Family Additions!

Welcome back to my long-neglected blog. This is a photograph of a family of ladybirds that had starting hibernating in the corner of my ensuite bathroom window! I had to relocate them with Isaac's help to a snug corner of my potting shed. This was harder than first thought as they warmed up and starting flying away before we could put them in a container for transport. Isaac, being only 2 found this really interesting. So, for those on my social networks that do not yet know I am expecting baby no. 3 and am 23 weeks pregnant. If you would like to be one of the first to know if I'm having a boy or a girl then you will have to send me a sensible (!) comment about my blog to this post (not facebook!). I will preview all comments. You might need to register with blogger first...I don't know. It can't be that hard surely? x

Day 5 #30DaysWild

It is not too hard around here to do a #30DaysWild challenge with two small boys. Even by a car park they can find a tree for entertainment without even needing to go to a playground. This Sweet Chestnut tree seems to have been managed or coppiced providing a perfect game zone. This is Jamie in the centre.

Ducklings and Cygnets in the rain

About a month ago we had a fantastic rainy day starting off with toddlers at The Meon hall in Meonstoke. Caught up with a couple of friends we met 2 years ago through Liz who lives there. We'd missed the snack but had time to play and make caterpillars out of egg boxes. A lady we met called Sian helped us to hatch a plan to duck watch in the rain. Have you heard of the North Pond at Bishop's Waltham? Sometimes it is dry but at the moment it is full of water and there are ducklings. Best of all, unlike Petersfield Heath Pond there is a railed footbridge making it less likely kids will go straight in the water or be pecked by Canada Geese. With a little bit of sat-naving we parked near the town centre and walked round to the pond with some food. Not only ducklings but also cootlings and cygnets. The boys were over the moon!

Today is day 2 of

This is a challenge set by the Wildlife Trusts to get us all into nature. Although I'm a naturalist there is nothing better than a blog challenge to explore new areas or think up new activities. Yesterday I made lemon balm tea as my wild activity. Today I hope to look at worms in our wormery with Isaac as it is blowing a hooly and raining outside.

May bank holiday

We have had a wonderful, quiet weekend getting our veg. beds underway. Samuel has been busy with a rotavator. One afternoon last week I let the boys help me plant Charlotte and Annabelle potatoes and Ambassador peas. Amazingly they are good at using their little tools without managing to hit each other at the moment. The weather has not been amazing but today we managed to cycle to West Walk play area from our house. Isaac was on Samuel's bike seat and Jamie was on his balance bike as we took a footpath/dirt track rather than the main road. We visited a charity garden show at Durley yesterday and bought some plants and plant supports including Heuchera's that I'm looking forward to planting out as soon as I can. We had a very windy walk at Hill Head on Saturday and have just been pottering about at home, cooking from scratch and enjoying our new cat Cuddles.

The Cat House.

This our new pet Cuddles the cat who we have adopted. Our house finally feels
like a home!

Oakview Cottage

How much time has passed from that last beautiful sunny photograph. A lifetime of change in such a short time. A 5 month baby turned toddler. A 2 year old turned into conversationalist and deep thinking 4 year old And we found our house but now I'm looking back to what my home is. It is the first time, I think in my whole life I'm having a break from pets (even as a student I had pet fish) but after my last hand-raised bantam died things have changed. The above photograph was taken 2 weeks ago we went on a beautiful sunny snowdrop walk in Warnford  with the boys.