summer time

I love summer. I love warm weather. I'm a pale faced former-ginger who burns without factor 30. But I still love it when it's hot. And it has been flipping hot this week. Even in Yorkshire! I've got loads of work on for loads of people so it's been a bit rubbish having to stay in and slave over the computer. I took it outside today in the hope of catching some rays. I couldn't see a bloody thing. Had to come back in.
Still....it's the weekend now so all those officey types will be away from their desks. I am free to wear something unsuitably small and go outdoors to frighten people with my paleness. 
Ha ha as if....I've slapped on the fake tan. I am a bronzed goddess just waiting for a sunny weekend......we better blooming get one....

tree

We had this tree at the front of the house. Like less than a meter from the front of the house. When we moved in it was quite small. But it grew. For a couple of years we put lights on it at Christmas. Very festive. Then it got too big for the lights. They only reached half way up and it looked crap. I've seen the same sort of tree in other people's gardens and realised that this is no shrub. This is gonna be one of those big f-off trees that you really don't want a meter away from your front window. 
So the other half got out his chain saw and hacked it to bits. The tree is no more. Dead.
But at least we can see out now. And it's light!
I blame Betty and Geoff. Who plants a tree slap bang in the front of a house?

bbq weather

We're going to our friends' annual barbecue today. The weather forecast says 90% chance of rain with thunderstorms and torrential downpours.
I asked my friend if I could do anything to help. She suggested I fashion together a wigwam construction to accommodate 50 people. With my sewing skills that should be no problem.

home alone

Today is the last day of school. The big one has gone straight out with her friends and is sleeping out. The little one is at a party and doesn't need picking up till 8.30pm. The other half is going to football and the pub.
I am home alone!!! 
For 4 hours!
I can't even begin to decide what to do with my time. Because this never happens. 
I'll probably just dither about for 4 hours and wonder what to do. Or I'll do some work. Or hoover the stairs. Something worthwhile anyway I imagine - to make the most of those 4 hours....

weekend

Well that was a FULL weekend.
Went to Flamingo Land on Saturday with my sister, our friend Sammy and all the kids. We did all the big rides, had a quality picnic and got jumped on by a lemur. Who knew lemurs were so friendly?
We didn't do that stupid ride where you get soaking wet when the "audience" fires water at you from all angles with a water canon. We're not daft. My sis went on it last year and nearly cried. We said NO this time. That ride is just for idiots and people who don't realise.
Then yesterday the other half, me and the kids went to Hebden Bridge on a bus and a train and watched the Tour de France. Not content to be in the middle of 10 million other people the other half made us walk about 2 miles up the steepest hill in the world to a less busy street where we had an ace view. We mingled with the locals and our new mates kindly gave us the cushions from their sofa to sit on and let the little one use their loo and watch the race on their telly before it got to us. The bikes went past in about 4 seconds but it was fanbloodytastic! And the good thing about public transport is you can have a few beers without having to argue about who's turn it is to drive. AND it was sunny! Woo!
So now the house is a tip and we have no food and no clean clothes. But we had a good weekend. So who cares.

tour de france

The Tour de France comes to sunny Yorkshire this weekend. All the roads are closing. Well not ALL the roads. Just the important ones. But it means that to actually see it you have to camp out or find a train. Or live on the route. Which we don't. So we're gonna hopefully find a train on Sunday and join the 8 squillion other people milling around trying to catch a glimpse of some fast blokes on bikes.

june 2014

Blimey it's the 1st of July! Already! We're like halfway through the year and everything. Any minute now the shops will be full of Christmas!
Here's June on my blog. Not much I'm afraid. But better than last month. I sneaked a bit of repetition in there to pad it out...don't think anyone will notice...

hook a duck

My sister volunteered our services at the Cub's summer fair. We were given control of the hook-a-duck stall. It wasn't strictly hook-a-duck. It was hook-a-paper-bag-with-a-picture-of-a-duck-on-it. It was so easy that our prizes ran out after 45 minutes and we were free. Result! 
The woman on the next stall wasn't so lucky. She got the Hoopla. This involved throwing a hoop over some tins of food and winning what it landed on. As no-one in their right mind would possibly want to win a tin of supermarket own brand sausage casserole her stall wasn't so popular. Shame.

football crazy

As we speak the other half is watching the England match in the pub. I'm watching it at home with the little one. I say watching... I'm not really paying that much attention. And the little one is doing more talking than watching. And bouncing about on the sofa. Still....we're watching enough to know we're losing. Again.

holidays

I booked flights to Spain this week. Yay, sunshine! 
We go the last 2 weeks of the school hols. If I'd got the little one to nick off the first day back it would've saved us 200 quid. But I just couldn't do it. I'm so square. I always play by the rules. Even when it means forking out an extra £200 for the sake of ONE DAY! 
I think I need to learn to live a little don't I!

fathers day

For Father's Day the lovely children bought the other half a voucher for the cycle shop he likes at Salts Mill. Which meant we had to go there and spend it today. As luck would have it Salts Mill is my fave place in the world. What clever children!

Happy Father's Day to my lovely Dad... and the other half... and all the other Big Daddies out there x

football in the rain

The other half helps organise a football tournament every year to raise money for Kirkwood Hospice in memory of his friend Ken. We usually have fabulous weather. This year we had the wettest day in the history of the world ever. Like from heavy rain to torrential downpours then back to heavy rain. For the whole 4 hours.
Thank god for the chap who brought a pop up tent. I think it was meant to be for the players to keep their stuff in. But we stole it and made it into the VIP tent. We could still see a bit of the football...but to be honest once you've seen one game of old blokes playing football in the rain you've seen them all.
We were glad to get to the pub afterwards. 
....And then the sun came out!

Hetty

I've been at a funeral all day. It was my friend's mum's funeral. She was called Chris but we always called her Hetty. She would've been 90 this year. But she wasn't like a 90 year old. She was really young. When she was about 70 she used to organise trips to Ireland for the old folks. Some of them were younger than her! She was full of life right up to the very end. She wrote her autobiography a couple of years ago and had it published. And only this year she was driving home from the hospital after having blood tests and she passed a garage. She stopped and traded in her car for a new Mini Cooper!
Her book was called "A Life Well Lived" and we should all take a leaf from it! 
Night night Hetty, you'll be missed x

and the winners are....

Alfonzo took the hat (Bob) off his head long enough for me to stick all the names in it. I put them in from my blog and from my facebook page and gave them a good shuffle and he picked out these two....

So Jayne and Fhiona email me at dawn@dawnmachell.co.uk with your address and your stickers will be in the post.

Thanks everyone for all your lovely comments xx

surtex report

I wrote a blog post on our Dotty Wren Studio blog about our fab trip to New York...if anyone is interested go have a nosey here

And don't forget the big sticker giveaway! Alf will be pulling a name out of his hat (Bob) tonight....