Easy days are lovely days

Aren't these lillies gorgeous, they just starting flowering today.

Well we are getting into the school hols groove and enjoying later nights and later mornings. We've had a hectic week what with my Mum staying over, swimming and going out with friends etc. So today we had a Mummy and Twiglet day and it was soooooo nice.

Incidentally, it was very odd last night but Twiglet woke up around 2am to go to the loo and came into our room well none of us could get to sleep, too hot, couldn't get comfy, the smallest sound was annoying (do you get them too?) Anyhow we ended up eating cornflakes in bed at 2.15am. Mr Twigs said, well I was going to have to go into the office this weekend, but I'll go in now and do my work on the network and it'll be quicker !!!!! He was back home and in bed by 3.30am - barmy !!!

Look at these spring onions, we pulled them up out of the garden today and they are soooo tasty!!

So back to today. I love unplanned days that are just cosy and fun. We had to wait in this morning for the grocery delivery, so made a castle out of cardboard boxes and tubes after drawing a few designs and doing some internet research. Twiglet says I'm not allowed to show you it until it's finished!!

We then put the shopping away. I had one of those moments when I thought ha ha your reading is getting too good young Twigs. When he opened a bag and said, ooo what's this, erm tampons, sounds lovely :) He was then instantly distracted by a punnet of strawberries so no awkward questions !!

Had a little walk down to the village post office and had a chinwag with the postmaster - a mine of info. Twiglet purchased his customary Milky Bar, he is a man of habit. Had a nosey at the village allotments.

We then went to the duck pond and fed the very greedy ducks. They like cinnamon and raisin bagels VERY much.
Onto the little playground, can you remember posts from a couple of years ago, I had to lift him onto the climbing frame then, he stepped off the top of it today, no problem!!!

Had a little walk and slide down the field barriers, or slide rides as Twiglet calls them.

Walked home and it started raining, so I got soggy as I didn't take a jacket - doh!! We heard an alarm going off, Twiglet said hope that isn't ours, yes you've guessed it we'd had a power cut while we were out and of course it was ours - oops!!!

Came home made a rhubarb and apple crumble for dinner with rhubarb we picked from the garden.

Finished the day by watching The Wrong Trousers and having a cuddle on the sofa whilst scoffing FAB lollies - you can't beat a bit of Wallace and Grommit.

What an unexpectedly nice day.

Hope you enjoyed it.

I'm not working for the whole of the Summer (and maybe beyond - argh!) so I'm hoping that the heavy rain we're having this evening will clear as I fancy a good weeding session up at the lottie tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.
Twiggy xxx

PS Thanks for your lovely comments on Twiglets first post, I read every one to him and he loved them. There will be more missives from him soon.

PPS I'm amazed to say someone actually bought one of my brooches from my MISI shop this week, think it had been there for over a year !!!

Post by Twiglet Number 1

I am Twiglet, I am 5 years old. This is my Mummy's blog but we are going to share it over the Summer holidays so I can tell you what I'm doing.

I love going to the park. I like playing on my climbing frame and I love collecting engines. Here is a photo that have taken of my new engine called Mike.
Twiglet

Aren't Mums brilliant?

My Mum stayed over last night, she's played with Twiglet ever since she got here, made some scones and let me have my first lie in for ages !! Hooray for my brilliant Mum.

Twiggy x

School's Out !!!

(Our first sunflower this year !)

Hooray it's the holidays!! Twiglet finished school yesterday. His school had a Year 5 leavers assembly at the village church which was just lovely, lots of sniffling parents and grandparents and our children weren't even leaving :) There were only 7 Year 5 pupils moving on up to middle school as our village school is small but perfectly formed :)(Home grown raspberries - or as Twiglet has always called them raspbabies- picked this week - yum).

Twiglets class then had a party in the afternoon and he came home with a spider painted on his face. It doesn't seem two minutes since I was blubbing because he was starting Reception in September. Time flies.

Anyhoo, we wanted to give his wonderful teachers and teaching assistant a little gift as they have been a tower of strength. Particularly when he first started last September and was very poorly, it was a rough time all round and they were fabulous.

I didn't think they'd want another mug to add to their collection and wanted to make something a little personal. We dug out Twiglets bead box (thanks Auntie Vicky, hope you approve ;) and made one of his teachers and teaching assistant a bracelet, which they wore straight away so I think they liked them. His main teacher has piereced ears, so I made her a pair of earrings which she popped on straight away. We finished off the gifts with tiny boxes of Guylian seashell chocs and homemade cards. The gifts didn't cost a lot but time, love and effort were put into them by us both which I feel reflects their dedication. Wrapped in pretty paper with Swirlys lovely cheeky chicken tags !!

I am so pleased to have the weeks ahead of us but unfortunately have started the hols with a pretty unpleasant cold, so felt rough today. We were going to go over to my Mums but had a Twiglet and Mummy day instead. Started the day with Twiglet making a jet pack :)Played with the Moon Sand.Made some cheese and onion bread and I made some buns yesterday with a view to Twiglet decorating them.
What a fab job he made, all his own technicolour work !!

We also managed to pack in some handwriting practice and watched some TV and Magic Roundabout DVDs - blimey !!! hope he doesn't think every day is going to be so action packed !!

He is taking me to the dentist for a check up tomorrow morning then out with our pals in the afternoon, snotty nose permitting. Back to work for me this weekend, but then two weekends off, so not too bad. It looks like my job might be finished soon anyway as the housing market is slowing right down again, I'll miss the cash but not working weekends !!I'm actually making something. It's to avoid doing that blardy wedding sampler, must get on with it, anyhoo there's my distraction project, so far!!

I'm actually feeling the stirrings of my crafting mojo, so hopefully over the Summer I might be able to fit a bit of making and doing in. However, I must say I'm enjoying going and having a good weeding sesh at the allotment after work - crazy woman. Due to the rain everything is growing like mad at the moment !

Righto, Mr Twigs is home now and playing train simulators with Twiglet the kind man has made me a Lemsip, so I'm going to have a little lie down with Reginald Hill. (I'll probably fall asleep with my book on my face :)

love
Twiggy x

PS Caithness Rare Breeds Raffle is now up and running, so do pop over and buy a raffle ticket or two, it's for a great cause and there are some terrific prizes.

My own little random act of kindness and other stuff....

Cor have you had the rain? we're having some spiffing thunderstorms up here, the garden and lottie are loving it. Do you like our first crop, lovely plum tomatoes and a mini cucumber. Twiglet insisted we make a face and take a photo.

Before the rains started we managed to spend most of Saturday purchasing plants and actually digging on the allotment (my poor old dodgy back can still feel it!)
Sunday saw more gardening and kite flying at lovely Cannon Hall. Well worth a trip to Cannon Hall at the moment, the walled garden is bursting with fruit and veg and looks lovely.

We had a school sharing achievement evening this week. Twiglet took us to his class room and showed us his portfolio full of photos of what he's been up to this year, observations by his teachers and his work. It was so sweet, I loved the photo of him and one of his little girlyfriends sat in Santas sleigh wearing false beards. Apparently he was adamant he was a Santas helper and NOT AN ELF !!! All lovely stuff.

An up and coming young chef made most of the dinner this evening, we had some swede and cabbage bought from the school allotment, he then made Toad in the Hole for us and we finished with lottie raspberries and ice cream - yummy !!

Here's my own little random act of kindness. I popped the names of all the lovely folk that left messages on my last post into one of our lurid Ikea bowls. (Thank you for your kind comments about my boy:) My lovely assistant pulled out a name and it was..............................................................................................

Smilernpb.

So send me your address missus and I'll send you a random act of kindness in a random manner in the next couple of weeks.

I'm working this weekend, bleurgh!! but looking at the weather forecast it doesn't seem too bad.

We're meeting our mates at a local soft play area for tea tomorrow - Twiglets end of the year/good report treat. (It's purely co-incedence that the places does very nice cake!).

I actually made something this week, but more on that next time.

Have a great weekend.
love
Twiggy x

What's that smell and a random act of kindness

We have loads of these lovely daisies all over the garden - so pretty.

Mr Twigs is a charmer. I was making my elderflower cordial see below - yes I didn't think as far as actually having bottles in for it, so our porch looks like it's full of sample jars. Anyhoo he walked in and said, urgh I can smell cat wee or is it you?? no it's my flippin elderflower cordial - cheeky beggar. We discovered it's very good with vodka!!

Another busy week here. Usual swimming and seeing my good pal and scoffing cake, Twiglets school friend round for tea etc etc, life is made of little rituals.

Oh and it was our 14th wedding anniversay on Tuesday and the only person to remember was my Sister(I remembered on the morning :) - oops, so romantic of us !!!

We also had two of Twiglet firsts. Now I am going to have a couple of proud Mummy moments here, so indulge me. First up, we had Twiglets school report which was very lovely. His head teacher said Twiglet sometimes nearly bursts with enthusiasm :) His class teacher said he is improving nicely and is a kind little boy. Now I like that very much and must say he impressed me at the school sports day.

My boy is not sporty and prefers to dig in the garden, build lego, make things (bit like me:) Anyhoo, he did a little act of random kindness that made us VERY proud of him on Wednesday.

He has not got a competitive bone in his body , so sauntered in his races, stopping to give us thumbs ups and wave at the class 3 girls!! During the egg and spoon race, he was actually in the lead. Anyhoo one of his little girlyfriends lost her name badge as she ran up the field and got a bit upset. He put his egg and spoon down, ran off to retrieve her badge, chased her stuck it on her jumper, ran back to collect his egg and spoon and finished last. He got the biggest cheer from his class !! I was one proud Mummy.

Twas interesting too as there are one or two erm lets say very competitive parents with sporty kids, one of these kids didn't win any races and cried and had to sit on his Mums knee, as he was so upset :(

I asked Twiglet if he'd enjoyed sports day, he said yes Mummy, I love my new sports bottle you bought me and it was fun!! now isn't that what life should be all about. It never ceases to amaze me that a 5 year old can teach me lessons every day.

Our patch is looking good at the moment.Herbs, tomates, peppers, broccoli, horseradish, it's all looking lush.We can't eat the salad fast enough!

I've found the time on a couple of evenings this week to do a bit of making, so cheese and tomato bread and another batch of chilli jam. Hmmm think I might have a cheese and chilli jam sandwich for lunch.

We've spent a bit of time up at the lottie and worked on the garden patch, all looking good. We've starting eating our first raspberries which were very tasty. The cucumbers are coming on nicely.

The seeds are growing so quickly, beans, peas, cabbages and carrots.

Look at these beauties, plum tomatoes - yummy !!

I'm not working this weekend (hooray) , so hoping to do some much needed allotment weeding.

Righto, I must go and clear out the spare room. My Mum is feeling a bit better so is coming over next week. Only problem is we've been using the spare room as a dumping ground and if I don't sort it, she'll have to sleep under a pile of ironing and boxes !!

have a great weekend.
Twiggy x

Saturday night round at Twiggy Towers.

Evening all.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. As I'm not working this weekend I felt honour bound to do something I've been talking about for ages. That's what I was going to post about, but then I thought yeah yeah, it's a first for me making Elderflower cordial but I'm sure loads of you are old hands at it. Instead we'll take a look around while the making is taking place.I decided to incorporate my cordial adventures into a Saturday evening round at ours and captured a few images for you. Twiglet decided before he went to bed that he wanted to play too, so this post is brought to you by Twiglet and Twiggy.A very serious looking Twiglet using the CBeebies website.

Evening view from the garden.Little seedlings, we've done a lot of planting today and I've been putting my tomatoes in bigger pots. Been up to the allotment and I have very dirty feet - why do I always wear crocs up there?Here's a piccy of the rose that Twiglet chose for my Mum for her birthday. You would think it's because it's pretty and red. However, he told me ha ha it's called trumpeter, that's rude, we'll buy that one :)Twiglets photo of the beautiful evening sky.His pirate ship.I loved connecta straws when I was little and saw some the other day, just the thing for Twiglet. This is a helicopter monster.Oooo this needs to steep for 24 hours now. I need to go and drink a big cup of Earl Grey, read my book and go to bed. Off to see my lovely Mum tomorrow.
Hope you enjoyed your visit and do call again, hopefully I'll be able to offer you some elderflower cordial by then.
love
Twiggy xx

Progress on the allotment and check out my buns !!!

Phew isn't it hot?? We're having another busy week. Twiglet had an environmental day on Monday. Yesterday the whole school (all 72 of them :) went for a 2 mile walk around the various pretty public footpaths in the village. Followed by a Teddy Bears Picnic and they ended the day with a Mini Olympics. (School wasn't this exciting in my day) They have a local artist going in on Friday to help them make Mod Roc sculptures, so we've been saving LOTS of packaging.

I thought he'd be exhausted by the time he got home last night but he still insisted we go swimming so he was a bit of a tired teddy this morning.

His girlyfriend is coming round for tea tonight so I hope he manages to last until bedtime!!!

On the way home from the swimming pool last night we called into our lottie to do a spot of watering and I thought I'd take a few snaps. Now don't get too excited, it doesn't look great as we have a LOT of work to do and due to me working most weekends recently we haven't had time.

However, I've got the next two weekends off work so we're hoping to get stuck in.

It's our 14th wedding anniversary next week and my Mums 75th birthday so lots going on !!

Anyhoo here's the pics.Starting with Twiglets pumpkins, there are 12 in all.Twiglets parsnips, we have a very long row of these !!!A long shot of the plot, we are trying to smother the weeds - they seem to grow twice as fast as the veg!Mr Twigs spuds - so to speak :)Onions.

We also have butternut squash, leeks, cabbages, broccoli and a few fruit bushes.
Of course we've also done a bit of baking, wouldn't be a post without cake would it? Check out our lurid buns - I think we excelled ourselves!Oooooooo and a bit of pizza.

So there we have it, a post all about food !!

Have a great weekend.

love
Twiggy x