that beach

Oh yes, it's summer for sure now and we spent a beautiful day at my favourite beach ...

All these pictures were taken as we left the beach hut that we had kindly been lent for the day and walked along the beach , en route to the van to make our way home.

We were tired, sun-kissed, sandy and at such peace with each other.

My heart was so happy in these moments.

 ~ the boy digs ~

 ~ oh, that beach ~

 ~ obligatory shot of my feet in the surf ~

 ~ writing his name ~

~ contemplating a bit more digging ~

Summer living is full for us this month, with family visits and fruit picking, late nights (it's the Olympics, you see, we have to see it all!!), concerts in catherdrals and football in the garden.  

This week saw me out for the count with some kind of virus, or maybe migraine (I've never had one but it felt like I have heard them described) for three days.  

Luckily lovely hubby stepped in on the day trips to farms and the like and now I am fighting fit and raring to go for another summer week.

Bring it on!

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.

In these days of long shadows

We are busy busy, busy preparing for a season of gift giving: making cards, writing gift tags, making Christmas treasure hunts, knitting, reading recipes and making choices, baking and general elving.
A few days ago Frank and I went to Frinton for fresh air and a race on the beach (he always wins, but only because I cry less at losing!) followed by fish & chips and a great score of a Scooby Doo puzzle in a charity shop.
It was blissful.
Blue, blue sky and just me and my boy on that beach.

It makes me happy, this stretch of coast. Always.

And then we stay home a lot too; making things, crafting, elving and baking.

I took this picture as a way of telling the tale of how I reached without looking for my coffee and nearly took a swig of a bowl of beads today!
They actually had to touch my lips before I realised it wasn't my drink.
Must use my eyes next time.

And more elving, preceded by a fun afternoon decorating the ginger biscuits we made in the morning.
Oh yes, we had fun with that one!

Hope you are enjoying your winter too!

And take note: these biscuits are NOT BURNT.
Neither are they strangely blue!

ships & seaside

Ah, Frinton beach on a bright October day.
Looks idyllic eh?
Certainly did from the windscreen of the camper van as I parked and then I couldn't open the door to get out as the wind was an Easterly and was a flippin' strong one!
I pushed with my shoulder and it slammed right back in my face.
But, I am British, we love a romp on the beach in such weather; the sky was blue, the waves were, um, choppy and we were anyway meeting with my friend Emily and her two boys Halim and Zakir.
We all braved the wind and walked from Frinton to Walton pier and back before picnicking in a shelter.
The running around did me good.
The wind in my face was such a tonic.
And I was able to wear, for the first time and for its inaugural visit to Frinton, my just-completed and much swooned over (only by me to be honest; it can be lonely being the only yarn botherer in the house!) ships & seaside cowl.
I have but recently discovered Stephanie Dosen's knitting patterns and just love the charm of them. She does admittedly look a bit more serene and dainty in her cowl than I do at 5'10" and windswept but the great thing about this cowl is it felt beautiful and was absolutely ideal in the strong East of England (the wind blew Emily's youngest Zakir, at barely three and quite petite anyway, clean off his feet and onto the sand!).

And here I am sooooo happily wearing it, along with many other layers and a real frozen smile!
And lastly, a picture of my boy, the one my heart beats for.
Every day.

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Back soon, with tales of ratio alterations : up, down, no up again, no too much down again. Sound familiar?!
And with a stonking soup recipe.
Lovely love to all and yes, I did get A LOT of oxygen at that beach and am a little high on it methinks ...

At Daymen's Hill Orchard

A few days ago Frank and I drove out towards Tiptree for a new adventure.
My friend Sue had told me of a family run fruit farm where you can pick your own apples and pears.
Moved to action by the evocative postings of some blogging friends in the US I wanted a little apple picking action of my own and in this Frank was a very willing partner.
It was just so very lovely.
The trees were groaning with the fruit and I filled a basket with pears and one with apples.
Notice Frank's stance here? He quickly adopted a defensive head-kind-of-down stance after being hit on the bonce one too many times as he pulled the fruit free.
This fruit was so very ready to fall it needed little encouragement!

Then he sloped off to eat blackberries direct from the bush whilst I paid and dreamt of all the yummy things I was going to make with all that fruit.
I so love autumn and it's days of plenty and those first signs of people lighting fires and wearing socks and scarves.

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And in the D-news we were at Addenbrooke's hospital for our quarterly pump clinic and check up and came away with some new ratios and some big smiles : 7.3.
Holding steady.

The Sky and River in Constable Country

Early this summer we made a family list of all the things we would like to do before summer drew to a close.
Well, today is 28th August and we finally got around to taking Frank out on the River Stour in a rowing boat.
We are all huge fans of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and love the stretch of water between Dedham and Flatford.
One can walk along the river from the pretty village of Dedham to Flatford along the Stour Valley.
One side of the river is in Essex and the other in Suffolk.
It is our go-to family walk for any occasion.
Once in Flatford there is the water mill and a fab tea room and cafe (always a winner!). The mill was famously painted by John Constable (and by this I mean he painted a picture of it not that he whitewashed it!!).
And if you have a look at his paintings he took such care over and put such detail into his skies. Big billowing clouds, shades of grey, blue and purple.
Wonderful stuff.
These pastoral scenes have become a little over-exposed as they have been used for placemats and tea towels and ties, much like Vincent's sunflowers.
I don't think it is fashionable to love Constable but as he painted the beauty of my home county I feel a great fondness for his work.
So, as you have a look at my two men in a boat, look also behind them to the trees, the willows dangling into the water and that big Constable sky.

They loved it.
Frank, of course, wanted to row and those huge oars weigh a ton for him so he resorted to sitting at the front and either shouting "Ahoy" to other people heading up the river or calling out "Fire the cannons" at them instead.
I sat smiling and hid behind my shades ...
We docked the boat back at the launch jetty and about three seconds later (with no exaggeration) the sky opened and it rained like mad for as long as it took us to run to the van!
We picnicked and steamed the van up as we dried and then drove home via McLaughlan's for sweetcorn fresh from the fields.
A lovely kind of day.

Camping it up

A picture heavy post giving you a glimpse into our long weekend away camping in the Cotswolds.The new bell tent stood up well to some major gusts of wind and we were a bit chilly at night, but this was northern Europe in April!

Frank loved sleeping in his grobag again; something he hasn't done since he was three.Breakfast was taken outside most days with us enjoying homemade granola, marmalade on toast, pains au chocolat and lashings of tea!

Frank took some photos of the camp too.

The tree next to the tent made great shadows inside and my boy was rosy-cheeked and wind-swept most of the time ( a haircut is booked for tomorrow so enjoy that long, lop-sided hair for now!).

Budd wore his cap and struck a great pose without even realising it here.

He is getting a beard trim this week too.

This trip also saw our first site failure.

Of course it would happen in a tent rather than in the comfort of our own home!

But it was sorted quickly and all was well.

Interestingly the trigger felt really different on the insertion thingy (the techinical term!) than with any of the others I have done and the canula came out all bent and covered in blood.

Frank was non-plussed by this and so we just put a new one in.

I am constantly amazed at how he takes all this in his stride.

However, we have had tears and deals needing to be struck just to get his hair cut booked tomorrow, so he chooses his battles!

Off to catch up on all your news now.

Toodle -oo!

Springy Spring!

We have been enjoying amazing weather here and have been out and about enjoying the sun on our skin.

Spring has truly busted out and trees are heavy with blossom, flowers are blooming everywhere and Frank and I have enjoyed our first of many a big water fights in the garden.

He won as he had decided that I could use his teeny tiny water pistol and he could use the garden hose.

My, that water was cold!

Today I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from our week.

Colchester Castle and some of the flowers in the Castle Park.

Frank's latest portrait of his parents!

Hall Farm Restaurant and farm shop at Stratford St. Mary.

Great food, cute animals to look at, cool farm shop = fun morning out!

Post water fight, the winner does a victory lap of the garden!

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Back soon with a recipe for savoury biscuits.

Happy Eatser to you all!

Fridays

Many a Friday looks like this: A bus trip into town to go to the market Photocopying mosaic sheets at the central library (OK, this was a one off!)

A visit to the bread stall for a cheese straw.

A cheese straw attack.

With gusto (and a side of insulin).

Happy Friday all!

My Funky Tent

Thanks for all your kind comments on my last post.

I was glad to be welcomed back by such an esteemed group of people!

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A couple of days ago there was a knock at the door and we took delivery of this beauty.

My birthday present from Mr Muffinmoon: a beautiful, funky bell tent.

I have always loved the style of these tents and my sister and her partner have one, which we stayed in once when on their farm.

I have no pictures of the inside yet as I want to take lots when we are actually using it and it's full of sheepskins and blankets and cushions, but inside is one open space with the tent pole in the middle.

I love the natural material.

Even the mallet is wooden and these cool tent pegs are so natural and rough that they look like Hagrid whittled them in a free period from teaching at Hogwarts!
I love them.
Is it insane to love a tent peg?
Hmmm... maybe ...

And this past weekend we erected the tent, Mr Muffinmoon being unable to not make comments about large erections, and watered it well. This, you understand, is not to make it grow into a bigger tent or bear tenty fruit but to enable the fibres to swell with the water and then as they dry the whole thing becomes water proof.
For you knitters out there it is blocking for tents.
This is England.
On our first camping trip with it I will find out whether that has worked or not!
It will rain at some point, indeed possibly at all points.
For the moment it sits in the garden, weathering, much like I lie next to my boy every night, weathering these first few weeks of life with Lucky Pump.
Tomorrow I have to change the pump site all alone as Mr Muffinmoon will be out late earning a crust (his job is safe for a few more months, by the way!).
And tomorrow I'll give you the soup recipe.
Blogging every day.
What the ...
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I seem to be an all or nothin' kind of gal at the moment.
Ah, well, so ist das Leben.

Riding the Dragon Tree

Frank and I headed out to Cudmore Grove on Mersea Island this week.

It was a balmy January day and, after what felt like weeks inside, sunshine on our skin and the sea air did us all power of good.

As you can see, East Anglia is flat and I just love the big skies.

Look at that blue!

So healing. Once on the beach we found this fantastic dried piece of wood and Frank flew it up into the air like the children in one of our favourite books.
Then we larked about on the beach.
I have seen seals off this beach and love it here.
This day we saw all of six other people.

Bliss is a wooden dragon ride with a view ...

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Thanks for all your positive comments about the pump arriving.
We got all excited, took photos and then saw the size of the manual.
Gulp!
It's now all back in its box waiting for training day.
I will look at the manual before that but it feels like being given a space ship and a manual and being left to work it out.
I know, from my years as a teacher, that I am intrinsically a team player.
I like to discuss and confirm and learn best that way.
Bring on the training!
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Back very soon with crafty updates.
I've been sewing and have even been knitting cables, yes, cables baby!

Not sure what the question is ...

... but I know the answer and mostly the answer is to get out in nature.

Frank has had Type 1 Diabetes now for exactly half his life.

He was diagnosed at 27 months of age and we have now enjoyed the company of the badly behaved house guest T1D for 27 months.

The weather here has been cold and grey but yesterday saw us heading out for a little family trip to Friday Woods near our home and stomping about in the mud.

We ran around, got very muddy, jumped in the many puddles and then wandered back to our camper van for homemade hot chocolate (milk and chopped up 70% chocolate plus a little raw cocoa for sprinkling - I figure if the boy won't eat spinach he can have raw cocoa for iron instead!!) and ginger biscuits. It was very healing and calming.

I have been feeling a bit blah for a couple of weeks and am only now beginning to come out of it.

Stomping around in mud helped a great deal and I would highly recommend it!
Another great puddle awaiting its fate from the Boy Wonder.

The hills are alive with the sound of stomping.

Friday Woods.

My boys.

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On another topic, thank you to everyone that commented on my post about our wet nights.

I had really thought we were alone on that one as I know no one else going through it.

Should have asked you guys months ago, hey?

Big British hugs to all (that's with a cup of tea in one hand and wearing a bowler hat. We all wear bowler hats ...).