I love these earrings hint hint

Gorgeous green roses

Digger bedroom

As we all know in the Warren household, Hugh is obsessed by diggers. I'm thinking of making him a duvet cover set for Christmas in anticipation of him having the side of his cot removed and it becoming a 'big bed'. I have fears about him climbing in with Freyja though, and haven't worked out a way round that yet! I want the cover to look like this one from Jojo Maman Bebe, but not cost anywhere near as much (a fortune) It will keep me busy on winter nights!

Haircuts

Last night was haircut night. I tackled Hugh's unruly mop, but oh hasn't he grown in the process! How does that happen?

Before:

After:

 

Hugh and Freyja

I think this is the first pic I've posted of them together, at breakfast here. Last night didn't go well again. Hugh woke at 1.30pm with a chesty cough, and proceeded to wake Freyja, who started bawling. She can't seem to get herself back to sleep at the moment without crying for at least an hour. This gets tiresome as you can imagine. Mike took her downstairs, put her in the travel cot and slept on the sofa as this is our emergency setup for such a situation at the moment. Sigh, sure am looking forward to when they grow out of this phase and give us a decent night's sleep.

Rain rain go away

The rain is just ridiculous now.
We had a relatively dry October, I remember before Dad's funeral thinking I really hope the weather holds as I would hate to see him buried in the driving wind and rain, and it held. Fortunately it was unseasonably warm, and the autumn colours were beautiful. But whatever has been held back is now gushing forth! (gushing is such a great word!!) I'm actually slightly worried that we may be flooded as the field opposite has turned into a lake, and is fast encroaching on my car. If it reaches the road it will flow over it and into our front garden, and well, into the house. This is all down to the council's fault for not repairing the drainage ditch on that stretch of road/hedgrow, as they are responsible for it, not the property opposite. We shall watch and see, and start making sand bags if it looks bad.

Ow, I hate feeling ill

I've been suffering with a strange back pain for about 4 days. It's really bugging me as I don't know what it is, it doesn't quite feel like a muscle, or kidney pain or women's pains. It's a throbbing mass in my lower left side, it comes and goes, sometimes there are dull shooting pains and sometimes it just aches. Having googled various options I have now diagnosed myself with some life threatening adrenal disorder that requires a special diet, no sugar, caffeine or alcohol - no stimulants at all. My Saturday night will be spent slightly miserable, watching terrible tv again and hoping the rain doesn't carry my car away. :(

Baby led weaning

Up till now I've been feeding Freyja the traditional weaning route - purees. I'm starting to think lately that it may not be the best way. With Hugh I did a combination of both, which I'm also doing with Freyja, she gets offered some veggie sticks, or fruit, bread etc. I've now decided that it might just be easier to offer her a bit of what I'm having with out mushing it up. She's more likely to swallow a chunk of banana in this process than five spoons of mush. Hmm I'm not sure my intentions are for the best interests of my children or laziness on my behalf? Either way, she gets fed

First night of freedom

A few weeks back I attempted to put Freyja in with Hugh to sleep together. It worked fine when Hugh was away, but on his return she awoke at 4am and I was stressing for an hour over what to do 'omg, do I get the travel cot out of the shed?' Anyway after after the panic, I decided she should return to our bedroom for a while longer. Now she's well rid of her dummy (ditched about 2 weeks ago) and less snotty at night, I tried again - and it worked! Hugh didn't seem bothered either, which amazes me. It's so wierd looking in on them together side by side, like they are subconciously supporting one another. There's also the upside, the return of our bedroom at last, which means we don't need to creep in at 10pm and dive into bed for fear of waking her up. There's also access to the computer and a nice cosy chair to read in at leisure, it hasn't come too soon as the tv has been so rubbish lately. Ah bliss, a little chink of our pre-baby life returns, I have decided that I'm just one of those people that needs their own space!

A poem for my robin

Good-bye, good-bye to Summer!
For Summer’s nearly done;
The garden smiling faintly,
Cool breezes in the sun!
Our thrushes now are silent,–
Our swallows flown away,–
But Robin’s here in coat of brown,
And scarlet breast-knot gay.
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
Robin sings so sweetly
In the falling of the year.

Bright yellow, red, and orange,
The leaves come down in hosts;
The trees are Indian princes,
But soon they’ll turn to ghosts;
The scanty pears and apples
Hang russet on the bough;
It’s autumn, autumn, autumn late,
‘Twill soon be winter now.
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
And what will this poor Robin do?
For pinching days are near.

The fireside for the cricket,
The wheat-stack for the mouse,
When trembling night-winds whistle
And moan all round the house.
The frosty ways like iron,
The branches plumed with snow,–
Alas! in winter dead and dark,
Where can poor Robin go?
Robin, Robin Redbreast,
O Robin dear!
And a crumb of bread for Robin,
His little heart to cheer.

William Allingham.

A blustery day in Hastings

Last Sunday we braved the rain and went walking on the beach in Hastings between hail storms. There were beautifully dangerous waves crashing about, and great cloud formations too.

Christmas is coming!

I'm getting more excited about Christmas now and wish we would have cold weater this year. hmmm. It might be the last year we have a fire, you never know we may have moved into a new house by next year. Every year I think we will have a stylish affair with cute garlands, people smooshing around our house and apple cheeked little children looking adorable in the corner. Of course it descends into garish mish mash of decorations, nobody over for drinks as we've not budgeted for it and it's too much hassle and the kids driving us up the wall because it's rainded solidly for 10 days. Sigh, each year I live in hope.

Swedish retreat

I really miss Finland sometimes, I haven't been for three years now :(
This place gives me pangs too

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it.... I know I know...

so, yes, I'm so excited about being free, in my room with the computer - able to cruise the internet for longer than five minutes! This is because I've put Freyja in Hugh's room while he spends a night with granny. So far I've managed to create an independent wish list for all my shopping needs to stop me needing to organise thousands of tired bookmarks. I've also tracked down a site that creates custom prints/fabric from your designs, to make doorstops, bags etc. This means I can make stuff from my own designs and sell it online - cool eh! I must get cracking then...

My girl

This is my girl, Freyja just over 6 months old now

Let evening come

I found this poem and read it at my dad's funeral, but I also love it and it feels quite appropriate on a winter's evening after a walk:

Let Evening Come

Let the light of late afternoon

shine through chinks in the barn, moving

up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing

as a woman takes up her needles

and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned

in long grass. Let the stars appear

and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.

Let the wind die down. Let the shed

go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop

in the oats, to air in the lung

let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t

be afraid. God does not leave us

comfortless, so let evening come.

Autumn colour

Winter's walk

Today I felt terrible. I have something wrong with me I don't know what. I think it might be a virus, or general stress related fatigue. My whole body aches and my head throbs - it's been getting progressively worse over the past few days. Mike took the kids out for the afternoon, so I thought I'd spend the time going for a gentle walk with my camera. I love being in the countryside, especially on miserable winter days I can always find something lovely to look at. Today I played with the tripod I picked up from my parent's house last week, so I could try long exposures. It really meant just being able to capture some colour on such a dull day. When I was returning home, fish in a pond started jumping, so I stopped to try and capture it. Unfortunately I didn't before it got too dark, but I got some atmospheric shots in the process.

Robin

One of the most enduring memories of my dad was spending time with him in the garden through all seasons. I especially remember him digging the vegetable patch in winter, with only a robin for company, aside from me. I was always fascinated how friendly they were, not at all as afraid as other birds, they were so keen to get a worm, they'd hop right up next to your foot risking losing their head from a looming spade! Dad loved birds and had various binoculars to watch them, he was also a member of the RSPB. I can't say I particularly shared this love, but since he's died I've noticed a robin in our garden has become friendly to us and regularly sits on the table outside our window to eat crumbs. It's almost as if it's dad coming to say hello and see how we are doing. It's very touching. I will try to get a photo of it soon.

Back to basics

I'm starting a new blog and here it is. It's kind of in secret as my other one is too well known and I would rather this was a more personal diary - well the kind of diary that is seen by millions of anonymous people!

It's just for me, and my family, memories and kids.

I feel like this as my dad died last month, quite suddenly from an aortic aneurysm. He died on a Tuesday, the previous Thursday we had been happily celebrating my son Hugh's 2nd birthday at my parents house. Then he was gone, kaput, the light snuffed out. It's so strange when someone dies like that, you feel cheated, alone and bereft.

So I guess part of this blog will be about coping with his death, and coping with two babies in the process (very hard right now) A toddler who's entering the 'terrible two's' and a 6 month old who's striving for independence. Sigh!