I am sitting on my daughter’s spare room bed at 9.30 at night still waiting for Little L to drift off to sleep in the next room. At the moment it doesn’t seem very likely that she is going to be asleep this side of midnight! We are still waiting for news of the new baby which should be anytime in the next few hours as mum was induced earlier.
I am absolutely shattered – we spent part of the morning packing (we always seem to be packing to go somewhere), then the drive up here to North Yorkshire in time for Little L’s school assembly at 3pm for the parents (and grandparent) where the older children had planned a little remembrance service, then cooking tea in a strange kitchen – strange in the fact that I am never very sure where everything is kept, like the scissors or the tin foil. I must have opened every cupboard and drawer by now.
I think perhaps we made the wrong decision in looking after Little L at her home rather than pick her up from school and take her back to ours for the weekend but we didn’t want her to miss her ballet lesson tomorrow. Now I am wondering if we will all be up in time to get to the ballet lesson.
Going back to the remembrance service – the children in years 3 and 4 had been learning about life in the trenches for the troops fighting the war and how difficult life was for them. They were then asked to write a letter to someone who was a friend telling of the awful time they were having and of the reality as often the soldiers wrote letters to their families but didn’t mention the horror of the war so as not to worry or upset them. Each child read out their letter – it was quite moving and I wondered myself how these brave men endured such hardship, being continuously cold, wet and covered in lice and sores from the Trench foot.
Must go now I need some sleep myself.
As Neal’s Yard strapline says I certainly felt the love.
I have made a start on the lino cut Christmas card sketching out a few ideas which I will develop into a final print.
For lunch I have made a lot of soup trying out a number of different recipes. We loved them all and they are now firm favourites – perfect for the cooler weather.  
 homestEAd
We did quite a bit in the garden whilst the weather was good, weeding borders for the last time this year, gathering up the pots into a more sheltered position and covering up the garden furniture – we are all ready now for any bad weather to come.
trEAsury
All that aside we had some lovely days out at the local parks, complete with picnics at her request, and another trip to the local library.
She was with us for Halloween and my friend and neighbour had asked that I took her round as she had bought some sweets in specially. So we carved pumpkins and made buns to decorate… 
… she had a sweet little witches costume and hat in her suitcase to put on and with a little face paint – the best scary face granny could manage – we were all ready and when it grew dark we set off with our magic pumpkin all lit up on the Halloween trail. Granny was so excited!!
First stop, my neighbour’s house where we exchanged sweets for one of the grewsome chocolate buns which my friend was delighted with. I noticed a few other houses displaying pumpkins so we knocked on one or two doors not knowing what to expect. It is many years since I took part in anything Halloween – back when my two daughters were little the trick or treating aspect was just taking off and rather than a pumpkin we had to carve a turnip complete with a bit of real blood (when the knife slipped) and some old black skirts to dress up in – the shops had not caught on to making money out of it then.
We managed to do all this without paying for any parking and came home happy, but tired bunnies.
Piece by piece I have tackled pile after pile. I have reduced my craft folder clippings to only those ideas I know I might make at sometime, the recipes ditto. I threw out all but a few of my clippings on health, diet and exercise; ditto the clippings of kitchens, decorating ideas and home styling. And some more books to go.    
I washed the rest of the vintage doilies and mats that came from my mum’s house – keeping any I thought I might use in some way in future and the rest will go to the CS.
My lovely neighbour gave me these – the last of her tomatoes from her outdoor plants so I will be making more of this during the week and looking to grow some myself next year.
– my one piece of Autumn decor is a tiny pine cone on the mantel piece, my new hand-made ‘crafty’ vase from Dunoon containing a dried hydrangea head and a bamboo plate displaying a few Autumn nature table finds – subtle but simple.
The unexpected items this month – the gravel and cement for the gap above (how six bags of gravel can fit into such a small space is amazing), ladder brackets, car bulbs and the mattress topper (which is actually for my daughter’s bed not ours so I can get a good nights sleep when we stay there!). Baby still not appeared and we live in hope it will come soon.
where the journey takes me 2 