you have to...

read Dooce's blog. its brilliantly written, roll on the floor funny , poignant in the right places . Most times I am either crying with laughter or crying at the touching sentiment.

read it!

my garden

I have recently become totally entranced by my garden. I have grown tomatoes and sweet peas and geraniums. Lavender , petunias and a sunflower. I have a lovely pot full of herbs which I use daily. Its giving me such joy seeing everything grow and flourish. I love standing there watering everything in the early morning.

so in my first installment of new house pictures I present.....

My Garden

keep calm...

here's my birthday present. I have of course hung it , very aptly, in my kitchen. Its a WW2 poster that was in Aldwick station in the war years. I just love its vintage feel and its message. you can see them at the keep calm gallery

a whole bunch of stuff

Movies

Lily is into them in a big way. I find the way Children grow and advance an absolute wonder and this little age is just adorable. At our house we are Dr Suess fans. Kristian is a bit kooky and all the kooky language and themes suit him and lily down to the ground. The first film she really loved was The Grinch. its actually mine and one of my favorite Christmas movies. She sits transfixed living every scary and funny moment. her face is a picture and I spend most of my time watching her reactions. Over the weekend we bought the cat in the hat with Mike Myers. She is just in love with it. We have watched it 3 times already but the first time we sat down and put it on I made us all a nice pizza to share and we sat eating it while the film played. She stayed up a little later than usual and it felt so good that she is old enough to do all of this now. At the end the children shout at the cat in the hat and tell him to leave and before I knew it the little things lip was quivering and she had tears rolling down her face. I quickly explained that he would come back and they had learned a lesson and she felt better but it was like a milestone in a way. she cried in a movie (note to lily; If you are anything like your mummy darling this will not be the last time this happens) she is now emotionally advanced enough to know what is touching and what is sad. it was quite a day

Books

as we are talking about kids books I thought I would give a few recommendations. I always like to hear of good books. so do comment with some names if you know of some.

the Winnie the witch series is brilliant. the illustrations are really magical and the stories are fun and just long enough for a toddlers bedtime story. We have Winnie in winter , Winnie's new computer , happy birthday Winnie and I hear father Christmas has purchased Winnie at the seaside.

I love all Julia Donaldson's books but my favorite is the gruffalo and room on the broom. Her books all have a variety of illustrators and all are enchanting.

You cant go wrong with Winnie the pooh. Always enchanting

Aliens love underpants- hilarious

Mr peek and the misunderstanding at the zoo was something we picked up at waterstones and its very amusing and keeps the attention

there was an old lady who swallowed a fly. If you are like my husband you can remove all the dies's from it but its not half as much fun.

lastly, on her recent visit my Mum bought Lily a south African book called fussy Freya about fussy little eater . she loves it and its great to see SA children's books.

Holidays

I have booked 3 tickets aboard an aeroplane for us to Visit Cape Town in November and December (Kristian) to say I am excited is an understatement...

Birthdays

Lily is 3 next month and I am busy planning a little party for her. how I love all the planning. I have decided on a teddy bears picnic because soon enough she will want hannah montana or something equally awful and I love all the innocence of bringing your teddy to a birthday party. I have a plan to put blankets on the ground and set my table with little sandwiches , sausages , cupcakes and maybe some ice cream to end. I thought a little game of pass the parcel might be a goood introduction to games. I will put the same gift in every layer. I will let you in on a secret..I hate party games. As a kid I was so shy and i would pluck up all the courage to go to a party and then you have to spend the whole bloody thing racing with a bloody egg on a spoon or being blindfolded and in the spotlight whilst stumbling around with a donkeys tail on a sharp pin. Not my bag.

Anyhow I digress, I am having great fun with this party even though a lot of the people who I would love to have there are not around but I know she will love it, she is just entering that age where party's and birthdays are ever so exciting.

Babies

My darling Friend Veronica has performed yet another miracle by conceiving (with Stevens help) another little baby. I am so happy for them that it has happened this way. It gives everyone hope that sometimes things work out just as they should.

I am now of course doubly broody as any mention of a pregnancy and my ovary jumps a foot. I really would love another baby, but I really would love to concentrate on moving back to Cape Town and settling ourselves with the one toddler we already have. but if I leave it it might be too late or too big a gap? Oh what to do.....

lastly, do check out the gourmet goddesses blog as we have had some fab nights out. those girls are a lifeline for me. I have the best time out and about London with them. the things we see....

heatwaves, strawberries and cream and summer

Yes its Wimbledon time again and I was lucky enough to go again this year. I always go with my good friend Jenny who is a tennis bof and she tells me all this interesting info. We queued from about 8;30 and were in fairly quickly. We had a wonderful day watching a veterans match with Martina Navratilova and were in the front row before going to Henman hill (or is it Murrays mound now?) to watch one of the Williams sisters get through to the final (again). I do find them annoying , I don't know why , perhaps that arrogance that is often on display does it for me.

From there we decided to take our chances in the queue for tickets into centre court which we got quickly as well and it was one of the most thrilling tings ever to be in there. Its so big and imposing and to be sitting there after watching Wimbledon since I was a child was such a treat.

Before we embark on the photos please let it be noted that it has been heatwave conditions in England and on this day it reached 38 degrees on centre court hence the glow I have..oh and the flat hair...

a month of photos

What a great month we had. It was an absolute joy to have my mum and dad come and visit us and we made so many memories. Best of all Lily had the time of her life with her grandparents and crammed into 1 month what wish she had all year through. Grandparents are so important to ones life and development. They have all this time and love to give.

This lovely little photograph below was taken at the princess Diana memorial playground in Kensington gardens. Its a little jewel in London and its FREE!!! ( a rarity these days) Kensington gardens is the spiritual home of peter pan as J.M Barrie met the boys he based the story on on a park bench in this park which he frequented daily. there is a beautiful Peter Pan tree just outside the playground which is worth a visit. The playground itself has a Peter pan theme and includes a huge wooden pirate ship, wooden boats , a huge sand and water area around the pirate ship with a stone crocodile, tee pees , wooden treehouses and slides . Really, it is an amazing playground. Here are Lily and Grandad sliding

Below we have Nana and Lily in one of the wooden boats. Nana is of course pretending to be a pirate as one does in these situations

Those were the only photos I have as you are not allowed to take photos inside the playground to protect the other children. After a day running and jumping in the park you get these feet. We named them fairy feet. they require vigorous scrubbing in the bath

Just next to Kensington gardens is Hyde Park and running along the road next to that we have the famous Royal Albert Hall with Mum and dad posing with him below

On the same day we took the vintage routemaster bus down Piccadilly and stopped at Fortnum and Mason. the queens department store. Its like heaven for me and I always , always feel under dressed. Lily and Nana loved the seaside inspired summer window displays

We did not stay in London through the entire visit though , as we went to Wiltshire in the west country to stay with our friends. Mum and Dad stayed with old friends David and Flo whilst Kristian , Lily and I stayed with their daughter Lee and her family in the next village. They stay in proper English countryside. chocolate box stuff. Grandad, Nana and Lily set off and caught the train whilst Kristian and I drove up in our teeny , tiny car. Here they are outside the "green Door" ( Lily's name for our new house)Lee and David stay in Steeple Ashton, the most beautiful village in the world (I think) they are on a farm which they do not own but own an acre of land on it. This visit I opened and closed cow fences, saw calves and a MASSIVE bull, helped hatch a duckling and picked some buttercups and radishes as my country side experience. The countryside is my dream life I have to tell you. Kristian just looks at me fearfully as I waffle on about my love of it all . below is the Church in Steeple Ashton

this Village is Castle Combe where stardust was filmed and many other movies through the years. its the most perfect little English village.Really quaint. For me its not a proper village like Steeple Ashton because even though people live there its very touristy. its edible though. so sweet

The Salisbury plains begin just near the two villages we stayed in and the famous white horse overlooked us. We drove to the top and looked out over the flat countryside which was fabulous , if not a tad windy.

Aunty Flo and Lily were best friends. She is still talking about her almost every day. they went off on an adventure all the way to the top of the hill

a lovely little photo of my gang

This was a wild poppy field I came across

Remember I told you we went to the top of the white horse to see the view. well here it is

On one of our days we went to Longleat house which is a stately manor as well as a safari park now. The current Lord Bath who owns it is slightly eccentric and started a safari park in the 60's which is now a huge conservation project. the grounds are spralling with a pets corner with smaller animals , a steam train ride around as well as a maze and boat trips. It all retains a stateliness (if that's a word) and does not feel at all tacky. It was my most enjoyable day there actually. Here is Lily being measured. she is fairly tall for almost 3 , no?

Below is Lily with Georgina and Christina (Lee's daughters) on the mini steam train

Here is Lily under a very old tree

This is Longleat house from the back with the rose garden

Mum and Dad in front of the beginnings of the solstice maze

Lily and grandad playing wheelbarrows

Below was us all sitting down for our picnic

Back at Lee and Davids ,Lee is busy fishing with lily in the stream running through their property. they fashioned a rod from a wire hanger and a pair of fishnet tights. there was not a fish to be had.

Aunty Flo has a wonderful garden. when I first stepped out I was quite flabbergasted by it. she is a gardener supreme

Finally we went back home and here's just a little photo of grandad and Lily having a chat in the garden

On the last Saturday Mum and dad were here we made Lily have a sleep late in the day which turned into a 3 hour marathon sleep which turned out great because we got to all go out to dinner on the Southbank. The Southbank runs on the South side of the river Thames (duh) Its a lovely walk and if you get off at Waterloo and head there you can start at the London eye and take in all the street performers and restaurants , head down to the Tate modern and the millennium bridge and even go to the borough market. We did just that but just headed for the restaurants. we went to Strada ,which is Italian fare as Lily wanted pizza. It was a lovely evening, Lily was so well behaved and had such a great time. she is a pleasure to take out as she is so quiet and enjoys it all so. After dinner we walked towards the eye again taking in some music along the way and some boats. here is everyone (minus me) along the river bank


Mr cat came with as is usual , but this time Donkey got a rare outing as well

In fact Donkey got a whole lot of attention
And that's all folks. a fabulous holiday for me and a long couple of weeks of post visit depression to pull myself out of but so worth it for the lovely time we all had..

happy birthday me. braai and hampton court

the only way to travel

the maze. oldest in the world

the boat up the Thames from Richmond

our back garden