I love Autumn. I also quite like Spring – I think I like the seasons of change rather more than the ones of extremes. So the leaves turning, the darker nights, the morning dew and the promise of bonfire smoke in the air and birds collecting themselves together for their ‘holidays’ all make me feel quite excited. I mentioned earlier this month that September is a busy month for us with birthdays and anniversaries and we have tended to have our two week annual holiday in September for years too so coming back from that always feels a bit like the countdown to Christmas.
Having worked in retail for so many years September really is the countdown to Christmas too and I suppose that mindset stays with me. Whether it was ensuring we were getting people’s kicthen orders and installation booked and sorted well in time for Christmas at the large DIY chain I worked for, organising Christmas temps for the recruitment agency I worked for, preparing for the onslaught of the busiest time of the year aside from Mother’s Day at a well known greetings card retailer who also employed me, or preparing all the party clothes, socks and pants Christmas gifts or fretting about staff cover and getting the January sale prepared (and yes, that really did start in October!) at the department store who employed me we were very much into 10 week countdown programmes by now.
So with plenty to look forward to – Halloween party, Firework night, another round of early November birthdays, Scarlett’s third birthday, a holiday with friends and then Christmas. Oh, and of course chocolate liqueurs will soon be in the shops 😉
Anyway, enough of all that, today Ady returned to work and I had my day planned and ready. Of course various things conspired to throw me off track with my carefully time managed morning including several phone calls, but we did manage to watch a bit of Nick Jr before turning the TV off, made some tissue ghosts in an experimental fashion to see what they looked like (very good!) and then we lined ourselves up in the kitchen in a fairly good approximation of a production line and peeled, chopped and threw into the pot carrots, swede, leeks, garlic, red onions, white onions, parnsips, potatoes and beef, topped it up with crumbled oxo cubes and boiling water and shoved it in the oven for tea. Load of educational stuff there – I was hugely impressed that not only Davies but also Scarlett named all the veg (considering they eat very little in the way of vegetables they are pretty knowledgable about them!) and could tell me about them being root vegetables (if they were) and so on. Have semi planned to go to the pick your own later this week before it closes for the winter and pick some more veg for a stew and some orchard fruits for pies and crumbles after Davies was so impressed with Layla’s crumble last weekend.
Then we dashed around collecting ourselves together and headed over to Ali’s arriving a mere hour late. Ali greeted me with ‘I’m soooo ready for guests!’ as well she might be by then 😉 On the way over we listened to James Blunt. Davies likes the first track which is a little melancholy (indeed which of his tracks aren’t!) so I listened to him doing that singing along type of thing you do while you sort of know the tune and a few of the lyrics and clearly enjoying the song and asked him how it made him feel. His answer ‘like I am flying’ very perceptive… We then flicked through the album and talked about which ones we all liked best and why. We’ve been playing Sinatra album in the playroom a lot the last couple of weeks, specifically while the kids have their evening baths and it is so lovely to hear and see them absent mindedly singing along and having clear favourites without actually realising that the tunes and lyrics are entering their memories. Davies came to me the other day and said ‘It’s Autumn now isn’t it Mummy’ we had a small chat about how we knew that (birds flying away, darker nights, colder days, leaves falling from the trees and so on) and then he knowledgably informed me that ‘it’s always Autumn in New York!’ 😉 They also both really like Mack The Knife – so either big band singers in the making who will sing for their supper in smoky jazz clubs or super star karaoke stars I am breeding! 😉
Had a lovely time as ever at Ali’s. Davies, Scarlett and Freya did various playing in duos, trios and seperately, inside and out and with various props. There was plenty of imaginative play, role playing and turn taking going on. Ali and I got involved at one point with some sticking of foam shapes on card which went down very well. Davies did a great fish picture and then really impressed us by starting to find the letters for his name to spell that out too. A slight stumbling block that all the letters available were upper case but once over that we got there very quickly. I keep fretting that I really am doing next to nothing with the whole reading and writing thing and can’t decide whether to take heart that he is actually getting there anyway (he painted his name all by himself three times at Home Ed group last week) or feel bad that he might be doing even better if I did some work on it with him. I guess as a Lazy Bugger and someone who is not very good at doing guilt anyway I will mark this as another victory for autonomy! 😉 Freya did a lovely picture she entitled Rainbow Waters and it was very interesting to see their different approaches. Davies stuck on foam fish shapes, drew on one of them to create an angel fish, debated with me how it was NOT a clown fish as the stripes were not black, white and orange, then used a felt tip to draw loads of dots on the picture which was the ‘salt in the sea’, did the name thing on it and then drew some coral. Freya’s was more abstract but clearly still working towards something she had in her mind and was deliberately creating. Scarlett did a bit of sticking on her own card and then invaded mine. I did a farm with a pig, sheep and chicken and then a space scene with a rocket, stars and planets – which only Ali managed to correctly identify to my shame! All the children then drew rings round my planets to make it more obvious!!
Ali gave Davies what must surely be the very last birthday present in possibly the most drawn out birthday ever – a construct it yourself wooden fire engine which has been earmarked for making tomorrow and went down very well :-).
Came home and both children tried the beef stew for dinner. Scarlett tried it, decided she only likes raw carrots and seemed offended enough by the piece of carrot she tried being soft instead of crunchy she flatly refused to try any more so ended up with soup (her current favourite food). Davies with all the discernment of a professional wine taster tried a small piece of each vegetable in turn and didn’t like any of them (but he really did try) and then tried the beef which he claimed to adore! I went back to the kitchen and picked out a bowlfull of beef for him with some of the gravy and he very happily ate all that up 🙂
Baths were a necessity due to bringing half of the filth from Ali’s garden home and combining it nicely with soup and stew. Early to bed for them as Tarly is just getting over her lurgy and Davies is definitely brewing his.
Tomorrow the plan is a day at home. I might get cabin fever and do either a trip to the main library in town or the pick your own if the weather is good, or we might just try and play with all Davies’ birthday presents many of which are still sitting waiting for their christening.
Nic- chocolate liqueurs are in Tesco aisles as I type….
Comment by Heather — 26 September 2005 @ 11:06 pm
yep, and Sainsbury’s 😉 I like Autumn too, even more this year, so much to look forward to!
Comment by Sarah — 27 September 2005 @ 7:17 am
I despise autumn.
All those kiddy collages made of leaves and acorns…..yuk!!
Comment by Chris — 27 September 2005 @ 8:11 am
yep. as are xmas puds and cakes as of quite a while ago 🙁
Enjoy your day in.
Comment by Barbara — 27 September 2005 @ 8:27 am
Hmm, we have one of those collages on the wall made 2 years ago which the kids will not let me take down! Actually half of it is hanging off so we may try to do a new one for this year. Will make sure we take a photo just for you Chris 😉
I love autumn too 🙂
Comment by Kirsty — 27 September 2005 @ 8:45 am
Yep, i love autumn too and from all the retail i’ve done, i always feel much the same!
Comment by Merry — 27 September 2005 @ 9:17 am
I don’t mind autumn, but I hate the moment the clock goes back, and the thought of three months with hardly any dalyight depresses me instantly. I love the spring, and the day the clock goes forward again is just about the happiest day in the year for me. I am looking forward to the halloween party though, and to Melrose, which sort of breaks up the winter. I must get some things sorted for December though, or it’ll be a dreary month. I’m terrible for not planning in advance, and then finding everything is booked up. We’re going up North the second week in January as well, so once I fix November and December, then there’s something nice every month till spring. Xmas almost doesn’t count, with Bob working. March I just spend in a lather of anticipation for spring, so that’s OK 🙂
Comment by Joyce — 27 September 2005 @ 10:13 am
November I might have Kirsty, actually, so that’s another one knocked off 🙂
Comment by Joyce — 27 September 2005 @ 10:16 am
was just going to say we’ll be up in November Joyce! Looking forward to it too 🙂
Comment by Kirsty — 27 September 2005 @ 11:16 am
You might get us at some point Joyce :-).
I don’t mind Autumn but I’m a hot girl so adore boiling summers.
Comment by Roslyn — 27 September 2005 @ 1:15 pm
Ros, you tease 🙂 Do you mean it?
Comment by Joyce — 27 September 2005 @ 3:59 pm
I REALLY mean it!!!
Comment by Roslyn — 27 September 2005 @ 6:19 pm
I’ve been pondering a plan to send Tilda up with Kirsty, lol! But November is jampacked for us 🙁 Which weekend is the wedding?
Comment by Alison — 28 September 2005 @ 12:41 am