Saturday 17 August 2013

Home, home on the range, where the frogs and the guinea pigs play


Last week there was I think one too many picnics in a row, one too many long days out.  There was a little tiredness followed by a little grumpiness and slightly more than a little shouting.  I learned my lesson.  This week there has been more down time.  A couple of trips to libraries, with something for everyone.  That's always a favourite thing to do, for all of us.  When we get home from a library there is always complete silence as books are discovered and digested.

A little pottering in the garden.  A couple of raised beds have been cleared.  Old raspberry canes were cut out and new ones tied in.  Hanging baskets were disposed of.  They were past their best and at this time of year disappearing into the rampaging grape vines.  The sweet peas have been really disappointing this year, but they have a reprieve for now.


Thanks to the regular showers the grass is back.  Just a month ago it was dry and brown.  It's still really patchy because of the incredibly hard use it gets, and it's still full of weeds, but there is actual green grass and the piggies are happy.


A little baking was done.  These contained blueberries and blackcurrants.  And a little chocolate.  An unusual combination I think, but I like to throw in whatever's to hand.  And they were pretty nice.  I forgot to take a picture of them once they'd been cooked.  I always do.  I enjoy seeing food on blogs, but there is no clue as to how people keep the ravening hoards away from the food long enough to photograph it.  If I paused to take pictures before serving there would be a mutiny.


After I made these I carefully washed my lovely mixing bowl.  Then I immediately wiped it up, so it wasn't hanging about dangerously on the draining board.  And then I smashed it.  Sigh.  I honestly am so completely clumsy, and it's only ever a matter of time before anything I have is broken.  It does make me so cross, especially when it's something I really like.  Oh well, worse things happen at sea.


A ridiculous amount of apples were eaten.  Twelve (organic) ones disappeared in 36 hours.  I'm going to have to ration them I think.  The same thing with grapes.  I put out a new bunch in the bowl, and next time I look there's just a big stalky bit left.  I know it's good for them to eat fruit, but when I worked out how much it's all costing it made me feel peculiar.  I'm thinking of putting apple trees in at the allotment...


Plenty of Lego-ing was done.  Most of it accompanied by an apple.


We had another bash at doing this puzzle ball.  We've mostly done the land, just those pesky oceans left.  There's so much of them, they're all blue and it's very confusing.



And we spent quite a bit of time peering into the pond at these.  Little froglings, at last!  Most of them are tiny, and we still have plenty of tadpoles in various stages of frogginess.  But there are some definite froglets now, hopping about on land.  We are riveted.



We're rested now, and ready for a little more adventure.

22 comments:

  1. I had to laugh when you said you don't know how photos are taken before ravenous begins! I have that same exact problem, the trick is to tell the kids it's not ready for eating yet, that if they touch it before it cools it will all be ruined! Ha! What are those backing cups you're using? Are those the silicone ones? I have thought about getting some of those, interesting little things, but I'm all about buying things that can be used more than once!
    Things break in my house all of the time, and it's usually a child doing the breaking. When I hear something hit the floor, the first thing that is always yelled "DON'T MOVE"... I always worry the children will tread on glass!
    The frog ... so cute! And your son playing? Adorable!
    (PS... I don't think I'd ever get that puzzle together :)
    Have a great weekend,
    Tammy

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  2. They are indeed the silicone ones. I managed to get them for one-third of the original price (£3 instead of £9) from John Lewis - a big department store. I've got some smaller ones too and they're great. You do have to remember not to throw them away though! I have the same problem when I break things. Everyone comes running to see what it is this time, and I have to keep saying, "Stay there, don't come in, don't come in."

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  3. After a poor start our sweet peas improved and are now providing decent length cut flowers.

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    1. Brilliant. They are so nice to have about the place in little vases; I will no doubt try again next year.

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  4. Hunger Games - briliant. I loved them all.
    puzzle ball - headache, the boys left me to it but I love puzzles so I didn't complain.
    broken china - yes, my husband is the master of that. grrr.

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    1. I liked all the Hunger Games books as well, they were different and quite riveting.

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  5. Now that's my kind of week, a bit of reading, a bit of baking, a bit of puzzling, a bit of froglet hunting and a bit of playing with fluffy guinea pigs. I used to arrange all manner of days out when my kids were little, but it was the days at home with down time they looked forward to the most.

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    1. You're right, it is nice to have time at home to just be.

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  6. Glad to hear you got some down time. But gutted about your mixing bowl :(
    I am ridiculously clumsy too. I don't think a week goes by without me smshing something. This week it was two mugs I bought in the Laura Ashley sale to put away for Xmas pressies. They didn't even make it into the house.

    I've had no success at all with Sweet Peas this summer either.

    Leanne xx

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    1. We have so much in common I think! Sorry about your mugs, I know how frustrating it is. There's always next year for sweet peas...

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  7. I don't normally grow sweet peas, but that one alone would change my mind.
    Sweet piggies too!

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    1. It was lovely, but the stem was short and stubby and there weren't many of them which was a shame.

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  8. As a youngster I always enjoyed going to the library, then staying at home reading.
    Sadly my sweet peas only lasted a couple of weeks, I don't think that they liked the hot weather.
    I saw a tiny froglet on the edge of one of my ponds a couple of years ago, a wonderful sight. Flighty xx

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    1. I think you could be right about the sweet peas not liking the hot spell - they usually do okay for me, even in my dreadful soil.

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  9. We've loved our sweet peas this year - not sure what we did right, but we just can't cut them quick enough and keep handing huge bunches to people with a haggard look of "please, you must take them"!

    The puzzle looks like an interesting challenge :)

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    1. Lucky, lucky you. I have missed them about the place.

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  10. I'm sorry you broke your bowl! I hate when that happens. It can be so frustrating. It looks like you had a great rest of your week, though. It's always nice to have some relaxation time after a busy week. I'm sure the apples and muffins helped, too:)

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    1. The snacks always help a great deal! It was a lovely week though. So nice for the boys to have some real relaxation. Slightly less relaxing looking after them!

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  11. Lovely catching up with your blog...we have a lot in common! We went searching for froglets in the local wood a few weeks ago, and were also riveted. Can you tell me more about your silicon muffin cases? Are they any good?
    Lx

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    1. The silicon muffin cases were from John Lewis, £9 reduced to £3, and they're brilliant. I have some smaller ones as well that are thinner and that I've had for quite a while and they aren't showing any signs of wear. I think they probably stop the cakes from drying out as much as paper cases as well.

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  12. I used to have to hide the bananas in my knicker drawer as it was the only place my kids would not look if I wanted them to last more than a nanosecond. And boxes of cereal !,!!!!

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    1. I am laughing at this image! The things we have to do.

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