Looking Down

Looking up is supposed to be better for you for a number of reasons. I can't really be bothered to think of them now as this isn't a looking up kind of post. Maybe I'll do one of those next time.
  
We spent a week in The Borders, just outside Castle Douglas, and quite a bit of it was spent looking down. This was partly out of necessity, as the cottage we stayed in is on a very steep hill, and partly because there were lots of interesting things to look at around the wellie area.

 The BeanSprouts made a most excellent fire and didn't manage to burn themselves. Probably because they were looking down.

 I got deep into the snowdrift which stayed all week (Beans named it The Glacier). I didn't slip over because I was looking down.

 Stream walking cannot be done when you are searching the trees for woodpeckers. Take it from me...

 Mr Toad did not have his car with him. 

 'Hey. Yes, you. Big foot. Mind where you are putting your size sixes!'

 Small got stuck. I nearly fell down laughing...

 Smaller found a very poorly fish when she was looking down in a rockpool.

 A rather fabulous castle was built on the beach by the Bean girls and looking down onto it was really quite gorgeous.

 And of course, no beach time is ever worth doing if a bit of combing and treasure seeking isn't involved. Do you like my tiny bit of brick with writing on it?

 None of these would have been spied if I had been head-up and sky gazing.

It is definitely worth a glance earthward every now and then.

Vitamin D Boost

I spent a good twenty minutes just standing on the front door step staring at this, this afternoon. Please stay a while Mrs Sun and Mr Bluesky. We need you.

Things that are making me happy...

                                                                                                                                                                    

At last. The skies are blue and the sun is pouring in the front of the house making shadows and creating bright patterns on the walls. It seems to be a long time since I have seen these colours in the hall. And an added bonus was that the window cleaner was scraping layers of grime off the windows when I returned from the school drop-off. Hooray!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Baking. Making. And a joke.

I got home from the school run and read Sue's blog. She had made date slices. Yum, I thought. Just what I need. However, I had no dates. Never mind, I'll use jam. No. Almost out. Ok, mincemeat. After about half an hour searching I gave up that idea and dug around in the freezer for some mulberries, picked last summer and destined to be jam. Or not.
I did worry that they would go too oozy and wet but they worked and topped with some flaked almonds I am having to stop myself munching the lot.

I then thought the Smalls would probably not enjoy the rather tart flavour of the mulberries so I knocked up a batch of boring looking chocolate buns. Except these are not boring. They have Nutella dolloped in the middle. Perfect SmallBean fare for after school Thursdays.

I then moved on to making a pair of fortieth birthday earrings for a glamorous and gorgeous friend. Quartz, topaz and moonstone. Happy Birthday Nats!

After that flurry of busyness I need a lie down. (It might have something to do with the mulberry slices...) but before I go, here's the joke.

Doctor doctor, I need a new bum, my old one has a crack in it.

Sorry. Blame SmallBean. He is telling everyone...

Why?

Why is it that when you slice through your finger with the bread knife while cutting up a pineapple the only word that will do to marginally ease the sudden pain is one which can't really be used in front of two small children?

An Adventure for the Beans

Bags packed, we motored off to the Norfolk Broads on Friday for a long weekend. SmallBean had a bad feeling about the whole thing and so did I when we were sitting in traffic outside Norwich at half past five with both BeanSprouts barking on about being hungry and the choice of music. Now I don't know where you stand on Bond theme tunes, but when you have heard the Best of Bond CD on every car journey for the last four months, it can begin to grate. A lot.

The satnav and I argued. Again. BigBean always listens to her not me and yet again we found ourselves recalculating down the most miniscule Norfolk lanes three inches deep in mud. Or cowpats.

We arrived.
We didn't get stuck in the marsh as we drove down the track.
We remembered to take the keysafe code so we could unlock the door.
We had wine (screw top).
We had a shepherd's pie.
We did not have heat.
We did have eggy water.

What? Eggy water? What the blinking heck is that I hear you say? I'll tell you shall I? As no one had stayed at the cottage for at least three months (because of easterlies straight from Siberia and excess rainfall/flooding and who the hell wants to go canoeing in February?), the water had been sitting in the pipes for a while. And it went eggy. To cut a very long and smelly story short, we ran the water for about an hour and the oeuf aroma disappeared but it did put us off drinking water all weekend...

Back to the heat, or lack of. To cut another long story short, I slept in socks, pjs, poloneck jumper (wool), t-shirt and woolly hat. Not once during the whole weekend did I get even close to being warm. Smaller cried on the first night when she got into bed. Small, the human hottie, who usually has to be bribed to wear a coat to school even if it is snowing, wore more than two layers AND a coat AND gloves. I kept going outside so that I could appreciate the warmth of the house. But no. There seemed to be no difference between out and in. And out was bloody freezing.

Loony BigBean went canoeing on the broad. He had to break ice on the first day. And he wondered why I wasn't keen...

Mr Barn Owl swooped past a few times.
Mrs Deer liked lurking by the bin at the gate.
Fam Kingfisher decided that the cold was too much and stayed away, as did The Little Owls. Sensible things.
There were a lot of small brown birds. For all I know, they could be rare and twitchy but to me they were just brown.

However. It was a fabulous weekend. Maybe my brain froze so I was slightly hallucinating much of the time, but we did have fun. Both BeanSprouts were very sad to leave. I hadn't finished my book. BigBean wanted to do more paddling. But the wine was finished and we still weren't all that keen to drink the water. And as it had been too cold to ever get out of all my clothes, I needed a Very Hot Bath.

Fabulous sunset on Saturday, amazing views across the broad, sculptural reeds, hips and trees and frozen toes. What more could a girl ask for to kick off half term?

Excuse poor photography but many were taken on my rather old phone as the camera is ummm, how shall we put it, lost.

What snow??

Everywhere in the country seems to be covered with a white blanket except Cambridge. I will have a very grumpy SmallBean unless the snow starts falling fast. All I know is that it is blinking freezing and a woodburner, two jumpers, t-shirt, thermal vest and a scarf are not keeping me warm. I even did the ironing to try to warm up...

I hope you all keep warm and enjoy the snow- either out in it or watching from inside with a mug of something tasty to drink.