Catch up.

Bimbling along.

It was my birthday at the beginning of the month. Went to a friend's house and we camped in her large garden.  First outing of my canvas bell tent, I bought at the end of the camping season last year.  I'm both in love, and ambivalent about it.

Love:  size, sleeping under canvas, romanticism, warmth, quiet, lack of condensation, ease of set up.

Ambivalent:  weight, weight, weight, weight.   The Ultimate 4m bell tent is very heavy!  Worry about the tent getting wet and the weight then!  Tight fit to get the tent back into the bag... narrow straps that felt like they were slicing through my shoulder, as I carried the tent from the car to my friend's garden (a mere minute or so).

I do wonder if paying extra for the extra thick, zippable groundsheet was worth the added weight.  However, it does occur to me that unzipping the groundsheet when the tent does get wet, will make it much easier to dry out, if I have to take it home wet.

The few days camping was lovely, the weather was very kind, tad windy (so nice not to be kept awake by flapping polyester!), the kids had a lovely time.  I would very much like to take Rye off somewhere for a few nights more, but goodness camping costs have become rather pricey!   Especially when one adds in diesel, food.... I feel any more than £10 per night, especially for basic campsites is taking the piss.

The accident has meant of course that June has been steadfastly at home.  I've had to bow out of a few trips and reorganise another because of a large insurance excess.  I'm willing July to arrive, so we have a bit more freedom.

June has also seen the start of my crochet course, I think it going well, although not really much of a take up, but then one can go along to the local stitch and bitch group and learn for free... I tried to make it attractive by adding  yarn and hooks, not to mention cake...... I dunno, we'll see, I've been asked about shorter one off workshops, so I'll probably do that and see how it goes.

I'm very pleased with how the kingsize granny stripe is coming along:

Should be completed by the end of the month.  I have had to restructure my pricing though.  Too cheap for the sheer amount of work such a large blanket requires, and yarn prices have increased too:  so going forth my blankets (if bought direct, slightly more via Etsy to cover the fees):

King:  £95+pp
Double:  £85+pp
Singles £70+pp
toddler bed/ cot size:  £45 +pp
Baby Blanket £35+pp

Those prices are for stylecraft special DK yarn, other yarns will be need to be repriced.


And the other news is my ex has a fiancee - again.  Apparently, a date is set, we'll see, he is a bit of a serial proposer.  I am exceedingly miffed at his lack of forethought; he is currently in Wales with our son, who is taking part in his Aunt's wedding.  A few days before the wedding my ex texted me to announce he had decided to introduce Rye to his new fiancee and her 10yr old son at the wedding, and that Rye would share a tent with them all.  Frankly, I did my nut.

The sheer lack of thought for his son, pisses me off mightily.  Introductions should have been made BEFORE this camping trip - before they would all be sharing a tent.  I just hope it has gone ok, and Rye is having a good time, and if it hasn't, well my ex will have to deal with the consequences of his thoughtlessness.

Right, hooky time now, trying to keep myself distracted.  The campsite where my ex and son is, does not have phone signal, and so I'm keeping myself occupied, so that I still have fingers left for when he comes home tomorrow.

Busy Days.

Life is mostly outdoors at ther moment, often out in the garden, well inbetween rain showers anyway, me that is, not the children, nope, they have discovered a love of playing in the rain and rolling in the mud.  Bless 'em, and bless waterproofs!

Most days Rye and myself get on our bikes and go for a ride, be it to the local supermarket, the garage (has a wee M&S shop in it), or down to nursery to pick up one of my mindies - and yesterday we attempted a further a field ride and went all the way down to the high street, so I could post my season swap gift.  Then onto the recreation grounds so Rye could practise further his riding skills, and I could sit down and let my knees recover.

Going very well until Rye took a bit of a dive and planted his face into the pavement, oh my, my heart.  Thankfully, he was wearing his helmet which reduced the impact and he had all his waterpoofs on, so just a few minor scrapes:

A grazed nose and some grazes on his hands:

He was very brave while I cleaned the grit and dirt out of the wounds, personally I would have left them to "air" but Rye was quite insistent he wanted a plastic (plaster) on and cream too.  So I obliged, and today he's removed the plasters and the grazes are healing nicely.  And of course a cookie always helps things along..

There has been indoor play too, using the beanbag as a slide:

Incidently a friend gave me some clothes for Rye, some of which he's wearing, oh he loves that t'shirt...but I find myself feel quite negative about it... I think because it just makes him look such a grown up boy... but then he cuddles me on a morning, with his big beautiful grin and I know he will always be my little boy, not matter how big he gets.

But anyway, sliding...

Amazing how much play that bean bag has had - never anticipated it would be so popular when I bought it!

This week we also went to Port Lympne Animal Park, which was brilliant, of course I forgot my camera - arrgh.  Rye wasn't that fussed at first, he enjoyed the ride round the park looking at the animals, although he did keep saying to me, excitedly, "Mum, mum, look seagulls!"  Hmmm.  lol
However, when we got off at the second stop and just happened to hit feeding time, Rye was quickly enamoured with the Tigers and hyenas.  Then we walked up a hill, that nearly caused me to expire, and at the top were monkeys and gorillas, one upside of my slow walk up the hill is that by the time I made it up, the gorgillas had been fed and so there was a mama gorilla with a babe sat right next to the windows, and then a male sauntered over with a branch of leaves and sat in front of us and began to eat.  It was brilliant.  The other gorillas were up on the various appartus for them to the climb on.

Rye didn't want to leave when it was time for us to move, but he enjoyed the maze, and then another hill which nearly caused me to expire.  And we were back at base camp and just one more steep hill to navigate and then we were back at the ticket/gift shop and I was kissing the drinks machine - gosh I was parched.

The zoo visit wa a home ed thing, and I think everyone enjoyed it, we got a little wet but not too bad, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

Other stuff that's been happening, is Rye's progress with the Reading Eggs programme.  He's doing really well, although I think he may be zipping through a bit fast and not taking in the lessons, as he does struggle with the lessons he's now on, which involve him reading words on the screen and making sentences out of them.  Mind, I had a proud moment, while he was doing the beanbag sliding, he suddenly looked up at the letter C on the door and said, "C" and then ran his finger along the word written inside, and said, "Cat, begins C".  I was so chuffed, sure he may have just remembered, but it did appear that he'd actually read the word "cat". 

Ohhh what else, well Rye has seen his dad, seemed to enjoy himself, and it was nice to be able to concentrate on mindie for a few days - plus she is a lot calmer without Rye to wind her up and get over excited about. 

I do have some Ta Daahh's to come but those will have to wait a wee bit - couple of things I made for the season swap, and something else for someone, whose not received it yet, so that will have to wait a wee bit before I reveal.

Right - teatime.

Poor love.

We were having such a lovely time; play indoors, perhaps encourage a little quiet time by reading stories when the kids got a bit too over excited; then we'd go out and play in the garden for 20 mins or so, (very cold), and then back indoors to warm up; play wit musical instruments - the Ukulele has been a big hit with both kids.  Then back out to enjoy a bit of sunshine; then time to come indoors so I could start preparing lunch.

My little charge began to walk toward me, then she tripped over her feet and fell and wow did she scream.  I thought at first maybe she'd banged her chin, so rushed over and picked her up and then I saw the blood.  Oh my, so much blood.  I thought maybe she'd knocked a tooth but all fine and with the pooling blood it was really hard to see what was causing it; although clearly more than a bit lip here.  I wasn't panicked exactly, just terribly helpless and desperately trying to think of something to do; but really all I could do was make soothing noises and hold her until the bleeding stop; mercifully very quickly and then have a little look see.  My poor beautiful little charge has bit her tongue very nastily.  Initially, I thought it was quite superficial; but nonetheless I called mum to let her know.  Then I made lunch; amending what I'd initially planned to give, and instead making cheese souffle, soft banana and a little pita bread.  But she wouldn't eat any of it, her tongue was clearly very painful and she became really rather distressed... and during a cry I got to see the extent of the bite.

Oh my gosh; the poor love has about a cm bite across the top her tongue, maybe 1/4-1/2 inch in from the tip and it is at least 3mm deep, if not deeper, as she cried it gaped.  At that point I abandoned lunch and cuddled my charge and called NHS direct for advice.  I may be first aid trained but a bit tongue wasn't really covered in the training and I can hardly bandage her tongue!  I also wanted to be able to give mum some advice as she hd asked me earlier what she should do, and Id said then I didnt' think it was particularly deep.

The advice is for mum to take the little one to A&E just to get someone to have a look.  The little 'un has fallen asleep, so mum has decided to leave her to have her sleep and then mum will arrive later this evening to take her to A&E to get checked out.  I think its the right decision, the babe is not in danger and letting her sleep I think is the kindest thing. 

Rye was so empathic toward her; he kept telling me she was crying and coming up and patting her back and stroking her hair; in fact he managed to make her smile and help her to forget her sore tongue for a little while.  Bless him.