Midday - ish. Monday.
A catching up sort of day - and something we really need.
The weekend has been fantastic, but so, so busy. Really need to stabilise things a bit today, start putting "stuff" away, find the hoover etc etc - all those things that get overlooked with days out and visitors.
Worried a little too about going back to the office tomorrow and leaving Tx on her own for the first time.
She is sleeping well now (Nora is still only awake for about two or three hours every day!!) but still looks drawn and tired, though radiating happiness which is wonderful to see. Makes you realize how much the last few months have taken out of her.

Longdown Acitivity Farm is an excellent place, and we all had a great time there for Stan's birthday on Saturday. It's a bit ramshackle in places, and has a lot of rough edges which is really good to see. So many 'family attractions' these days have a corporate cleanliness and sterility - signs, arrows, shiny floors etc etc.
This was like going back in time thirty years, but none the worse for that.
Hand-written menus stuck on the cafe wall with yellowing sellotape. Most notices printed out in WordArt and slipped inside plastic envelopes then pinned up with drawing pins. So the rain had got in and all the words had faded and gone runny.
Just the right amount of goose, chicken and donkey droppings on the cobbled, uneven paths.
Wooden fencing in need of repair that would give you splinters if you ran you hand along it the wrong way.
In the cafe, an elderly woman with a HUGE teapot who pours tea out for you into a china mug (all different) and offers real milk from real cows out of plastic bottle from Tesco. Why is UHT popular? In those ridiculous little packets??
A tractor and trailer ride around the felds that was extremely bumpy. As advertised. great fun - we were all screaming with laughter. Real white knuckle stuff. Basically thirty odd of us sitting on straw bales in a trailer with a 'cage' round it. No safety belts or padding. Excellent. Kids all fell of the 'seats' and had a bundle in the middle of the floor - all killing themselves laughing and trying to stand up.
Included in the entry price too - they are missing a trick there…
Trampolines, go-carts, pedal cars. Hundreds of goats. My favourite.
I love goats and aspire to a house with enough grounds to keep a couple.
Yodel-ay hay -ooooh

I fear that within a couple of years this charming, quirky place will fall victim to the Health and Safety Executive and lose all its character.

Then Sunday my sister came down for a visit. Can't remember the last time - we think it was probably when when LC was born.
So this spread Stan's birthday out over three days, which of course he was very happy about. Great to see him and the others having such a mad, silly and fun time with their cousins. The boys have grown so much of course - Ant is 13 already!!!!
Took them all over to Riverside Park in the afternoon for swings, scooters and a ride on the trains, made all the better by Tx and Nora being able to come with us.
Ridiculous weather. temperature in the 20s, but then some HEAVY rain showers and at times a swishing north-easterly wind.
WTF is going on with the seasons this year. Spring was SO late but already the swifts have gone and the blackberries are out. Apples are falling on all the neighbours trees, and in church people are bringing in bags of "pums" to share because they have so many. Already? It's not even September.

A really good day, but again made me think how little time we have spent together over the last ten years. Inevitably now lead very different lives it seems we have very little in common sometimes.
Remembered to give her Mum's birthday present which is now a week late (ooops!!) and very grateful to Mum and dad for their gift of a breadmaker to replace our dead one. Pity that Mum's condition now means she can't tolerate the yeast (or something) in the home-made bread, so they are giving up with the machine.

Not that its about who sends what, but I notice with some frustartion that we haven't had a birthday card or a baby card from either Kink or Biscuit...
Wondering if they are pissed off because I had to decline their wish to visit on Sunday, but is it my fault they are working today?
Next weekend B has booked to come with hey boyfriend, but apparently K is 'going to a party on Satday night.' That says it all. She is cross with me for saying no this week, but can't get her a*se out of bed on Sunday to come down next weekend. I still think they could have posted something down tho