We are SO excited about Christmas.  The boys room is nearly done, and we are very pleased with it.  The boys have had their book about the Little Wooden House, and pdf version of the Day at the Seaside which is meant to prevent the new mural on the bedroom wall being too unsettling.  I have been to my scrapbooking session all day, and one of the things I did was bind the pages of the Day at the Seaside book together so they can have a paper version of that before they come.  Mary-Ann rang yesterday and said that they should be able to come on the 23rd, possibly early in the day, which will effectively give us two extra days.  Apparently the boys have enjoyed readig The Little Wooden House, but haven't yet twigged that it might be real.

I have had so much fun with all the Art and Craft projects, and now feel quite bereft.  I have been making pages for Dave's scrapbook today - all about motorbikes.  I had bought some 'grunge' paper and stickers and they have worked well and prevented me feeling too disorientated by scrapping something that frightens me to death.  Actually, when I came to remove the photos from Dave's old press cuttings book, there was a picture of me in leathers and carrying my motor-bike helmet, so I can't really complain.
  Mary-Ann decorated the Christmas tree with Joe today, and the boys were pleased with the birds we bought as this years heirloom Christmas tree baubles.  I love the idea that they will look forward to this every year, adding to their collection with each year that goes by, and even when we are dead they wil be able to enjoy the baubles we chose for them.  I can remember the excitement of getting out all my Mum's collection of tree decorations each year, and even though some of them were past their best we were aware of the history, the difference in the old baubles from the ones we might buy at the time.

I am waxing philosophical so time to stop.  This is really to crystallise in my mind that the time has come to stop doing creative and start cleaning and cooking.  So next week is going to be different.  The turkey, ham and salt beef are ordered, and we are saving our Tescos stamps and tokens to make sure we can give everyone a really special welcome. 

Christmas is approaching rapidly, and we have so much to do.  All our own fault of course, although we had a couple of difficult weeks when Gryff was ill.  We left him at the vet's after major surgery while we were in Stone, and he just didn't get better.  Several visits to the vet later, we had a very traumatic Monday afternoon when we had to accept defeat and let the vet put him down.  It was hard to concentrate while all this was going on.  Dave had no heart to finish the playhouse and I kept getting e-mails telling me how urgent it was that I start preparing for my appraisal and re-validation.

Anyway, we are more or less back on track now, although normal people wouldn't look at our house and see that we are doing anything to get ready for everyone joining us for Christmas.  I have been painting a very ambitious mural on the blue-room wall, which just sort of took me over.  I have loved doing it, and Dave has been endlessly supportive and tolerant of my one-track mind.  I ditched the idea of the boys' beds being boats, and looking out across the water to the beach, because it was too difficult and in the end I thought it might give them drowning nightmares.  I have photographed my efforts today, although they are not completely finished, and written a story to go with them, because Mary-Ann is still thinking the change of room might upset Joe.  I think James will be in the jungle room in the cot-bed this time, as they do tend to disturb each other when they are together.

I can't work out how to attach a Word document, so I'll paste it in, and try to link to an album of photos, although I am having trouble accessing my photos on Picasa.  Here goes:

Let’s take a walk round the bedroom wall.


Grandma has painted the seaside on the wall so you can tell yourself a story when you are in bed.

Oh look! There’s Sally and Joe and George. Sally is taking a picture of Joe and Joe is taking a picture of Sally taking a picture of him. How silly!



There are three boats. The orange one is an inflatable. It is full of air, like a balloon, but it won’t go bang because it is very strong. When the tide comes in and there is plenty of deep water, we could sail away in a boat.



A boy is having a ride on a donkey. He thinks he might fall off, but it is a very gentle donkey. The little girl is making sure he doesn’t run away. Shall we ask the man for a ride?

Can you see a man catching fish? He has a big umbrella because sometimes it rains when he is fishing, but today it is shading him from the sun.



Would you like an ice cream? The girl is waiting for a strawberry ice-cream with a chocolate wafer. The little boy is licking his already. Mr Softee will have to move his van before the tide comes in, or he might get stuck.



The tall lighthouse on the cliff has a bright light at the top. It flashes a special signal at night, to warn the sailors and fishermen not to hit the rocks. They don’t want to make a hole in their boats to let the water come in.

The sailing club has a race today. All the little sailing boats are being blown along by the wind. I wonder who will get the prize for getting back first.



It is fun playing on the beach. The big boy and girl have made a sand-castle with their bucket and spades. When the tide comes in it will be washed away, but they can make another one tomorrow.

Some children are swimming in the water. Their mother is watching them to make sure they don’t go too deep. The baby can’t swim yet, but it is fun to sit in the foam.



When the tide is out there is plenty of sand for picnics and playing games and sitting in the sun. The people look very small because they are a long way away. Even the houses look small, but if we walk to the end of the beach we will see that they are really big.



Sometimes people just want to be peaceful on the beach. They can bring a picnic and some deck-chairs and read their books or have a little sleep. I hope they don’t get hit by a ball.



How exciting! A little train to take us for a ride round the gardens. It is a steam train like Thomas, puffing and whistling. Shall we buy a ticket and go for a ride. We will have to go through a dark tunnel, but we will be able to see the sunshine at the other end.



We saw some flowers and bridges and a playground and some picnic places when we were in the train. Shall we go for a walk now and perhaps we can play on the swings and slides. We mustn’t walk on the railway line, but we can stand on the bridge and watch the other people having a train-ride.



What a lovely time we have had at the sea-side, but now it’s time to go to sleep. Sweet dreams. We’ll have more fun in the morning.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/daveandannebasketts/Mural#

I forgot to say the train will be on a wall-hanging which will be the curtain for the small window, with a light-proof backing because the boys are used to complete blackout.  No more towels hanging over the curtain rail!
 
The other thing I have been wasting time with is Booksmart.  The info came through with HP e-mails and although Joe tells me it isn't the best one to use, I have uploaded and ordered a book about the playhouse for the boys, using water-colours.  It is apparently on its way, so we shall see what sort of a job they make of reproducing water-colours.
 
Dave has just come in and said: "Have you been there all morning."  I do feel guilty, as its now half past ten, but too late to undo my morning now.  One of the big problems is that Picasa didn't pick up any of my photos from the hard drive, only those already on the internet.  Any ideas, anyone?
 
Must close now.  Hope someone reads it!

Together in Stone

We had an autumn get-together at Joe and Sally's.  Mary-Ann and Dom had a horrendous journey up the M5, with several lots of road works and all the usual hold-ups, but it would have been several hours longer if they had come to us in Dereham.  We had a lovely relaxing weekend.  The weather was kinder to us than it would have been at home.  We were able to walk round Stone on Saturday morning, having gone on the local bus, which was an experience in itself.  Everyone except our young ones was on a bus pass, they all knew each other and said a cheery good morning to each other as they moved down the bus.  After ten minutes we had been round the housing estate and arrived at the garage at the bottom of Joe's road!

Sally picked up her new specs, Prada no less, but was disappointed that she still had the visual aberation caused by her loose lens.  They are vari-focals, so her brain has another challenge now.

While the children had their nap Joe and we 'girls' took a car load of unwanted effects to Katherine House recycling centre, which is a sort of Freecycle in aid of the local hospice.  If I hadn't gone with them we wouldn't have travelled back to Norfolk with an electric quad in the back of the Honda.  It was worth it though to see little Joe's delight as he drove it round the wide verge outside Joe's house.  Now our playhouse definitely has to have a lean-to!  More construction!

After the childrens' nap we went to Trentham Gardens, which were decidedly autumnal but still beautiful.  Sally has been wanting to try the barefoot walk for ages, so everyone except James and I took off shoes and socks, rolled up trousers and set off along a path of various textures - shingle, bark, logs, sand, pebbles - and mud.  Thick black mud.

 Joe had joined in looking rather bemused but when they got to the mud his compliance reached its limit.  Walking with Grandma and the pushchair suddenly seemed like a fun idea.  He was able to join in again once they stepped out onto dry earth, but didn't have the extraordinary black socks everyone else had as proof of participation.  Foot showers were provided, and low level foot-dryers, so everyone was comfortable by the time we walked round all the little specialist gardens - seaside, winter, pottager and so on.    Then time for a cup of tea and cake (we had had bacon sandwiches for breakfast so hadn't wanted lunch). 

After a good supper and several glasses of wine we were up for a playstation session, singing along with the Beatles, Chris Rea, Queen and numerous others I have never heard of.  Then out with the drums and guitar for a rock session.  Mary-Ann went to bed first, and was able to assure Joe and Sally that their assertions about the sound-proof qualities of their ceilings were entirely false.  The boys slept through it.

We rounded off the weekend with a carvery lunch at the Crown and Anchor, greatly enjoyed by all. The Knees set off from there and had a brilliant trip home, only 3 1/2 hours.  We lingered for a final cup of tea, and were home by 5.30.

What a fun weekend!  Thank you Joe and Sally for making us all so welcome.  We are aware that we arrived at a clean, tidy and stylish house on Friday afternoon and left a typical Basketts mess after lunch on Sunday.  Sorry!

Life in miniature

Grandma and Gramps went shopping today and bought some lovely cooking utensils and a kettle and toaster that really pops up!  They were very hard to get out of the packaging so we thought we should get it done straight away.  There's no furniture or kitchen units in our alternative house so Gramps is in his workshop right now making a worktop.  It sounds like a straight bit of wood, but as it has to be cut into all the vertical wall supports it's not that simple and Grandma is keeping a strategic distance having already pushed her luck with the suggestions!  We bought plastic food as well - what are we like?

Clogwyn Weekend

Another long weekend, starting on Thursday morning this time.  We left at 5.30 am and stopped for breakfast at Corley and toilet at Dobbie's in Shrewsbury, and were with the family by about 11.30.  We call it our apple weekend - we took picked Bramleys and windfalls with us, and made a large apple crumble for pudding on Friday, then went out to a garden centre in Caernarvon on Saturday and discovered it was apple weekend there.  They had a grower discussing vaious blights and maggots, apple trees for sale grown from a thousand year old tree on Bardsey Island, and various apple dishes in the restaurant.  We took Mum with us and she enjoyed it more than the photgraph indicates.  She did get tired, but was delighted to be able to treat us to lunch.  Bob drove the long way there through the mountains, and the short way back.

Rachel had taken the weekend off work, so we were able to eat together every evening, and she cooked us a superb Sunday lunch before we came home.  It was a pork roast, so Bob decided we must have apple sauce.  None of us had entered the longest peeling competition in Caernarvon, but we wished Bob had had a go!

This is Tuesday evening and I have completed my surgeries for the week!  Tomorrow I have to give a talk about the SPECAL method for Alzheimer's at our quarterly clinical governance meeting.  It will be my first power point presentation.  The power point is courtesy of the SPECAL people, but I put my own words to it, so hope people make sense of it.

We took a long weekend, starting Wednesday afternoon, (Oh the joys of semi-retirement!) and went to Weybourne in the caravan.  Joe and Sally joined us very late on Friday, having travelled from Stone after a day's work and towing a trailer full of logs for our fire behind the motor-home.  We had prepared a fondue with marinaded meats and salads, and had a wonderfully relaxing meal in the caravan.  The days had been sunny and warm but in late September the evenings are cool and we were glad to shut ourselves in.  Dave and I had walked to Sheringham along the coastal path two days running and wanted to share it with Joe and Sal and George, so we all did it again on Saturday.  We BBQd on Saturday evening then sat by the blazing fire-pit under a spectacularly starry sky.  On Sunday Sally and I chilled while the men went into Sheringham to the bike and car show in the main street, then we all had lunch at Foxgloves where we ate outside so George could join us.  We were all ready to tow away, but sadly Sally injured her eye as she prepared the motor-home for take-off, and we have jsut heard that her vision is not improving on the journey home so they are going to call at A&E.  Hope there's no serious damage Sally.

The Playhouse

Yesterday we had a lovely day with Mick and Iris and Steve and Kate.  The ladies sat in the sun on the patio while the men built a playhouse for the grandchildren and other visiting children.  We are really pleased with it, and Kate says it is 'every child's dream.'  We got a bit silly suggesting little enhancements like its own water-butt, TV aerial, door knocker, and lighting.  I think we have enough to do making kitchen units and curtains.  Hope the boys like it.

To see the work in progress check out the link.  This is clever stuff, hope it works:  http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/daveandannebasketts/Playhouse#

The summer is over.  Norfolk has been bathed in sunshine for weeks, to such an extent that we were truly thankful for the prolonged and hard rain that finally blessed us yesterday.  I am hoping the runner beans will start flowering and 'beaning' again, because in spite of my attempts to keep them watered they have not done well.  They seem to go straight from thin and short to long and bulgy.  The raspberries were huge and succulent to start with, but haven't liked tapwater and are getting smaller with each picking.

Not that we want the weather to deteriorate permanently.  We have booked a long weekend in the caravan at Weybourne at the end of the month.  It is one of the things we always thought we could do on the spur of the moment when we were retired and independent, but it is amazing how events break up weekends, with various things happening on Fridays, and on Sundays at church, and in the end I had to turn down a day's work on the Thursday to make it worth getting the awning set up.

I am having to get my head in gear to do some study.  My last appraisal was postponed because Mum died when I should have had it, and the next one has to be done before the end of Feb.  Everything is changing because revalidation is looming.  It was due to start next year, but will now be 2011 at the earliest.  I confess I rather hope they will keep postponing it so I can retire before it starts.  I see the point of it, but I also think to make a two session/week semi-retired GP do the same amount of meetings, reading, audits, reflection and so on as a full-time partner is over the top.  I feel I am at the stage of my career where I should be able to focus on the areas that really interest me and that I know I am good at.  I am trying hard to get something up and running for dementia patients and carers that builds on my own experiences with Mum.  Everything is centred on care - keeping fed, clean, safe, occupied - but there is nothing I have come across that acknowledges the problem of maintaining a relationship and communication except the SPECAL method pioneered in Burford.  I would like the set-up of a SPECAL service to be my swan song, but it is very hard to get anything moving.  I keep nibbling away at it, and perhaps something will come of the Stakeholders meeting I am going to attend next week.  I can use these experiences for my revalidation, but you are not allowed to put all your efforts into one basket.  I find it hard to learn and retain new stuff now.  There are new guidelines, restrictions, targets, and ways of recording these on the computer every week.  I doubt if anyone could keep it all in their heads, and so much depends on retrieval of dimly remembered information when required.  I certainly couldn't practice without the internet.

Well, talking about it won't get anything done.  Wednesday is my study morning, so best get stuck in.

We've been home from our holiday in Devon for a week, and have had the awning of the caravan up on the lawn to wash it, done loads of washing and ironing, been to work and continued to harvest and preserve fruit and tomatoes. The above photo is interesting as the first successful use of the remote control Joe and Sally bought me for my birthday. Joe actually set the camera up and I confess I still don't know how to do it. It is good to have a photo of all of us who went for a lovely walk half way through the week when the children were at nursery and Dom at work. I forget the name of the place which is on the edge of Dartmoor. We did some very hairy driving around the Dartmoor lanes in Joe and Sally's Autohome, and on the Friday we pushed our luck too far and got wedged in a very narrow side street in Totnes. The metal bollard that deformed the door of the calor gas compartment had obviously been put there for precisely that reason. We were stuck so tightly that Joe was convinced that it was a 'police job', but Dave and a kind local took the weight off the post as Joe edged forward and we got free. The kind motorist then reversed his car back down the street slowly to prevent anyone else coming down while we also reversed out into more accomodating roads.

We followed this up with a truly memorable meal at the 'Jack in the Green' PH, where they use organic and local produce and cook it beautifully.

It was great to be so near Mary-Ann, Dom and boys, and thank you Mary-Ann and Dom for a wonderful evening and meal at Mandrake Road. You are following in Dave's footsteps with your culinary skills, and don't need to follow in mine by criticising your own efforts!

Our return home has been a bit sad knowing that it will be a long time before we see the boys again. We can't wait for them to be old enough to come and spend their school holidays with us. Plans are in hand for a re-vamp of the blue room for a boys bedroom, ? complete with train-set, and the playhouse to stand on one of the concrete plinths that were under the Mobile is ordered and hopefully almost made.

Finally, a photo from one of the attempts to get the remote control working. It isn't complimentary but really made me laugh.

Just a quickie to keep those interested up to date. The top picture is how we have been left for the weekend. Good job we didn't try to get it done before the BBQ! Thought you'd also like to see the lorry loaded up. The man in orange was actually wielding a huge axe which I failed to capture. He was reducing the width of the load so the sides would go up! Hope they got back to Kings Lynn OK

Demolition has started. I had a bad few minutes this morning when the team arrived and told me the job was much bigger than thought, and would take close on a week and cost three times the quoted money! When they explained about all the different loads that would have to go to different tips I must confess I saw their point, but it was a bit of a shock.

Dave is actually getting quite excited planning his next major project. It looks like it may be a big shed - another shed! - to house the train set, scalextric and garden furniture. The playhouse may well be sited there rather than under the trees at the bottom of the garden, so that sand-pit, pretending and bikes/cars are all within sight of the grown-ups' tea and chat.

I got my accounts done yesterday for the year, which always makes me feel relaxed and carefree. Dave and I went out for a sandwich lunch two days running, partly because we can, and partly because it's not very pretty round here at the moment. All summer I have been feeling a bit sad that Mum never got to walk out of her new home into the garden, but how she would have hated to see her 'little home' looking so derelict and terminal.

It's lovely of people to remark how hard we have worked in the garden and it's true we have, but it's easy to lose sight of how much we have done when there's so much still to do. It ought to be easy to achieve a cottage garden sort of atmosphere, with mixed veg and flowers and winding paths and mossy corners, but actually it means it's never finished because it's never perfect. Being perfect would defeat the object, and I suspect would soon lead to our planning the next re-vamp.

We are doing it with the house as well. last year I spent ages painting and furnishing a room for Joe with a jungle on the walls and Thomas the Tank Engine on the cupboard. Now we need to accomodate James who must be noticing that he sleeps in a store room, so the next plan is a shared room with two single beds. It looks at the moment as if the beds will be boats facing across the sea to the beach but I'm not too sure I am clever enough to do the trompe d'oeuil. And will the boys go to bed afraid of sinking in their sleep?

Enough nonsense. I am giving myself an evening of scrapbooking but need to get on while the light is still good in the conservatory.

I can't believe it's a month since I up dated my blog! We have been so busy.

Our church cell group hosted a walkabout meal on July 11th. The puddings and coffee happened here, and also Dave contributed a curry and a veg crumble to the main course which was in someone else's house. The evening finished here at about twenty to eleven, with people drinking coffee on the patio and playing table-tennis in the near-dark at the bottom of the garden.

On the 18th we celebrated Dave and Joe's big birthdays (65 and 40) with a final BBQ. We had about eight tents on the orchard as well as people sleeping on the floor in the mobile home, which is now empty. Mary-Ann and Dom and the boys stayed on for a week, during which we celebrated the real birthday on the 22nd, and visited various places of play value. The newly-finished patio was in use every day for coffee and playing; the sandpit was a huge success even if it did have to be emptied towards the end of the week to deal with the ants. Little James took his first consecutive steps in our front room, which was very exciting, and managed to fall through the side of the bridge into the flower garden.

Since they went home we have missed them, and have slept a lot. We had re-plastering done in the 'blue room' today in preparation for turning it into a boys room by the next time they come. Their little rooms are very thinly separated from the one Mary-Ann and Dom sleep in, and we think they hear every snore and turning over. The idea is to put them out of ear-shot of M & D, who are hoping that if they wake in the night we will hear them!

The demolition of the mobile home should have happened today, but it was raining at 7.0 am and the man rang to say they couldn't do it in the rain that was forecast. He should come back on Thursday. I'll be glad to get it over so we can start planning what we are going to do to sc reen us from the road. We are so pleased with the patio, and use it a lot, so we are not keen to be in full view of Orchid Avenue. There has never been a space there, because we moved the Whitman playhouse to provide a site for the mobile 27 years ago.

We have talked about a p layhouse for the boys, a rose arbour, a screened utility area, a hot tub and even a swimming pool. I suspect the dustbins will win.

Finally a picture of the boys making use of all Dave's hard work. The old tin box had fittings in it, which Dave emptied out so Joe could cook his cakes in his 'oven'.

It's a glorious day and we have just had lunch on the mature part of our patio - potatoes from a customer of Dave, broad beans from the garden (first picking) and boiled gammon, followed by strawberries from the fruit cage and ice cream. We also cleared up some coleslaw made with our own cabbage and carrots. I do love summer! The photo is this lunch-time's update on the prgress of the patio. It's slow, and we have just finished the second ton of sand and 12 bags of cement and are waiting for a delivery tomorrow. So a good excuse to take it easy this afternoon. We ought to be in Mum's mobile sifting through her stuff, but that stress will be over next Thursday when the house clearance firm come and take everything away. When they came to look last week and gave us an estimate I thought they were coming to value a few items, but they gave us a price for the lot. Now we are caught with not being able to remove stuff that they might have seen and included in the price! I'll be glad when it's all over. The difficult thing is accepting that things she kept for over sixty years because they were significant might well get buried in the skip. Some of it was my Nan's, and very interesting, but as Steve said yesterday: " What you have to consider is, if you keep it, what will your children make of it when you die."

That's quite enough for a sunny day, so I'm signing off and going to sit in the garden on Mum's reclining chair with my Creative Gardening book and a cup of tea.

Couldn't resist putting this on. Nearly two weeks ago I said I hadn't managed to photograph the chldren in the camp shower, but no such problem with Gramps. It has been a lovely day, and Dave has worked really hard laying slabs. He changed into swimming shorts, brought his shower gel and got ready for his curry night out in the gazebo.

We've worked really hard today and I am disappointed with this photo. The trouble with photos is that they don't convey the image you have in your head of how it is all going to be when seeds sprout and leaves grow to fill in the spaces and soften the hard edges. I've sprinkled clarkia, godetia and cottage mixture this afternoon after the hard graft of digging and humping soil. In my head the carpet of flowers is already there, but in the photo I have to admit it doesn't really look a lot different to the last picture I posted.

We have a huge skip on the lawn at the front, and Dave spent his afternoon barrowing rubble and subsoil into it. We have a man coming on Monday afternoon whose job is setting up memory rooms in old people's homes and day centres. He has offered to buy quite a lot of Dot and Rod's stuff and we are hoping he will be interested in some of Mum's. It's different from trying to sell things as antiques, because the things he wants are the things that trigger off memories of the youth of people who are now in their eighties and nineties. We are hoping to offload a dozen pairs of spectacles, ranging from round ones with stretchy sides to coloured winged ones from the fifties! There are old driving licences, various tins - Oxo, Huntley and Palmers biscuits, toffees - tin trunks, lace fichus, paper patterns from the '40s, dressing table sets and so on. Well, we shall see.

Tomorrow we are going with Dot and Rod to Peter Beales roses at Attleborough. We are planning to dismatle our herb garden which has become very overgrown and full of bindweed and self-set comfrey. The idea is to level the ground, lay a weed-proof membrane and plant roses through it, then lay slate chips between. We have found slate chips very pleasant and easy to weed, as they don't break your nails to bits like gravel and they get lovely and warm to kneel on! Anyway, the idea of going to Peter Beales is to inspire Dave with their stunning displays. June should be a good time to go as the climbers and ramblers will be at their best. It will allow us to make lists of what we want, and ideas about trellises and arches. That's an autumn job as the bare-root plants are cheaper than pot-grown, and it means we can have another trip to the rose-gardens when the present works are complete.

We are really missing the family. All we have now is the odd tiny sock, a pirate's cutlass, story-books in our bed and various baking tins and kitchen utensils coated with damp sand. And of course lovely memories, snippets of nonsense songs and repartee, and a sort of smile around the house - 'Gramps' and Grandma's house.' Roll on the Birthday weekend!

We had the grandchildren all to ourselves today while Mary-Ann and Dom went to the Good Food show at the NEC. It was a bit scary but actually we had a lovely time. It was an honour and pleasure to have them for Joe's third birhday. We took them to church this morning for the first part of the service, and they were amazingly good. James made friends with the couple in the pew behind us and was given the man's spectacle case which he proceeded to chew until it was thoroughly wet. Joe loved the music and clapping (we are happy clappy) and when it got to the baptism which was total immersion he wanted to be next!

While James had his sleep we played with Joe in the new sand-pit. It has been a great success although we are glad there were two bags of left-over sand because quite a bit has finished up in the spaces between the new paving slabs. When James got up we went down to the summer house and Joe opened his tool-kit from Uncle Joe and Auntie Sally and his Thomas engines and tracks from us.

Dot and Rod came to sing Happy Birthday and have a slice of chocolate birthday cake. We played down there for the rest of the afternoon, then had a BBQ. James tucked into sausage and burger like a seasoned Basketts, but couldn't resist helping himself to my potato salad.

We finished off with a solar shower for the boys. There would have been a picture of this spectacular event, but I had not anticipated how difficult it was to shower two little boys outside, one of whom cannot stand, and take pictures as well. Needless to say, I didn't!

Mary-Ann and Dom were home in time to put the children to bed. A successful day all round.

This is not a pretty picture but there is a lot of information in it. The new stream is in the background with the bridge over it, newly painted but already decorated by passing pigeons. In the foreground is a large hole where we have just succeed in digging out the old bog garden. The liner is at the start of the bridge, next to a large pot of irises which had to be dug out. Soil is piled up all round the hole and you can see the layer of sand that was under the liner. The yellow bucket is one third full of bindweed roots which were in the layer of sand. The ant-stop on the bridge tells its own story. We are both broken yet again, and were glad to leave it all and go for a hair-cut. We nearly went to sleep by the time Maxine had finished. We are getting quite excited now, and our motivation exceeds our stamina every day. Will it be done in time for the summer BBQ? It might, if we hadn't also got to empty the mobile home and get it demolished, sort out the blue bedroom where we dumped all the furniture from the annexe bedroom when we transferred all Joe and Sally's furniture down there. We had been hoping to get the damp plaster in the blue room sorted and decorated before we put the room to rights but might well have to do a temporary job. Life is never boring!

The built-in sand-pit for the boys is made, but I'll post a picture of that when we have slabbed all round it and it doesn't look as if we've left an oblong of decking lying around!

Well that didn't work either. Anyway, we had a lovely time in Exeter. The weather was wonderful and we were able to walk to the park regularly, as well as do some gardening, have a BBQ and sit about in the sun watching the children and eating and drinking. We had a memorable visit to the seafront playground at Teignmouth where there is a large water area with loads of little springs and fountains coming out of the ground. So much more fun than a paddling pool. The children were going straight to a family birthday party so a quick trip to Tesco's was called for. More new pants! (Mr Men, Joe was delighted.)

We had fantastic flights, just over an hour each way and no hold luggage to wait for as we got enough for 3 days in our cabin bags. They took my contact lens solution off me because I had saved about 50mls in the bottom of an original container. Apparently it's the container that mustn't be more than 100mls capacity! So we saved £7.50 and some time by not having a suitcase, but it cost me £7 to replace my solution. You learn as you get older, but there's always something else.

No Rachel, we didn't make a mud-pit I am very glad to say, but we did have a go at a ridiculous curved strip of garden half-way down the lawn. When we tried to dig it over we realised why it was there - huge tree roots sticking up proud of the lawn. It would be impossible to mow over it, so some inventive pre-owner had put rocks round the roots and topped up with soil. It was very dry under the canopy of the tree, which is growing in waste-land next door. We'll see how it gets on with a layer of bark chippings and a few choice specimens. They'll need very regular watering.

Hooray, I moved the picture. YOu have to press shift. This has made my morning.

Having terrible troubles posting this morning. First of all Blogger was unavailable, then I tried ruth's tips for getting my photos where I wanted but couldn't make it work. So I tried to post a very untidy looking page and it didn't publish for ages, then told me it had but in fact it hadn't so I have lost it. Chat isn't working on my laptop either so I am having to sit in the office. Using Edit Html this time. Haven't clue what it means but Ruth seems to know!

Dave finished securing the hose reel to the wall, and Joe very quickly discovered how to squeeze the sprayer. It is taking longer for him to work out how to turn on the water supply. After twiddling every knob and handle on the hose reel he found the brass tap on the wall, but couldn't quite turn it. It's only a matter of time. Try a spanner Joe!

The plants in the foreground are in a tiny bog garden made in an upward fold of the liner. We had a much bigger bog round the pond but it was a pain to keep clean because we used garden soil, full of weed roots and seeds, and the moisture made it difficult to weed. Also it was so big we had to stand on it to look after it. So we'll see how we get on with this. I was worried about it drying out quickly in hot weather, so put some water-retaining granules in the soil, which was bagged aquatic compost. After the rain we had overnight and this morning, the plants look good. It will be interestingt to see how the hostas compare with the ones in the ordinary garden soil on the other side. We are off to Devon tomorrow on a cheap Flybe flight which makes the journey even cheaper than driving when you factor in thes two stops we would take for refreshment. It will give our aching muscles a chance to recover. (That's not definite - we haven't heard yet what jobs Mary-Ann has lined up for us!)

This is a photo of the stream in progress taken yesterday morning. We worked on it all day - well, I spent half the morning painting the bridge ready to be put in place. You can see the two slabs ready for the ends of the bridge. They used to be sides of a concrete coal bunker, made redundant by the new plastic one we acquired for the smokeless fuel when the central heating was installed. The butyl liner was retrieved from the pond when we did away with that for the annexe to be built, and we also conserved huge flints and slates. The pump from the pond is still working although we had to buy a new water pipe to take the water from the reservoir to the head of the waterfall. Dave went to Homebase late on Saturday afternoon and cleared them out of pebbles when we realised what a length of stream we had to fill, but the cost of the project has been mostly in time and effort. I'd like to add this morning's picture but there seems to be no option to put it after the text so I'll do another post if I have time.

This is Dave digging a hole for the reservoir for the new stream. The barrel behind him is going to be cut down and put in the hole. At present it is just over 2 feet deep, and three-quarters of that is sticky yellow clay. Dave is getting very enthusiastic now he can see things taking shape, but I have been a bit worried today to see him working in that position and heaving heavy clay out on the end of a spade. You can see what he has dug out in the trailer; since I took the photo he has emptied it and started filling it again. On the slide show there is also a picture of the head of the stream, which is just a few concrete blocks at present, with our old flint with the hole in it for the bubbling spring. I hope to be able to post something prettier soon.

There is something interesting that I shall have to research. Bees are busily flying in and out of the hole and apparently making tunnels in the walls. Dot says they are mortar bees, that normally make their homes in loose mortar in crumbling walls. What they are doing in our reservoir hole I have no idea.

This is an update on this morning's post about Dave's appointment. We got to the hospital in time to have a coffee, and signed in at the orthopaedic clinic. The notice-board where they post delays was blank, and we figured the clinic wouldn't have been going long enough to be running very late. How wrong can you be! At quarter to ten a nurse came out to tell us they were running an hour late, and would try to get things moving. As Dave was really only there to tell Mr Rai how pleased he was with his injection he went to tell the receptionist, who arranged for him to pop into the ante-room of the clinic and tell his story to the registrar. His report was recorded in his notes and we were on our way to the car by 10.00 o'clock. Sometimes common sense does prevail!

We've had rain! Proper, long, soaking rain. It must be terrible to live in a country where drought is a fact of everyday life. I've even had to water the veg, which I hardly ever do because I was always taught that it encourages the roots to grow up towards the moisture. The ground where the lawn and pond used to be, outside our kitchen window, was baked hard and had deep fissures.Hopefully we can now get on with creating the stream and finishing the patio.

Dave has his appointment with the spinal surgeon this morning. He will be able to tell him that since the injection in his neck by the radiologist he has had no pain that lasts more than the usual day when you have done something heavy. Yesterday he shovelled half the contents of a large compost maker into a cement mixer to break it up and mix with Levington's - a test of anyone's neck and shoulder I should think.

The greenhouse is now planted with tomatoes, just the cucumbers to go in. Dot has been growing two monsters in the bedroom, and I have one titchy little thing on my kitchen windowsill. We'll plant them in the greenhouse today and have a bit of a competition - they are all mini ones, as we were so pleased with those last year.

The watering system still works, so that's a relief as it has been connected up all through the winter, although not switched on. We have been looking at a rainwater harvesting system with a huge underround tank and connections to the washing machine, toilets and garden pipes. We are not on metred water, as our calculations told us that we would be using more than the £400-500 we pay on the rates. I suspect sooner or later we shall be forced to have a meter, and then I think we sha have to forego the greenhouse and hanging baskets.

Dave has just discovered that his appointment is 9.30 not 10.00, so I must stop rabbiting and clean my teeth. We are going to have a half day out in honour of his apointment. Garden centre I expect!

We have just come back from North Wales from a visit to Dave's Mum and his sister and her family. Anne had not been since Dec 2007 and Dave had only managed a couple of brief visits. It was good to see Mum Basketts looking so well. She is frail at nearly 98, eats like a sparrow but takes an interest in everything and everyone. Her stories of long-ago are as entertaining as ever, and she is just as accurate in reporting events from recent times. Great stuff Mum, have a lovely birthday on the 13th.

We had a relaxing four days. We caught up with Dave's cousin Stan and his wife Jill, who arrived a couple of days before us and left two days before. We all did a bit of gardening, and Dave helped to build a hen-run for Rachel's rescue chickens. (Apparently Tesco abandon their battery hens when they reach their first moult and go into a two week non-laying period.) The hens are pretty scraggy and largely featherless when rescued, but Rachel's are already thriving and rewarding her with daily eggs. They also have the perk of her magnificent cockerel, who has taken it upon himself to announce the earliest signs of dawn every day, or so I am told. I don't sleep in my hearing aids so never had the pleasure of being woken by him.

Rachel, Roy and the children have recently moved into the extension they have had built on the side of the house. They entertained us all for Sunday dinner, together with two of the children's friends, eleven of us in all. Great meal, Rachel. If you click on the scenery picture you should see a tent surrounded by curious black cows. I snapped it on my way down from a walk up the hill on Sunday morning. Dav and Megan and their friends should have sept in it after a BBQ on the hillside, but actually Dav was found tucked up in his bed in the morning. Dieting is going to be very necessary and very hard this week!

We broke our return journey in Walsall, where Joe, Sally and Russell were recovering from a curry the night before. They managed a pub lunch at the Longhorn though.

I have left out the reason why we left home in the early hours of Wednesday morning rather than after breakfast on Thursday. A course on dementia came up which was too good to miss, so we had 24 hours in Burford. Dave spent a lovely sunny day at the Cotswold Wildlife Centre while I did my course. We did B&B in Fulbrook and curry in Burford High Street. MAybe I'll write about the course later - I feel it is going to lead to a continuing involvement in care of Alzheimer's patients.

We had a lovely day: Early Church, then we took off to the coast with Dot and Rodney. It was warm and sunny, we sat outside at Pretty Corner and had coffee, then on to Weybourne where we had lunch at The Ship. Driving on we stopped at Wiveton where Dot's grandparents are buried in the walled churchyard. Tea at the Wildflower place at Letheringsett. We didn't pay to walk round the grounds as we thought there wouldn't be many wildflowers yet. I took my camera out with me but didn't see anything that took my eye. Back at home Dave lit the chimnea, and opened a bottle of wine. He called to me to hurry and bring my camera - he had moved a log for the fire and this beautiful Peacock butterfly was just drying its new wings.

Treasure in Devon

As far as I know this is the first picture of the boys playing together. Five days went so quickly, and they change so much between visits.

Back to normal today. I had to take a sandwich to work as I had a social services strategy meeting in Litcham this afternoon. It was a gorgeous day, and frustrating to be shut in for most of it. When I got home Dave was digging a hole to sink a dustbin for the reservoir for the new stream. We had chosen the site together, but neither of us noticed it was right on the line of the soakaway pipe! Now the stream will have to be a bit longer.

Mary-Ann has broken her parents again! Spent the morning buying wood and then Dave made shelves while I managed to break the rotary line. HAving cut the plastic line off the arms I tied it into a branch in the hedge and the other end onto a hook on the shed. Thought I was very clever, but when I hung the washing on it, it got longer and longer and the washing finished up on the grass. Redeemed myself by cleaning windows. MAry-Ann and Dom have gone for a curry so I am playing on her computer.
The little boys are lovely, but have been at nursery. We'll have them all day on Saturday. That will be fun but exhausting.

They found the water pipe in about 15 minutes! So now the mobile is disconnected from the mains water supply and we just have to organise Anglian Water to take their meter away. We are depserately trying to give the mobile home away. It doesn't owe us anything, and still has potential life as a farm store, play room, site office or similar. With a bit of patching up it could even be lived in for a while. We have put it on free-cycle in two Norfolk areas and quite a bit of interest, but people seem to be put off by its size. If anyone out there knows anyone with land and a use for it, who is prepared to organise two low-loaders to take it away, its here for the taking!
We are off to Mary-Ann's tomorrow, until Sunday, so unless I can hook up to her internet there won't be any updates this week. We are hoping their spell of brilliant weather will last long enough for us to take the children to the beach - Mary-Ann paddled in the sea with Joseph at the weekend! We went to Cromer yesterday with Steve and KAte. We had nice fish and chips at Mary-Jane's, but could hardly see the sea, it was so misty. And it was cold!

We've worked really hard in the garden this week but there's little to show for it on a photo. If you click on the slideshow and turn it into an album, and click on the photo looking towards the bird-table, number 13, there's a lump of concrete which was the junction between the lawn and the bridge. Behind that is what looks like a garden slab, which was the standing for the bridge. It wasn't a slab- it was a nine-inch thick block of concrete, and Dave has spent two days attacking it with a lump hammer and carting the bits away fready for the skip. Not bad for someone who lost a third of his right collar-bone and part of his breast bone eighteen months ago!
I have been digging between the transplanted shrubs and the veg patch. We have two wheelie bins full of bindweed and buttercup to be taken away on Tuesday, but as you couldn't see them before, you wouldn't be able to see the difference. I'm dying to be able to photograph something pretty, but that could be a long way off. Even the shrubs llok as if they are telling us the winter in tub-trugs was just too long.
It's Easter morning. We were up at dawn for the sunrise service on the Neatherd Moor in Dereham. There were about 40 of us. It was misty and grey, and no sign of the sun, except in our hearts as we celebrated the resurrection. The birds were singing their hearts out, and we managed to make a joyful sound as well. Then we went back to church for breakfast and communion together. It was still only 8.45 when we got home!
Tomorrow Steve is coming to help Dave try to find the water main T junction that supplies the mobile. Dave has already dug down an arms length in our front drive, and no sign yet of the main supply pipe. Apparently we have to blank off the T to avoid getting dead water in our system. Sounds horrible. Assuming they are successful in locating the pipe we are going to take off to the seaside, mist or no mist, for some sea air and hopefully a meal.
Wishing you all a happy Easter. Hope you get some good rest and refreshment time

Tea at 'Steptoe's'

This is the crazy tea-party described yesterday. Still having problems putting my photos on.

Back from a lovely weekend with Joe and Sally in Stone. We chose this weekend because Sally and her sister Liz were singing in their choir. They were performing Paul Field's 'Daybreak', a series of choral pieces and solos with narration, based on the experiences of the various characters involved in the Resurrection of Jesus. It was originally written for a youth choir, and this choir of mostly middle-aged women coached and conducted by a 23 year old professional choirmaster had a very youthful style. The sound was magnificent, and Sally and Liz's 8-strong group of supporters were unanimous in expressing their appreciation and enjoyment.

We went on from the church hall in Erdington to Shaffer's Indian restaurant in Stone, where we finished our meal at half past midnight. Home at last we finished off the evening with a glass of Joe's gooseberry wine, made with our gooseberries.

Breakfast at Liz's house, Staffordshire oatcakes in sunshine in the garden. It was obvious that we were not going to be hungry enough for lunch before driving home to Norfolk, so we took off in Joe and Sally's new motorhome to Les Oakes' in Cheadle. Not sure what you would call it - a huge Steptoe's, reclamation centre, re-cycling centre? Huge buildings built entirely of reclaimed materials, with unlikely decoration, preposterous stone lions, acres of domestic and farming antiques, milk churns, harmoniums, doors, windows, stone urns and animals, even a church pipe organ. One building contained furniture, and we bought four upholstered dining chairs. We were disappointed at the failure to haggle, but the price was good already. By the time Dave and Joe went to get them we had brewed up in the van, and the chairs came in useful to drink tea in the car-park. All a bit surreal!

Well Ruth, this is the garden today. Not pretty. but my hope is that followers will see an improvement over the next week or two. We always make good use of our garden in the summer, do everything possible out there, so it has to be more inviting than this.

Timings again

And it has even updated the previous posts. Now that's clever!

Time zone

Joe pointed out that I had apparently been reviewing my blog just after midnight! I have just spent half an hour searching the help section and finaly found out that I have to format the time. This is more complicated than I thought! Anyway, I hope if you read my postings you will now have the correct information about when I did them. I rarely burn the midnight oil

Mary-Ann started a blog a week or two ago as a sort of personal diary. I have tried various ways of trying to keep in touch with friends and family and nothing has really worked, so Dave and I thought we would try this. We are not going to bare our souls, and don't want to get into the whole Facebook thing of living life twice, once for real and again for the internet, but this could be useful. Mum'a funeral really made us think about how inportant family is, and how easily lost. I have been doing a family tree for several months, using the internet and Ancestry.com, and again it makes me realise how may people we are connected to by our genes but have no real knowledge of. ( If anyone wants a link to what I have done so far, just e-mail me. You can have access to the website as an editor of my Family Tree. As the census results don't cover anything after 1901, it is more difficult to research living people than ancestors, so many of you could help me out with dates, second names etc. If you can't work out how to add information, just e-mail it to me.)

Dave and I have been working in the garden this afternoon. Building Mum's annexe caused major disruption to the garden you see on the photograph. The digger and dumper caused impaction of the soil, and the area where we had to fill in our pond is waterlogged most of the time. The builders kindly came back after they had finished and dug up some mature shrubs that we wanted to re-site. They have been langushing in tubtrugs for three months, so today we got around to marking out where we want to put a stream. We managed to plant three shrubs along the margns of a stream that doesn't exist yet, so hope they will survive. I think when I close my eyes tonight I shall be seeing twisted clumps of bindweed root.

The stream is a compromise, we have enjoyed our pond over the years. Dad made it originally, and when we moved in we re-shaped it and used a liner instead of the concrete. A few years ago we had to replace the liner and took the opportunity of extending it and adding a bog-garden and stream. Over the years we have enjoyed the wildlife even more than the goldfish, so when it turned out that the annexe foundations would sit in the pond we re-homed the fish and mourned the newts and frogs. However, the anxiety of keeping two small grandchildren out of the water convinced us that this is not a good time to be making a new pond, hence the plan for a stream. Charlie Dimmock has achieved some attractive ones, so we'll see. Watch this space.