No New Clothes Challenge - Month 8

I'm so ashamed I nearly blew the whole No New Clothes Challenge for a long sleeved Orla Kiely top



I even went as far as ordering it, trying it on and wondering how I could hide this purchase. I came to my senses though and sent it back, which was a bit silly as it cost me the postage but no one likes a cheater and I'm just about the worst liar in the world so would never have kept up the pretence.

My conscious is clear and I probably wouldn't have worn it anyway as it looked much nicer on the hanger than it did on me!

Masculine Bunting

I was asked this week for masculine bunting and spent a little while trying to decide what pattern, what colour, what font other might be considered masculine.

These are the choices I came up with

The customer went for the middle one as it tied in with football team colours! My personal favourite is the R but then that is probably just because it's a new design and therefore my new favourite.

A change to my daily routine

 Because of this ...

I've had a change to my daily routine and instead of the boys walking down to me when they get off the bus at the end of the school day I now park my car near to their drop off and walk the short distance to the post office.

I walk past the old fire station,

then past the church and through the kissing gate

and amble down Stoney Lane (most definitely not suitable for crutches).

Then after the Post Office visit (and stopping to chat to friends walking back from primary school) I wander back again through the churchyard.

Pausing to think about the Rivers family who had a great deal of tragedy in their family life and also the family of Private E S Brown.

This last week I've glanced up to check on the progress at the Windmill which now has its sails back.

Then I sit in the car looking at the church and waiting for hopalong and his brother to get off the bus. 

Even when he's able to walk down the hill I think I might continue our change of habit as apart from a beautiful little walk down it also stops the boys creeping into the local sweet shop. Sales of sweets, crisps and drinks must be considerably down these last few weeks ;-)

Labyrinth ... a walk of contemplation

I can't really remember how it came about that my Mum wanted a Labyrinth in her garden but luckily for her one of her daughters happens to be married to a garden designer and Edward Norman was very happy to build his mother-in-law her very own Labyrinth.  

Marking out.

For those not sure what a labyrinth is this is the Wikipedia explanation

In colloquial English, labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze, but many contemporary scholars observe a distinction between the two: maze refers to a complex branching (multicursal) puzzle with choices of path and direction; while a single-path (unicursal) labyrinth has only a single, non-branching path, which leads to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate.^[2]

Post concreted in.

After what seemed like a very short build time this was the end result - one very special Labyrinth.

The finished Labyrinth.

Some of the posts marking the way have an objet d'art in the glass container adding another little interest as you walk round.

The path is made of local shells which reminds us of the family beach hut and the posts are made of oak from the family farm, another lovely touch. The buxus in the middle will grow to form a hedge the same height as the wooden rectangular blocks.

A couple of weeks ago we had the "grand opening" and we all got to walk round the Labyrinth (although not all of us did so in quiet contemplation).

The official opening was performed by Jethro who, as able assistant on the build, took great pride in the labyrinth and did a great job cutting the bunting even though he declined to make a speech.

As we chatted and sipped a Slamsey's Fruit Gin cocktail and as the light started to fade the hidden surprise became evident as all the posts lit up with their solar powered lights.

It really is amazing .... perhaps Ed could build me a mini labyrinth in our garden?

Week 6 - Summer Holidays 2012

"Can we go to the Paralympics?" Archie asked on the Sunday before the Games started. As this seemed like a perfectly brilliant idea and I was pleased he was so keen I quickly looked up online to see if there were any tickets left. We were lucky and managed to  get some Excel Day Tickets at £10 per adult and £5 per child and for that price it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

So off we went last Thursday not really knowing what to expect or what we would manage to see. 

The first thing we went to see was table tennis. I found it quite difficult to concentrate on just one game with some many matches going on at the same time and it always seemed to be the furthest away table that had the best action!

We then went off to look at the Judo competition. Luckily we took Archie's friend James who does a lot of Judo and competes too so he explained all the rules and regulations and kept us informed about what the judges hand movements meant. As I've never seen live Judo before this help and guidance made the whole thing much more interesting. The fact that the competitors were blind/partially sighted was just incredible.

The highlight of the day came next and we went and got our places early for the Sittingdown Volleyball match of Team GB versus Russia. The atmosphere in the arena was fantastic and the whole build up to the game made the waiting go so quickly. We cheered, we sang, we danced in our seats, did mexican waves and got really hyped up for the arrival of Team GB.

We were even entertained during the timeouts as two pairs of cleaners came on each time and did a perfect sychronised sweep of the court to the delight of the crowd every time they jumped their brushes!

Unfortunately Team GB didn't win the match but by Set 3 they were really showing that they are a great team. 

It was a wonderful day and I'm so glad Archie suggested it as it was a great way to end the school holidays and was another once in a lifetime experience for us. We are still enjoying watching the games on television and, as with the Olympics, it is going to be sad when they come to an end. 

The school holidays didn't end quite so well for Oscar who managed to break his foot at the first rugby training session of the new season. Another fluke accident and another six weeks not playing rugby, riding his bike, going on his scooter ..... I have a feeling it is going to be a long six weeks :-(