Where to start?...

Where do I start?

Over 2 years. Is there still anyone out there, anyone still blogging, anyone reading this?

More likely not, but that's fine, this can be just for me!

Our family is changing, constantly

Bob & I are parents to 6 pretty bloody awesome kiddos and now we are also grand-parents to 1
We have a granddaughter!  How amazing is that?
I still get the 'did you say 6?' when I talk about our family, but its still a treat to hear the surprise in the voices when we say we also have a granddaughter.

Our kiddos have become the most adoring Aunties & Uncles.  Not once was there or is there any sign of jealousy, nothing but pure adoring love for their little niece.
It makes my heart swell to the point of bursting when I see them dote on her, the fierce love they have for her.  Of course they have their days when all they want is a bit of quiet but she has so many to choose from there is always someone willing to be her 'slave'!

Time moves without compassion, loved ones grow older, frailer and sadly my wonderful father in law is no longer with us. 
Time isn't a healer as far as I'm concerned, time lessons the pain of loved ones no longer being with us, but the gap is never filled. 

Happier Days
Joan & Alan

Can you compact almost 3 years into 1 blog post?  No I don't think you can, not in the slightest but I can give you a glimpse of what we've been doing, where life is taking us.

Needless to say this little soul plays a big part 

It gets harder and harder to get the bigger ones in a photo, but sometimes we manage to sneak them in

(RV & Fred 2017!)

One of my favourite photos' EVER of Loopy

(2017)

Cheering on sports day 

(2017)

Holiday

(2017)

Christmas 2017
Decorated by Loopy Lilly
(she's actually pretty darned good at it)

Our traditional trip to Brighton & our first with La La with us!

After years & years of waiting I finally got my very space, a shed in the garden!

sadly no longer this tidy but full of candle making & craft supplies!

Day tripping to Seaworld Birmingham 

(2018)

Trips to the park

When you have a visitor who runs a flower import company!
The kind of visitor welcome any day of the week

Staying cool in the heatwave 2018

 More day tripping

New Hobbies

Time in the garden

More day tripping

When the perfect time to go in the garden was during the evening

The 2018 heatwave will go down in the books!

Heatwave madness

Finding treasure for the shed!

Even more day tripping!

we did a lot of day tripping!

And back to the seaside

We also had a lodger for a few weeks

Gerald the budgie!

It was a year where we made lots of happy memories

Holiday 2018

(October half term)

And there we have it, a snapshot of life

There were other memories made

Bonfire Night were the 2 older girls & Tahlia came with us

And there was of course work, chores and day to day life but that will do for now!

Merry Christmas

See you in 2019

This Little Garden...

Every year I look in envy on many pretty garden blog posts and now I'm on Instagram that envy has grown.

My garden is in all honesty pretty shot.  I've tried over the years to patch it but between 6 children and 4 chickens it has taken a battering. 

However that could all be about to change...

Take a look at it as it is this evening

The shitty shed is literally falling down,  but it can't just yet as it's holding the even shittier fence behind it up.  

Fencing contractor is booked for the middle of July to replace or repair the old fence. Pots of wood stain are sitting patiently waiting for that job.

I've got a smaller shed on the patio waiting to be put up as soon as the fencing is done and the old one comes down.

If this was a design blog I would be referring to this area as a 'sunken terrace'.  Looking at it as it stands, terrace is just too grand a description so we'll settle with area!

The long term plan here is to create a chill zone for the teens, I'm starting to gather pallets to create a pallette seating area with a fire pit. The floor is pretty uneven with a mix of paving slabs and various concrete hard standings. Too expensive to replace, turf or deck I'm going for a jumbo sack of pebbles to cover it all.

On the floor down the bottom you might have spotted the big blue plastic sheet?  It's covering up the pitted crumbling ground where once the chickens lived. That is to be decked. The decking been ordered and we have a man that can coming in at the end of this month to lay a large deck to cover a multitude of crap. 

 Long term (next summer hopefully) I'll be putting my workshop on this deck.  But I have champagne taste on a lemonade budget and finding the right workshop that ticks all boxes including price will take some research and even more saving.

The patio area is with selective vision not so terrible, put your blinkers on and it's bearable.

These old cable reels were picked from the bins of an electrical shop on the industrial estate I'm now working at.  They'll be handy little garden tables!

However I'm hoping we can afford this year to deck the patio and extend that deck over the crumbling weed ridden bank...

The man that can says it's an easy job to do but I just need to finalise my budget!

And there we have it.  It will take time and no small amount of effort and saving but this is the first year that I have an actual plan not just pie in the sky dreams.

Still without those dreams the plan may never have been made!