Maps

Who says supermarkets aren't interesting or educational for HE kids?

We went the other day, had a mosey around and Junior came away inspired!! We had our noses in an Egyptology book for a while and I basically had to drag Junior away!! The book was, of course, WAY too expensive for us to buy but we HE'rs are a resourceful lot:O)

Well, she is now heavily into making maps. We have a house full of treasure maps, ancient maps..you name it, we have it. The ageing technique is diluted coffee being sponged on to torn copy paper and then mopped off.... a la the SMart programme. Her favourite creation is one which has the Pyramids on, mountains, our house and Shrek land!!...all rolled up with and tied with an aged red ribbon. Sweet. OK, it needs a little tweaking but it's good that she's actually getting into all this...history, cultures, art, etc. The subjects are endless.



And today...she's had her nose in a Cath Kidston catalogue that arrived this morning. You should hear the "oooos" and "aahhs"....and that's just me!!!

Junior, meanwhile, is sorting out the Christmas pressie list. If she has her way, me and the pets are going to be spoiled rotten. Bless her little cotton socks:O)

Mini Me

Bobby dog, as we speak, is winging his way back to Essex!! Yay!!

Actually, it's quite quiet now:O) (Proves that the girls are less yappy -doesn't seem right using the word bitches!). lol Also means I can now titter away at the exploits of the guys on Top Gear! lol My fave prog. They're trying to cross the Channel in a modified car and beat Richard Branson's record. Three Men in a Boat type of thing!! It's so daftly schoolboyish.

Anyway, it was lovely to see my boys and a couple of their mates from the "old place" and I felt quite sentimental, actually. Hugged them all before they went, wished them safe journey and all that. Even though they are their friends, I still think of them as "mine" :O))) And... they have GROWN!! Very tall...snow on their heads sort of grown.

Soooooo, aftermath of Bobby..is plenty of dog hair....my hoover has blown up!! Blimey, my life gets better!!!

Am off to watch a programme about mathematically gifted children..o few of whom are on the autistic spectrum. Fascinating stuff...but, even though I'm ok at maths, this maths is way beyond me. The "personal" sort of slant on it makes me a bit sad. Too cold.

Junior, however, has ressurected her badge-making kit. She's forgotten what to do to make a new badge. I've left her to it to figure out things. Of course, she's having a strop but she hasn't asked for help....she's determined to figure it out for herself.. I've directed her a little .....in the "read the instructions" sort of way. However, knowing Junior, that'll be the last resort!!!

The phrase 'Won't be told" comes to mind.

She doesn't half remind me of me!!!!:O)))

Early Close

We've been out and about this aft. Escape from the poochies!!!! lol Went to local little town...thought I'd check up on a bead shop I read about in (funnily enough) a bead mag and a wool shop (heard about that one in a local shop - no I wasn't eavesdropping...she was just talking loudly!! ) Well, gets there...it's like 2pm...should be busy, busy, busy. But..no...not in hill billy land. Everything closes early on a Saturday! Why? Sigh...... No sight of anything vegan either, apart from veg - of which we have loads!

So, we visit their local little supermarket, which miraculously stays open till 6pm, gets stuff for the weekend, does lottery and slopes off home:O( Still, pooches were pleased to see us (we got them some chicken breast slices (reduced price:O)) ) Junior was pleased, too...she got her usual fix of garlic stuffed olives:O) No chance of any vampires landing in this house.....or suitors!! lol She's also into pretzels at the mo. I remember these from childhood...and I thought they were boring!! Still, each to their own.

And, why oh why did I pay the tv licence? Saturday night and the best we can get is Create & Craft, blasted sport or The X Factor!! ARGHHHH!!!!!!!! (no wonder me likes the old red wine:O))) )

Baby sitting

Son no 1 has visited so I can fullfil a longstanding request of his. Son no 1 has left me to babysit Bobski, his dog....the same Bobski who was born under my bed and to whom the then 5 year old Junior referred to (along with Bob's siblings) as a rodent!! "Mummy, there's a rat under your bed!" One of those "awww" moments when you realise that a) puppy has been born and b) little kiddy winks is so naive and c) just how many puppies are born under a person's bed!!...eh? (No stork stories in this house, though) As "payment and thank you" Son no 1 did mow my entire allotment yesterday (allotment is the size of a football pitch, waist high in grass and weeds,etc) so I am quite touched as he is not known for such physical exertion:O) He also bought me a veg gardening book (what's he trying to say?) and Junior lots and lots of beanies:O)

Bobski with ball, being all pathetic with the "throw it for me" look!!


Anyway, Son no 1 is going "ooop north" this weekend to help celebrate his bestest mate's 21st birthday. Son no 2 is going, too:O) This also coincides with nephew's 18th:O) This is probably going to be a GREAT weekend for my sons, nephews and associated friends. 21st Birthday boy is a great lad and I'm glad that my two and he are friends. They will be for life, me thinks.

So, here are we..Junior and I....three dogs...partaying kittens and old dame cats together. Alas. Bobby has morphed into a grumpy old sod and does not "do" kittens..he growled at Popeye for no apparent reason...so he's in the kitchen with the other two pooches while kitties race around and wear themselves out....hopefully in time for their bedtime!! I am not taking any chances with anything incase dogs decide to munch kittens again. Then, after kitty bedtime pooches can have some fuss, bed down and sleep and only then will old dame mogs possibly come into the house and kip down in their space....my posh, expensive slub sofa. waaahhh!

Why can't the pets just all get along and be done with it?

In between all this Junior wants us to have a cosy night in....watching Tracy Beaker!! ho hum and.....arghhhhh!!!!!!!!

Minnie - 2 teaspoons of playfulness - 1/4 cup of wealth - a pinch of crazy Combine in a blender until smooth.

'What is your personality recipe?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Pink Hair and Party!!

New Letts learning book arrived today. Junior not impressed and neither was her HE mate.

I'm still recovering from the dastardly flu; Junior seems fine although she's got her days mixed up and is a day ahead. Anyway, so tonight she and my orbiting head hovered to a nearby supermarket to gather in much needed supplies. She did the maths again and wangled a High School Musical mag out of me:O) She did want a Bratz one, but by the time we'd wandered around Asda she'd read it, so logic in her said that there was no point in buying it:O)

For a change, on entering the supermarket, we were not greeted by the usual early Christmas merchandise but a whole aisle devoted to Halloween!! Now, my mother would be mortified at such a thing, her being the religious type and not a fan of the old horror movies and all such things associated with 31st Oct in that regard, etc. She's adamant that you don't muck about with stuff like that..you know, supernatural stuff, etc!! You keep well away or else you're tempting fate...... So, she definitely doesn't get the commercial Halloween... and neither do I really..but I'm just a misery lately plus I just hate the commercialism!! Junior is, however, taken with it all....it's the dressing up you see, bright colours for monsters nowadays, watching too much Charmed and the prospect of a party:O) We came away with a witch's hat with attached pink hair!!!

The hat won't last long, I fear. Too much interest being shown by inquisitive kittens:O)) And talking of kittens. Here am I...middle of the night (nearly 3am)....up because kittens have inadvertently been allowed to kip this evening..so they are in PARTAAY MOOD now!!! Yay!! "Let's whizz round like loonies and wake the neighbours up!!!" type of party mood...Old misery guts here thinks not...especially not in The House with Echo Floorboards!! So here am I, entertaining them...quietly....... until they drop off to sleep (I live in hope). If that fails then I'll have to ply them with cooking sherry!!! (joke, by the way) Trouble I have is that Olive has found a new game called "Snotting the Older Cats"... as in "surprise!! ", jump up and whack 'em with paw and run off in the opposite direction. She thinks it's such fun!!! Knackered older cat does not but remains remarkably tolerant! Megan is into jumping off Junior's wardrobe onto echo floorboards!!! "Weeeeeeeeee!' and Pops is being Pops and cuddling up to sleeping Junior and keeping warm...sensible mog. He does think the bed is his you see and is allowing her on. Nice guy, eh?

Well, back to my new career as party organiser:O) zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Mother and Special Effects Junior!!

Comfort

We have flu!! Me more so than Junior (I think she must be well protected due to the amount of garlic-stuffed olives that she consumes!!!) There's nothing like an aching bod, bunged up nose and watery everything to cheer a girl up!! So, we are indulging in comfort everything to help sort us out. Today's menu is soup, soup, soup!! (we have a big cauldron of potato and leek) with home-made wholegrain bread for dunking. Junior is eating for England with this flu mullarky and keeps poddling over to the fridge for nibbles. We have a fridge full of stuff but, apparently, we have nothing in to eat!!! What she means is that we are lacking in the convenience nibbles department!!

Ah, the homemade bread:O) Alas, I'm not so clever in the breadmaking department....that credit must go to the electric breadmaker and Junior for measuring the ingredients. Anyway, it's one of those gadgets that people get, use with gusto for about a fortnight....and then err, forget about...as is with me:O) It's only been used about half a dozen times in three years and upon ressurection this time it decided to conk out half an hour before the end of the cooking period. I've tried changing the fuse, shouting at it and all that but it's still playing dead. AND, naturally, the warranty ran out yonks ago!! Arghhhh!!!! (paid £60 for the thing, so it's worked out a tenner a loaf...hmmm..not fair) Looks like we'll have to make bread the old-fashioned way, which Junior is in favour of at the mo. I'm a bit peeved 'cos I wanted to make jam in it, seeing as I inadvertently spilled emulsion paint into my jam making pan...silly me!! Maybe I should send a Mrs Angry letter to Morphy Richards. Wonder if I'd get a Dear Customer.."Here's a voucher to get a new breadmaker" letter back from them?

It was nice, our solitary loaf!!



Junior has still managed to do some autonomous learning. We're still exploring, in no particular order, the atmosphere and space, the human anatomy and Spanish...with a bit of horticulture in for good measure!! (LOL..I've just read that bit back and it sounds like something out of a Carry On:O) )

It must be getting nippier 'cos the older cats are now coming into the house more frequently, which is something as they're semi-feral. It's taken me ten years to get the shy one to trust me enough to come into the house in an evening. This was them last night... cuddling up on one of the sofas.

These two sisters are about eleven years old.




Back to the olbas oil:O)