Road Trip sans child - Jinkies!

Yes, you read that right.  I am fresh back from a three day, two-night road trip with my friend Anne.

For anyone with a diabetic child you will known what a BIG DEAL this is!

For myself it is doubly tricky as my lovely man has not been confident enough for me to leave home overnight for some years.  And then I, as with many parents let alone D-parents, have all kinds of control issues.  

Does anyone else do it as well as I do?  Well, no not really.  But well enough is fine.

I did have a short trip a couple of years ago but honestly didn't relax into it in the way I did last week.  

I knew my boys would be fine.  

I knew Andrew would do his best and that if anything went wrong he would sort it out just fine.

And all was well.

 ~ the beautiful church in the centre of Lyndhurst in the New Forest ~

 ~ my tipple overlooking the lawn at our hotel ~

 ~ strolling out onto the New Forest heathlands ~ I'm the one in the hat! ~

 ~ Montacute House ~ anyone recall it from the Ang Lee version of Sense & Sensibility?  It is stunning ~

 ~ dinner at The River Cottage Canteen ~

 ~ my main course ~ fresh garden veggies and udon noodles ~ yum! ~

~ me with my trio of hummus starter ~ I am camera shy at present but know that you'll all be looking at the food anyway! ~

And boy did I miss these guys.  And they me.  

The break did me good but it is good to be home where my heart belongs.

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Tomorrow is August and I am embarking on my own 30-Day Vegan as a kind of retreat.  

I followed this last summer as a student of Heather and it was such a wonderful, fulfilling, supportive experience.

My intention from August is to have a health focus each month as a way of bringing my own health into a more mindful place.

I'll keep you posted.

six

And in the blink of an eye my baby turned six!

 We have been busy celebrating our Boy Wonder with a family party, a party at a great cafe in town with a walled garden and yummy food and lots and lots of Lego.

There were gifts.  A pinata.  A victoria sponge cake. Pass-the-parcel.

I also co-ran a Reiki Retreat the day before the party and am now very tired indeed!

It is Monday evening here.  

My boy has fallen asleep on this day, the day of his sixth birthday, talking to me quietly about Lego and Harry Potter and smiling when I tell him we are going fruit picking tomorrow morning.

And every day I tell him, as I did today, "I love you.  I am proud of you.  You make me happy".

xxxx

A Folksy Flannels Quilt

After making the little quilt for Frank's bed I leapt straight into making another for our big bed and had set my heart on some brushed cotton flannel.  

It's a fabric I remember well from my childhood and loved the soft warmth of it.  

A while ago soulemama mentioned Folksy Flannels by Anna Maria Horner so I got googling and found a source in the UK (in order that postage didn't involve selling a kidney!).

I decided pretty quickly on a blue/yellow mix of colours and got ordering, then cutting and sewing.  

Oh my, it was fun and such yummy fabric.

The batting is 100% cotton and the backing fabric a second hand flannel sheet I picked up  locally at a charity shop.

Making this secnd quilt and, I confess, a third recently has really demystified the whole process for me.  I had spent a long time thinking that quilting was too difficult for me.

Well, no more!

I am officially a quilter.

Hello July

Well, I fell off the Marauders' Map there for a while, didn't I?

Clearly I needed some blogging-free time and I have made full use of it, I assure you.  

We are all well here in my little family and life continues apace. 

Much growing has been done by Frank, much crafting and reading of Harry Potter to Frank by myself and much retiring from his main job and poetry gigging by Mr Muffinmoon (aka Fred Slattern, Colchester's Slum Poet).

We have a ten day trip to Denmark under our belts and spent two days of those at Legoland, much to Frank's delight.

I seems, also, that blogger have been busy whilst I was otherwise engagaed and I am struggling to work out what's going on here today!

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I feel it will be impossible to fill all the gaps of what we have been doing in one blog post and so will concentrate on Denmark today.

We are a family with a camper van.  We have no other motor vehicle.  We walk and cycle or we drive our van around.  

Thus, for us, and considering I feel best when I am not in a tin can way up in the air and also when I can pack as much diabetes-related stuff as I wish, we tend to head for the Netherlands or Denmark or France or Germany or indeed stay home in the lovely UK for our trips.

This year, with a Lego fan in our midst who is turning six in a week's time (yikes!), we felt Denmark and Legoland over there was a good plan.

And, boy, was it fun, once we finally got there.   

And thereby hangs a tale:  waking up on the morning of our planned departure on the 5pm ferry I was getting Frank dressed and saw what looked like lots and lots of insect bites all over his back.  To the docs and the practice nurse confirmed chicken pox!!!   

This actually felt like a huge stroke of LUCK to me.  

Yes, really.

Imagine how it might be being already on the ferry or in Denmark and seeing all these spots break out.  The Danish are great at speaking English but I do not want to be fighting my D-Mama corner to doctors that might not understand me clearly.   We all know we are indeed the experts in our own child's care and that most doctors do not have the knowledge that we do.  

We are the specialists and travelling elsewhere can feel very much out of my confort zone should things go wrong.

Frank felt fine but we had no idea how many  more spots might break out and, more importantly, how having Type 1 diabetes might bring complicaitons for him.  So, we cancelled our place on the ferry, sat tight with the door closed and a skull & crossbones on it and waited it out.  

Frank continued fine.  

No more spots broke out and after a few days had passed we rescheduled and hit the ocean, heading north east to Esbjerg from Harwich.  

It is an 18 hour journey and so everyone has a cabin and we even enjoyed the fabulous buffet of smoked fish and fresh salads.  Yum. 

 And once there we camped for five nights, spent two nights in a pirate-themed room at Legoland, a night in a B&B and then came home much refreshed and, for me at least, needing a break from the strong coffee and smoked fish!

A few pictures for you all.  

A taste of Denmark.

 ~ Frank at the Ribe Viking Centre ~ I asked him to look like a "serious Viking" ~

 ~ smiley boys at Legoland ~

~ the best beach we found on the trip ~

~ the fantastic wooden castle and figures at the Ribe Viking Museum ~

~ and, finally, but best of all, the disabled toilets in the Hotel at Legoland ~ crocodiles in wheelchairs ~

Happy Sunday and happy July to you all.

Much love.