Final Day of the Summer Holidays!

No it can't be! It cannot be the final day of the summer holidays, they are all gone. Jamie is tucked up in bed and everything is ready for tomorrow. He is starting in Year 5, his new teacher will be Mr Morris and I am looking forward to meeting him tomorrow morning.

I've messed up on Jamie's new school trousers, as I have had them waiting for him for weeks, a pair from Next, exactly the same size as the shorts he has been wearing over the summer, so all should have been well, but Next's school trousers are 2 inches (yes 2 inches!) shorter around the waist then their shorts - now how does that work? To say I am a bit miffed is an understatement. I will be taking this up with Next tomorrow! Luckily I have an old pair of Jamie's school trousers, which I had kept for the length as a guide to take the new ones up. Angry is me, you bet!

I am sad to see Jamie go back to school tomorrow as I love having him about, but he is happy to be going back so that makes it all right. He will get a special lunch box tomorrow. A couple of his best pals are in his new class T, C and S and that is good.

Jamie and I snuggled on the sofa and watched Australia beat England and I think I may be converting him to cricket, which would be good.

Tomorrow I have lots of plans of things I want to get done, so we will see how it goes, my first job after going out with Binnie, will be to tackle Jamie's bedroom, it is ready for a good clean out after having him at home for 7 weeks. I hope the weather stays good so I can get plenty of washing out! I have a relatively quiet week ahead - a dentist appointment, helping a friend with the Church flowers, getting back into the weekly library routine, and ferrying Mike to the station will be my highpoints and I am looking forward to a week getting stuck into some serious cleaning! (Honestly I am!) But Wednesday after 2pm I am hoping to keep pretty free for some serious cricket watching again!

As for Mike, he has an exciting week, he is going to see a band that he has wanted to see for about a hundred years and has never managed to see before and he is also due to interview, in an pub in London, a VERY VERY famous musician who was in one of this countries biggest bands ever! I may give a hint tomorrow as to the creation of this band!!


Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by James Luceno
SLYMI - 1/52

Scrap Crap!

My birthday present (well part of it) finally arrived today - Mike ordered it well before my birthday and the first one got lost in the post, and then there was a big cock up at Capture the Magic and the second one didn't get posted out, so eventually it has arrived, although one bit is missing and Mike needs to chase that up! It is sad as it has put me off ordering anything from CTM by post, and I had such a fantastic couple of hours there over Easter spending a fortune! But I will go back to the shop in person as they had such a fantastic choice and range of items, especially when I want to upgrade my albums as I will do in due course.



So here it is - the magnetic cutting mat, it means I can keep all my lines straight and keep everything straight on a layout too! I am hoping to get some time to scrapbook this coming week, once Jamie is back at school. Get the house straight in the mornings, catch up with washing and ironing, get back into a good walking routine with Binnie, do some proper grocery shopping and read and scrapbook in the afternoon (fingers crossed).

And here is the storage tote Mike and Jamie got me as well - I may find time soon to put some items into it too, plus I'm hoping there is a crop in a couple of weeks time too, then I'll have the chance for some unhindered scrapbooking!

Today was quiet, Jamie playing with his friends, did the usual stuff, some cleaning, some washing etc etc. Played some xbox with Jamie, he is trying to complete Indiana Jones before he goes back to school - he has 2.5% left to go - he just may do it!

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones
SLYMI - 1/52

Quiet Day

Mike was at work today, and I felt like having a quiet day, somewhat subdued by yesterdays news. I spent a good bit of it watching the cricket after doing some chores and stuff. I can't believe that the school holidays are almost over.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones
SLYMI - 1/52

Some Very Sad News

I don't often do two posts in one day but we had some very sad news today and I felt I wanted to write about it. Our neighbour has very sadly lost his lovely dog today, she collapsed and died of a heart attack. We are all very very sad for him losing such a super dog. She was a cross Rottweiler and boxer and had a lovely temperament, she looked like a lioness but was so gentle and was brilliant with children.

When I first saw her, I was a bit scared because I'm not keen on big dogs, but Shala was so well behaved. You met her and you fell in love with her. Even though she loved wandering to neighbours who invariably had treats for her she never moved until she had been given the ok to go. When she got the chance to get into our house, she would head straight to the kitchen and for the cupboard where I kept all the doggie treats and she usually got a good handful of something or other.

She loved to lay outside her house and watch the world go by, and as I moved about inside our house, she would watch me and see what I was doing. I would sometimes play a trick on Brian who owned her by opening our bedroom window and talking to her, she would start to cry and whimper to say she wanted to come over and then I would hide from Brian and he would be wondering what she was looking at. It was our little game.

She would walk for hours and hours, loved chasing squirrels, but never caught them and often would set off for a walk without a toy but come back with someone's lost football, she had a huge collection of them outside her front door and when the mood took her she choose one to take out. Sometimes she would come back with a stick (or half a tree trunk!) and then play with it for several days until she crunched it to bits. I remember her demolishing a lamb leg bone in about 10 minutes.

Not long after she moved here Mike decided to try the Crocodile Dundee 2 finger trick with her and she didn't like it so barked at him and on another occasion he pretended to flash at her and she barked and growled at him again, Brian and I were in fits. And when we got Binnie she was brilliant, she was so tolerant with this tiny puppy who jumped all over her, and on one occasion walked her full length to get over her. One reason Binnie is such a well socialised dog is because of Shala and the reason Binnie loves her balls is because of Shala too.

She was loved by many many people who saw her out and about and she will be missed by even more. It will be a long time before I stop looking for her out on the front or wandering in or out from one of her walks. I will miss you very much, you were a true gentle giant.

Sue

Shepreth Wildlife Park - Thursday 3rd September

Today we headed off to Shepreth Wildlife Park in Cambridgeshire. It is quite out of the way and is the type of animal park we like, not massive, easy to get around and quiet. You can get quite close, and it is basically small and friendly. So not too much chat just lots of photos. We hit feeding time, which was a bit gruesome, so I haven't included those pictures, as they aren't for the faint hearted. the tigers were eating chicken (whole with feathers) and the lynx were having rabbit (whole with fur) - it seemed right at the park and wrong to show it here.

They had a play area with a pirate ship, so here is Jamie in the crows nest,

riding his police scooter, CHIPS style,

dreaming he is Capt Jack Sparrow,

and making a quick exit down the slide.

Mike with a big bunny,

my fav, the meerkat, and of course we did sing Compare the Meerkat.com

ring tailed lemurs (I think)

Watch out a big one has escaped and is outside the cage!

A bunny

A beautiful black swan

One of my favourite animals - a fox (we sometimes see these near where we live, especially on bin night)

A snowy owl

A buzzard

A baby Mara

Baby Mara suckling

A cute white pony

A Priarie Dog

Pygmy goat

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins

Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones
SLYMI - 1/52

Wednesday 2nd September

I finally plucked up courage to take Jamie to the hairdressers today as I was pretty sure his lodgers had gone, certainly Debbie didn't find anything so fingers crossed we have got rid of them! I have got the shampoo and conditioner I like for him with Tea Tree and Neem oil so we should be back in prevention rather than cure now. I guess I am going to have to use it too once a week, or so just to make sure.

As for my reading challenge, it was due to end at the end of August, but I guess that was without taking into account the PTLLS course! So I have decided to extend it until the end of September. But thus far I have read 8 out of the 16, am currently working on the 9th and am pretty pleased with that as it has concentrated my mind a bit to make reading more of a priority and now that the nights are drawing in then I shall continue to do so. Jamie is doing well as he is on his 6th book out of 12, although he decides what he is going to read as each book goes by. I still have the following outstanding and hope to polish most of these off before the end of September,


The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman by Bruce Robinson,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Learn to be an Optimist by Lucy MacDonald
Songbird by Josephine Cox
If I Was by Midge Ure
A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle,

fingers crossed!



Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 5/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones
SLYMI - 1/52

Flower Group and Another Competition!

I cannot believe how quickly flower club has come around again. So after a morning of doing some usual bits and bobs, I decided that this month I would enter the competition and do an arrangement for the evening. It is a just for fun one, so I thought what can I do as the theme was recycled or reused. I spotted this persil tab box waiting to go into the bin and thought, I can use that. Jamie's friend Jake was around this afternoon and evening so Jamie was a happy bunny and Mike was busy with his bits and pieces too.




I decided I would cover the outside of the box with mediliano (?) sticks and some raffia and then do a simple arrangement in the box. I cut my sticks and stuck them down with double sided tape, tied a big bow with the raffia and I was very pleased with the result. And now I have another container to re-use again and again! So here is what it looked like when it was all finished. In this picture you can just see the blue peeking through at the top. And it looks fab in our hallway! It didn't win, the winner was two plastic milk bottles glued together, and the winner had created a fantastic line in the arrangement so a well deserved win for him!

I forgot my camera which I could really kick myself for as the arrangements were once again stunning from the demonstrator. She started off with a blue arrangement in a cast iron trough, then she did a psychedelic type arrangement, part of which you can see below, as I won one part of it in the raffle (again!). A third one she did with a hug twig circle as the backdrop and then another with pheasant berries and orchids it was a very big wow and to finish off she did a HUGE pedestal style arrangement another Wow! My friend June, who I go with, and we meet up with Sylvia and Rebecca there, won the pedestal arrangement, and we just about managed to get it into the car and then from the car into her kitchen! It was stunning!

Sylvia had brought me a cutting of one of her heuchera (a green one) so now I have 3 - my collection is coming along! And then when I got home, I couldn't get into bed as this is what I found, Jamie fast asleep on my side of the bed! We've had a few problems with spiders (I think it is spider time of year, as we had one in the living room which scared the babysitter on Friday) in his room and he is not too keen on them and figures he will be safer in our bed. What then happens is I make a bed up on the floor on my side and he gets put into that one - he loves it on the floor, thinks its an adventure and me soft as I am let him get away with it! It's ok on holidays but he can't do it when he's back at school!

My sleeping beauty!*

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 8/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
Jamie's Reading challenge 2/12 - currently reading Indiana Jones
SLYMI - 1/52

*He is going to be really pleased when he sees this picture - aren't you Jamie!!!!!!!