An update

Well, once again life is ridiculously busy!

We had a lovely holiday down in Cornwall with great weather, and meeting up with Jo and company who were in the same area at the same time! We spent evenings going for coastal walks, or playing skittles at a local skittle alley. Days were on the beaches, my all time favourite being Kynance Cove. A couple of daytrips to either Penzance (to a wonderful fairtrade clothes shop) and St Ives, were thrown in for good measure! This was weeks ago now, and I still haven't finished unpacking!

Luke had a day back home and then was off to Brecon with his school for a 5 day adventure holiday which included raft building, kayaking, rock climbing, hiking, trapeze and many more things, all right up Luke's street!

Luke came back from Brecon, and then Alec went off on his first Beavers sleepover. He was so excited by it all, and had a lovely time. He was, apparently, completely oblivious to waking up many Beaver Scouts and leaders by screaming in the night!

Whilst he was at the sleepover we went to get a drumkit for Luke. It is a lovely Pearl VBX kit in claret. It is now established in his bedroom, and we have been rather impressed with his drumming ability. His grade one exam is on Thursday, and he is feeling pretty confident! We have had to get pads for the kit though after neighbours 4 doors away could hear him playing!

In all this swealtering heat I have been down the allotment trying to harvest things as quickly as I can. Everything is ripening at such a rate of knots! Then it has been trying to preserve the harvest. We have got strawberries by the bucket-load, blackcurrants, raspberries, redcurrants, broad beans, onions and new potatoes all ready at the moment. Broad beans are eaten; onions are drying; new potatoes are dug up as and when needed; blackcurrants are now made into sorbet; redcurrants are still on the plant because I have no idea what to do with them; raspberries are in the freezer awaiting time to do something with them; and strawberries... well we've had strawberry and orange ice lollies, strawberry milkshakes, strawberries and cream, 8 jars of strawberry jam, given some away, paid people with strawberries, and there's plenty more still ripening!

A neighbour of mine has a sister who works at M and S, and has swatches of material for the Per Una clothes sent to her. These are now getting forwarded to me, and they are just the right size to make clothes for Sophie. I just have to find the time! Also, as I obviously have so much spare time (ha ha!) I have decided to start trying to sell tie-dyed clothes. I am currently collecting plain clothing to experiment with, then Stuart is going to do a website for me! I will keep you updated.

Amongst all this I think Ethan has been feeling a little neglected, so I am trying to spend a bit more time with him too.