Pumpkin Soup (by sarah)

The innards of the pumpkin needed to be disposed off - I extracted the seeds, boiled it up and blended it and made bright orange soup.

And the baby pappled it making a great big orangy mess.

The seeds I roasted in a low temperature over with a little bit of sea salt grated onto the top - these were are writing snacks 🙂

Busy Weekend (by sarah)

We had a very busy weekend once again 🙂 I took Jean and Mary to the farmshop for a halloween hunt on Friday, then Saturday we had the Green Unconference and tea at a friends house and dinner at another friends house and it was all great and exciting. Sunday I woke up without any voice - I have been pushing it a bit again with the numbers of poetry readings and workshops I've been running so it wasn't that much of a surprise - but Sunday was not a day for relaxing - Oh No! Off we set at 8 am with vitals and supplies packed for LegoLand Windsor.

There we had a fantastic time with Alaric's Cousin Maurice and his kids - I took over 400 photographs which will need sorting (and many discarded!). I missed the Bristol NaNo pre-party as we stayed for Fireworks at LegoLand and I was very very tired by this point!

I am a bit worse for ware today but I had a fantastic time and I would have only spent the weekend fretting about biopsies and things if I hadn't filled it up. I took these pictures on the way home from Bristol on Saturday - I really love this bench and would love to have say our wall made like this.

Jean also loved it 🙂

All Saints Church Long Ashton (by sarah)

I attended the Green Unconference 2012 at this church - I love church buildings and so couldn't resist taking some photos. (All of which will be appearing in a slightly nicer format on my photo blog.)

The stained glass windows had me most entranced

I liked the juxtapostion of these two 🙂

Halloween Hunt At Primrose Vale 2012 (by sarah)

We went to Primrose Vale Farm shop for the Halloween Hunt as we have done for the last few years but we were an hour early so we had our breakfast which we were going to have as an elevenses later on. Jean was horrified that it didn't start until 10 am 'That's nearly lunch time!'

Mary resented being in her buggy so went off for a wonder.

Her sister joined her

Then they went to play on the swings

There was the cutest blonde bunny that Jean pointedly ignored (still being too sad about Blacky Buns departure to the meadow in the sky) and that Mary spent ages pointing too and announcing Ca'!

Me and Jean had the most delicous icing and chocolate covered apple danishes whilst Mary had everything free batty cupcake that Mummy had made especially for her little allergy bunny.

Jean decided that being in her lovely coat and wearing her pretty dress it was time to go and do some construction work.

Mary decided that it was time to leave home and found herself a nice little shack

We then went on the Halloween Hunt which both girls loved!

Jean loves Harry Potter and Scooby Boo so was very very happy with a few of the things on the Halloween trail 🙂

Jean tried to show Mary how the Pumpkin and spoon race worked but didn't entirely do it properlly herself!

Mary just didn't get it at all but loved running around with the minni pumpkin!

So much so that Jean decided to buy her one to take home with us!

The girls loved the maze thingy made of trees and we started working on a poem about it - maybe it will make it into a little book of poetry at some point :).

I found a cool piece of farm equipement to photo - sadly I forgot to ask what it was for 🙁

We then walked down to Subway for lunch and saw a heron! It flew right over the top of us in it slow ungainly way - Jean couldn't remember what it was just that it was one of the 'Mill' birds.

If you want to see any of the photos in a bigger format just click on them 🙂

Also don't forget to download your free copy of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry - it is only free until midnight on the 31st of October!

The Monday To Moan (by sarah)

Monday is my day to get things done - Mary is at nursery and Jean at school until 4!

But this Monday I was awaiting a phone call from the Dr to discuess what was going to happen about the bleeding and coil and things so I made sure my phone was there next to me. However it had broken and switched itself to silent so I missed the phone call, I then could not get it off of silent no matter what I tried and even with people trying to help me via facebook and twitter. It was the Drs line so I had to await the next phone call.

I wasn't feeling to good anyway as I've been suffering with muscle spasms again and the whole of my left hand side was in pain or writhing benieth my skin unpleasently - I just wanted to go back to bed. But I took my pain killers and attempted to get on with things. It then occured to me that I was still attempting to use Alaric's old beaten up laptop. This became apparent as another 'deathline' appeared on the screen. It now has eight perminent lines going from the top from the bottom. So I prodded about my laptop and it turns out Apple still have not sent the replacement part so it could be another five days! I have now been without it since the end of August :/ For something that should have taken five days max to fix.

I got the phone call just as Jean turned up home from school an hour early - I'd forgotten that they cancel the clubs on parents evening week. The Dr said they were basically going to send me for swabs to check for infection before they do anything - they'd booked me in an avalible space on Wednesday morning as the surgery is so over subscribed they had to pounce on the appointment slot when they saw it. Then on the 30th if I am infection free they are going to remove the coil and take biopsies to check exactly what the thickening is. Then they want to replace the coil in the hope that it's edometreoscies and that it will help it. They will chat to me about all the options when I get there. The fact the coils not been in the right place might mean we can still treat things with hormones - lets hope. But I am still wigged out by the fact that I could have ended up pregnant and still have the coil inplace.

So anyway I then had Jean home early and the TV set is so broken that I declared we could not watch anything on it as it is probably a fire hazard! So we went up to the attic and she helped me with one of my art projects which was really nice but not novel writing :/ A cat threw up in the kitchen - this never used to be a problem but I am increasingly finding I am over sensitive to smell and like morning sickness - I get very nueause.

Alaric then arrived home to inform me that the nursery had been trying to phone me as Mary was sick - I'd stopped phone watching once I'd had the Drs call :/ Mary has Chicken Pox and is miserable and there is nothing to watch DVD's on whilst I snuggle her plus the snuggling is going to cause the flare up to get worse. Poor Alaric has also pulled a muscle in his back again and so can hardly walk.

SO I thought I would just get it all off my chest in a little moan - not a good start to the week in my opinion.