Like Piccadilly Circus.......

This has been Daughter's main summer event as a Tudor so as usual we are here for any grandchildren that remain in the 21st century.

Daughter went off on Friday with E and O and now O is bigger he's having a go at being a Page to the Gentry.

R is staying with us for the duration (11 days) and as she is working (voluntarily) for Red Rose Chain while they put on Much Ado About Nothing at Jimmy's Farm, Theatre in the Forest we started our substitute parenting by collecting her at 10:15pm as we did every night after, dropping her there for 4:30pm. I say we but actually Hubby did every run apart from Friday night collection. 

She/we had Sunday and Monday off (Hubby was out all Sunday fundraising) then as a last minute thing R tells me she really needs a 1930/40s style costume for the following Sunday as they are holding a street party for the audience before the final performance. She had a look in mind and what she really wanted was a beige knitted tank top and had looked in the charity shops in Ipswich without success so Monday we went to Felixstowe as they have an abundance of charity shops and a lot of elderly residents so if not there then I doubt we'd find one anywhere. Well all we found was a very washed out beige long-sleeved jumper which I restyled for her and paired it with a white shirt and black skirt still in the wardrobe from her mother's teenage concert playing days (see I knew they would be useful one day).

She chose not to wear the belt

Also R had wished she'd brought her devil sticks with for something to do, so on the way back from shopping we called into home but her key wouldn't work, second attempt M let her in but she couldn't find the sticks bag, third attempt after messaging her mum asking if she'd left them in the car and told she hadn't they were found yippee (I drove a lot of miles to get them considering they only live 5 minutes away).

Monday evening we had a phone call from Daughter to say E wasn't feeling very well and will probably benefit from a couple of days rest from camping so Hubby went to get her. While here she ate well and slept well but did very little all day Tuesday, I'd started the day with my weekly physio circuit training session so was pleased they didn't need me to do more than sort meals and make packed food for R to take with.   Wednesday E got motivated to get arty and creative and needed me to hunt out art materials at various times, she also needed Hubby to sort computer/scanner/printer etc. 

Meanwhile I finished knitting a cotton top which unfortunately turned out far too small for me and although knitted all from one cone seems to have a shade change across the front! I was given the cone of cotton so no costs lost so I'll put this into a charity bag and maybe someone will love it. 

Very early Thursday Daughter arrived to grab a shower and collect E to get to college and pick up her exam results (two very good passes) she then took E back to Kentwell with her and had intentionally left O behind as he'd had enough. His Tudor shift was covered in clay and he told us he quite enjoyed being a page but hated having to wait until all the Gentry had eaten before the servants were fed, so he gave that up and spent lots of time in the pottery. 

He took up his usual position on the floor by the door, as there are sockets available there, and gets stuck into his technology (making music this time).

He stopped for a while when an experiment came to mind of "how can I position mirrors up and down the room to reflect images remotely like watching tv round corners". He was thrilled to see we had saved some mirror tiles under a bed for just in case!

This had to be an ongoing experiment and the mirrors had to remain in place for days! 

Thursday we also had a visit from sister-in-law who hasn't been here for years so it was lovely to see her. She came by bus and then train and Hubby picked her up from the station. We all had lunch together and later tea and cake then Hubby had to take R to Jimmy's Farm for theatre of course and O wanted some extra computing stuff from home so by the time he did that he was almost late for taking SIL back to catch her train so a bit of a rushed farewell.

R was telling O about her theatre work and all about this Shakespeare play in the forest and so O said he really really wanted to see it. So I booked us a couple of tickets for Friday night. I've given our night out it's own blog post. 

Friday M opened R's post as requested by R and gave her her exam result via messenger, also a good pass. 

We had arranged for R's friend F (who also volunteers for theatre) to sleep over Saturday night as they have the end of show party for cast and crew till midnight and a last performance Sunday. I've known F and her mum for years as they are friends of Daughter. Twin beds in R's room so no problem. Then Saturday evening R sends a message do I mind if two more girls stay over as well. Of course I said they could and gathered plenty of bedding for them in the lounge to use the four recliners as beds. Hubby had to wait ages for them in the car park and they got back at nearly 1am and I could hear them chatting for ages. 

Unfortunately O had a bad evening not being able to get to sleep so I was up and down, then when I'd seen the girls home I got into bed with O and stayed there till morning, each time I tried to leave he cuddled up so I couldn't. 

All up and breakfasted and then Hubby goes out for the day with his friends which had been arranged ages ago. So I cleared away all the bedding, done two loads of washing, and made packed food times four for them to take to theatre. Because of the forecast really wet weather the forest had been cancelled and moved to their much much smaller Avenue venue so R got a message could her and the girls come at 2pm instead as the whole set needs rebuilding. 

Now of course I've the "fox-chicken-corn" situation with a five seater car, driver plus four girls plus O. It's now raining really heavily, thankfully it's so close that I made two trips. 

So O now had me all to himself and first request was baking

followed by board games at the table. 

Bank holiday Monday and I'm home with Hubby R and O and nowhere to rush to! A much quieter day, O happy to watch tv or sit with his ipad and headphones. R didn't even get out of bed till 3pm. Ending the day with a full roast dinner and thought Daughter and E would be back to share dinner with us before taking the children home. But they were running really late so we gathered all their stuff, and there was lots, and I took them home. 

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Pigs, Plays, Parenting, Presents and new Projects.........

And obviously procrastination as it is taking me sooooo long to write this post!!! Now in panic as tomorrow we go on holiday so I'll have to start the next post!

Yet another busy week (edit to say I'm talking over a week ago), Daughter with E and O are Tudors again for the whole week so as usual R moves in with us.

Last Saturday Daughter was home briefly with O for drama as it was their final rehearsal day, then they left to return to the year 1593 while I stayed to watch R's performance. It was very good, especially as they had lost many of the cast, had very little rehearsal and were tackling The Tempest to just an audience of four! Starting the play telling the story with shadow puppets was very clever.

That Saturday afternoon was our street party to celebrate the Queen's 90th. Thank goodness for large gazebos as it got wetter and wetter the tables and chairs got closer and closer under shelter, but everybody stayed and we had a great time.

We didn't do a great deal all week but did go out every day. Wednesday R had her college induction day ready to start September. She loved it.

Another day we went into town as pigs had invaded our town centre along with yarn-bombing

Just a few of the 69 pigs.

I've been busy crafting for babies. NieceVJH received her parcel by post

Now I'm busy working on the baby gift for my friend's newest grandchild who caught me out as she arrived five weeks premature (no photos until they've received it). And there's another family baby due in September I need to craft for next.

The following Saturday was O's first drama group performance, thankfully to a larger audience. Here he is in costume

Amazed at these flowers that were bought for me a month ago. I had them a week then as we were going on holiday (that was the Wales Holiday) I gave them to my neighbour to enjoy, when we came home so did my vase of flowers, and today, four weeks after they were bought, they look like this

We fitted in a visit to nieceVJH (long drive to Surrey and even longer drive home) but all worth it for lots and lots of cuddles. Big boy just four weeks old and so snugly! 

Hubby had decided to fix the shed which is letting in water by recladding the outside, and he decided to do it six days before we go on holiday. Monday we had our usual coffee morning so he lost half a day. And our trip to Surrey lost him another whole day. He removed the planks from the front to discover lots of the frame was rotten making twice as much work! I didn't get close enough to take before/during/after photos as I was a bit peeved he hadn't waited till after our holiday so I didn't have so much to do by myself, like setting up garden coffee morning (beautiful sunny day) which means moving lots of furniture etc, and all the washing ironing and packing, which then took on some urgency when I discovered we were going on holiday Friday and all along I'd thought we were booked for Saturday. So lucky I noticed in time not to keep our friendsN&T waiting on the drive while we frantically packed lol

Also today we had a lovely lunchtime meet up with friends

Hubby finished and secured the shed 10 mins before leaving home for this lunch and tomorrow we go on holiday! This evening Hubby is out on a bloodrunners fundraising event and I've finished packing, charged up and packed all our gadgets, emptied the fridge and all the bins round the house and put the wheely bin down the drive for the morning, watered the house plants and spent a little time with Daughter when she came here to teach a recorder pupil....and write this. 

Phew, think I've caught up at last. 

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Responsibility.......

Our three family Tudors have gone to Kentwell for the four day May event so R is staying with us again. Hubby is meeting up with old friends all day Saturday and at a Blood Runners event all day Sunday.

R needs to go to bed at a reasonable time Friday night to get up, ready and out by 10am Saturday.    TICK
I need to take her to drama and wait till she's done (while knitting)  TICK
R needs to be reminded to extra extra brush her teeth ready for the orthodontist next Tuesday.  TICK
R needs to be encouraged to do physical stuff as she has joint problems if sitting too long.  TICK
I need to do my physio exercises, she'll do them with me.  TICK (I did them 4 days, R did them 1)  TICK
R needs to repot her gooseberry bush that we look after for her  TICK (granddad did most of it)
R wants to make a tricky dessert worthy of a French patisserie  TICK
We need to shop for the ingredients.  TICK

She needed baking rings I don't have, so we had soup for lunch and I made rings from the cans.

Blurred baking as she's moving fast (not, cause I'm laughing as she makes another indecision).

Beautiful and delicious Peach Clafoutis.

Shame about using so many pans and bowls hahaha.

Neighbours/friendsP&A were entertaining a large group (22ish) for Sunday lunch some of which were visitors from Romania (they go over annually to do charity work with them). They were all meeting at church then coming back straight after the service and P&A asked if I could cook some food to be ready for when they get back. ....so early morning three prepared lasagnes arrived, thankfully they were ready, not burnt, in time!  TICK

Monday morning up and sort the kitchen for our usual coffee morning and a very full house as bank holiday for those that are normally at work  TICK

SisterS and bilK want to holiday with us again, this time September as sisterS is retiring in July so no longer restricted by term time. I came up with some choices and we decided on the driving through France option. So I suggested a route and a time-line which they agreed on and I now need to book three hotels (main destination for six nights plus overnight stop on the way down and back), and book the Eurostar train return tickets.  TICK for two hotels, so hard going through and checking details and booking what we hope they will like. One more hotel and train still to book.

Yet again Daughter had problems with her car on the way there Friday and she has ignored it all weekend as it didn't need to move. So this afternoon instead of driving here, collecting R, then all going home for dinner, she stayed at Kentwell and called out the RAC, Hubby also drove there to bring E and O home so they could be home and fed instead of hanging around for hours, meanwhile R and I had dinner here. She was being towed to our local garage and has just text Hubby to meet get there, she'll then being him home, collect R and keep my car until her's is fixed! Parents always on hand TICK
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Four-day sleepover......

Daughter and E had their last trip for this year to Kentwell Hall as Tudor players and as always R comes here instead. This time we are having O here as well because there are no other players so Daughter would find it impossible to organise the school groups and keep an eye on O too.
Pinched this photo from Facebook

Friday - So bags packed they came Friday afternoon and O was so excited "my first time ever having a four-day sleepover!"
Quick cup of tea and Daughter and E were off as E has county music wind band rehearsals first.
Usual sort of evening with no screens for O after dinner so a little tv and books reading in bed.
First night of the Rugby World Cup, so R and I stayed on our own screens while Hubby was watching the England v Fiji game.

Saturday - R had drama so after Hubby went off for a whole day fundraising for the Bloodrunners, O and I tried pancakes for breakfast which were a bit of a disaster but don't know why (obviously got the proportions wrong as I never measure) then got R out of bed with just enough time then out. While she is there we wait in the comfy seating area where they also run a tuck shop, keeping my six year old very happy and while buying his sweets I was presented with a specially made cup of tea that Daughter had ordered the night before, bless her :-)
Back home and late lunch and both children spent most of the afternoon on screens. I fed the fish

We'll be out lots tomorrow so I'm not too bothered.

Sunday - using the same pancake mix that I'd kept in the fridge, today's breakfast was much more successful, cooking on a lower heat for longer. O said the first one was good, second was delicious, third was legendary, forth was epic and he even managed two more so six in all (quite a small pan), leaving just enough mix for me to have two.
R had brought leathers and boots with as she planned to spend the day fundraising with Granddad which means travelling there and back on the blood-motorbike, but last night she said she couldn't face getting up in time to leave by 8am, so I said I'd take her whenever she's ready.
She didn't get up till 11:30am and O had been grisly saying he was desperate for MarioMaker that he couldn't bring with, although promising me that wasn't the reason because he really really was a bit homesick, so a quick text to his dad and yes he was home all day so O went home for a few hours. I then took R here to meet Hubby

As I had a free pass to get in and a little while to kill I had a wander round before heading home. The show ground was full of all sorts of stalls and exhibits and demonstrations and the sun was out so the people were out too. I did take a couple of photos of the SERV stand with R wearing her bloodrunners hi-vis jacket but you know what it's like when the sun is on your phone......got home and the photos hadn't actually taken :-(

Home in time to put on a roast dinner and make some rock cakes

Retrieved O and he remembered to bring his own toothpaste as he doesn't like my minty one he likes his fennel flavour!  Hubby and R arrived back soon after so dinner followed by his favourite game at the moment

Then bed with two more Beatrice Potter stories. Hubby had gone bowling so R and I settled down with X Factor Bootcamp.

Monday - so much time is spent like this

Have to admit I'm finding it a struggle to get them to do much else, thankfully the computer O uses does get hot underneath so I'm making him turn off at regular intervals for it to "cool down".

R slept in all morning again. I did a little gardening but couldn't get either of them to help though they did play some crazy game together. 

O enjoyed a really long bubble bath

He is cute isn't he :-)

I had every intension of making trifle for dessert but as Hubby went shopping quite late I thought I should make the jelly separately or it wouldn't have time to set then O and I spent ages in the bathroom. Making dinner and dessert all at once I found that not only had Hubby forgotten to buy the Swissroll but he'd opened the freezer and thrown in a bag of veg RIGHT ON TOP OF THE OPEN DISH OF JELLY! Actually the children thought my not-quite-trifle of peaches covered in spooned jelly under custard and letting them put squirty cream on top themselves was a success! 

Tuesday - followed the same sort of pattern as it poured with rain all day. O played for a while with Hubby on our home gym so he got plenty of exercise and I did get R to learn some more of her lines for drama. And I got two loads of washing done which had to go upstairs on the clothes horse. 

Daughter managed to leave kentwell a lot earlier than expected so came here in time for dinner then she took them home. .....and all was just a bit too quiet! 

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Don't bother reading......

Really nothing much to report!

Last Wednesday/Thursday I had to wear the dreaded blood pressure monitor for 24 hours. It actually hurts each time as I've big arms so it blows up really tight and it pinged then buzzed and squeezed every half hour all through the day and every hour from 10pm to 8am then back to every half hour. I also found it really difficult to bend my arm with the cuff on so had to do most things one handed like brushing my hair and slept in my bra as I couldn't reach to undo it and Hubby was fast asleep when I went up. When I was finally released from it and the nurse downloaded the readings the average was pretty much normal.

So this is Easter weekend with two bank holidays but mine has been quite boring. Bank holidays mean nothing now we're retired. R is spending it with her dad. E who didn't feel well enough to go is at home with M. Daughter and O are being Tudors for the four days and Hubby is mostly playing with his new motorbike.......so no egg painting or garden egg hunt this year, I'm catching up with the ironing!

Tonight E is coming for a sleepover and tomorrow will be our monthly coffee morning so maybe there will be a bit more to blog about....but this one wasn't worth reading!
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Tudor hats...

As I've mentioned before Daughter and her children have time travelled back to 1556 for Tudor reenactment in the summer and they are going back again for Michealmas (sp?). She has been sewing for ever creating authentic outfits for them all. And now of course the weather is so much cooler than the summer so Daughter is sewing yet more layers for them.

Recently she discovered that as wool would have been readily available with spinners and knitters it was a known method of making hats to knit them then felt them with hot washing, soap and lots of agitation.  Daughter doesn't like knitting so I helped. We created 4 hats of various sizes and the slightly different wools felted to different degrees.

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Castles, Tudors, friends and relations....

Make a coffee first this is a long one  :o)


Friday 6th - Hubby and I had planned a day out with SisterM and her hubby. Sadly SisterM's cancer is progressing and she is now feeling a bit too weak in the legs for much walking around so we borrowed a wheelchair from our local Community Charity Shop. The weather was not good so there was no rush but hubby had assured me it was going to clear later and if we headed into Kent we had a better chance of staying shower free, so that's what we did, choosing Hever Castle as our destination. Still raining when we got there so had a lovely pub lunch first then as forecast the sun came out, the puddles dried and we had a really lovely afternoon in the castle and the gardens and even sat outside for afternoon tea. Got them home and didn't even stay for a cuppa as Friday evening traffic is always terrible coming east. We all really enjoyed the day.

Saturday 7th - When FriendsL&K wanted to arrange a day to meet up I told them of our plans to visit Kentwell Hall for the Tudor re-enactment and they jumped at the chance to join us there. We picked up M and D at 10am then met our friends in the carpark at Kentwell at 11am. Hubby changed up some money to Tudor groats and pennies so we could buy things inside then we walked through the time tunnel into 1556. I've been there a few times now and still totally amazed at being immersed in living history with every resident  having so much knowledge to pass on, we talked at length to the washer women and the alchemists and the woodchoper and watched the players rehearse which was so funny. We stopped in the alehouse so the men could have some ale and of the games drawn on the table I played Nine Men's Morris and Horseshoe losing both games to a Tudor maid expert. We ate in the modern cafe but sampled Tudor marshpane, biscots, sweetmeats and men-of-ginger. O had been a Tudor all week but had missed his dad so changed back to modern clothes to be with his dad and come home with us, this also meant that Daughter, R and E could really enjoy the last night party and pack up their camper without the help of a 3 year old. It was so hard to be there and not hug my daughter and grandchildren as they had to stay in character which they all did really well. Again another dry day for us thankfully. The day ended with the fair which was brilliant. D won a candle on the hoopla stall, lots of Tudor children took part in the play dressing up as chickens (ours included). There was wrestling for the boys and 'arse pushing' for the maids and musicians and dancers too (including daughter) while the gentry walked around admiring the show.
When a very tired O flopped on granddad's shoulder we decided it was time to leave. We dropped off M, D and O at their house and went home to meet again with FriendsL&K who were staying the night. After a very much needed cup of tea we relaxed a bit then out to the pub for dinner. Late(ish) to bed and so lovely to have plenty of time for a good catch-up chat.

Sunday 8th - Up for breakfast but no-one was rushing although they had to get away before lunchtime. Very soon after Hubby's brother M and his partnerJ arrived bringing back hubby's laptop that they had borrowed and telling us all about their planned house move. Out to the pub for Sunday lunch which was yummy and all the nicer when bilM paid the whole bill, thank you :o)
They left quite early and hubby didn't have bowling for a change on a Sunday which was lucky as Daughter turned up about 8pm still costumed and with the girls all looking really tired, wanting help with the trailer camper to leave here before they could head home.

Monday 9th - Daughter arrived with the children to open up the camper and clean it and dry it out and to scrub all the children and their very muddy Tudor shoes. Unfortunately she is now full of cold and aches and pains and is very tired, not surprising after working hard all week and being out and camping in some horrid weather for 9 days. Slow going but all achieved. I fed them all both lunch (bacon butties) and dinner (lasagne)...definitely not potage!
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