our family

check this out:

http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=3e6f88dc4bb5e65132264f"

Eileen Webster, beloved Grandmother

this is my gran, who died today age 87. she has been married to my grandad for 68 years and they have been together since they were 11. he fulfilled his promise to look after her all her life and he can rest assured that she knew she was loved greatly. i know she is at rest and free from any more pain, but she will be missed and it is hard to watch grandad suffer the loss of his lifelong companion. so this is in memorial to her, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother.
eileen webster 1921 - 2009.

blog candy from the stamp man

doesn't this look yummy!!! if you want a chance to win it check out the blog at http://thestampmanuk.blogspot.com
good luck - but best luck saved for me cos i want it!!!

its finally finished!

remember the circle journal i blogged about in january? well its finally made its round trip and arrived home. here is the finished article:

some poems i knew, others are new to me. long, short, funny and profound. its beautiful and will take pride of place on my bookshelf. thanks ladies, you've done me proud. i only hope my entries in your cjs are half as good!

robin hood festival

we decided to go to sherwood forest with the skinners one day. we had seen that the annual robin hood festival was on but foolishly thought it wouldn't make much difference. how wrong we were! it was absolutely packed and we had to count kids every two minutes to make sure we hadn't lost any! but we did have lots of fun, there were so many things to see.

jugglers and musicians

this guy and his wife were experts on ways of living back then, especially how to deal with rats which ethan and josh were fascinated by!

dancers. obviously. not sure how authentic they were, but it was entertaining. the girls loved it and would have watched for hours. just goes to show the differences between them and the boys!

we saw the evil sheriff of nottingham. who was actually very obliging about posing for photos. thats obviously the side you don't normally get to see ;o)

he'd been fighting with the good guys here - but they didn't stick around to be photoed for long. much too butch and tough i suppose.

we got moved aside for these guys to pass. to be fair the man is doing quite a job pulling that thing single-handed and i'm not surprised he didn't want to hang around for long. she was just clearing the way for him with her flute.

one of the side attractions was this mutant woman with two heads and extra limbs. no, wait, its just linda and isaac. cute though!

liv couldn't resist the urge to climb a tree...

so of course ty has to copy.

there was loads going on- battles and story telling, falconry and archery. it was interesting and fun - all the more so because it was unexpected. worth another visit next year - but this time we'll go prepared!

busy summer

we've had a busy month, so here are a few sneaky peaks:



walking in southport

at the beach in skegness (yes really!)

at the coolest birthday party ever - me with a tarantula

at the same party - liv with a snake

meeting peppa and george pig

at chatsworth in the cascade

beautiful gardens at chatsworth

markeaton park pools

like father like son at markeaton

milton keynes with the kings

paddling (!!) at dovedale

walking at dovedale with the skinners

climbing trees in sherwood forest

playing in the park

sure start fun days in the park

the Galleries of Justice

the caves under Nottingham

family time on the bank holiday weekend.

if i get my act together you'll get more detail of some of this soon! we've had fun this month while the kids have been off school, but obviously not enough fun cos liv has spent the whole time counting down until she goes back to school! but we've made lots of happy memories anyway.

don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

last year i tried to grow veggies and they all got eaten by small critters before they had a chance. this year my talented hubby built a raised bed as i documented earlier in the year. here is the result!! there are carrots, onions and potatoes growing here and there is nothing better than picking and eating your own veggies!
close up of the bushy carrot tops. (and the onions)

our yummy carrots. the kids were so excited to pick them out and share them with our neighbours.

liv almost didn't wait to wash the mud off before she was ready to eat one.
we even got a mutant carrot!

growing our own veggies has proved rewarding and encouraged the kids to try new healthy foods. next year we plan to increase what we grow.