Out, damn'd spot!

Oh yes, very Lady Macbeth I am at the moment. Well, actually I have just been icing L's cake, mixing red and yellow food colouring in preparation for his party tomorrow. This is a boy with a history of difficult cake requests. One year he wanted a lawnmower cake. Then a strimmer cake. Y'know - those edging things for your lawn? Luckily I had a 3 week old baby that year so Iz took on that one. So this year's digger request was fairly reasonable and predictable.


I should find pictures of previous years, but I'm too grumpy today. Despite a million jobs and faaaaaaar too much baking, I also made stock.



Because at the end of the day I do a rocking impression of a domesticated person, even when I am foul tempered.

Important Things

Today P-only-just-turned-3 wrote her name, and so I'm gonna dispense with all this P3 stuff and put it up here anyway. Hopefully we don't have any stalkers yet.

See:

Oh, that didn't give it away? She did the 'P' perfectly, but chalk and cobblestones aren't the best media, and she also did the 'l' after mine first, before I explained that she needed to do it again on the end of her writing.

See:

And we also cooked these:

And those were the important things to remember about today.

Remembering the Thrill

One of the best things about children is most definitely reliving your youth. The things that used to be cool? Well, you get to experience them for the first time again. Almost. Surely you found pick-your-lucky-colour endlessly fascinating? Well, so did L5 and P3 today. Especially with such lovely fortunes inside as "Hey there Fartypants!"

Bwahahahahahahhahahahahaha!

(And it got them both counting, and L5 spelling, and folding paper in goemetric shapes and the co-ordination required to make the thing work amazed me. Gotta be building good neural connections there surely? So I get to be a good Mummy and call my father fartyparts at the same time? Brilliant!)

Another Birthday

This time it was Mutti's turn. We had a real family day. It began with some hard work from the children.

After lunch out we just kinda hung out, relaxing.

sacrificing homegrown corn for the chooks

reading homemade birthday cards

blowing candles

being bubbles

Cheers Mutti. Happy birthday!

Six Nice Things

Some random nice things for the day. First (one I promised) the chicken prison. Let them out of the coop, and they are still in. Actually that is less than half of it AND they have the biggest tree in the world. They are going to adore autumn. Pity about the state of the lawn.

Since Panama Bob and Tallulah are now safely housed, I freed my plants. And bought some nice new ones.

This is the nicest book I read over summer. Well actually nice is completely the wrong adjective, but it goes with the theme. Interesting. And Sandra asked me ages ago for a book recommendation, and I didn't have a good one. So here you go.

If you have time, here is someone else's photostream. I wish it was mine because they are such nice photos. Especially the second page.

Meanwhile, back in my real world, hiding deep in the unstaked tomato jungle:

the first of the summer tomato harvest.

Probably shouldn't point it out, but my thumbnail only looks like that because I had just painted the new chicken fence. Promise.

And a nice song. That you probably won't listen to right the way through (unless you are my sister) but you should. It's nice.

T.Rex and Duck Mouse

Did pretty much everything today :)

Finished my latest knitting effort - and it fits! (I think I missed that growing-up phase where you stop liking things that are pink and fluffy.)

Blokey Husband and children strained the plum goop in the next stage of plum wine manufacture.

Went to the Domain with Grandma J for a picnic.



Saw the Most Beautiful Leaves Ever in the winter gardens, and can not believe I forgot to take a picture even though my camera was strung around me. That is just how beautiful they were.

A vegetable green and pink butterfly wing. I'm gonna have to take a pic for you one day.

Children rode bikes round the band rotunda. And round. And round.

Went to the museum and L5 cranked a spitfire engine. Terrible picture if you like clarity, but I chose it because it summed up his enthusiasm.

And we met Sue, who lives at the museum at the moment, and is a brilliant T. Rex skeleton.

Is she not beautiful?

We offered up our golden-haired sacrifice - see...





and I discovered lots of pretty things. Mostly behind glass. But this is just from the doors:

and this an old cannon:

and both of those are lovely and curly squirly metal that would make the basis for a very pretty full arm tattoo design for a birthday present in six months or so time if one's sister happened to think that even though she is working a squillion hours a week in two different islands, with a teenage daughter beginning high school and a local demand for paintings and a new house to sort, that such a design might be a nicer birthday present than this.

Eh?

Chicken Prison

I'm going to free my flowers! Yes I am. I whinged at Blokey Husband to build me a new chicken fence, and he did! Because he completely rocks and is also very obedient because I am very, very scary.

Actually we all did.

P3 got right into the digging early on:

L5 used his homemade skateboard as a wood carrier:





and I did some fancy knitting with wire:



but this bloke pulling a funny face did all the hard yakka really:


even stapling his hand to create a wee handyman stigmata:

My end of the day soak in bubbles was vicarious:

(do you have any idea how much motherly restraint it took not to turn that tap on?)

and now I have to be the beer skivvy as payback for the sweat. Which is pretty much akin to going to the gym the number of times I have run to the fridge already this evening, so it is kind of win/win.

Oh - no chicken prison photo? I'll add that once I've painted it to hide the shoddy edges.

Art

This was the sky today. Blistering. Beautiful.

And this is the view the Blokey Husband wants me to blog about:

Apparently it hasn't changed in thirty years. But I'm concerned the next door neighbour of Blokey Husband's family home, who owns these white y-fronts, might one day stumble across this blog. I should have taken a picture of his sheep instead. They are also white blobs, but much cuter.

Can I go to prison for putting a photo of a stranger's undies on the internet? Ah, not if it is Art.

Enough of the Wholesomeness.

Today I bought a whole bunch of Skittles,

separated 'em out,

and made Skittles Vodka.

It looks beautiful. Actually I'm not that fussed on vodka. Or Skittles.

But I'm still happy with my creation.

Apparently you can do it with Pineapple Lumps, Mars Bars and Werthers too. MMMmmm.

Weirdos

This evening my children made me grumpy. Just during dinner and bedtime to be exact. But fortunately when I blog them, they'll come off looking kinda cute (that happens when you are three). And possibly a bit weird.



P3 has always been such a lovely sleeper, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to admit that the time for afternoon naps is over. Getting back to sleep at 7 has suddenly become a problem. This evening I popped in on her after an hour of silence from her room, expecting a tucked up little sleeping angel. Standing in the dark, this is what I saw.

Three pairs of pjs added. Including a nightie pulled up from her feet. A girl has to be prepared.

Luckily I had earlier in the day to look back on, when they made me happy with their spazziness. If only that was a word.

Crazy Old Ladies, Young Things and Chickens Too

Oh okay, okay. I took a whole bunch of pics, and do you know what? Terrible. All of them. We are clearly too haggard to blog. Sorry, sad but true. Between wrinkly eyes, chicken necks, and I'm not even gonna mention the hairy jowls....oops... ;)

So here are some young things, running wildly, chasing seagulls while we had a picnic dinner tonight, instead.





Well to be honest, that is a pretty terrible video too. But you get the laughter and the energy and the fun. And since I realise that I am really lucky to have my sister around to share the orange hair with, who am I to say we are too old and ugly to blog? I hope you can ignore the wrinkles and see the laugh lines and the love.

It's been lovely to have you up here Iz.

Meanwhile, getting back to chickens...

Grrrr....under the garden-saving chicken wire. I'm gonna have to re-think this...

Led Astray

Who better at leading you astray than a sibling? Mine has led me astray many times. On the ship on the way to NZ when she took me up those scary stairs with holes in between to the upper deck, knowing full well that my promises to walk back down them were tosh. That time she had to ask a strange man to carry her little sister down. Not a bad save when you are only six.

That other time we walked through the mudflats and I got into huuuuge trouble and no TV for a week despite the cut foot.

Yeah, okay, I've led her astray a couple of times too. A body modification trip or two that we are too old and flobbly to show off now.

So why am I surprised that she led me astray once again, coming up to visit with screaming red hair (the blue has gone if you read that far back) and leaving me with the sinking feeling of being the boring twinnie? Not much worse than boring in my book, hence these scarily orange remnants in my bathroom this morning.

I'd rather be a crazy orange-haired old lady than a dull one any day.

Inspired

by friends, blokey husband is making plum wine.

Looks pretty dodgy so far.

I have other, rather more colourful, alcoholic plans to share soon. Just need to go shopping first.

Overheard today

L5 (clutching a packet of salt) "P3, would you like to kill a slug with me?"

Plans

After a 40th party last night, blokey husband and I were discussing what the heck we were going to do for ours. Which are thankfully not this year, but looming rather ominously all the same.

I'd like to spend the couple of months that will include both our birthdays travelling through Italy really, but since the likelihood of that is pretty much zilch, I bags escaping to Las Vegas for the weekend to get married in an Elvis Chapel for mine instead. Although I have had the good luck never to have been subjected to much Elvis in my life, so will not have a clue what is going on.

Will probably marry blokey husband again, but all offers considered.

Busy Day

with friends and family.

A very happy birthday wish for our gorgeous birthday friend, S5.

We shared a lovely day at the beach, then got tired (this is a sad excuse to add this sleepy-face piccie, just 'cos I like it)

and had a lovely cuzzie-read bedtime story.

Blogarazzi

Sorry M13 lots of pics of you! How fabulous it is to see you my lovely niece! You are too beautiful not to blog.

I can't wait till you are a rock star bass guitarist.

But where has this girl gone??