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'.