Hunting bears

We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one.

 

What a beautiful day! We're not scared.

Uh oh! Mud.

Thick, oozy mud.

We can't go over it, we can't go under it. We'll have to go through it...

Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch! Squelch squerch!

We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one.

What a beautiful day! We're not scared.

Uh oh! Grass.

Long, wavy grass.

 We can't go over it, we can't go under it. We'll have to go through it...

Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy! Swishy swashy!

 

 

We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one.

What a beautiful day! We're not scared.

Uh oh! A forest.

A big dark forest.

We can't go over it, we can't go under it. We'll have to go through it...

Stumble trip! Stumble trip! Stumble trip!

We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one.

What a beautiful day! We're not scared.

Uh oh! A cave.

A narrow, gloomy cave.

 We can't go over it, we can't go under it. We'll have to go through it...

Tip toe, tip toe, tip toe.... What's that?

One shiny wet nose, two big furry ears, two big goggly eyes...

It's a bear!

xx

Instagram

Just popped by to say Hi!

 

I have this baby out again, but annoyingly I have run out of one of the colours. Grrr. More on order...

 

Also, I have succumbed. I have joined the loveliness that is instagram. I am stitchesandseeds if you want to find me and I have put a button under my blog list on the right hand side.  Look at me being so tech savvy!

It doesn't mean I will be leaving here, just that I will be there sometimes too.

xx

Banishing the beige

We have been gradually doing up our house since we moved in 6 years ago. It has been pretty slow going because we moved in with a toddler and a 10 week old baby, and as soon as the baby turned two, had another one. Then just as he turned two, we moved abroad for two years.

 

We are back from the land of sunshine to the land of driech and drizzle, or so it seems at the moment. It is sleeting sideways outside my window right now. The thing that has struck me most about our lovely house now that we are reinstalled, unpacked and back into the swing of life is that the bits that we have not yet tackled (which if I am honest is most of it) are beige.

 

Yup that would be a beige ceiling, beige walls, a beige carpet and a beige chair (of which there are two) in my living room. I do make attempts to inject colour but there is no getting away from the beige. Except that soon there will be... Very soon I plan to wield a steam stripper, a sander, rollers and paintbrushes. Since we got home I have been waiting. Waiting for our stuff to arrive, waiting to finish unpacking, waiting until after Christmas, but the waiting has to stop and it's days are numbered.

I do however have to weight until J can help me shoehorn the furniture into the rest of the house so until then I have been busy playing. I have taken the poor forsaken mantel that looked like this...

 Removed the DVD cases...

Chucked the candle stubs and banished the bits of broken Christmas decoration...

And primped and fiddled and gathered the brightest objects I could find around the house to inject a shot of colour into the room. I can almost feel the beige quaking with fear at the sight of some knitted bunting.

Daffs, beautiful daffs that warm the cockles of my heart, and a dangly toy from the boys room that has been waiting to be fixed for ahem months. (It is still waiting.)

A sun hat too floppy to actually wear, paper windmills from a wedding we couldn't get to and a spot of coloured glass.

It is still dank and dark and gloomy outside, but inside I have a pleasing spot of colour.

Time to hit the paint charts to find something that isn't beige...

xx

Visiting the Chain Bridge - a most excellent idea



This afternoon Little Man had the most excellent idea. He suggested we should go and visit the chain bridge, or as it is officially known, the Union Suspension Bridge. It is only a few minutes drive and quite lovely.



It is a bit old and in need of some TLC so vehicles are discouraged.

 

It crosses the River Tweed at the point where the river is the border which means you can do this...

 

And then you can go the other way...

It is a gorgeous place for a pootle on a Saturday afternoon. Here is the view up steam.

 

And here is the view down stream.

 

And of course when you have a bridge, what can you do but play pooh sticks. The water was flowing pretty fast today so you had to drop your stick...
 

and then run as fast as you could to the other side to see them come out.

Just down stream from the bridge is this lovely house.

On the end wall is this beautiful espaliered apple tree.

The best thing about our little outing was that we saw the sun for a few minutes.

And look what we found!

It would have been the perfect opportunity to soak up a bit of vitamin D except it was so cold this was the only bit of skin I dared to expose!

 

And then a couple of minutes later it started to snow...

xx

Woolly treasure

Hello!

 

So, things did not go quite according to plan on Monday morning. We all roused ourselves bleary eyed from our beds when it really was still the night, grumbled and grouched through first-day-back-at-school-reluctant breakfast and made it with all the correct bags and envelopes to the school gates remarkably on time. To find them closed. Turns out Monday was a teacher training day, and apparently the whole world knew except me. So aquafit was a no no and will have to wait for next week. I did get the sewing room sorted out though and made a hammock for a toy owl, as you do...

 

Anyway, Tuesday dawned bright and cold and after a practice run on Monday, getting up and out was relatively painless. I know some people who mourn the loss of their Smalls when term starts again, but not this Mummy. It is quite a relief to return to the peace and quite after dropping them off and to know that if I clean and tidy, it will stay that way until 3.15. I am a girl who needs a routine and the school holidays are a bit of an endurance test.

 

I snapped this pic though the (quite grimy as it turns out) sewing room window yesterday. It has been seriously gloomy here. The weather is gloomy and we have scaffolding up the front of the house blocking out what natural light there is, so I am hoping this will remind me that the sun can shine and that spring will come eventually. 

 

I split yesterday into a day of two halves. I hoovered and sorted and wiped and stuff, then I used the excuse of taking something to the recycling centre to visit my favourite charity shop next door. To my complete delight they had a sale on: hand and machine knitted woolly things for £1 each. What is a girl to do but pick up a couple of new cardigans. Fine treasure indeed!

Then of course I had to spend a little bit of time rummaging around in my button stash to see if I could find something to make my new and lovely cardis sing to me. I decided on these beauties for the grey and turquoise one. Not sure about the blue one yet.

There was also a mustard one that I can still hear calling to me. If I can still hear it later in the week I'll pop back and see if it is meant for me or whether someone else has claimed it for their own.

xx