no excuses and a small break in communication

I had great intentions this last week for a whole host of blog posts, I've taken glorious photographs of dazzling dahlias, giant teapot sculptures, and cats sleeping in suitcases........
so what excuses do I have.......
none, just the chaos of the packing, the joys of days out to escape from the packing, and the excuses to indulge in tea shop treats, and perhaps the odd bottle of wine, and actually suprisingly little chocolate.
tonight when really I should have been organizing the last few things, I escaped with my most wonderful sister in law, and we had coffee and cake at Betty's. Utterly decadent; piano playing in the background, white linen table cloths, swiss chocolate torte, and joy of joy a box of pastel coloured cream filled macaroons to bring home, a slow wander through the streets, a lingering glance at the floodlit minster, clutching my little bag with its oh so pretty treasure.

tomorrow at 9 the van comes to start loading, Friday is the big day, (fingers crossed all the money nonsense goes smoothly, and on time...........) I'll take lots of photos, and count the number of boxes (how many do you think there are? a lot .......) and I'll be back as soon as we have a broadband connection, which might take 2 weeks - I know - TWO WEEKS, it's not like we're moving to the north pole, although Miss K did wonder if there might be polar bears - I so hope she was joking..........

see you soon xox

party time

oops, it's August already. how did that happen? thanks for all the best wishes for our escape to the coast, we had a lovely time. ok so it was very damp at times....... on at least 3 occasions I was soaked to the skin. but we drank tea, watched the tide come in and out, and the fishing boats come and go, didn't venture too far, recharged our mental batteries. In a whole week I didn't take a single photo, but I guess hubby took this, one of the many seagulls that kept us awake at night, and awoke us in the very early hours....... so there are no photos of the scarecrow festival, of the waves crashing, the crabs scuttling, or of the painting I lusted after at the local art festival......... too many pennies............



and then we were home, back to reality, and LOTS of wet washing............

oh and the boxes..........

if you look carefully you can see Freddie mountain climbing, and the jasmine growing in through the window............



but the boxes will finally be moving somewhere soon, we've finally exchanged contracts !!!!
hurray, I really thought it might never happen.
our buyers might just be the most pedantic people in the whole world.......
and last time we sold a house it all fell through on the exchange date, causing much heartache, and a huge whole in the bank balance....
which might just be why I've been a bit cautious of talking too much about the new house, once we'd had the offer accepted I just had to hold my breath, and wait and wait, almost as if I thought too much about it, or told everyone it would be tempting fate too much. silly huh..

but now it really has to happen, or we end up with a huge fine, so moving we will be, Friday the 14th (not the 13th thankfully!) is the big day, to a lovely almost new house, with a study, (which is going to be mine! I'm so excited, can't wait to be able to spread out my sewing and leave it out), a view of the sea in the distance, and a small garden just waiting to be filled with roses.

and so with papers exchanged a celebration was needed,



and at parties there has to be cake, lots of cake

and what you really should do after eating lots of cake is bounce and bounce and bounce, especially if it's pouring with rain, and the extra excitement of a rather slippery bouncy castle in the garden is just too much to resist!

but I shall leave you today with a warning for any of you partying in the rain this summer

when you carry the picnic table into the house to escape from the rain, check underneath, or your party might have uninvited guests too..................

last day of school

today is the last day of term, and for E and Miss K, their last day at their school.

yesterday they came home with the most wonderful cards

and E was clearly very sad at bedtime.

daddy came to the rescue, and popped out to the supermarket to buy sweets for them to give to all their friends.

and I printed out party invites, (yes amidst all the moving chaos we're planning a party- we must be mad - oh you knew that already.......) and new address notes.

and this morning we set off in the most horrendous rain (and this would be the day that Miss K had left her coat at school.......) carrying sweets, cards, and lovingly made presents for the teachers



Miss K's design is a book, you can't see the lines of stitches that form the pages, and she delighted in using the lettering on my sewing machine to write the "by Miss K"

E's teacher just had to have a Caterpillar, flowers would NOT do............... just as well I hadn't packed the buttons..... and he sewed them all on himself!

we're off to a cottage for a week tomorrow, leaving behind all the chaos, I just need to pack.... oh and before we go I need to book a new removal company, the one we had chosen is now fully booked - I was supposed to confirm it on Monday, and I forgot - J might just be a bit cross..........
hope you all have a lovely week, and I hope this rain stops!

t x

in which we visit a world of brightly coloured plastic

if you get up at 5.45 (when the excited children of your friends can't resist checking to see if you arrived when they were asleep)

and brave a cross country route (all navigated by me - and we didn't get lost once!), and then the horrors of the early morning M25

then suddenly you are transported away to a magic land



where one second you might be in Holland



or on the beach



perhaps you'll be seeing storm troopers and Darth Vader (this one's for you big lad!)

or watching the shuttle take off

looks there's our favourite angel

and looks at the realistic feathers on this pigeon, oh wait, it's a real one!

but wait, watch out, the zebra with the dynamite might blow up your picnic

but only if these oh so pretty dinosaurs don't get you first

and if you survive from the monsters unscathed you still have to do battle with the M25 at 5pm on a Friday night, oh the admiration I have for people who drive that everyday, I'd rather have dinner with a dinosaur.............

in which we find a secret beach

down a narrow lane



through the farmer's gate



put 50p in the honesty box (funds for the church roof), then drive down the farm track



and you end up here



love it!

this will soon be our nearest beach. can't wait! I just need to get 3 billion things sent back to the solicitors first.........

road works and diversions

I seem to have spent a lot of today negotiating road works and diversions.......
in amongst a whirlwind 250 mile round trip to visit new schools, buy uniform, visit house, finance stuff etc etc.....
there was a delightful respite of an hour at the beach, photos to follow...

but the true highlight of my car filled day was an experience with a white van driver. now UK readers of this blog may know that white van drivers have a terrible reputation, for poor driving, rudeness, etc etc. Today I met the exception to the rule. he was a Hero of the white van world.

picture the scene
stationary traffic, a helpful electronic road sign that says "road works in 6 miles. expect delays"

IN SIX MILES. we are already stopped..............

so we pull off at the next exit, and sit in traffic lights at the top of the slip road, and start to consult the map. the driver of the white van in front jumps out, runs round to our car, says "where do want to go?", and we say "past these road works" and he says "follow me, I'm going to a funeral I need to get past them too. " to a funeral we think, in a white van....... and then off he speeds, rally driving down tiny country lanes, the way he sped along it was no coincidence that we were 5 miles from Croft, and then 10 minutes later we are back at the motorway well past all the road works, and he waves and speeds off. truly bizarre. thank you, whoever you are, it was quite the experience.

so after this hectic day a day of rest tomorrow you might think.
oh no, after school we head out on the same road but this time going South -overnight stop at some wonderful friends, and then wish me luck, on Friday we're going HERE..........

escaping

this is our latest favourite place to escape to. the beautiful historic house, and gorgeous landscaped grounds are wasted on the little people......

they want to climb, and spin, and bounce.......

we are frantically revisiting all of our favourite Yorkshire places, before we move. although of course as grandparents, friends and other relatives all live here then no doubt we will actually be visiting a lot. meanwhile it's good to have an excuse to escape the chaos of the packing, and more importantly the stupid paperwork involved with the move - some of which I can't find, and it is slowly driving me totally mad (ok, not slowly........)

this is another favourite place

although hidden beneath the peaceful looking waters are very scary creatures.....

quite the biggest Koi carp I've ever seen.

when E was 2 we came here with friends, and just for a moment I lost sight of him. my first thought was not that he would drown in the lake, more that the fish might actually eat him.......

meanwhile, back at home, the biggest danger is that if you sit still for too long

you might end up getting packed!