47 is a Prime Number

As well as my wonderful 47th birthday celebration on the Shropshire Union Canal with my family....

... daughter Charis made me a periodic table birthday cake, which included my name spelled out in the rare earth elements Protactinium (Pa) Uranium (U) and Lanthanum (La) ...

... I was thoroughly spoiled with presents, cards and a special dinner of my choice made for me by Ivy.

My girls gave me a CD of music that they had recorded themselves and best of all, Ivy wrote and performed a song for me. Here she is with "Mimi":

It's been such a good day and 47 is a prime number which, being a bit of a maths geek, I rather like. (It's also scarily close to fifty but at least that will be a good excuse for another party!)

Not the Royal Wedding

While the country was watching and waiting to see the dress a Royal Bride would be wearing yesterday, I was gently cruising down the Shropshire Union Canal in a Day Boat for 10 people without a TV, radio or even a reliable mobile signal.

It wasn't a deliberate attempt to avoid the nuptials. In fact as soon as we got back home I was straight on BBC iPlayer to see for myself a) if Kate looked like a proper princess b) the kiss and c) (oh dear!) Will's bald spot. The reason for the whole canal thing was that it was my birthday weekend and this was how I chose to celebrate - my lovely family, plenty of good food and drink and a slightly unusual setting.

We went for a little bit of a pirate theme for fun - an idea that my three year old totally embraced.

I wasn't at all sure how I would cope with the baby boy given that he has now perfected his hundred mile an hour crawl technique, but he loved being on the boat and with lots of people to keep an eye on him and give him attention, he had a brilliant time.

Ivy brought her guitar along so we had a good sing song at the front of the boat while the boys took on the serious task of steering us along the waterway through narrow bridges and past other boaters.

I had an an absolutely lovely day - my merriment enhanced by pink champagne, strawberries and an award winning chocolate torte.

We saw lots of herons along the way. I love to see herons in a natural environment (less impressed by them when they are stealing the fish from my garden pond). I really wanted to get a photo or some video footage of one of these magnificent avian creatures but I was always too slow. When someone pointed out that there was a beautiful specimen sitting very still on the side of the canal just ahead I grabbed my camera bag. A perfect opportunity. But it was sitting VERY still. So still that I thought it had to be a plastic one that someone had placed there. False alarm. Then it moved. Ever so slightly. Or was that my imagination. (I was working my way through the best part of a whole bottle of pink champagne!) Realisation that it was indeed made of flesh and feathers, followed by a mad panic trying to get the camera out of the bag and ready resulted in another botched attempt to photograph my subject as it took flight and glided teasingly right over our heads. I guess I am not destined to be a wildlife photographer!

Wildlife photography + champagne, not a good mix!

My girls were hoping that our trip along the canal might provide some good locations for the music video they are making to accompany an original song they recorded recently. Much the same as when they were at the jumble sale trying to find the clothes they needed to bring Liberty's artistic vision to life, every time they wished for something, a perfect location would present itself. They got some footage shot as the rest of us looked on with bemused interest. I really hope that they achieved something useable because it would make a unique memento of the day.

It is always very special for me having all my family together - four fantastic grown up young ladies, two  amazing boyfriends who fit in so well with all the madness, one crazy little three year old, a beautiful baby boy whose personality is emerging daily and of course my husband who makes all things possible. I couldn't ask for more.

My wonderful children

Flashback Friday - Horror

 

Hannah from Metal Mummy had us all thinking about Horror this week for her Movie Meme.

My sister Wendy and I both share a love of the genre.

I bought my first SLR camera when I was at University in the early eighties. It was an expensive hobby back then with the film developing costs but I had so many ideas that I wanted to experiment with. Wendy was always a willing model.

My Flashback Friday contribution this week shows a couple of photographs that we staged in our back garden exploring the theme of 'horror'. We were quite pleased with what we achieved with a little bit of make up, some fake blood and a lot of eye rolling!

Reasons to be Cheerful

My reasons to be cheerful this week are having....

ONE

... a relaxing, pampering manicure.

TWO

... a friend like Kirk.

THREE

... a long, birthday weekend to look forward to (47 years old and still smiling!)

I don't know about you but....

This meme from Oh Mammy seems like too good an opportunity to miss. Everybody needs an outlet for their frustrations and this is a lot less painful than banging your head against a wall.

I don't know about you but... I love holidays and any excuse for a celebration. I also love chocolate. Easter, then, should tick all my boxes and make me very happy. I provided activities such as Easter Bonnet Making, Gingerbread Egg Decorating, an Easter Egg Hunt and a Celebration Dinner. The kids loved it. The baby loved it to the point that he made himself sick on chocolate and deposited brown vomit over the white ribbon of the Easter Bonnet.

I don't know about you but I hate when my sister tries to make me wear her Easter Bonnet!

Despite the frivolity and fun, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that my usually generous husband had not given me an Easter Egg.

As a kid I rarely got Easter Eggs because my parents thought they were not good value for money. We would get a bar of chocolate and some pocket money instead. I remember gazing into the window of the local sweetshop at their display of eggs and so badly wanting the foil wrapped chocolate treat presented in a mug decorated with a Thelwell Pony and Rider.

No Easter has ever quite made up for the disappointment of not getting the much coveted Egg and Mug set. This Easter was no exception.

My husband had a reason for not buying me an Egg (it could have been as simple as a creme egg from the kids to make me happy). His reason was He Doesn't Do Easter.


So, I don't know about you but... I hate it when my husband decides that He Doesn't Do Easter because that means no easter egg for me - again :(

I wasn't completely without chocolate. I have a very special friend who NEVER forgets "Paula and the girls" (I'm sure the post office think I must run brothel when I go to collect parcels from him addressed like that!) He sent us a delicious Hotel Chocolate You Crack Me Up  Egg which we all shared after dinner with coffee. Lovely.

Hipp Organic Baby Food - Review

At 10 months old, my little boy is a fantastic eater. He pretty much has whatever the family are having and is always willing to try new tastes and textures. I still breastfeed him to supplement his nutrition and love to see him learning about food.

It is always useful to have some proprietary Baby Food on standby for those moments when it simply isn't convenient to have him share the family meal or we need to feed him in a hurry. We have been enjoying trying out the relaunched Hipp Organic range.

The new design packaging for 2011 is certainly very appealing with lovely photographs of the fresh, organic ingredients used to make the products.

We are raising our son on a vegetarian diet to fit in with the rest of the family. It can be a struggle sometimes to find enough variety when meat is off the menu. The Hipp Organic range includes several vegetarian options.

We tried three different varieties from the traditional jars of baby food: Sweet Parsnip & Potato Puree, Mixed Vegetable Medley and Tasty Vegetable Risotto. These are all suitable from 4+ months. Each of the  purees was a distinct colour which made them feel as though there really was a difference between them rather than being slightly tweaked bland mush with imaginative names. I was impressed with how pleasant they smelled and my boy demolished the whole jar without pausing for breathe!

We also tried the Creamed Root Vegetable with Apple variety from the Wholesome Pots range. I really liked the resealable, reusable pots that they come in and found them brilliant for when we were out and about. I am not keen on carrying the glass pots around in my handbag and I did have a rather unfortunate incident when trying to feed an excited little boy in the front seat of my car recently trying to balance him, a jar and a spoon. It was messy. The plastic pots are very much more like a little bowl with the benefit, therefore, of greater stability and a bigger area to aim at with your spoon!

I was pleased to see that the Hipp Organic range contains non-animal sourced Omega 3, which we are told is important for development and health.

I have long been a fan of the the Hipp Organic Fruit Pots. They have no added sugar and taste like  fruit you could have pureed yourself. My son has loved all the fruit we have given him (including some lemon that his big sister gave him to see him pull a face at the bitterness!) and he loved the Fruit Pots. My three year old daughter, on the other hand, does not like the texture of fruit apart from kiwi and banana but she does love the Fruit Pots. It is a great way to get her to enjoy the flavours of fruit and hopefully work towards her being more adventurous when it comes to getting her Five-a-Day.

We were given the Fruit Pots with Yoghurt to try in Apple & Pear and Banana & Peach varieties. I was interested to see what she made of these. The video speaks for itself.

   

Find Hipp Organic at http://www.hipp.co.uk/, on Facebook and Twitter for information, competitions and chat.

The products featured in this review were supplied by Hipp Organic.

Friends #1 - Kirk

I've been meaning to write some posts about the important people in my life and this meme from JoJo's So Called Life has given me the kick up the bum to do it. 

I had a lot of problem's during my first year at University. The usual stuff like learning to live independently, money issues (my parents didn't appreciate that the "parental contribution" was an essential component of student financing), realising that I wasn't that interested in my course and falling in love (or at least believing I had) and having my heart broken. I left it really late even thinking about somewhere to live for my second year and ended up answering an ad with a guy I met at the Uni Accommodation Office for two people to share a house with six other students.

One of those other students was Kirk.

He came to see me in my room at the Hall of residence where I was currently living. He later told me that when he saw the Joy of Sex on my bookshelf next to the Beano Annual, he knew I would be someone he could live with!

Kirk had the biggest record collection I had ever seen. He was incredibly bright and funny and welcoming AND he could cook. 

His room in the shared house would be used very much as a social area. The door was nearly always open.

We quickly bonded as friends and he would make tapes for me of music that I was interested in. 

He was one of the few people who didn't mock me for liking John Denver and even made a dream come true by buying tickets for he and I to see the man in concert. There would be many more musical events that we would share, including the annual V Festival at Weston Park.

A Very Wet V Music Festival

Our friendship grew stronger and stronger. 

We experimented with Fine Fare Yellow Label food items (the very first supermarket budget range) to save money. We laughed at the undrinkable Yellow Label coffee and decided some things should not be economised on. 

We dieted together on the popular F Plan diet that gave you comedy wind. He lost loads of weight - I got fatter.

He made the most amazing chocolate cake in the world.

We continued to live together in my third year.

He was always there for me. He could always make me laugh. He spoiled me with thoughtful gifts and gestures.

He always makes me laugh

After graduation, we went our separate ways but he would never miss a birthday, Xmas, Valentines day, Easter, or any opportunity to show that he cared. We stayed in touch and he continued to support me through the bad patches in my life.

At the Christening of my children, Kirk was officially made God Father to my eldest daughter but he has taken it upon himself to be an honorary Godfather to them all. He supports them all in little ways and great big ways. 

At the time of my divorce he was amazing - taking his Godfather role beyond the call of duty when my daughter needed help with the beginning of her own University adventure. I will be eternally grateful to him also for the practical and emotional assistance he gave my second daughter when she failed to get the grades she needed for her first choice University.

Celebrating my eldest daughter's graduation

For his generosity, for his humour, for his support, for all that he is... I love him and don't even want to imagine how much poorer my life would have been without him. 

My wonderful friend - Kirk

The Gallery - Week 56 - Green

I had to trawl through the archives to find this old photograph but as soon as I saw The Gallery prompt 'GREEN', this was the image that immediately sprang to mind.

It is my daughter, Taylor, when she was a tiny little thing. She and her older sister dressed up for their primary school Xmas disco as The Holly and the Ivy. I always thought Taylor looked like a beautiful little baby Earth Goddess or an Elfin Princess. I love the way she is pushing her tongue through the gap in her teeth as she smiles for the camera.

Movie Meme #10 - Horror

I love the horror genre above all others and I am looking forward to watching The Collector tonight (courtesy of the DVD Library Inside the Wendy House!)

My all time favourite horror film would have to be Hellraiser from the brilliant, visionary mind of Clive Barker. There is the strangely charismatic Pinhead played by classically trained actor Doug Bradley as well as a visual feast of dark and dangerous characters collectively known as the Cenobites.

The tag line "He'll tear your soul apart" does sum up the extreme nature of this movie. It is not just your mortal flesh that will suffer should you fall foul of the Cenobites.

The message that the film delivers is don't mess with what you don't understand and if you should find yourself in possession of a peculiar looking puzzle box, DO NOT under any circumstances be tempted to fiddle with it!

I was given a 'Pinhead' Mask a long time ago (possibly the best present EVER). It is very old and fragile now yet still maintains the power to freak my children out! Here he is dressed for Xmas!

Something horrible....

Something horrible happened to me today.

Yesterday, my teenage daughter had been busying herself making a cardboard model of a Dalek from a set. It took her ages and I admired her perseverance. What I didn't admire was the fact that she failed to put the set away when she had finished. This morning, my three year old decided it was her turn and within seconds whilst I was busy with the baby, there were cardboard components of a Cyberman all over the kitchen floor. I thought I'd better try and retrieve it before it was rendered completely unusable. Unfortunately, I stepped on a piece of Cyberman and in true comedy 'stepping on a banana skin' fashion, went flying. One second I was upright, the next I was flat on my back on the floor. It would actually have been really funny had I not had the baby in my arms.

I landed very hard on the tiled kitchen floor. Every instinct I had worked to protect the baby at whatever cost to myself. His little head was frighteningly close to smashing on the floor. It didn't. I saved him. He cried with the shock of it but he was unharmed.

I did not come off quite so well. My elbow feels the worst. It took quite a whack in my effort to protect the baby's head. I have a big bruise on my thigh, one ankle and wrist feel decidedly dodgy and there is an all over dull ache. None of this matters very much compared with the horrible visions that keep running through my head of what could have been.

Magpie Monday - Inca Plates

During an unsuccessful scour of the local charity shops with my girls for jewellery for their music video (which they ended up buying from Primark on a miserly budget) I chanced upon a couple of plates in the 3 for  £1 box. I bought a side plate (always useful) to make up the three and took my purchases home.

Taylor modelling all the 'non charity shop' jewellery

My two new plates are Barker Brothers Royal Tudor Ware in the Inca design. I love them and I have used them so many times this week - for sandwich platters when we were expecting hungry family to descend on us for lunch, for holding the sausages and burgers prior to cooking on our many barbecues to make the most of the good weather, as a cake plate for the three year old's hedgehog birthday cake.... I honestly don't know how I would have managed without them. I am grateful to the hand of fate that united us for the bargain price of 33 (and a third) pence each!

Spring Cleaning

The sunshine streaming through the living room window really highlighted how grubby my sofas were so I dug out the leather cleaner and got to work.

For the three year old, my cleaning efforts simply turned the living room into a big soft play area.

 If only Spring Cleaning was this much fun for me!!

My Top 5 Improvements to My Wedding - Listography

My wedding day was full of wonderful (unforgettable!) moments but there were a few clangers too. These are my Top 5 Improvements for my wedding but ultimately in life you take the good with the bad and I always try to find a way to laugh at that which is less than perfect!

1. Calculate how pregnant I was going to be on the wedding date more accurately - a 5 month bump was much harder to disguise than what I thought was going to be a 4 month bump.

2. Do not try to buy a dress on the internet from China despite the fact that it seems like a bargain and the company has many glowing testimonials. Having said dress delivered weeks after my big day was not a lot of use.

3. Book my hair appointment far enough in advance to get the hairdresser I trust - not the one that made me look like Worzel Gummidge so that the whole thing had to be redone.

4. Tell my dad beforehand that the Father of the Bride speech ought to actually mention the bride rather than just welcoming my husband to the family. It broke my heart a little bit that he didn't say that he loved me or that he was proud of me or that I looked beautiful. I know he does love me but it would have meant the world to me to hear him say it at that moment.

5. Make sure my microphone is turned on before the start of my karaoke duet of "Having my Baby" with my husband.

Silent Sunday

Donkey Oaty

We have been having such a busy time over Half Term with our first alphabet date, a third birthday to celebrate, impromptu barbecues and family visiting. There has hardly been time to catch my breath. It was a real treat to snatch some time for myself whilst my husband went off to Morrisons with the little ones, armed with a shopping list and lots of bags.

I used the time for a relaxing soak in the bath with one of my new Lush goodies, the Donkey Oaty bath bomb.

He was a cute little fellow, my donkey, but as he fizzed away in the warm water he got the look of the poor emaciated animals that feature on the animal charity leaflets urging us to dig deep into our pockets to help stop the cruelty. Soon he was gone completely. I made a mental note to put some loose change in the next RSPB collection tin and luxuriated.

It may not be everyone's idea of fun lying in bathwater that looks like it has been tinted with bromine, with citrus peel floating on a slightly scummy surface but for me it was a little bit of Easter Heaven.

Flashback Friday - Tortoises

When I was a child, tortoises were common pets. In the seventies, you could buy them for 50p at pet shops and to all intents and purposes, they required very little care. Blue Peter showed us how you could paint your tortoise's name on the shell to enable easy identification should your pet wander out of your garden and also alert your dad to their presence in the dug earth to avoid any unfortunate incidents with a garden fork. They also had tips on hibernation.

All of the tortoises that I owned eventually died during hibernation. One, met its end when my dad inadvertently put something heavy on top of the cardboard box that held my hibernating pet. Come spring, I found the flattened box in my dad's messy, disorganised shed. It was with a heavy heart that I opened it, knowing that the poor creature could not possibly have survived.

Others did not meet such a brutal end but I can remember the horrible feeling of pulling back the straw and finding lifeless bodies. We did manage to get our pets to survive some winters. In the spring, you would hear scratching noises when they woke and started moving around. It was if the scratching noises failed to happen that I would investigate and inevitably have to deal with death.

When the horror of the tortoise trade was exposed and imports eventually banned, tortoises entered the realm of pricey, exotic pets requiring specialist knowledge and equipment. The pocket money back yard tortoise days were over.

Eno (later renamed as Crusty Pie) loved strawberries

Me and little sister Wendy posing with our tortoise

For more of this week's Flashback Friday posts visit Cafe Bebe

Reasons to be Cheerful

With my little girl turning three yesterday, we were in celebratory mode. It gave me plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

ONE

We went to the zoo. This was the first proper day out since my once reluctant potty trainee decided that wearing big girl pants was actually much nicer than nappies. I took several changes of clothes in case of accidents but I needn't have worried. She coped brilliantly with the zoo toilets without any mishaps. She also announced recently in her little sing song voice that she would "Never wear nappies again". Since then she been nappy free in bed and enjoying dry nights. Now she wants to give her potty collection to her brother because potties are for babies and she's a big girl.

TWO

My little girl does not have very much interaction with children her own age. At the zoo, she was playing on a wooden climbing frame house by herself. When other children came to play she looked very shy and timid and uncertain. She was interested in two children who were eating ice lollies (I am guessing that it was the lollies more than the children that demanded her attention). When they said hello to her she looked very shocked but then as I watched I could see her thinking and working it all out. These were children just like her and she could communicate with them and they could be playmates. She practically pounced on the next child to join her on the apparatus. She followed their every move and maintained constant eye contact. Eventually they broke the silence and started chatting. As children moved on and new children arrived I could see her confidence growing. Most of the other children were older than her.  She was not intimidated by the fact that some were boisterous and loud and she was unconcerned by sex or skin colour. Each child was a potential friend. Some were more communicative than others and it was beautiful to watch my little girl growing into a social creature and developing the skills to make friends.

THREE

On the way to the zoo and at certain points going around the zoo, the birthday girl told us that she was going to hold a chicken. Quite where she'd got this notion from I don't know but sure enough, there was a petting farm and there was indeed an opportunity to hold a little chick. She sat there very matter of fact cradling the tiny bird, stroking it gently with her thumbs and telling the zoo keeper that it was soft and cute and small. 

You know you've had a good day out when...

The Nearly Three Year Old becomes the Really Three Year Old

So much has happened in the three short years since my little girl was born. I became Mrs Virgo, I gave birth to a son and the QWERTY Mum blog came into existence to help me celebrate it all. 

Tonight, my daughter went to bed knowing that tomorrow is her birthday. She has made it very clear that she wants cards and presents and balloons and cake. She will get all of those things and more. 

My daughter (and now of course my son) have been the most amazing little miracles in my life. Having found love after enduring many years of a bad marriage, I did dream of maybe conceiving a child that would unite my new family but I doubted that at my age it would become a reality. I feel so blessed that I have my two healthy, beautiful children as well as my four grown up daughters. Every day they make me smile, they make me laugh and they fill me with pride and wonder. 

Tomorrow, as we celebrate my daughter's third birthday, I will no doubt remember back to a hospital room, my fear and uncertainty, a lovely midwife and a first meeting with a familiar stranger who inspired a flood of intensely powerful love and changed my life forever in the best way possible.

One Year Old

Two Years Old

Three Years Old

The Gallery - Week 55 - My Blog

I love to write and take photos and make videos. My blog provides an outlet for all of those pursuits. It gives me a focus. It enables me to clarify my thoughts and reflect on my life. It definitely feels like a real place that I go to and it is a place where I feel happy and find much fulfilment. I miss it if I have to be away from my little plot of cyberspace for too long. No matter how messy and chaotic life becomes, my blog is always neat and orderly - a little oasis of calm where I can gather my thoughts. It readily absorbs the outpourings from my head and warns me when life is becoming a little stale and in need of a shake up.

I could probably create a collage of images to represent all the things that my blog means to me but this photograph sums it up - a cup of coffee and a keyboard ready to take me wherever I want to go.

Alphabet Date - A

Aerial Adventure followed by Afternoon Tea

Today was our first Alphabet Date. As an acknowledgment to my daughter Liberty, who introduced me to the idea (and because we came up with choice of date together), we decided to double date. 

My husband (a little afraid of heights) and Lib's boyfriend (a fireman and all round adventurer) agreed to the challenge of the Aerial Extreme Rope Course. We set off together, not knowing quite what to expect and hoping we weren't going to let the side down by wimping out.

Ever since watching Johnny Weissmuller swinging through the trees as kid, I have harboured Tarzan fantasies. This was an opportunity to live out those fantasies (with a safety harness!)

We had lovely weather for it, the staff at the Trentham Estate were friendly and helpful and we were very soon making our way round the practice course. For a practice course it was hard going, giving us a real taste of what was yet to come. The actual course was considerably higher and longer and had a rather extreme finish in the shape of a vertical drop from the top of a very high platform.

Liberty's boyfriend made it all look easy as he bounded across from platform to platform, whatever the challenge between. I was immensely proud of Liberty. She obviously found it incredibly hard but she never gave up. I may have looked a little wobbly at times but I loved it and even managed to steal the occasional tree top kiss from my husband as he joined me on the resting platforms.

We all made it round in one piece (although my husband's glasses were knocked off so he had to finish the course "Velma from Scooby Doo" style) and then had the final challenge of the descent to face. Liberty and I did it girlie fashion from a sitting position but both men took the leap of faith upright. If I were to do it again I would definitely step off rather than the bum shuffle technique and maybe even keep my eyes open on the way down!

The course certainly got the adrenaline pumping and fear left me very dry mouthed. I was completely ready for the second part of the date which was Afternoon tea.

To give the rest of the family a chance to get involved with our first Alphabet Date, I had spent the morning baking scones and shopping for clotted cream and fresh strawberries so Afternoon tea could be enjoyed back at my house. 

It really was a fabulous date and I am glad that we caught some of it on camera to keep as evidence of our bravery!

Magpie Monday - Rummage Sale

My grown up girls have a plan to make a music video for the original song that they recorded recently. Liberty has taken on the role of artistic director and her vision included a very specific look for the wardrobe. To keep the production costs within a a tight budget, her plan was to buy all the clothes from charity shops. However, five complete outfits, even at charity shop prices, was going to add up.

I was really pleased, whilst queueing up to pay for my shopping in Morrison's, to see a  poster advertising a Rummage Sale. I made a note of the details and let the girls know. None of them had ever been to a rummage sale before but they were totally on board with the idea.

We set off early with a bag of pound coins, a whole lot of hope and that little bit of nervous excitement born of never knowing quite what you're going to find.

The Gods of Thrift were smiling. No sooner had Liberty said "We need an earthy coloured hat/jacket/skirt for so and so..." something entirely suitable would magically surface from the sea of jumble and practically leap into her hands. This happened with uncanny regularity. It wasn't a very busy sale so the ladies on the seller's side of the trellis tables had time to chat and take an interest in the girls' project. They came up with some helpful (and some not so helpful!!) suggestions for items that might fit Liberty's remit.

I helped out a little bit. I found a perfect dress that will be integral to the story telling part of the video and felt oddly smug about my contribution. Mostly I let them get on with it, fed them money when they ran out, offered the odd thumbs up and words of encouragement and had a good old rummage for myself.

My top finds were a brand new Early Learning Centre bug viewer (50p)..

... a dressing up hat,  and a pile of books that I will do a separate post about.

The excitement over the haul of goodies that my girls managed to secure did somewhat eclipse my purchases. Most of the clothes were a long way from their usual style  which I think makes it all the more remarkable that they managed to create a co-ordinated look. They obviously have an eye for quality, unwittingly having purchased some Fenn Wright Manson labelled items, and everything was beautifully clean and in great condition.

This is them modelling their five complete outfits.

We had such a lot of fun and I am now really looking forward to the next stage of their video production (whatever that might be!)