Brass, sale and sunshine

Well it has been a busy weekend. Yesterday the boys had their brass debut with mini band in front of over 100 people at the main bands' patrons concert. The first piece Ode To Joy was a bit nervy but by the time they were on the last piece called Guava Guy they were all playing really well and received great applause. Onwards and upwards for mini band... Now called "Class Brass".

Then... Last night we set up for Storth Nearly new sale, there was so much stuff, it was piled high on the tables, so many toys and games all the sellers really had cleared their lofts!! But the madness of the drop off was totally upstaged by the main event this morning. People were queuing at 9.15 and doors don't open until 10!! Now we have gone all computerised I was volunteered to be on a laptop recording sales  (basically a till) . It was so busy that I didn't look up from my computer until 11.30, it was mental. Why some people insist on selling little things for 10p is beyond me, especially when you have to log them all on the computer! We took £4,700 +, that's £650 for play group which is fantastic and well worth all the hard work

As it was a lovely sunny afternoon, spent the afternoon in the garden, I think the ground might be dry enough to plant some bulbs next week... Haven't been to Beetham for ages... Might need to treat myself:-) The leaves were all very pretty in the sunshine so I took some pictures of them and Grace.

Busy busy busy ...

All very busy here at the moment getting ready for a very hectic weekend of band concerts and Storth  sale. J& L have their concert debut on Saturday as the mini band has a guest spot in the main band concert at QES in Kirkby lonSdale. I've been labelling toys for the sale, I'm sure I've priced to cheaply but I don't want to bring anything home. The boys caught me labelling up Thomas the Tank stuff, which made L cry, so I've let him keep all the books, which cheered him up!!

G has got a pre school afternoon at Storth School tomorrow... It is still bit strange to think she won't go to Arnside, but as the boys will go to high school when she starts in reception it will be nice to just walk across the road, it will take 2 mins!!!

I've started packing for morocco, which is pretty stressful... Especially as it is likely to be 25 degrees + but I should keep my legs and shoulders covered... No shorts or vest tops, so t shirts and Capri type trousers / long skirts , and we are only allowed 10 kilos each as the group transport can only hold a certain amount of luggage. Have got G a travel potty as she refuses point blank to go on the toilet.. Arghh, so princess pull ups will be on for the flight etc.  it was such a great idea when we booked it!!

Sunny days eventually :-)

I'm not much good at daily blogging so have decided that weekly is possibly the way to go unless anything extraordinary happens!
Eventually it has stopped raining  and we have had some lovely crisp sunny autumn days. Time to tackle the garden jungle... After a weekend of hard but very enjoyable labour the top end is looking very tidy. Mark is very pleased with our new chipper and reduced two huge buddlias into a pile of mulch in record time. We have pulled all the ivy down from the barn walls, pruned all the shrubs   (at the top end) and chipped to add to mulch mountain, dug over the raised beds and tidied the greenhouse. Grace and the chickens had lots of fun kicking about in mulch mountain, we should have fantastic eggs in the next few days as the chickens spent most of the days eating worms, spiders and grubs. Also they got into the greenhouse whilst Lorn and Grace were picking the last remaining tomatoes, from outside it looked like a low budget horror film...Chickens jumping to try and reach tomatoes, Lorn waving his arms around wildly trying to shoo them out and Grace screaming in a very high pitched manner, all witnessed through the Perspex sheeting that you can't see through clearly it was very surreal.
Hopefully the dry spell will continue as the stats for the summer for this part of the world were not very cheery... The wettest summer for over 100 years, the work weather station had recorded 129 consecutive days with some form of precipitation, which ended on Sunday when eventually it was dry for 24 hours.

Buffs, hymns and Lego!

Spent Saturday in Ambleside, although as normal Grace and shopping for new boots were not very compatible! Mark got some good stuff for Morocco whilst I took the kids to the park... In the end I got a new pair of gloves, which won't be useful for keeping my feet dry or Morocco but they took minimal trying on.  Lorn is now a bit obsessed with making a variety of head wear items out of his new buff.

Sunday has been rainy day, with Joe feeling poorly. Lorn was a star at cubs church parade as he had to do the reading that he was sharing with Joe on his own, you couldn't see him as the lectern was taller than him but he spoke very well so it was worth sitting through the service, however saying that it was harvest festival so I knew all the hymns so I had a good old sing. It was an afternoon of Lego and princess sticker books, the boys made a variety of Lego vehicles whilst Grace And I made stuff from her Princess activity book.

Mud, photos and crumble

A strange day to start a blog... Well here goes.
The first dry day of the week, after the horrendous rain of Monday and Tuesday it was time to dry out . The chicken run is very muddy, so the girls spent most of the day free ranging around the garden which they enjoyed a great deal, they love sitting on a sunny window sill preening themselves!
School photograph day, so it was a bit hectic getting to school early, Grace was good and did lots of smiling, as long as Little Ted was allowed in the photos, so we will see what they all look like when we get the proofs tomorrow.
Made an apple crumble for tea with some of the apples picked from next door. I must get round to making some blackberry and apple jam, and maybe some more chutney.