I’m back up, having already had the nightly nightmare which means i’ll be up until about 2.30am trying to shake it off. Sigh. Brain transplant anyone? Mine’s free to a good home, or even not that good a home actually, i think it would be better off in someone with slightly less tendency to think. 😕
So, i polished off Saturday, except to remind T-bird to leave her email address and put aside socks for Amelie, since yet again i managed to forget to get her anything in a group buying session 😳 Thought you gave me a funny look when you asked me if i had all the ones i wanted T-bird! Have half a ponder on the impact in the future on difference, gender and inequality on my girls given the life and upbringing they have, a thought/conversation i’m totally failing to adequately converse about with anyone because the whiff of a thought i have about it is getting lost in a whole different argument/conversation. Still, another day for that.
Sunday we went off to Belton House again as we were all feeling sad, overwrought and jaded and needed a day together to regroup.
In fact, we all felt pretty much exactly like this.
I remembered a camera this time, but spent a lot of time fiddling with settings while i tried to work out what things do, with the result that not all the family day out photos are quite as i might like, but i’m still gonig to blog them 🙂
Loved this one of the girl. And also this one of all of them.
I discovered how to fiddle about enough that clouds aren’t just a white blur, so now i just have to work out how to keep the rest of the picture light too. Sure it’ll come!
Fran has a real thing for fuscias; she planted out two lovely pots with granny, that are now on our front step and she loves them, so i took this for her.
We spent a while in the posh greenhouse (arborium?) and the girls all talked to the volunteer about the Angel’s Trumpets – he liked them for listening 🙂
Fran posed with a fern.
Maddy just posed 🙄
Fran had a strop.
And we all oggled the growing pinecones a bit, deciding they looked totally wrong on all sorts of levels (wrong colour, on a tree, not pointing downwards etc etc)
Josie and i went off to look at flowers; she REALLY liked these red and very dark green ones. So did i actually, though i’m not sure they’d be so impressive if not in a huge lump together, but we might have to get some.
I had another attempt at remembering the story of Moondial…
… and Josie had her last ice-cream for a while 🙁
I really like going to Belton. It’s got a lovely feel, worth National Trust membership all on its own really and just the right distance that everyone gets 40 minutes snooze in the car first. Plus, quite rarely, it’s a haunt of mine from my childhood (school trips and the odd family trip i think). More of our favourite places are from Max’s childhood, given i grew up in central Nottingham while he spent his early years on Dartmoor, and i rather like having that piece of nostalgia to build on with my kids for a change.
I really like fuchsias too, like little dancers. Thought it was a good sign the first time I went to C’s mum’s house and she has loads!
That new camera is nice, isn’t it? 🙂
Oh, i’ll tell Fran that, she’ll adore thinking of them as little dancers 🙂
Yes, it is nice. I love the pic of Buttercup 🙂 And i rather like the way it instantly transforms even average photos into looking just that bit better. Definitely worth it 🙂
Oooh, I *really* recommend Swedish Glace dairy free ice cream – we found it in Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose. Not sure about Tesco.
Got us through the insanity when J was dairy free for a while.
Not quite the same as getting an ice cream from a van when you’re out for the day though. 🙁
We do have some of that, but like you say, not quite the same as an ice-cream from the van.
I’ll put some socks to choose from aside for you Merry, knew you were short a pair but couldn’t think how or why (I blame the antihistamines fogging my brain….) If I can find where I put the pattern (I put it away safely!) I’ll run some more up before we go Off the Path and photo them so you have a choice, hopefully someone will be there that will see you soon enough?
Fuchias are really easy to grow you know, I did loads from cuttings at my old house, had huge swathes of them, but totally forgot to take any when I moved so we are fuchia-less here.