Well, let's take a fairly typical day with which to introduce you to my life - a Saturday for example should serve the purpose.....
M'lady Isabella awakens at the appalling hour of 4am and emits her usual high pitched shriek guaranteed to satisfy the souls of those with a taste for the Gothic. Her sweet mama (yes, I can be sweet though rarely at this hour truth to tell) staggers beguilingly from the warmth of her bed to lie the dear angel down and murmer night-night to the babe who responds with her usual elegant yell, most affronted at the very notion of further slumber. Mama returns to bed in a staggering manner reminiscent of the drunk and eventually isabella caves in and silence ensues once more (apart form snoring cats, Dave, etc).
The day proper begins with a pot of coffee brought to bed by either of us on a tray while isabella romps around the room looking adorable with her crazy hair a mass of wild curls. She is always full of life and always full of chat, as is Lucy who soon joins in the fun (almost 10 and gorgeous). The pair chatter away as Dave and I plan our day. Often Tom (25) will arrive and sit on the bed to share the coffee pot and eventually most of the vast brood squash onto the patchwork quilt as they have done most mornings when school is not on the agenda for the past goodness knows how many years. I love this, the laughing and chatting and planning as Dave and I sit in state - friends on holiday even seem to adopt the same pattern and perch at the foot of the bed too as though it is what everyone does in their own homes.
Here I shall break for a picture of eggs as this also is a part of my daily life - egg hunting as some of the hens will insist on doing a Colditz and breaking free of their pen which means I have to find the flipping eggs. This is a favourite spot, a little hollow under the hedge which has become the perfect nest shape.
I also use the egg collecting as a chance to have a loook around the garden to see what is new - the winter flowering cherry has blossomed for a while now and the fresh green leaves are just beginning to appear signalling the flowering is almost over for another year
The day generally follows a pattern something like this....(can't upload pics as batteries have just gone flat!)
I will perhaps work for the morning in my sewing room while Dave and the children go off shopping at the supermarket ( I defy anyone to comment here! Try feeding this bunch without resorting to a supermarket for some things!). Various activities take up the rest of the day as we are very much a 'doing' family. For example, this half term saw the following projects undertaken:
two dresses made for Isabella by me and a jacket trimmed for Lucy with some very pretty Liberty lawn given by the lovely Elizabethd.
Glycerine soaps, creams and lotions made by Dave and the children, including a brilliant one made of beeswax, almond oil and something else which I have forgotten - this cleared the persistent eczema on my eyes within an hour!!!
Lucy painted a glass bottle with glass paints to resemble a stained glass window and Elias made a model of the Bismark from a kit he bought himself;
Sam slept (!) and surfaced intermittently to play killer hands of blackjack and also taught himself to play poker. Regular rounds of Tarot were also played and mostly won by the devious card shark, Lucy (though Dave hasn't quite accepted this defeat yet).
Meals made and consumed in ever-increasing quantities included Thai fish curry (yum), carbonara, homemade scones with homemade jam and good Cornish clotted cream of course, pancakes (known to us as Yank panks - the thick ones not crepes) with smoked bacon and maple syrup, nut roast and all the trimmings, spag bol, cakes - marmalade cake, chocolate cake and I think I did make brownies too, roast chicken rubbed all over with our own tarragon harvested from the garden last year and dried in the kitchen (double yum) with all the trimmings (which means an enormous tray of crispy roast pots and vats of gravy plus veggies such as baked squash, garlic and pepper with olive oil and rosemary/ parsnips tossed in flour and parmesan and roasted till golden/ cabbage and caraway/ caramelised onions/ glazed carrots...oh you get the gist. There were more meals than this I am sure but I can't remember them now.
Evenings consisted of films watched accompanied by popcorn and wine (no, not the kids)
Walks in the afetrnoon - Argal Reservoir: a three mile walk where I was once heard to say that the tide was low (DURR - it's a reaservoir!). Time for a pic of Isabella trying out her new walking reins which she seems very proud of. She actually walked three quarters of the way round, bless her.
I realise I am nutshelling this as much as is possible, but this is a fairly typical picture of our holidays and weekends. In the summer there is much going to the beach and late summer includes endless blackberrying, sloe collecting, gin and wine production, crumble baking, etc. Schhol terms only alter the scene a little and evenings are when we play games or chat around the fire. When Isabella sleeps I work and sometimes while she plays, I sew where I can - hand embroidery is perfect for this. And obviously there are the less appealling things, the housework is ongoing but no more so than when I only had a couple of children. It's all a matter of how you view it I think - if you think 'oh no, i've got this to do and I hate it, then it will be a burden so don't think like it. Lecture over.
The seasons change but the feel is the same. All year there are camp fires and huge family meals, games and work, but it is all pretty lovely, well to me anyway.
Pipany xx
