Pizza!

Here's my lovely boy making his own pizza..... We finally got around to using the bread machine to make pizza dough (we'd been promising ourselves to for months) and it's really lovely. Eve and Noah loved putting their own toppings on - Eve's was very well spaced and presented; Noah's was more rustic in appearance....


This hat is on its way somewhere. Shhhhhh....

And here's a bit of dressing up fun. My friend Emma has three too, similar ages to my children - so there are quite a few of us when we get together - too many to all look at the camera at the same time anyway.

Just a few things

I thought I could use this blog to remember our normal life and normal days - so if I feel yearning or homesick in Kathmandu, I can look at some pictures of 'home' and either feel a bit better (maybe), or blub (more likely), so - have a look around our house.... Here's the dining room, with Thom's first birthday cards hanging on the 'washing line', and Harv doing some kind of Kathmandu-preparation. The children were all playing in the sitting room when I took this photo, putting jam on the sofa or similar.....

And here's the view inside from my back door:

And the view outside on Saturday last week - I am a bit obsessed by this tree, aren't I? But it just looked SO stunning laden with all the snow, I feel justified in sharing.

Poor Thom's still got a poorly ear - still oozing after 4 lots of antibiotics :( Admittedly he wouldn't take two of them. And I don't blame him, poor little chap - honestly, given the hideous amounts of money sloshing around pharmaceutical companies and the huge r&d departments, you'd think something could be done somewhere about the taste of flucloxacillin. It actually tastes poisonous - not merely nasty, but as though it might actually kill you..... So - like I said I'm not surprised it made my little chap sick.

And finally, quite a bit of this going on - parcels of 'things' going off to new owners, as I start to whittle down to the things we'll actually be taking with us. I'm getting a bit addicted to ebaying... Whenever I have things for sale I keep checking how many watchers I've got, and how much the bidding's up to. I'm so sad - I do try to be disciplined about it but no - there I go checking again......bah!

Winter season table

We picked a couple of small catkin branches at the weekend; Eve managed to find a teeny twig of pussy-willow; a home made snowdrop baby; we added a couple of wooden geese; and a peacock to show that we are looking forward to going to Nepal (I think there will be some there!); and a lovely spring / summery jigsaw that Thom received for his birthday to remind us that the season's changing. Although as I type this it is snowing again!

Thom's first birthday.......

........including the mandatory daily bin raiding......


(first up, homemade card which my computer won't turn around for some reason....?)

On the beeeeeeeeeach!!!!!!!

Shameless photo fest below........
We went to Ynys Las, nearish Aberystwyth for a fantastic and much needed day out...
Harv and I had almost forgotten how it feels to be out enjoying life with the littlies. (For those of you that don't know there has been a lot of yucky, bug-illness in the family since Christmas.) As soon as we got there, Eve and Noah ran off down the beach to make castles, then we had a picnic, almost got stuck in quicksand (Harv and Eve) and hunted for monsters and pirates in the sand dunes. We so needed this - it has been a real blessing of a day.

And this time last year Thom and I were busy becoming two people rather than one - a lovely arrival into the world for my beautiful son. He was born at ten past midnight so his birthday is tomorrow, but I am indulging myself in a few minutes of birthing memories, just because that's what I feel I need to do on all of my babies' first birthdays.

Short back and sides

Ok, so this tree had me in tears today. I looked out of my back window to see a man hanging from a rope with a chainsaw - and immediately assumed the worst. I phoned my local council and was really shocked to find out that there's no protection order on it, and as we don't live in a conservation area someone would be perfectly within their rights to cut it down - they wouldn't have to check with the council or even let them know!!
You can hopefully get an idea of its size from the photo - it must be hundreds of years old. I can't believe it could be simply chopped down.
Fortunately the tree surgeon was just taking the lower branches off to even it up - as you can see it has a new, rather shorn, look to it. It's quite likey that someone who knows a lot more about trees than I do has paid for the work to be done to actually preserve the tree and prolong its life. Phew!
But - do be aware - if you have trees around you that you are fond of, they may not be protected. I'm going to look into somehow trying to get a protection order on this one, if possible. Such a lovely thing.