a goodbye.....

...a very sad and hard post to write - it has been sitting in my drafts for a few weeks now, verys sadly and suddenly my mother died on September 13th...she had been undergoing chemo for secondary cancer in the liver after an op to remove a tumour from her small intestine..She had been well, recovered from the op , ans started the chemo in the middle of August. She was well up until a week before she died, when she became very ill. Thnking it was the effects of the chemo - no energy, sickness and diarrohea she was admitted to hospital on Thursday 10th. She was not in pain but jest very sisk and uncomfortable. She was a very brave lady in her sickness and laughed, joked and bossed my sister and I around in the last days! She had the chance to see special people on the Saturday her brother, sister, friends nieces and Rob and Nelly and to see pictures of my sisters children who were at a wedding that day - one as a bridesmaid..IF you can say this her death was a good one..She was not in pain, she was a regular church attendee and her vicar was with us during the final day. We are all missing a very special, warm and chatty person in our lives - our phone bill will be reduced enormously...Her funeral was attended by well over 350 people, the sun came out and we all said our goodbyes and shared happpy memories...

It has taken me a few weeks to compose this post ...Clare and I have each other, Rob and Stuart and between us we have three beautiful girls who knew a wonderful Grandma...She will be missed enormously by us all......

Winning moments

Last weekend was the village flower and produce show we entered a few categories though most of our veg harvest has been and gone. I managed to pull together a respectable looking trug with some potatoes, herb beans, onions shallots a mini beetroot, chillies corn and spinach ! For this I received a hugly commended certificate !! Nelly and I picked some wild flowers (aka weeds from the garden !!) and arranged in a yoghurt pot - for a third prize ! And my last years jar of apple date and ginger picked up a third too ! Hurrah

the delicious carrot cake that took hours to make , sat sadly on its plate prizeless but we demolished it afterwards with lots of tea and coffee !

A good day was had by all and the children ran riot under the tables as the very serious prize winning speeches were made !

Roll on 2010!!!
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Nearing the end of the holidays

So in all I think the sun has shone for about five maybe six days - am I bring generous??!! We are now counting down to back to school nelly was called for her pre school booster injections yesterday these are now her final ones until she is 12 !!! Can you imagine that! She was really Brave taking off her cardigan to offer the nurse her arm ! First one was easy second took a little time ! She got a big sticker and she then looked after me at the opticians! I got a sticker , another trip to the hospital and a £281 bill for new glasses and a years ban from lenses !
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Lack of blog updates !

The holidays are here and we have been doing a lot of weather watching whilst trying to keep the small ones amused during the rain ! There have been bike rides walks in the woods we did resort to a soft play on two occasions when rain was just too miserable !

Nelly and I spent the weekend before last with grandma who taught her how to look through the Argos catalogue!!!!! Gggrrhh and how to turn down pages of things she wants !! Oh no !

Grandma gave nelly some holiday money and we are busy working out what to spend it on I am trying to teach her how to understand what £20 will buy and another doll is not really worth it as she has 4 already ! So far we have bought one of those things that you put in crocs and a packet of Cath Kidston tissues !!she has a tissue obsession going on and is drawn to packets of brightly coloured tissues like a magpie !


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some more festival pics....

Rob looking nervous about his whole camping / festival experience ! he just needed a beer!

charming little touches ...

Gabs on tour with another festival hat

Uncle Johnny....getting in the mood for the festival toilets!

Sean gets his own festival hat!

Nelly waiting to try those loos and boy did she make use of them!

holidays and festival

We did a festival last weekend...our first trip camping and first festival - a great adventure if you like mud, good music , delicious food and



A Fabulous festival hat - for the bargain price of £30...

Nelly and James and the big God brotherly and God Sisterly love in!

Mud Mud and more mud...

We love camping Nelly honest!

Loads for the kids to do - great sticking and gluing....molding and making ...

parties...fetes...christenings....sports days...all in a summer

A traditional Punch and Judy at a local fete....I am amazed that some of the act is still allowed ...throwing babies out of the window and wife beating...!! not very PC!

Nelly gets christened ...looks like her Big Baby came long for the ride!

Making Tipis in the garden

Nelly before her wonderful running victory at sports day

Acting the monkey in the village church at a friend's christening...

summer is definitely here...lots of outdoor events and so far we are having the summer they predicted - albeit a few weekends of rain!

The village fete at the beginning of the month was beset with rain and I still managed to drag around a rather ugly doll and collared people into spending 50p guessing its name...

the following day we had Nelly's christening and the rain came down horizontally! Rob had been weather watching for weeks and had decided to organise a large garden tent and a magician in case of bad weathere but the sun finally came out and the event passed successfully = all very country living with bunting, white tablecloths , flowers from the garden!!! still waiting on perfect pictures from a friend!

Nelly had her first sports day...she ran like a gazelle and won her first running race - then gave up and decided not to particiapte in the sack race and walking with a bean bag on the head! strictly real sportsd for her!