Tuesday 12 July

Hellooooo! I know it's been a long time. Getting the blog up-to-date has been on my to-do list for weeks now, but it seems that the longer you leave it, the more you have to tell, the harder it seems to get back into it. I compose umpteen blog posts in my head, I take photos all the time, and none of them make it to the screen, let alone get published.

First of all, all's reasonably well with mum. She is waiting to hear when her radiotherapy will start (within the next few weeks), and they have recommended not going for chemotherapy because of her history with pancreatic cancer. Instead after the radiotherapy has finished she'll probably have a course of hormone treatment. Recovery from the last operation hasn't been plain sailing, it's just all little niggling things which aren't serious but annoying enough to affect your day-to-day life and make you feel as though recovery is slow. I'm hoping to go over later this summer, when the kids have finished school, just for a few days, so I can go with her to hospital - just for the company really.

I think I'll just post a few photos of the last few weeks as an update. So much has happened, we'd all be here forever if I wrote about it all!

On 3 July I took part in the Ladies Tractor Road Run again. I'd forgotten quite how much fun it is. The Friday before we had a last practice run and everything went wrong, prompting me to wail 'I can't do this!' But it was like a bad dress rehearsal and everything went fine on the day itself, and the tractor and I are now very good friends. I raised almost £200 which made me very proud - o and the page will stay open for another couple of weeks if you still want to donate! Thanks so much to all of you who sent a donation - it is much, much appreciated. And yes, I did wear this

but obviously not JUST that... ;-)

Another finished object:

This is a very late birthday present for 12yo (her birthday is in April). The cover turned out to be much bigger than anticipated and I finally ordered the right size cushion pad for her a few weeks ago. Yes, I think the colours are hideous too, but then I'm not 12! It now takes pride of place on her duvet cover with matching peace signs.

Over the past few weeks I seem to have acquired two new hobbies. The first one is cycling. I've always enjoyed cycling but since B. installed a new bike computer, I've really got back into it again and now try to do a fairly long distance every weekend (last weekend was 40 miles!) There is so much to explore in Norfolk, I'm discovering lots of little country churches, large country houses, small villages, small market towns. The big advantage is that it is all fairly flat!


And the other hobby is antique/vintage/second-hand items. A few weeks ago, 12yo dropped the mixing bowl I'd had since getting married. As it was a present from ex-MIL, I wasn't too bothered! Before getting a new one, I asked mum if she had one she wasn't using (mum loves antiques) and she gave me a lovely French one, very unusual in shape, obviously used, but I love it. And that started me off. Why buy things new when there are so many items you can buy used and that have a story? I'm trawling Freecycle and Ebay, rummaging around charity shops, visiting antique markets. I've not bought much yet but am definitely getting an idea of what I like and what I don't like, and learning to see potential in items you'd normally dismiss. I'm specially pleased with this, an old flour sieve:


And last but not least a couple of photos of these two bambini of mine who are growing up soooo fast
12yo who is getting taller every day - she doesn't like it when I say she might even become taller than me

and 9yo who has 8 more days left at primary school. He has had several visits to his new school already, he knows which house he is in and who his tutor is, 12yo comes home and tells him which teachers he will have, and he is so excited. And me? I'm proud of who they are, I love this age, but it will be very odd to leave the safe, familiar surroundings of the small village school behind. Time really does fly - it seems only last week that he was in my arms while dropping off his big sister at preschool - and it really does feel like the end of an era.