The New Flooring!

Here are a couple of snaps of the new flooring we had put in on 5th Jan.

(a new front door - which fits properly and is easy to close and actually keeps the draughts out is next on our list!).

PS - please excuse the clutter - this is not a show home - it's for living in!

More Snow!

Today we awoke to find a surprise of ....more snow! We had anticipated rain as the thaw had definately begun the day before.

Lily and Rowanne are off school with tummy upsets already (they were off yesterday also), and then Gabi came home from the bus stop saying she'd just received a text from the college telling her that Sparsholt was closed due to the weather (they are further north than us - so possibly had more snow than us too).

Jeremy still managed to get off to work in his car alright (driving carefully as all local roads are very icy indeed).

Alfie received an invite from the doctors surgery in the post today to come and get his swine flu vaccine on the 23rd Jan - so he's now booked in for that.

Here is Alfie wearing his new "snow blower" hat that I knitting for him - I made it on the knitting machine and designed the punchcard (pattern card) for the picture myself.

Gabrielle has been busy sorting out the pheasants for tonights casserole. Gabi was on a shoot day yesterday and was given a brace and a tenner for her troubles!

Lovely Sunday!

I had a really nice relaxing day today - for once! I got up and went for a walk with Alfie on the reins this morning - taking his all terrain buggy and our camera. The paths are all very icy - quite treacherous in places! Alfie enjoyed a lovely slide/walk/dog - chase (he likes to follow passing dogs!) all the way to the Locks Heath Center - where he promptly decided he'd had enough exercise and sat on the floor. I popped him into his buggy - which thankfully pushes easily over the ice and snow (unlike our neighbours umbrella fold buggy with little wheels!) and went for a stroll - camera at the ready.

Initially I thought there would be nothing much to take pictures of - but snapped away with the camera anyway at this and that.

When I got home, uploaded the pics to the computer and started editing I was pleasantly surprised - I mean, none of them are "award winning" pics - but on the whole more successful than I had anticipated! I especially enjoyed using the zoom lense to try and capture photo's of birds - this turned out to be quite a sport!

Later in the day Jeremy took the girls out to his dad's (giving me even more peace and quiet than I usually get).

This weekend I have managed to design a punchcard (patterning device pattern card) for my knitting machine of a snow blower! Initially I was designing a snow plough - and after viewing several on "youtube" to get the details, I was fascinated by the "snow blowers" (used in the USA and Canada among other places which get lots of snow), so I made a pattern of one of these too! I then proceeded to knit a hat using the pattern (just to try it out really).... I do at some point intend to make perhaps a jumper with rows of different types of snow ploughs and snow blowers - although Jeremy thinks I'm taking it all a bit far - and that people will not know what the pictures are of because they don't see them very often here!

I hope you all had relaxing weekends too. :o)

I am taking the children to school tomorrow for the first time since last Monday (they shut Tuesday because of the snow)! School is opening at 10am in order to allow extra time to get the children to school safely.

The Big Freeze Continues!

Gabrielle eventually arrived home around 3.30pm yesterday afternoon.

Jeremy walked into work this morning - around 2 - 3 miles away and managed to make some calls etc. and also got the car home (after visiting the Tesco near work).

We were glad he made it safely home on the icy roads - and also pleased he'd managed to get bread, milk, eggs and other supplies.

The local co-op store has been completely out of bread, milk and eggs for 2 days now. They are clearly not receiving any deliveries - because the roads had not been gritted - and subsequently only main roads have been ploughed.

Hampshire County Council have employed 120 farmers for their snow plough services and are also using JCB's to clear roads.

Jeremy is thinking of driving to work tomorrow - but that may turn out to be an unwise decision because we are supposed to be getting more snow. The temperature is around -5 during the day, so the snow is quite frozen and the roads are very very icy!

Twice today - neighbours have called on us to request borrowing our sledge - to bring their shopping home from the local co-op store (both have young children and found their buggies would not work in the snow)!

Sledging fun!

Here are the girls - sledging this morning - it got colder again and we had more snow.

Snow Joke!

Why was the sparsholt college coach not sent home earlier considering the severe weather warning issued by Hampshire County Council hours earlier?

The coach drove up and down the M27 unable to leave via usual junctions to deliver children safely home.

Many of the passengers are students under 18y, and as far as I'm aware they are legally wards of the college until delivered safely home by coach.

The driver was unprepared and didn't know what to do evidently (in words of one student - behaving like a muppet!).

The college it seems did not give any message to the driver as to where to drop the kids off, or how to find safe warm accommodation for the students for the night.

Gabrielle, 17y - and her friend of 16 or 17 along with some other 25 students were left at Hedge End bus depot - some 7 miles from home.

Jeremy and Gabi's friends mother tried to hike through to fetch the kids on foot (would have been a 14 mile round trip) but the police did not allow them entry onto m27 so they couldn't get to the girls. (I was at home with our other 3 children aged 7, 5 and 18 months).

Luckily another student happened to live at hedge end - so they made their way to his house and his mother kindly took them all in and they were able to change into some dry clothes and given a sofa and blankets to stay the night.

The college has since not even phoned to see if the children got to any place of safety last night or this morning.

Thank god for mobile phones or I would be beside myself with worry, I would not even know where Gabrielle was, or if she'd found accommodation for the night!

I would hope the coach driver had checked with my child and her friends that they had somewhere to stay before they were allowed to wander off into the snow/dark on their own! I know they were within civilization/houses etc - but they are children not adults yet. Gabrielle does afterall have learning difficulties albeit minor - but on the autistic spectrum (semantic pragmatic disorder).

Gabrielle is still stranded at a friends house in Hedge end with another friend - we don't know if trains are running - we might have to try trains to get her home, or alternatively stay put for a few days!!!

Jeremy's car is abandoned 2 miles away near his workplace - he had to walk home himself last night - which took over an hour in the snow. He was glad he was wearing a ski jacket!

Frosty!

Kozy Commercial!

Kozy Carriers from Karla Jean Davis on Vimeo.

Christmas Day 2009!

We got up VERY early - 5.30am - because that is when Lily and Rowanne woke up and wanted to see if Father Christmas had been to visit while they were sleeping...

Initially, they were a bit worried - it looked like Alfie had all the biggest parcels - and there wasn't so much for them. However, a quick rummage through their Christmas Stockings (handmade by Grandma Joy) and they soon realised that there was a super-surprise at the bottom - the much wished for Nintendo DS - and a PINK one each too!!! Hurrah! (They had been wishing for these toys for at least 3 years)!

Alfie was VERY pleased with the big red car he received and generally enjoyed unwrapping things and tearing paper.

Everyone also received a generous amount of chocolates and sweeties - and Father Christmas also bought me an Ikea gift card!

New Flooring Organised at long last!!!

Today we finally placed an order for some new flooring for the entire ground floor of our house. This is exciting news as we have been living with the original carpets that were in the house when we moved in - and cream carpets + 4 children = yucky carpets!

The new flooring will be a practical antibacterial vinyl with a 15 year durability guarantee - in a natural wood floorboards effect (looks like laminate), the vinyl should be very practical as it can be mopped clean and is stain resistant.

The above picture isn't the exact flooring we're getting - but it's similar. I can't remember the brand - but I know it had a 15y guarantee and was impact resistant...etc.
We're due to get it fitted on 5th January - and they hope to get it all done in 1 day - living room, dinning room, kitchen, hallway, downstairs bathroom - it should transform the place!

Up and down the hill.

A run about before walking to school.

A sleepy cloud.

Early in the morning.

A misty morning!

Walking to school this morning.

Lee on Solent

Jeremy and lily

Chasing the gulls!

Isle of Wight from lee on solent.

We had a lovely walk along the beach this sunday morning. It was warm too!

Saturday Afternoon

What better to do on a Saturday afternoon - than to make a volcano out of sand in the plastic sandpit, and light it up!!!

Knit a halloween wig!

Or indeed just knit one in a more subdued colour for your bad hair days.....

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATThallowig.html

Cream tea!

Alfie experiments with his scones.

Alfie's second visit to playgroup!

Alfie had a fab time at his second visit to playgroup - he is still very much enjoying the toy cars and the garage, but today he sat on a chair and after quite some encouragement - he became interested in the playdough - mostly after he discovered the wheeled cutters! (he just LOVES anything with wheels)!

We did some craft together at the craft table - well, Alfie is a bit young - so I did the craft and he watched - today's project was a paper plate - with some red glue - and some short bits of wool (meant to look like pasta), and some cut out bits of ham, pineapple, and mushrooms - all paper of course! I thought it was a very imaginative project - and can imagine Lily (7) and Roro (5) would love to make a halloween version of this project (green glue - cut out bat wings, eye of newt etc.)...!

I enjoyed meeting some of the other mums - the group was much busier this week than it had been last week - probably because it had been raining for the past 2 days - and everyone felt the need to get out.

Some of the other childrens names I heard at playgroup this week were: Archie, Noah, and Pheonix.....

I came home, ate my lunch, fed Alfie, put him up for his nap, and baked some scones ready for when I bring Lily and Roro home for their tea (pasta followed by a cream tea - complete with clotted cream!).

Oh, and today I had a letter from the infant school Roro attends letting us know that from November onwards, child benefit is no longer included as income when working out your entitlement to council tax benefit - which means it looks like we are now entitled to some! Thank you government for cutting us some slack... X

Alfie's worn out.

Alfie was a bit tired after 2 hours of playing and music time, so he had a quiet ride home in the buggy. He's wearing his pumpkin hat i knitted him in the photo.

Snack time at playgroup

Alfie enjoyed some fruit salad and a biscuit at playgroup. Sitting with the other children really helped to encourage Alfie eat and he even ate some kiwi fruit today.

Alfie's 1st time at playgroup.

Alfie really enjoyed his 1st visit to playgroup. He particularly liked the toy cars and the play kitchen.