Feeling Grateful

Until Wednesday, this week was fairly mundane.  I worked some extra hours (saving for a new polytunnel), I concentrated on healthy eating (you will gather from the pictures below that I love mushrooms!), I did a bit of babysitting (always a pleasure) and we went out for a fabulous dinner with friends to a local Gurkha restaurant.
Then on Wednesday some jumped-up criminal decided to murder several innocent people in London. People going about their everyday lives, who were just looking forward to getting home to their families.  This act of murder was personally very close to home to me, too close.  As soon as I saw what was happening at Westminster, I picked up the phone to check all was okay, thankfully I got an answer.  I feel sick to my stomach that another poor mother/wife didn't get the same answer.  The police, NHS staff and other emergency staff/civilians that rushed towards the danger to help, deserve our utmost respect, they are the heroes of the day.  The names of the victims should be remembered and broadcast, not the murderer, he was a nothing, not worthy of being remembered for anything.
I am upset and angry, but my life carries on.  I am so very thankful that my mundane world was not turned upside down like the families of the victims. I feel very blessed right now.

Spring has Sprung (and gone again!)

We had a few days of beautiful spring weather this week and what a difference it makes to how one feels.  Sunshine and some warmth in the air, suddenly makes you forget about the gloom of winter and the promise of summer seems just around the corner.  I decided that my poor neglected allotment needed a spring clean in preparation for the growing season ahead.
Unfortunately a few weeks ago I suffered from an attack of Sciatica.  I have never had it before and was in agony.  Luckily my wonderful physiotherapist friend immediately came to the rescue with her magic hands and took the pain right away.  However, she also gave me a stern talking to about not doing any heavy lifting etc for quite a few weeks and especially whilst the treatment was still ongoing.  Pete, my hero, has been doing all the vacuuming etc (do you think I can spin this out for a few months?!) and also offered to do the heavy work at the allotment.
So after a few hours of him working and me 'directing', most of the raised beds are mulched and have a fresh cover of compost, although more compost is needed yet.  The early potatoes are in, parsnips and beetroot sown and new raspberry canes planted.   Instead of flowers for Mother's Day, my boys are going to do a bit more digging and spreading woodchip over the paths between the beds, they are such good lads.
Last year I missed the main sowing and planting season as Mum was in hospital for 10 weeks and I was visiting every day, so I am looking forward to a more productive season this year.  You cannot beat freshly harvested fruit and veg, the taste is so different.
Only two more weeks until the Easter break and I cannot wait.  One of the downfalls of being a teacher is that you spend half your time wishing your life away til the next holiday :)

Getting Ready For Spring

I spend half my time moaning at Pete for not clearing up his tools in the wheelhouse, making it look more of a workshop than a pleasant living space.  Now I have turned it into a greenhouse!  My allotment greenhouse took a bit of a battering in storms over the winter and I lost several panels.  I am going to replace it with a small polytunnel, but until then I needed somewhere light and warm for my precious baby seedlings.  So the wheelhouse was the obvious place.

The only thing growing in the allotment at the moment is the garlic, which Scarlett helped me plant last year.  Scarlett came with me to the garden centre last year to buy the garlic.  I wanted white garlic at £1.99 for three bulbs, she wanted pink garlic at £1.99 for one bulb, so guess what I am growing?  Yep, pretty pink garlic!  We also harvested the new potatoes at the same time, which according to Scarlett, was like a treasure hunt.  Later when we were eating them, she declared that they were the best potatoes she had ever had in her life (all three years of it!).

Anyway, I digress.  Pete and I spent a couple of hours at the allotment, mulching and adding new compost to the raised beds, getting them ready for planting.  This gave me the incentive to start sowing once we got back to the barge.  I have soooo many seeds that I really must not buy any more this year, just use what I already have.  However, any allotmenteer will tell you what an empty pledge that is - there are so many lovely looking new varieties to try each year, that it is nigh on impossible not to buy the odd packet, just to try you understand.

So this is the chart table right now and I haven't even started on the window sills!

A Teaching Day Out

For those that don't know, I teach children, that are for many reasons are not in school, on a one to one basis.  Usually these lessons take place in the library or the child's home.  I love this work as I have a certain amount of freedom and poetic licence with the core curriculum as I am also commissioned to teach life skills to many of these children.

Yesterday was a glorious spring day, much too nice to spend indoors so I decided that to take my young person to the East Anglian Railway Museum in Wakes Colne, Essex.  I have never been here before, but what a fabulous place.  We saw all sorts of different engines, carriages and wagons back to the invention of the railways.  There is a huge restoration shed, with all sorts of trains in various states of repair, there are ticket offices, freight sorting offices and so on.  It is very child friendly with lots and lots of hands on things to do and touch.  You can clamber in and over most of the engines and carriages.  The only thing was that I ended I feeling quite old that the trains of my youth are now deemed Museum pieces!   I also learned more about the old line that ran to Tollesbury.  It was called The Crab and Winkle Line as it used to carry the fresh crabs and oysters straight from the fishing boats to market.  Sadly it was demolished in 1951.

Over the Easter period Thomas the Tank Engine comes to visit and there are lots of activities, including a train ride.  I am thinking of taking the grandchildren, as they will absolutely love it, Bobby in particular is a huge Thomas fan.

Clean Clothes Finally!

After Pete's fall last summer, it took a long time for him to get back to doing any sort of work and when he did do some work, it was on Carpe Diem, getting it ready for selling.

But one job that desperately needed to be done was the wardrobe doors.  The wood burning stove seems to produces soooo much dust, along with Tollesbury being the dustiest place on Earth (second to the Sahara perhaps).  Consequently all our clothes in the wardrobe were always covered in dust.  Clothes that were worn on a regular basis were okay, but anything else needed washing again before it could be worn.  We decided on sliding doors as they take up less room.  So Pete got to work and did his usual magic, transforming an area.  It was quite funny before the stops were installed, as every time the tide came in or out the doors would open themselves, first time it happened was in the middle of the night.  It made us jump as they are heavy doors that made quite a racket.  The doors are fabulous, yet to be painted, but they do have nice crystal handles!  I also took the opportunity to clear out clothes that really weren't worn or waiting for the day I could get back in to them, so the charity shop did well too.  Sorry the pictures are not so good, it is very hard to show the doors off to their best.  There are three doors on each side and the wardrobes are deep because they go underneath the decks.  The second picture is of my 'accessory' wardrobe, how posh does that sound!  But I definitely have too many shoes, bags, scarves etc I need to have a good clear out there xxx

Hello

I decided to take a short break from blogging, however I admit it has been longer than I intended.  I felt that the blog was just sort of drifting without any real direction.  Other blogs that I follow often have 'themes' or some great ideas and amazing photography.  My blog was a mish mash of shots of life here and I suppose when you are living the life, it doesn't seem that interesting.
Pete and I also seemed to just be drifting along; working, eating and sleeping.  For years our life had been about sailing, getting out as often as we could, going to new places and exploring.  We thoroughly enjoyed that time in our lives and have some great memories to look back on.   But for the past few years all our time has been taken up with the barge.  Carpe Diem (our yacht) suffered when we lived on it full time and then took a battering during a storm when it was put back on its mooring. It is now out of the water being renovated and will shortly be put up for sale.  We had to make a decision about whether to buy another (smaller) yacht or not.  We decided on the not, but still felt that we needed to do something to add some spice to life.  A campervan was our first choice, but to be honest, at the moment is a little out of our price range for something decent.  Another option was a caravan, but Pete didn't fancy towing it and again, if we wanted to take it abroad it would prove more expensive.
As you know, the last couple of years we have had some short breaks camping and have loved every minute of it.  Our tent was bought second hand for £40 and has served us well, but there were just a few niggles with it.  So we decided that for the next few years we would concentrate on camping.  As we are getting a little older (!) we thought that we should make it as comfortable & easy as possible.  So we have bought an amazing blow up tent that goes up in 10 minutes apparently, some super duper extra large, brushed cotton lined sleeping bags and a couple of beautifully padded chairs.  The new tent has a sewn in ground sheet, carpet, a porch for cooking and sitting under  and is big enough for at least a couple of grandchildren.  I cannot tell you how excited I am that we are going to be off exploring and looking forward to our adventures.  We plan on going away at Easter, though I think we may practise putting the tent up first so we don't look complete idiots!

I don't want you to think I am miserable because I am definitely not, life is actually good.  The grandchildren are all great and growing up way too fast.  I am very lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with all of them and have a great relationship with them.  We have another granddaughter due in June and my Mum and Dad celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary in July.  Pete reached the grand old age of 65 and now gets his state pension, unfortunately being 'considerably' younger than him and changes to the state pension age, I have to wait another 10 years before I get mine.  But I do get my teachers pension in two years and eight months, not that I am counting, and I have dropped down to part time work.  The government might think we should work until we drop, but blow that, we want to enjoy our retirement and enjoy it now!

So I have decided that my blog is just going to stay being a simple diary of a simple, but fulfilling, life along with all its ups and downs.  Nothing fancy but then that's me all over.  I am looking forward to catching up with all my blogging pals who I have neglected so badly in recent months, I have actually missed you all.  Take care and speak soon.  Oh, and here is a totally gratuitous picture of my wonderful grandchildren having a ball at Bobby's 2nd Birthday party xxx