Dreaming of a trampoline

The kids and I have been trying to convince Rhodri that we should get a trampoline.
Now the "middle earth" part of the back garden has been transformed, it is a perfect place for a trampoline! In order to try and convince him that we should get one, they wrote this song and performed for him while I held up a photo of the 12 ft diameter one that we want to get...

Good times in the back garden

Not! It is like pulling teeth to get these kids to work. Reminds me of my childhood spent pulling weeds before I was allowed to do anything fun.
Today was a public holiday (Easter Monday) and it was great to have the day to just get stuff done. As it turns out I spent a lot of the day catching up on my work stuff, but I did spend some time out carrying branches and raking.

We got it done in the end and the back garden is starting to shape up!

Easter gathering

Last night we had a couple of boys from the village stay with us so their parents could go out for the night. Max and Ollie are in Rhiannon and Tryfan's classes respectively at school, and of course we know them quite well. It was unusual to have visitor on Easter Eve, but we rolled with it. 

In fact, we invited Bruno, Sophie and Oscar over as well and made a bit of an event out of it.

The E.B. did make an appearance and left clues around the house for the 4 kids to search for their Easter chocolate bunnies. Then the other guests arrived around 10am, we had the big hunt outside in the back garden, and then everyone came in for some brunch.

I made huevos rancheros using the trusted and true recipe from Uncle Phil and Aunt Libby, and it was quite a success. Our kids loved it, but others were a bit more skeptical. That's ok.

 Everyone left around 12:30pm and then we got to work in the back garden clearing the branches and so forth. We had a lovely supper and talked to Grandma back in California, then called it a day. 

Football, frogs and fun on Good Friday

Today was such a gift.
This morning dawned bright, sunny, vivid, and best of all - a public holiday! No school or work or anything mandatory! I went for a run on my favorite loop through the heathland, and on my way I spotted something that I wanted to show others later today (...frog spawn!).  Then we all did some work in the back garden moving branches of the mutant tree down to the very bottom of the garden. 

Rhods chainsawing logs

 We aren't done working down here yet, but we did make some progress.

View from the bottom of the garden, looking up towards the house

Later we had a picnic lunch at the Jubilee Green, played some football with friends, and then explored by the creek. This is when I showed everyone the frog spawn I had seen earlier! This photo of the spawn even shows the eyes and nose of a frog looking at us.

 

We will be checking back here at the creek every day if we can to see the progress of the frog spawn! So exciting! Then we all went back to our house for cups of tea and more football and rugby in our own back garden.

 

It was a beautiful, wonderful day in so many ways and we all savored it!  Would be nice to have more days like this, but today will keep us going for awhile. Reminds me of this song by Elbow... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7El5ZKP3LnM

Racing through the pastures

Tryfan and the rest of his cub scout pack (Fletching #1) were asked to compete in a running race against some of the other local cub scout packs. They did pretty well and it was a semi dramatic setting for running. And at least it wasn't raining, and also I got to hang out with Anne Marie who was there with her 3 boys.

Ready to run, Tryfan in the foreground

The funniest part was actually at the end when the "officials" read out the results and gave the medals and trophies. 

 These ladies sure take the role of "Assistant Deputy County Scout Commissioner" seriously! They had name badges and their scarves and woggles, and I found the whole thing quite funny. I could just about hear my Dad chortling next to me - he used to love scenes like this. So it was nice to have a little chuckle to myself and feel close to him for a few minutes today.

Burning stuff

This week flew by! All of a sudden it is the weekend again. So lovely. Today we worked in the back garden all day. Rhodri was chainsawing things up and I was tending the bonfire. It was a chilly day but the wind direction was perfect (blowing southeast) so we made the most of it.

Just the coals on the fire now... perfect for cooking

There was also the first village market of the year just down the road, so Rhiannon and I took a break and went down there to see what (and who) was around. We ended up buying some sausages from the Bates whose pig farm is nearby, and then cooking them on the fire and inviting the Denslows around to join the fun. Love spontaneous gatherings!

C2C 2016

Cat and I went to the Country 2 Country (C2C) music festival today at the O2 arena in downtown London. Yeehaw!

We got there around 3:30 pm and the doors opened at 5pm so we had time to wander around and have some food before venturing into the main arena and finding our seats.

We were waaaay up near the top. 3rd row from the top, actually. There wasn't a heck of a lot of yeehawing and dancing in our part of the arena, which was a shame, but the bands were really good and we enjoyed ourselves!

View from our seats (yes, that is the ceiling in the foreground)

Next year I think I will need to be down on the main floor section. We ended up leaving before the very end. Carrie Underwood was the big name for the night, and neither of us are really "into" her music, so it was a good excuse to start making our way back home before the other 30,000 or so people joined us. As it turned out, this was a great move because actually we would have missed the last train back to East Grinstead and that would have been a bummer.

I was stoked to hear Maren Morris perform on the small stage here. Her song "My Church" is a favorite here at Chalfonts and Rhiannon can even play it on the guitar and sing along!

Timberrrrr

Those two trees came down today, and what a difference this will make!

From the bottom of the garden looking towards the house at the dead tree (on the right) and the overgrown mutant bush (taking up the rest of the photo)

I can't express strongly enough how much I hate this mutant bush, It is as big as a tree, and from a distance it looks like a tree. And actually up close it looks like a tree also, but it doesn't deserve to be called a tree. Its a big hairy smelly monster that seems to have been growing out of control for the past 20 years or something. 

Michel comes to town

Our good friend Michel came to see us this week, and it has been so great to spend time with him.
We were very close when we all lived in Norway, and when Rhodri was out traveling then Michel would often help me out or even babysit for us. So the kids remember him from when they were very small.
On this occasion, he was attending a conference in London so flew into Gatwick, stayed with us 2 nights, and then flew back to Oslo. We didn't take very many photos at all but this morning before we left the house, Rhiannon was a little early bird so we took a couple with her.

We do love it when people come to visit us!
Thanks Michel :-)

Mothering Sunday

Today was the British Mother's Day and it was indeed a lovely one for me.
I was treated to coffee and toast and fruit (pre-breakfast) in bed, along with the Sunday paper. That is always a nice way to start. Rhiannon and I hung out in the morning and Rhodri & Tryfan went to their rugby practice, as normal. In the afternoon we went for a walk in a place that none of us had been before. Actually we were hoping to see some birds, as we have been sort of into bird watching lately, but we didn't see many at all in this section of the Ashdown Forest. Still it was nice to explore somewhere new.

Look how big these kids are getting!! They are nearly the size of me!
We didn't go for a special meal anywhere - I'd rather just bung something roasty in the oven and relax at home than get dressed to go to a pub or restaurant which is crowded with other families doing the Mother's Day dinner type thing. So it was a great day in the end. I'm so grateful for my sweet family.

Big storm on a Wednesday

Today a big crazy (ok, crazy by British standards rather than by American standards and thus relatively mild) storm swept through Sussex. The day started gorgeous and clear, very bright. Then just after lunch it got suddenly very cold and started snowing.

I was working from home today so got to enjoy the view from my bedroom-based desk.

Note the big dead looking tree in the center (and it is actually dead). This guy is coming down in a couple of weeks along with the big weird overgrown bush that is to the right of it.

Anyway, the storm came and went and then it was a normal Wednesday afternoon again.