on holiday again, part 2

We had a lovely long weekend on Exmoor.  The cottage was charming – thick old stone walls, but with all mod cons.  The weather was grey, and we spent quite a bit of our time relaxing in front of the wood burner.

 Simon getting the fire going.

  The view from the bedroom window. (A bit less built up than London!)

  From the road near the cottage.  Where the trees are in the middle of the photo there is considerably more of a dip than than it seems – the cottage is down there.

We relished the peace and quiet, and the time being together.  This short break was a blessing.  I have to admit that I am glad to be back home and to get back to the usual routine, though!

holiday again

We had a lovely time in Bruges (Belgium).  Here is a little taste:

  (Simon is actually grabbing his spoon not the bill!)

We had a lovely boat trip on the canals (and again in Ghent), did plenty of walking around sightseeing, finally got to see the art collection at the Groeninge Museum in Bruges, but did not climb the 366 steps to the top of the bell tower (that is the tower in the photo above)!

We had a nightmare journey back, however.  Eurostar had double booked our seats (and also those of several elderly people).  No seats on a 2 hour 20 minute journey that turned into a 2 hour 40 minute journey.  Train manager was nowhere to be found.  I have written to complain – will let you know if and when I hear anything back. 

I have my first antenatal class this morning and then we are off on holiday again.  This time we are going for a long weekend to a cottage on Exmoor, Somerset.  Weather forecast is foggy and damp, so it might be a lot of reading by the wood-burning stove!

Well, the re-painting works have come to a grinding halt.  Not because of the size of the bump (as Sharon foresaw and I feared), but because of these:

Apparently all the pain and swelling (and the numbness at night) I’ve been suffering with in my hands is pregnancy-related carpal tunnel syndrome.  So now I have to sleep with wrist splints on, and I am also to wear them when my hands are at rest during the day.  I am hoping that after a few nights of wearing the splints I might be in less pain during the day and might be able to get back to doing a bit more again (like the painting, say).  Simon has said he will finish off the painting when he has a couple of days off after Christmas.

In the meantime, we are off on holiday!  We are going to Bruges (Belgium) for 4 days, coming back on Saturday night.  We have been before, both separately and together, and it is a charming place and quite easy to get around on foot.  I’m looking forward to those Belgian chocolates!

in which bicarbonate of soda works wonders, the oven doesn’t work at all, and we have window joy

I said it was cold – as we were going to bed last night we realised it was snowing.  Well, mainly it was a sleety rain, but there were definite snow flakes in there.  It didn’t settle, which I am glad about, and we have been having another bright but cold day today.

The dog threw up in the study yesterday, and the smell has been really, really, bad.  Simon and I have scrubbed the carpet, I’ve steam cleaned the carpet, we have had the window open, used enough air freshener for that alone to make us feel ill, and still the smell lingers.  It hasn’t just lingered in the study either, it has pervaded the entire house.  In the recesses of my memory I seemed to have something about bicarbonate of soda helping in these situations.  I did a google search (I am really loving the internet at the moment) and came up with instructions to make the bicarb into a thick paste with some water and rub it into the area (you then hoover it out when it is all dry and its work is done).  I didn’t have a lot of bicarb in the cupboard but the little I had has worked its magic – we have actually been able to use the study with window and door shut.  Amazing.  Simple, cheap and effective.

The oven stop working on Sunday as I was heating it to roast our beef.  I was not a happy bunny.  We have a small top oven (with grill) which is uneconomical but did cook the beef, and I fried the potatoes so all was not lost.  We had to say goodbye to the idea of Yorkshire pudding, though.  Ironically, I had been feeling so tired that I was threatening everyone with pasta for dinner instead of a roast.  Clearly the oven felt much the same as me.  So no cakes, no home-made bread.  I feel bereft.  The crockpot is putting in overtime though – leak and potato soup for lunch, and now a steamed pudding cooking in there for dessert this evening.  I am pretty certain that the oven element needs replacing.  I know I can order a spare through the manufacturer’s website, I just need to work out whether this is something I can replace myself or whether I need an engineer/electrician (and how much that will set us back).

We had some good news this morning, though.  We had a letter through to say that the diocese has approved a quote to replace our windows.  We are going to have new windows.  New, double-glazed windows.  Double-glazed windows that don’t have rotting frames.  I danced for joy in the hallway.  That will save money on our heating bills, not to mention making the house warmer.  And safer.  And quieter.  Yippee.  Praise the Lord!  Work can start whenever the company can do it.  I am so grateful.

Yesterday we went down to Poole (in Dorset, on the south coast) where we used to live, to visit a friend and her new baby girl.  Baby Jessica is gorgeous (sorry, no photos of her – to protect their privacy) and tiny.  She was actually due this week but was born 3 weeks ago after induction due to mum’s pre-eclampsia.  Mother and baby are doing very well, it is baby number 3 for our friend who is also a childcare professional so she is confident and relaxed and knows what she is doing.  Baby Jessica was 7 lbs 4 oz at birth so is a good healthy weight, but seems so tiny and fragile – and then I think of pushing out something that size and she seems ENORMOUS! 

Inspired by some pictures I’d seen (and instructions found on the internet), I made a nappy (diaper) cake:

   I’m really pleased with how it turned out – not bad for a first attempt!  This isn’t something we have over here (though a few businesses are springing up selling them now, at great expense), but I think it is a cute idea.  I enjoyed making it, too.

We took a quick trip to the beach to give the dog a run and to see the sea.  This beach (Branksome Dene Chine) used to be just 3 miles from our house. The view from the beach:

    

A close up of Old Harry’s Rocks:

 

Looking left from the beach – the cliff is part of the Isle of Wight  

As you can see we were blessed with good weather (in fact we had the best weather of the day when we were walking on the beach).  Coming back I had lovely views of the stars as we drove across the dark New Forest (poor Simon driving had to be content with a view of other cars’ lights!) – a clear night and cold.  We had a frost this morning, our first this autumn that I’m aware of.  Today has been bright but much colder.  We’ve had a very mild autumn so far, but it seems that the weather has finally changed.

I’ve made a start on repainting the baby’s room – I’ve done the ceiling and one wall.  Still a lot to do but I feel better about the task now that I’ve started!

baby bargains

I spent the last two Saturdays at second hand sales of baby clothes and toys and here are my purchases:

As you can see pink items won out (the best bargains were bagged bundles for boys or girls, and actually there weren’t that many unisex items).  Local branches of the National Childbirth Trust run secondhand sales in the autumn and sometimes in the spring as well.  These sales are very very busy.  I went to the only two sales I could get to this season, and it was well worth the time and effort especially as the items I bought were better quality than I could have afforded new. 

I took a trip up to North London to buy curtain fabric a couple of weeks ago, this is what I came back with:

In amongst the flowers are birds and dragonflies.  I also got some blackout fabric to line the curtains with.  Curtain making can wait til I’ve got the repainting done – I need to get busy painting while I can still move around fairly easily, at least sewing jobs I can sit down for!  My hope is to start work on the painting next week.

“season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”

  I love autumn colours and marvel each year at the way the leaves change.  Last week we had a church trip to Sheffield Park in Sussex (heading south from us) – this is a garden with a large variety of trees and it gave us a great opportunity to enjoy autumn leaves at their finest.  We left breathtaken by the beauty of God’s creation, and by my stupidity at leaving my camera at home.  The photo here is of Ashdown forest (also in Sussex) where we walked the dog on Monday on the way to visit Simon’s birth mother in her nursing home.

I am contemplating trying to bring back a revival of the word “fall” for “autumn” in British English.  This was in use when the pilgrims went to America, hence the U.S. usage, but fell out of use here.  It is such an evocative word, so appropriate for areas with deciduous trees.

We’ve had the results back for Simon’s leg – it is a basal cell cancer (also known as a “rodent ulcer”, charming, huh?!).  This isn’t exactly the best news we could have had but we have been reassured that it is not actually bad news.  This is a superficial, very slow growing malignancy.  We have an appointment with the dermatologist at the beginning of November, and we can talk through the treatment options then, but they have already told us that they may well treat with creams rather than excise.  I’d rather cut it out and be done with it, but apparently the ointment route is a fairly new but successful one.

Holiday photos, part 2

It is a grey and rainy day here, so a great time to be looking at holiday snaps!

 Definitely one of my favourites from this holiday, this is in the hills on South Uist with the heather in full bloom.

   Looking across to the Isle of Skye from South Uist. I love these old houses – this one has been renovated quite recently (sadly this is not what we were staying in!).  During a short break in the rain in Glen Coe, (the Highlands).  Glen Etive, in the Highlands.  Probably the most attractive of the Scottish glens.

   Heading south – the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.