Famous last words!

At the end of my last post I mentioned that Malc and the boys were camping, it was going to rain and I didn't envy them. I think I was quite smug actually.
Well they had a great weekend, it hardly rained and they came back absolutely filthy and exhausted which is always a good sign.
I, unfortunately spent all weekend on the sofa, alternatively coughing and sneezing with some sort of virus!
I don't know where it came from, nobody else in the house has had it, I don't know anyone else who has been  ill but obviously I'm very special because that virus picked me!
Today is the first day I've been out in nearly a week.
The reason I'm telling you this, why for sympathy of course, Eden's at school and I'm left in a house of men!  They have taken advantage of the fact that I can't shout  admonish them, beds have not been made, rubbish has been eaten for lunches and bins have not been emptied!
So starting tomorrow, to their utter joy, the house will be given a good go through.
Many hands make light work as they say.
I have finished all the baby clothes for my friend so I'm hoping to send them to her over the weekend.
I have only been knitting again over the last couple of days, you can tell my degree of illness from sniffles to near death on my knitting. My head felt so bad that I couldn't even pick the needles up. Come on, you must be feeling some sympathy by now?
Anyway we've got a new charity to knit for here
So Callum and I have been knitting more baby cardigans and hats.
I'd better go now, don't want to tire myself out with all this blogging!

Anniversaries and Tanks

Yesterday was mine and. Malcs wedding anniversary, 18 years to be precise.
So where did we go, why the Tank Museum of course!
The boys found this table with tanks, soldiers, boats and things on

They played there for quite a while with three other boys, Malc had a little walk round by himself and I got talking to the man who sat next to me. He only home educates his four children! The came from Croydon but were staying with friends in Christchurch who home educate too. It's such a small world.

The boys really liked this tank, Callum thinks it looks like an owl but I think it looks like that hoover, I think it's called Henry!

We got home and my Mum  and Dad came round and we had a takeaway as a treat. We recieved some lovely presents and had a lovely day.

Today we had a walk with the dogs at  a local recreational ground and then went shopping. 

Clark has sent his photos to a wildlife competition that we were told about when we visited the farm on Sunday. You can enter as many as you like and there's a monthly prize of £25 to spend on Amazon.

So he thought he'd give it a go, he's going to try and take some more wildlife photos and send some more in.

Tomorrow I've got to pack all the boys bags as they are off to camp!

Rather then than me it's meant to rain for most of the weekend. Hehe!

Longleat

Cody came running along the landing at 6am as soon as the alarm went off shouting "Mum, Dad, the alarm's gone off , get up it's Longleat!" For the next hour he didn't stop jumping up and down and chattering. He was just so excited.
Needless to say he had a fantastic day.
I thought the easiest thing to do was to just post the pictures.

They arrived back at 6pm, Cody was exhausted, so was Malc. Apparently there were over 2500 beavers from the South West there for the day. Malc said it was hard work watching the ones he was in charge of as all the beavers looked the same! 

Clark was helping a parent/helper look after her group so he had a great time too. 

On Sunday we went to a farm which was participating in the Open Farm Day. We went to one near Swanage. We arrived and had to be taken to the farm in this

I think the driver took the bumpiest route possible!

We had a man tell us all about the Red Devon herd that he manages there.

Upon arriving at the farm we went on a landrover safari, we went behind the RSPB reserve and we saw some deer and a buzzard.

There were lots of stalls with things for the children to colour and quizzes, badges to make, a storyteller and the sun shone. We had the most fabulous time.

We caught the last tractor ride back, we sat right at the back and the more we shrieked at being bounced about the harder the driver laughed and the ride became even more bouncy!

When we got off the boys told the driver it was the best part of their day.

This is the first time that we've been  to this event, I found out about it through this blog. We will definitely being looking out for it next year 

It's nearly time for Springwatch so I'm off.

Clarks Pictures

As I said yesterday Clark took some georgous pictures when we were out walking the dogs, but I'll give you a bit of background before I post them.
We woke  to quite heavy rain which was a bit of a surprise as we weren't forecast any, but the garden can do with it and it saves me watering the pots and baskets and I'm all for anything that saves me work!
We went to Upton Park, I've mentioned it before another one of our favorite places to go. It had stopped raining by then even so we put our wellies on just in case and we had a lovely walk around the boardwalk which goes through the woods and all along the waters edge. It took us about 45 minutes, we put the dogs in the mini bus and walked round to the little plant shop they have there, it's run by volunteers and the plants are so cheap.
Malc and I looked round whilst the boys sat on a bench in front of the little shed where the till is. The volunteers put biscuits, seeds and mealworms out on a brick slate for the birds and they have visits from Blue Tits and Robins.
The boys weren't disappointed within a minute we had a family of blue fits flying down, they were so tame and took no notice of us at all, the robin also came down for the mealworms, unfortunately Clark wasn't fast enough with his camera, no matter how many times he tried to take a photo that robin was off before he could click!

He also walked round the walled garden that they have there and took some very pretty photos of the flowers

We also saw some very weird species of wildlife, here's one

And here's another

When we got home Callum and I put some lobelia in the hanging baskets that we already have, we had the usual round of Beavers, youth club with a hospital appointment for Malc thrown in for good measure.

Today I've dropped off Malc, Clark and Cody to meet up with a coach load of Beavers all on their way to Longleat.

All of their adventures will be reported tomorrow, until then, keep calm and cool!

A Walk in the Woods

Thursday mornings we usually go and visit my Mum and Dad, so yesterday was. no exception, we left just after 1-30 ish, came home and had a quick lunch and decided to go and walk the dog in one of our favorite places, Delph woods.
We go there quite often, it was a beautiful afternoon and I even remembered to take some pictures!

This is a lovely little bridge, the children have walked under it and we usually play " Pooh sticks" on it.

This is one side of it. We went here with my friend and her three sons, of course boys being boys they had to go in and they even sat in it so I had lots of dripping wet children in the back of our mini bus. Luckily my friend and I thought it was hilarious!

Malcolm thought it would be a great idea to go "off  track" so we had to cross this little stream

Using these logs

After much wobbling and laughing we all made it across.
We then had to go  and pick Eden up, she had a Chamber choir rehearsal after school. That done we then went to a farm/pet food wholesalers where we get our dog/rabbit/guinea pig food stocked up. We usually get our sawdust and hay there too but we don't need any of that just yet.
All dogs walked, childen picked up and chores done we headed home for tea.
That folks is another busy day in the life of our household!
Today we've been on another lovely walk and Clark has got some amazimg pictures of a Blue Tit who was feeding not 3 foot away from us, but as he's at Beavers at the moment and he hasn't bluetoothed them across to me you're just going to have to wait until tomorrow aren't you?

Bakefest!

Yesterday morning the boys and I decided to makes some cakes.
Clark made chocolate chip cookies

Cody made honey loop chocolate cakes

I made a Dorset Apple Cake, a coconut slice, some scones and a big oblong sponge cake which Clark decorated with buttercream and smarties. We"ve got a couple of  days out coming up with picnic lunches so I thought if we had a baking session we'd have something to put in the rucksacks.
The tent ......

In the end Malc had to spend the night in there, Clark was quite happy to stay in there overnight by himself but Soloman and Cody really wanted to spend the night in it but they were a bit scared and wanted their Dad.
I think they finally settled down at about 10pm!
The bucket is in front of the tent because that's where the pole for the washing line is and I didn't want anyone tripping over it!
Anyway, all the airbeds, sleeping bags, torches and the actual tent have been tested for the camp they"ll be going to in a couple of weeks.
Back to Tuesday, in the afternoon we went over to our local fields which  are just over the road to us, there are three big fields, a couple of little parks and so much wildlife, we've even seen deer over there.
We walked the dogs round all the fields, we didn't see another soul and it was perfect! The dogs were shattered by the time we got back and we didn"t hear another peep out of them!
Eden got home from school and she looked after the boys whilst Malc and I went shopping. What a treat, a trip to Asdas all by ourselves!
We've had another beautiful day today but I'll save that for tomorrows post

Too Sunny to Blog

We`ve had a fabulous weekend. The sun has shone.
We went out to breakfast on Saturday at our favourite restaurant. The have a special deal where you pay £8-25 per adult and two children go free, so it usually costs us £20  for seven of us as we only pay for me, Malc and Eden, but this weekend they were doing an even better deal where one adult pays £8-25, another adult eats free and each adult whether they pay or not has a child go free. So as we had my Mum and Dad with us we only paid for two adults and one child, which worked out as £20 for nine of us. It's a full cooked breakfast with cereals, toast, yogurt, fruit and croissants. You eat as much as you like.
As it was so sunny we invited my Mum and Dad to come over for tea, but as we'd all eaten so much already we just had a ham salad sat outside with Eden playing her guitar, it was lovely.
Sunday morning was church, here's Eden and Chris, our church youth worker playing guitar for us to sing along to

There was a lady there with her two young lads who had brought her b-b-q along and invited us to an inpromptu get together over our local fields. So we went home to let the dogs out and grab a bag of sausages and assembled back over the fields.

We played football and rounders, I even scored a rounder, many a year has passed since I last scored a rounder!

We left about 4 ish, had a very quick tea and then it as back to another chuch for the evening service as Eden was singing with their Youth Band, it's such an informal service which is good with my boys! We do go to church but with the younger boys it's no good doing something long and formal, we never go to Holy Communion as the boys get bored and start fidgetting! 

Yesterday the boys got the paddling pool out and spent most of the morning splashing about.

In the afternoon Callum and I went to our knit and natter group, the other boys and Malc went to the library and did some school stuff on their computers

Malc, Soloman and Clark went to Cubs in the evening.

Today is the last day of Edens holiday so she's had a friend over and they went to the beach.

The boys have been playing in the pool again.

Malc got our tent out to make sure it's ok as him and the boys are going camping with the Cub/Beavers in a couple of weeks. Clark, Soloman and Cody have their sleeping bags in there and have run an extension lead into it, they reckon they are sleeping in it tonight. I think Clark probably will but Soloman and Cody will slip  back in the house when it get dark, I'll let you know tomorrow who made it!

Just before I go I'd like to say thankyou to those of you who have commented recently and say if your reading and haven't don't be shy, make yourself known, I don't bite. In fact I'm always very grateful when anyone has something to say! 

Right knitting needles call, I've not had a lot of time to knit over the weekend.