Critters ..........

Just thought I'd show you that I have been busy lately amongst all the spots and the days out.



This little lady , who is now called Elle, decided she'd had enough of the UK and emigrated to Australia, lucky lucky bunny.

And this little one has also been snapped up but I'm not sure where she is going yet.........



As for Alice, well she has been in my shop for a while now so I,ve given her a new face as I thought the last one was a bit harsh, so hopefully she'll find someone to love her soon.

Only The ............

crumbliest. flakiest chocolate, tastes like chocolate never tasted before. Can you guess what I'm going to show you pictures of today lol.....



Milo is giving you a clue..
Yesterday we had the most gorgeous sunshine , so we decided to go for a walk with my parents. Luckily they only live a couple of miles away from us , not far from the River Wear.



Unfortunately this isn't their house , but it would be nice. Not many people know that Sunderland was once one of the largest shipbuilding towns in the world because of it being on the mouth of the river. Anyway I digress, Flake adverts... the one I remember best is the girl sitting in the middle of a poppy field, a field just like this one







If you enlarge this pic you will see not only the red poppies and yellow rape but also blue linseed and one all white poppy. I don't think I've ever seen a white poppy before



My pics really don't do it justice, the colours were amazing and really made up for me not seeing any bluebell woods. In the background you can see Penshaw Monument, this is one of the oldest monuments in North East England as it was built in 1844.



Milo managed to nettle himself and we searched for a dock leaf to rub on it -- now I don't know if it's just me but when I was younger there were dock leaves everywhere and they were always next to nettles.... we had to search all over for this one but it's magic healing powers worked which pleased Milo no end.
The poppy field itself is not far from a wetlands sanctuary so we saw all types of water fowl too. All in all we had a lovely day .

It Was Inevitable....

That Gabe would get chicken pox too, but being the happy little chap he is , it's just being took in his stride.



Every now and again he says " tickle " and that's it .... no moans or groans.



At least I'm prepared this time and have plenty of Bicarb and Calamine left ..

Oh and I finished this little chap too..

Park Pics

I was thinking this afternoon as I wandered around the park that I haven't shown you any park pics for a while,



I have still been taking them believe me, in fact dozens and dozens of them,



I need something to look back on when the park is closed,



something to have reference to when it re-opens in two years time.



When you say two years it seems such a long time , but when you consider how quick the time has gone since Gabe was born and he's two next month - it's not such a long time really.



Is it ?



I know that one in three trees are getting chopped down , will this one still be here I wonder..



With it's gnarled and twisted trunk..



Will the squirrels still run along this path in front of you or will they have gone to pastures new?



Will it still have the wild elements I love so much or will it be all neatly trimmed with weeded flowerbeds..



It's one of those things I'll just have to wait and see - unless I manage to sneak in sometimes maybe ?



I've still got a little while left though as there is going to be a centenary closing day in August but I think it's not actually closing until September.
If anyone is interested there are a lot of pics in my Barnes Park Blog , just click on the bandstand picture in the right hand column.

Holiday Week ... Friday

After our trek to the lakes I really wanted a rest from driving so Thursday was just spent pottering around not doing anything in particular. Friday was another matter though, we went to Seahouses.



I have to admit I don't particularly like driving, especially the longer journeys. After about an hour I tend to get quite tired and my eyes start to sting . I'm not very confident with roundabouts and as for narrow roads - the least said about that the better.



I'm terrified of killing something like a bird or a rabbit - anything and get really nervous . I know Hub is right when he says that I can't keep braking for birds in the road but I can't help it, even though I know it's more dangerous to brake. Anyway , the point I'm trying to make is that I had only wanted to drive for about an hour but to get to Seahouses took an hour and a half so I wasn't in the best of moods when we got there.



Even with these spectacular views and knowing the boys were having a whale of a time I couldn't relax knowing I had the drive back to do also.



I love Seahouses and it's amazing beaches but I think that after the long drives of the days before it was just too much for me. Even though I passed my test 7 months ago now , I don't use the car every day it really only gets used to take Hub to and from work or to the supermarket. I don't use it for school runs or going to town. Sometimes it can sit there for days on end.



When we are preparing to go somewhere which is a longer journey about an hour before I get really ratty and snap at everyone , I know I'm doing it and Hub knows I do it - surely it must get easier?



I'm sorry for the whinge and I hope the pics help detract from it ..... I've even got butterflies in my stomach just writing this .
Oh, and a lorry had broken down on the motorway on the way home so it took us 2 hours to get home !!!!

Holiday Week ..Monday To Wednesday

What a lovely week it's been, lots of family time and lots of that glorious yellow thing in the sky, otherwise known as the sun. Luckily Milo's spots really cleared up in time for us to go camping on Monday , I think that was down to loads of calamine cream and bicarb baths ( thank you so much for the suggestions guys ). Neither Gabe or I have showed any spot signs yet but there is still time !!.
So where was I , oh yes , camping. We found a campsite called Park Foot right on the edge of Ullswater.

This was our little home for a few days, can you imagine what it was like opening the tent flaps on a morning and having this as your view

the scenery was fantastic

To our right was the lake

the boats bobbed up and down

and stones were thrown

The boys of all ages absolutely loved it,

It's a good job we took lots of different types of balls

and plenty of tickles...

Now can you see all that green space in front of our tent? Well, a motorhome came and parked right next to us. Don't get me wrong I love motorhomes but their generators are soooooo noisy. Next time we will camp where there are just tents as the constant droning really started to wind me up and started to spoil it.

The sunsets were awesome and the night sky was so clear, I don't think I;ve ever seen so many stars and constellations . But the nights were also absolutely freezing. I ended up sleeping fully clothed in my sleeping bag and can you believe we forgot to pack long sleeved clothes , for any of us !!!!

Gabe didn't have a problem sleeping,

even if it wasn't on his bed... on the first night he must have had an upset tummy and his nappy leaked , let's just say it was a very good job the site had a launderette , YUK.

We will be going camping again, but we will remember , long sleeved clothes , a tin opener , black bags and more blankets . I think camping is all a bit of a learning process and you either love it or loathe it. The boys would do it again in a flash , me , well I'm a bit on the fence at the moment..

I found out later that Lucy from Attic 24 was going to be in near enough the same place on Friday, it's a pity we hadn't stayed longer as it would have been an amazing place for a Bloggy Meet...

P.S. Can anyone tell me why most of my writing on the right hand side -- blog lists , book lists etc have suddenly gone purple ?