Friday 20 May 2011

MRS GRUMPY

I know not a fantastic title for a new post on my blog but stick with me!



I don’t know whether it is just me, but I have been in the doldrums lately and have been waiting to come out of them for over a week. I have been feeling tired, without a particularly good reason for it, the children are sleeping well and I am not stressed about anything. So why so grumpy?
The only thing I can put it down to is my inability to recover from a hangover in anything less than 2 days and my increasing inability to run with legs that feel like lead. I even took myself to bed in the afternoon recently, which, quite frankly, appalls me even now ( the shame).
Praise be to the higher beings that are sports massage therapists, without you I would be circling within the doldrums for another week for certain!! The niggles in my knees, calves and ankles were becoming a concern to me as I have some great races coming up within the next month and I don’t have an injury on my training plan in any of those 4 weeks. I have learnt, through experience with injuries previously, to listen to what your body is telling you and take appropriate action earlier rather than later. I visited Sarah Miller, a recent graduate of the London School of Massage, who inevitably made me wince several times during my hour session, who explained how some simple exercises could be done at home after my run to help combat the tightness I was experiencing and informed me that I needed to concentrate on my glut control. Well, I never knew my gluts were out of control, must have been due to that impromptu session in Bar 35 last weekend!!!
Further to my massage I have been taking a cold, hard look at my eating habits recently and to be perfectly honest, they too could do with a stock take. M&S teacakes are oh so nice but are not nutritionally beneficial in any way to my training. Neither are the Aero bars I buy ( for JT) to then pick at once he has gone to bed and the packet of chocolate digestives which I bought the other day was almost asking for trouble. Lesson for today, the colour brown features a lot within my diet at the moment ( read chocolate), colours such as red’s, yellow’s and green’s should be taking precedence over the colours of cakes and chocolate.
Today was the day of change, I needed to inject some fresh, vitamin packed colours into my food diary, I am actively encouraging the boys to enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables, which as far as 7 and 3 year old boys go, they do very well. JT eats lettuce and spinach like they are going out of fashion, TJ recently decided to “like” strawberries after a life time of “hating” them. Their mother needed to look to them for her lead.

I think it will also help when our very own fruit and veg store “opens for business” soon, our veggie patch is looking lively now and we have seen the first fruits of Mr T’s labours – strawberries!!! As the controversial lady herself said – you are what you eat. I no longer wish to be green and bubbly on the inside and brown on the outside but radiant, delicious and healthy!!! Think Mr T would approve of that too!
Mr T's pride & joy

A LITTLE CRAFTY

I have been procrastinating when it comes to sewing recently as there never seems to be enough time to just sit and start a project, let alone finish one. Last weekend was a rare occurrence but one that filled me with joy and when Mr T commented in a positive way I knew the girl had done good!! I love getting a lovely bit of fabric and working it into something I am proud of and that will adorn a corner of my home or someone else’s.
I was inspired by my recent visit to Rosemoor Gardens Craft Fair near Torrington, where http://aminnybouquet.co.uk/ was exhibiting her wonderful crafts, making me want to shut myself away in my room to explore the stacks of fabric I have accumulated. Last weekend I spent an hour at my much neglected and has to be said dusty machine - I know I should make a cover for it, that is project number 2!!!


Gorgeous fabric!


Trusted if somewhat dusty friend

This wonderfully vintage fabric was picked up in a charity shop well over 6 months ago.  In it’s previous life it was a set of curtains, but I had other plans for it!  It has now been re-worked and is going to be winging it’s way to a lovely little someone, sometime soon as there are what seems to be an influx of birthday’s in June. I will not show you the finished piece as it may be viewed by people who are going to be receiving, hence the photo of just the fabric itself, but what a fine piece of fabric it is!!
Not only is it Mr T’s and JT’s birthday’s, my father, my niece, my brother in law, many friend’s at the boys school and pre school have birthday’s as well as it being Father’s Day in amongst that lot. In order to keep ahead of the game, I was able to spend some time at the machine last weekend to check one present off the list – phew!  

Monday 9 May 2011

TRELAWNY TREATS

This past week I have indulged in a long lunch and afternoon tea at Trelawny tearooms, both I hasten to add on different days. Vicky and Steve have converted their home to incorporate this wonderfully positioned oasis of cake heaven. It sits right opposite the beach at Widemouth Bay and is perfect for a light lunch or tea and cake whilst making the most of the proximity to the beach, no more sandy sandwiches yipppeeee!!!!
Avril and myself visited on Thursday for lunch which was just lovely, no children, just a chance to catch up on all the news. Avril did all the branding  for Steve and Vicky and it looks gorgeous. They serve tea in china cups and saucers, have a very beautiful cake trolley with the most divine glass cake stands on and to top it all they are filled with some delicious homemade cakes which only leaves one problem.....which cake to choose!!
For lunch I went for the French platter, the first thing that struck me was the price £4.95 for a platter – hang on a minute, shouldn’t that read £7.95? Avril went for the Lady Tea ( a cream tea) and I have to say I was surprised at the prices. After speaking to Steve and Vicky about the prices, they had already had comments along the lines of “these are 1979 prices!”  Their aim is to ensure that they get many repeat visits from locals and tourists alike, with these prices I will be shutting my kitchen and spending lunches and afternoons with them!!! Not sure how the waistline would cope with that but I could try couldn’t I??
The second visit was with my sister and her little ones and my two so a very different visit, all the same a big thumbs up from all of us. The children went home with chocolate covered mouths (and clothes!) after having had a wonderful run on the beach. They even offer blankets for you to make use of, which we did. The children had a picnic within the garden and I was able to enjoy a Lady tea as I had salivated over Avril’s on the Thursday!!!
A very food inspired week, what better way to fill a week I say! That just leaves me wondering how many extra miles I will need to run to run off that Lady tea but hey I don’t do this every week, or will I??!!

OUR VERY OWN WEDDING

Our local pre school decided to celebrate their very own wedding following the aftermath of William and Kate. We had our very own bride and groom (both 4 years old), father of the bride, pageboys and bridesmaids etc. The congregation were awaiting  the arrival of the bride outside the church lynch gate, when she appeared in her car dressed with pink scarves. The bride even had her very own bouquet! I took Toby up to the church to await the arrival, he was dressed in a smart shirt and a tie ( borrowed from www.thedaytodavis.co.uk) all the children looked wonderful, all dressed up for the occasion. Reverend Richard took the service, we all sang Twinkle, twinkle little star and I you’re happy and you know it clap your hands and then followed that up with cake eaten in the church.
I have to say it is moments like these that I am very grateful for being a stay at home mum, to be able to watch the children as they witnessed their friends “getting married”, to be part of a community that goes to such lengths to involve all the children and to make these very special memories for not only the children but for the parents as well. I will treasure that day and in the passing of time I may well be witness to the real weddings of some of these children when they are adults.

Bride and Groom
The Day to Davis & Ayres Rocks

Tuesday 3 May 2011

CRAZY WORLD - JACK TO THE RESCUE!

I just feel I need to rant and my blog is the outlet I am using, sorry folks...........but this seems to be a crazy world. Within the last hour I have had to stop my ears from steaming and my head from exploding with sheer exasperation at this nanny state we live in, and then I saw something on facebook which makes me believe we will be ok, as there are people like Jack Henderson in the world.
To elaborate further: I visited our local library after our local Music Train class finished with TJ, only to find a notice that informs me we have no longer got 5 spaces in which we can park our vehicles outside for free in order to make use of the library facilities. Pay and Display duly visited. Once in the library I met up with a parent who was also enjoying library time with his daughter, who happened to want to do some colouring – coloured pencils and printed drawings are provided on a table purely for this purpose. Unfortunately all the pencils were blunt and needed sharpening, therefore the father went to acquire a pencil sharpener from one of the library staff to which he was told there was none. He then enquired at the prospect of using the scissors that were on the top of the table by the assistant, to which he was told he “must not touch the scissors” and certainly could not use them for sharpening a pencil!! At this point my ears pricked up and I had to pinch myself to remember that she was talking to an adult, a fully responsible adult who’s only need within the library was to get some pencil’s sharpened in order for his daughter to do some colouring. I giggled at his response: “I am a fully competent pencil sharpener and I could even sign a disclaimer if that would help!” To which he was told that the assistant “could not help him.”
At this point I wondered what the father would do – he went back to his daughter who must have been around 3 years old to tell her that daddy would only be a short while and she was to stay sitting at the colouring table ( not colouring due to lack of sharpened pencils) until he returned. He then LEFT THE BUILDING in order to go to the adjacent building ( a tea room) to acquire what I presume to be a tool in which he could sharpen said pencils!! And there endeth the story – instead of being able to use the scissors safely within the library, he had to leave his daughter ALONE in order to provide her with the sharpened pencils provided by the library. Now if that is not health and safety gone mad then I don’t know what is. Ahhhhh.
Still slightly perturbed by the library experience earlier I logged in to facebook upon my return home and came across a most wonderful page: Jack draws anything.
His facebook page tells us that he draws *anything* to raise funds for the Sick Kids, just ask me. My brother goes in a lot. My name is JACK and I am 6 years old. Take a look at his website http://jackdrawsanything.com/  it will make you forget about all the bureaucratic nonsense that is happening around us, if only for a short while. I reckon whilst there are people like Jack and his family in this world, we can still feel like we have humanity on our side and not become robots within an excessively protected de -humanised environment. Jack, I salute you.