Day 249 - Slacking, packing and pre-holiday snacking

I hate it when my mind starts whirring the minute I wake up; it makes me feel anxious by breakfast. I'm already wound tight, like an elastic band ready to ping. Not the best way to feel before a long drive. I have a lot to do before we go away on sunday, and didn't use my time wisely last week. Knitting a butterfly is never going to be a good excuse...
So I ended up leaving most of it to the last minute; to the last day of school. What spurred me on was knowing the one thing worse than packing, is packing with kids. It's like tackling an obstacle course while little, random water cannon try to knock you off. They are next to useless at helping - constantly asking for things, or unpacking the packing which drives me nuts. Better to do it during school time.

So how much stuff do you take for 5 weeks? It's hard to know.  I decided to go for an optimistic, less bulky pack. No need to do endless loads of washing, as none of the things I'm taking have been out of the cupboard yet this summer. Lord help us if it's cold, we'll be wrapping ourselves in beach towels. I did get a little distracted when I was going through my 7 year old's room, and found a plastic bag full of his year 2 school work. Just fascinating, like a little window to a side you don't see. I really love this painting - definitely a keeper.

But even with a few distractions I managed to get most of this..

...into this,

..and there should be room for my mum's bag and the cat box. Every time we do long trips by car, I vow we're not going to end up with bags tucked round our feet. It's looking promising this time, and if I want it to stay that way I'm going to have to rein in on the food shop. I always go a bit overboard on travel food.

Now the cat: this journey is going to be her worst nightmare. She's going to hate it and probably yowl and make it pretty miserable for all of us. But I can't ask someone to look after her for 5 weeks, and putting her in the cattery would not only be eye-wateringly expensive but also incredibly dull for a prowler like Humbug. So she's jabbed and chipped and has her passport. We even got her a lead, though can't see that working. It's going to be interesting. I'm comforting myself with the thought that she'll love the place when she's there.

And I just want to be there. The whirring mind in the morning isn't just about things I need to do, it's the worry about being responsible for getting everyone there. The day we travel to France will be one of those days I just want to be over. It's not going to be a bundle of laughs: hours in a tightly packed car. All I can say is thank heavens for portable DVD players. I did have such a great time choosing a few new DVDs for the journey, and guess what? I'm inflicting my childhood on the kids..again..

One organised thing I have done is run down the food in the fridge freezer so I can defrost it and turn it off while we're away. Last night we had fish fingers, stew, peas, baked beans and smoked salmon.Yum...

So it's a kind of farewell for now. I'm going to do my best to keep blogging - I'll just have to see how easy it is to find a WIFI connection that doesn't involve spending days at McDonald's.  I probably won't be able to read and comment as much as I'd like, but it'll be back to business in september. Sounds like a long time but I know it will fly. In the meantime happy, happy holidays :)

Day 247 - The Art of avoiding the obvious #TheVeryHungryCaterpillar

I've had the time and space to get on top of things this week before we go away on sunday.
So I knitted a butterfly.
Yes, I know. Not that sensible with five weeks worth of packing to sort out, holiday shopping to do and admin to finish up, but definitely a lot more fun. I am seriously good at putting things off.

I think the idea for this random knit started when we joined the Big Butterfly Count - it's not been going that well due to the lack of butterfly weather. Then I read a lovely post on Jennifer's Little World about celebrating Eric Carle's work with lots of creative ideas and stuff to make based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I dug out the book and had a look at his beautiful butterfly.

It really is such a gorgeous butterfly. And that's when I thought I'd have a go at knitting it. Made perfect sense at the time. So the packing went on hold...
I have a rainbow of colours thanks to my wool-buying addiction, so knew I could make the butterfly nice and bright.

 In the picture each wing is made up of four individual strips. I knitted each one so they tapered in the middle....

...and then folded them over and sewed them up. It was more fiddly and time consuming than I thought, but by this stage I was on a mission and curious to see how it would turn out.

I mirrored the four I'd done, roughly based on Eric Carle's butterfly and then sewed each wing together. The body was just a small rectangle, mostly brown with red at the top for the head. I stuffed it with dried lentils, to give it some weight - and added a small bell, from my Lindt bunny bell collection for a bit of interest. Then sewed the sparkly pipe-cleaner antenna into the head and a few crocheted rossettes for the circles on the wings, though it probably would have been just as easy to embroider them on.
I'm sure I'll pay for using up my valuable child-free packing time, but I am very happy with my butterfly!

The Gallery - Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I got my love of old cars from my dad. He bought this 1936 Lagonda in a poor state, back in the 60's, and would be the first to admit he's been working on her ever since. His never ending project. She's unreliable, temperamental and high maintenance; but when the Lagonda's running smoothly and polished up, she really is something else. A true beauty. 

I remember going to vintage car rallies with dad years ago. It took us ages to get there, and by the time we did I'd look like a scarecrow - hair everywhere, with the engine noise and the wind still singing in my ears. Even parked up beside the other gorgeous vintage cars the Lagonda shone, and it was fun basking in all the admiration. That said we regularly broke down on the way home. My dad kept some old nylon tights in the glove compartment so he could fix the fan belt if he needed to. And he often did. A trip in the Lagonda was always eventful.

But my happiest memory of her is the journey from the church on our wedding day. I looked like I'd backcombed my hair by the time we got to the reception, and remember that familiar hum in my ears.
I wouldn't have had it any other way.

This week's Gallery theme is Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The Gallery: Hands

When I watch him play, I think of the long and bumpy road we've travelled since he started piano; how his confidence has grown as his fingers found the right notes.

His hands aren't big enough to stretch an octave, and yet he's already left me behind; better than I ever was. No longer apprehensive about lessons, but finding his own way and striding ahead.

I think of all the other journeys we've started together: how tightly he held onto my hand when he first went to school, or a party, or swimming lessons or just tried something new like going on a zip wire - and how, slowly the grip loosened until he let go. And I want him to, even if sometimes I feel a touch of sadness when he does because he's growing up so fast.

Of course I'll always be here to hold his hand when he needs me, but I know he has to let go to learn, just as I have to learn to let go.

This week's Gallery theme is Hands.

The Gallery: Family

Betty & Co

I think this is one photo that says family to me: out camping with just what we need - time and space to enjoy being together. Couldn't find any of us all in the same picture though.

I grab hold of family time when I can because my husband is away so much. It's made both of us appreciate the moments we have.

He's not quite as enthusiastic as me about Betty the camper, but I know when we get to a site he can see how much we all gain from keeping it simple for a day or two - away from distractions and the daily grind. Nothing to do except play and explore with the kids.

1978 - Looking thoughtful in flares...

For me it's also a strong, happy link to my family and my childhood. I have such a wonderful mixed bag of memories of camping trips when I was growing up.

I'm hoping our three will too.

The Gallery theme this week is Family.

Day 202 - Shell Seekers

There is something pretty special about taking your children to a place brimming with happy childhood memories.

Every summer without fail we used to go on holiday to a small cottage, a field away from a beautiful beach near Tyrella in Northern Ireland. There was no electricity, we had to draw water from a well and the outside loo was an old sentry box. I remember my granny cooking over an open fire; card games, swingball, sand in my sleeping bag and looking for shells. I LOVED looking for shells. I spent hours on the beach, walking along slowly with my head bowed, searching the tide line.

I must have talked about it a lot, because my enthusiasm seems to have rubbed off on my daughter. So much so that I promised I'd take her to my shell beach when we were over staying with my mum last week.

No amount of miserable weather was going to put her off: she waited by the door, bucket and spade in hand until everyone was ready to go. It was her dad's last day with us before he headed back to Afghanistan, so making the most of the grey day felt like the right thing to do.

We were lucky - we caught a small window of dry weather. Still cold though; but before you could say 'where's my jumper' she was running about in her cozzy.... 

The boys warmed up with some running..

moments later they were jumping waves....in their jeans. Daft loons.

Everything about the beach felt so familiar, and the shells were as good as ever. The kids helped me gather some up for a little project I had in mind. All the time I was scanning the colourful piles, searching for that little, elusive gem of the shell world...

...a COWRIE.

Finding one has always been special, and boy was I excited when I did! No playing it down in front of the kids. It was like finding treasure - I was yelling and waving it about....showing off basically! We found 12 altogether.

On the way back we stopped off to get a tube of glue. My plan was to see what we could make out of our shell collection - another thing I used to love doing. Now it does require a bit of patience, but worth it I think; and after a quick coat of clear nail varnish, this is what we came up with. 

Lovely little reminders of our day on the beach. 

Linking up with Country Kids over at Coombe Mill

and Suzanne's Oldies but Goodies!