take it to the dump.  Our brown bin for garden waste is already full.  I also pruned the lavender bushes today and they look much better.  We didn't do that last year and they were quite straggly this year.  You have to remember that we are quite new to this gardening stuff so we are still learning by our mistakes!

We had an early dinner at 3pm with everyone here.  Coralie, John and Evan just called in briefly and didn't actually have dinner.  Simon took Verity to the station about an hour ago and he has now gone to see a friend.  I am having some much needed quiet time!  Next week, I will get my house back to normal!  It is always chaos when we have had everyone here, even if only for a short while!