Chores (by sarah)

Yes I know the picture is over exposed the camera is broken! But I think you can still make out Jean sweeping the front 'garden' bit of the house. Oh my how she wailed about this because to get the broom she had to take her wellies off rather than just stomp through the house in them and there were bricks where she wanted to brush and what do you mean I've got to put it all in the bin bag I thought I just had to make a pile. The neighbours probably thought we were being really mean but she was getting book money for it and had asked to do jobs that would help and then tried to choose the jobs!

Plus in the end she was happily trying to tame street cats and making a game of it and talking excitedly about how she moved a slug etc... In the end she enjoyed but the first bit was hell.

Broken Mugs and Birthdays (by sarah)

So today is my 32nd meaning that I am the same age my mother was when she had me and that 16 was half a life time ago!

I've just had two school friends over for a couple of days and as always we talked of school, the bullies, the crushes, the arguments and so forth. Was school really half a life time ago? Was school only half a life time ago?

So much stuff has happened in that sixteen years and yet... and yet I feel pretty much exactly the same bar health issues which started around then anyway.

But in same ways I have changed - on seeing The Hobbit I can tell you how as well. I am Bilbo Baggins, I had a stronge adventurous streak in me when I was younger, I did climbing and archery and hiked through mud and went of to do a geology degree, had a stunt bike and never admitted that things phased me or scared me. I went off to London for Uni on my own even though the prospect was petrifying! On many different levels.

I liked doing stuff all the time, choir, gardening, caving, taking my friends on long rambling walks and designing dresses. But now everything feels more sedate and constrained. And the nearer I got to 30 the more ok that sort of life seemed. But then the last year as I was plunged into the world of festivals I began to hunger for it all but after the chaos of the last few years and the struggle to sort our lives out I found I didn't want things too busy and craved the stability of home. I also began to see just how lucky I was - after all the struggles and trials we have our home and it is a brilliant home and it is ours and even before that I had Al and the girls and my family and friends. Ok so health is missing but I suppose you can't have everything. I am in the middle of a mild flare up at the moment - I call it mild - it has persisted for a while and would be termed a set back by physios but really it is not. I know that if I am careful I can continue to be productive through it and look after my kids though the house may get messier.

It wont last more than a few weeks if I rest and then I will be up and at em in time for festival season starting.

One of the things that has led me to thinking about if I have changed though is that a) people tell me I haven't changed and b) the people who used to moan at me that I acted too grown up now moan that I am too immature and too me they have grown boring.

And too be honest I fear that boredom, that conventualism more than I fear the chaos. But I am scared of new things, and so this year y 32nd is about pushing my personal boundaries to stop me stagnating, to stop everything including the new skills I aquire from just becoming gears within the machine of existence.

During the Olymipics I felt a great sense of what I can achieve pour into me once more and though I know that my health is always going to put a spanner in the works, those leaks and breakages to the flow can be worked around. I thought on all I have achieved already and all that I feel is within my grasp and I sat and drew pictures - I filled a note book with them and have many more that wish to be drawn.

They are called The Inspira Pictures. This one is called Face Your Fears and is apt for my plans 🙂

Also I broke my Pocket Dragon birthday wishes mug which made me really sad but at the same time the search to replace it has shown me there are quiet a few designs out there still. The pocket dragon stuff isn't made anymore which is a real shame and I was really looking forward to using it over the weekend - for which I have gaming and film watching planned. I get quiet grumpy about m mugs and things which again has led me to the Hobbitness - the buttons also all popped off my coat :/ And I have hairy toes if I do not pluck, I am also rather... erm... short and if I thought I could get away with it would love to have second breakfast but alas the waist line is bad enough as it is!

This film was not The Hobbit as such - it was a mix and match across the books and alot more dramatic than the book with depths added that just weren't there. It is however a brilliant prequal to Lord of The Rings and made in that style. The Dwarfs however were alot more 'man' like than expected coughs with two cuties to boot! Though Oaken Shield really didn't need to look like a stocky Aragorn did he?

But Bilbo's sentiment at the end that he has a home, a lovely home and they don't and that is why he is helping them just reinforced my desire to help. Before Christmas I embarked on a mad cap scheme of trying to illustrate a book in like two weeks but with Christmas prep and the fact that not many people sponsored me I didn't make it but I am going to be working on this through the year now and hope to run some other events as well such as Creativi-Tea which I blog about later. I just can not take the thought of thousands of kids being homeless or in temp. accomidation so you will be hearing more and more about this!

So for now I am off to spend my birthday writing and drawing and baking cakes in prep for the weekend but here is the sponsor button just incase :).

Jean and Piggies and Cat (by sarah)

This photo is from a few years ago at the old house - the Christmas after we got the ginea pigs - as you can see they were well loved and we miss them greatly - I think we were so busy at the time that we never really got around to blogging and stuff about them. I may add some back blogs in but just wanted to share this pic with you all.

Along with this one of the run being protected from the sunshine - Jean is sitting under the big umbrella if you look carefully.

Sleepy People with Cats (by sarah)

I found these two pictures of cats and sleeping people from when we lived at The Bakery 🙂

Jean’s Reading (by sarah)

Jean got an entire stack of books for Christmas - mainly due to the fact she loves reading. She started reading The Worst Witch All At Sea on Christmas Day and within about a week she had finished it.

Excitedly she went and grabbed another book from the pile and too my astonishment read it within a couple of days. And then she picked up a third book from the pile and read it all before the day was out and took her last Worst Witch book to bed with her. She reappeared at about 11 o'clock announcing that she had read the whole of that one too!

She is now back on The Hobbit and is rooted in the fantasy genre, she agrees that we need to go to the library as we can not sustain her book addiction!

The most amazing thing I found was that she worked out she was reading the books in the wrong order due to plot lines and stuff within the books themselves. She wants to own the other Worst Witch books rather than get those ones out of the library.

Her reading speed now exceeds mine though not Alaric's.