Alas I am undone...

The Fiat Multipla aka "the Ugly Bug car" aka "the TARDIS" has blown a head gasket. Our plans of days out during the half term break have been undone by the unforseen nature of Italian engineering. And oh the irony, the dashboard lit up like a christmas tree just by the turn off to the car sales where we bought it, and then they gave us a Ford Focus (our old car) as a replacement.
Ho hum, they think we will be back being stared at on the roads within the week - I hope so!

Cake mmmmm..... c a k e........

Ok so I've finally mastered uploading videos to YouTube. My wife George said that in years to come Jemima will look at the outfit she is wearing and go "what were my parents thinking!". It was the fashion baby, it was the fashion...

Why are they waving at us Mummy?

Yes, its the Marmite of the car world. We have bought ourselves a Bug! A Fiat Multipla 2003 1.9 JTD ELX to be precise.
Actually Jeremy Clarkson raves about these cars, as they are like a TARDIS, huge on the inside with 6 full size adult seats, all with 3 point harnesses, permanently set up with admirable bootspace still available.

And yes, Multipla owners do wave to oneanother when they pass on the roads!
So we are lining up a few roadtrips to put it through its paces and see if we can get close to 50mpg out of the diesel engine... and a few strange looks. What will the neighbours think??
La dolce Multipla!!

Lights, camera, YouTube!!

For the benefit of friends and family, here is a quick video of Jemima, Beatrice and Angus on the day of Jemima's 6th birthday party.

Having finally managed to upload a video to YouTube, I anticipate that you will see in living colour a bit more of what we get up to.
Enjoy

"It's a small world..." MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

I am sure that somewhere back in my military service there was a well documented interrorgation technique that sought to deprive the detainee of sleep by constantly blasting them with music 24hours a day.

Roll on Disneyland Paris...

For four days, it never stopped. Every tree or shrub had been Disney'fied with a speaker blasting out swirling Disney theme music, over and over and over and over. But apart from that it was great fun. Jemima and Beatrice loved it and met loads of Disney characters and went on tonnes of rides. Beatrice's favourite was "Casey Jnr", a train rollercoaster for 3 year olds. Jemima's was a toss up between "Crush's Coaster" and "Big Thunder Mesa", both great rollercoasters and has her squealing with laughter. Thanks to Fastpasses and Babyswitch (nothing illegal, just meant that parents could both ride it with only one having to queue), we managed to get a lot done.

Before we hit Disney, I actually met George and the children in Paris in time for my birthday. We headed into the middle of Paris and took a ferriswheel ride in the Tuliary Gardens for a memorable day. From there it was onto Munich for, our old Au Pair, Mandy's wedding. This was a fantastic time, even though it was all in German!

On the way back to the UK - overall it was a 2,200 mile odyssey by car with three well behaved children in the back - we stopped into Giverny once again. This is Monet's home and garden where he painted some of his most famous impressionist paintings.

So now we are back in wet and miserable England. Our new Au Pair, Lisa, has arrived and seems great. She will come into her own from Friday when I have my operation on my ankle and spend the next three months on crutches.

Goings on in the bottom of the garden

Well an update is long over due.
The purchase of the Permaculture magazine was like a dealer handing out free heroin. Which is slightly worrying when you consider that my wife then bought me a magazine subscription for Father's Day [I suppose she thinks I can't come to any harm tripping out reading a magazine].

So the garden was planted and here's the update:

• Tomatoes - first ones were eaten this weekend having had to fight for sunlight with some beligerant Brassicas.
  
• Cucumber - still thinking about fruiting. A trip to the Riverford farm in Devon where our organic vegie box comes from taught me about growing them up a frame and keeping the fruit off the ground.
  
• Courgette - not really sure what these taste like - I will have to ask the slugs... b@rstards!!!
  
• Sweetcorn - lasted about 30 seconds before the slugs hoovered that up too. Despite putting down some garlic granules as organic 'pesticide', probably only gave the slugs indigestionSunflowers
• Brussel Sprouts - these have had to be thinned out to just two plants due to my over-crowding of the vegie patch. These were also starting to bend under the weight of the hundreds of caterpillars, which the slugs had obviously invited to a three week rave in our garden, as there was far too many plants for the slugs to eat alone.
  
• Brocolli - these were looking great. So we picked some with smug grins on our faces. We steamed them in anticipation of a pius portion of greens on our dinner plate. We were really clever until Jemima sitting at the dinner table said "Mummy there's a caterpillar on your brocolli!" Which was correct, but it would have been more appropriate to say "Mummy there's Brocolli in amongst that infestation of caterpillars!" In the end we had to ditch the plants (preferring not to think about the ones we'd already eaten) as, try as we might, we couldn't get all the caterpillars off the Brocolli to enable ourselves to eat it.
  
• Rocket - this was a success!! Let's leave it at that shall we?
  
• Red Onions - these amounted to spring onions with a red tinge. Not helped by the landgrab made by the Brocolli and Brussel Sprouts. But the season isn't over yet and they may take off now there is more room in the garden.
  
• Blueberries - poor fellow seemed to be doing better in his pot than he is in the garden. These guys like acidic soil and unless you like your blueberry muffins one small blueberry at a time, I think I will need to shift him.
  
• Raspberries - these were another success and seem to have thrived. Hoping we can prick out the stems into a bigger area next year. Jemima liked being able to pick them off the bush in the garden. Of course as soon as Beatrice learnt that this was fruit - she would have nothing to do with it (unless I planted a sausage tree).
  

Since then we have also managed to: grow a large sunflower; force some rhubarb nice and tall; build a cold frame next to the outlet for the gas boiler so the hot moist air can be put to some use and not just dissipate into the atmosphere; and plant a herb planter of parlsey, corriander, sage and chives. We also have a capsicum plant in the cold frame with dreams of roasted peppers preserved in olive oil through out the winter (yummy).


Alas still no Chickens...