Overheard...

I love walking past snippets of conversations.
You can almost see the words hanging in the air.

Here's a good one overheard in Sainsbury's on Saturday that conjures up a great mental image:

"... a turtle the size of a double bed!"

And here's one from the farmers market yesterday between 2 old men:

"You got the internet?"
*incomprehensible mumble*
"Have a look at facebook..."

He'll be poking in no time...

The best nut roast in the land

Sunday morning poor G was all down... was he cut out in garden design? (answer: yes) what does he *really* know about the retail gardening market? (answer: not much...) would he make a good garden design lecturer? (answer: yes! what a great idea!) so we spent most of the morning drinking tea in bed (the kids were at Scotts) and discussing many things... exciting things... dreams of our own land, poly tunnels, camping, photography, making jam, you know the sorta thing.

So after all that we found ourselves racing a little to get ourselves ready for Matt & Clare. We walked the dog to the farmers market and bought a couple of nice jasmine plants. 1 for me, 1 for Clare. We were assured we didn't need to bring anything, but I hate turning up empty handed and there wasn't enough time (or indeed, skill) to bake a nice cake.

We got there (sans dog) at 1 ish and were treated to THE BEST nut roast EVER. Matt had lovingly crafted it with his own fair hands and there was a layer of creamy cheesy roased pepper goodness in the middle. I thought it would be weird to start photographing it, so you'll just have to imagine it...

It was D.I.V.I.N.E. All washed down with some lovely fermented grape juice (the chardonnay flavour).

Then we went for a walk up Maiden Castle to laugh at sheep.

So, a lushious roast and a walk. How typically Sunday. Love it.

Once upon a time...

...there was a girl called Meriel who decided to gather a few choice friends together for an evening of food and fun. The 6 friends all arrived at the Orlebar house, despite Meriel neglecting to let the Orlebars know until the very last minute - to save them from panicking, I expect.

The friends arrived laden with a delicious feast with food and treats of all shapes, sizes and smells. The table was bursting with succulent lamb, vegetable gratin, bruschetta and much more. All the friends enjoyed the feast which was washed down with sticky fermented grape juice.

Before long, the carriages were prepared and the friends journeyed out into the spring night towards Cranbourne and the neolithic round house. On arrival, the friends gathered sheepskins and plump cushions and numerous coats and hats, for the roundhouse can get a little nippy.

A roaring fire was waiting for them and just as they sat down, along with the rest of the audience, the storytelling began. The friends heard fascinating tales of frog princesses, huts with chicken legs and murderous worms as they sipped their spiced apple juice.

After a wonderful evening of magical tales, the friends made their way back to the Orlebar house for cake and custard and peppermint tea (and the FA cup final highlights for the boys).

And they all lived happpily ever after.

An Orlebar Easter

Easter Sunday saw us desperately trying not to be late to the Orlebar easter lunch at my in-laws. I'd been given strict instructions over the phone a few days before... "oh Kyleigh my love, try not to be late..." oh. They're learning about their daughter in law, eh?

So we left by 11.30 and got there by 12.30! hurray! But... I'd forgotten the easter nest cakes Amber and I had made the day before. Gutted.

It didn't matter because the table was overspilling with baskets and dainty glass dishes full of little 70% eggs, mini eggs, noisette eggs... plus there was a little Easter gift at each place setting from Bumble.

I like that G has an Aunty called Bumble. Bob and Tamsin call her 'Bum'. How cool is that? For pudding there was crumble so I couldn't help but ask her "Are you enjoying your crumble Bumble?" to which Uncle Mike cracked up and started hollering at her "Hey don't grumble about the crumble, Bumble!"... after a pause she simply put down her napkin and stated "hey, don't fumble with the Bumble!". She's SO lovely and so glamourous. She must've been a force to be reckoned with in her day. I imagine her driving a vintage sporty Merc down the Kings Road in big Mary Quant shades, smoking a fag in a long cigarette holder...

So there was 11 of us for Orlebar lunch which was duck... which is an Easter tradition apparantly. The wine flowed... oh how fast it flows. I was designated driver as I'd given G strict instructions to let his hair down and get drunk and ridiculous. He didn't disappoint.

After the dishes were loaded into the dishwasher and folk had bid farewells, G and uncle Mike were still going for it and yet 2 more Oyster Bay bottles were consumed in about an hour. He slept all the way home...

And now a word from our sponsor

Kerys came back from Skiing trip happy, but feverish bless her. She wasn't even well enough to come to Kingston Lacey for an Easter egg hunt. As she was tucked up in bed with Albas oil on a tissue and dosed up with Calpol 6+, we nicked off for a couple of hours to give her some peace.

The Easter Egg hunt was sponsored by Cadburys... jeez - come on National Trust! You don't need sponsorship, surely? Anyhoo, it was nice but most of the 'hunt' was in parts of the gardens which don't allow dogs. So we just carried on and pretended not to see the 'No Dogs beyond this point' signs. At one stage I even feined looking intently at the egg hunt map because I *knew* we were walking past one of these signs and into the formal gardens with a raggedy old scruffy smelly dog pulling on the lead.

We 'won' the hunt. Oh! My! A Cadburys easter egg as a prize! Now who would've guessed?

G spent Easter Saturday starting our new garden plan which has been in our heads for months. It's basically a quick fix on a budget because:

1. The grass is rubbish and half is in the shade
2. The tired old gravel was ugly
3. The tired old flagstones were ugly
4. The table and chairs didn't fit on the ledge of flagstones properly
5. An ugly garden meant dog plops not being picked up regularly... they'd harden for days

So the new plan is a semi circle of lawn (all of this will get lovely sunshine), plus lots of pea shingle (easy to pick up dog plops) which I'll stand lots (and lots) of big pots on there to fill it up and make it all green.

Oh and G has got his head fixed on a clay pizza oven, he's made it to match the little veg patch in the corner which is cool. Can't wait to have pizza parties... I bought some more solar powered fairy lights to celebrate.

London calling

Amber and I spent a lovely few days in the big smoke visiting my big bro and various London sights and museums. Amber was so excited, which waned slightly during the boring coach ride (would somebody pleeeease put the rail link back in Wimborne...) but as soon as we got there she perked right back up.

We went straight to the Natural History Museum which is an eternal fave of mine (love the mammals bit the best) and we wandered around for hours and hours. I love the pic of Amber in front of the bear. RaaaaR!

Meric and May's place is lovely - yes, much better than James and Ambers old place even. Loving their little garden and masses of lovely books (spent each morning leafing through many). It's got a lovely happy vibe and reckon they'll be very happy there until it's time to buy their own little place.

We were SO tired after 3 days walking but it's funny, whenever I go to London I feel the same things:

1. Jeez, it's So big... (I'm such a country mouse)
2. I wonder what everyone is DOING, where' are they GOING? Why the rush?
3. I look at people on the tube and dare myself to hold someones eye, or start a conversation (it'll never happen)
3. I wonder if I could ever live there (nope)
4. I look into people's windows - if you leave London by coach in the evening when people put lights on but haven't yet closed their curtains the coach goes right past Harrods and many beautiful apartments. EYE SPY..
5. I'm so glad to get home to sleepy Wimborne and trees and fields.

PS. The recycled plastic handprint (last pic) is what I think the Little Veg Patches for schools would be lovely being made of. Just need to find a supplier. It's so lovely and bright and you can see bits of what it's been made of.

Straight to my heart

The night before Kerys went skiing with the school to Austria we had a right old barney. She was SO stroppy, i was racing round like a blue arsed fly trying to pack and sort food for the journey and stuff, drop her to drama, pick her up, race to Matalan for some emergency jeans, race back home, cook dinner, finish packing... so yeah, we were both stressed which led to a blazing row.

I've spent a lot of money on the ski trip and she was behaving a little ungrateful to say the least. Not that I want a medal, I'm happy for her to go, but I don't want it to be taken for granted either you know?

I was nervous of my baby off skiing and excited at the same time.
She was excited, but nervous at the same time.

We apologised and hugged before sleepyhead hit they hay.

THE morning arrived - she was up bright and breezy, I helped her finish packing. Loaded the car and dropped he to school. We hugged for a long time and said our goodbyes. I went off to work and she went off on an adventure.

That night as I was getting into bed I found a note on my pillow the sneaky monkey. It brought tears to my eyes... it read:

3/4/09 8.20am
To Mum xxx
I love you
so much
and thank you.
Thank you sooo
much for Paying
for everything.
not just for
skiing but
EVERYTHING!
I will miss you!
Love Kerys xxx

G got one too:

3/4/09 8.23am
To G xxx
Thankyou
for everything,
kindness, support and
love.
I will miss you.
Love
from
Kerys xxx

Bless her little heart xx

Dirty boy!

Archie went out with John and Sarko and rolled in some fox plop plop.

STINKY!

He's got a lot better in the bath. He used to go crazy.
Now he just stands there, ears back...

Dirty boy!