The usual blog inertia

I have to admire these people who manage to blog daily or near daily - don't know quite how they keep the momentum up as I always seem to run out of things to say, or at least, not be able to think of anything at the points I actually have time to type... But I'm playing catch up tonight. With my mother visiting at the moment, there's been slightly less time for computer stuff than normal (which isn't a problem, just a fact) and with half term holidays coming up (last week in May) I'm sure I won't have a lot of time then, either. Of course, if the weather stays this rainy we won't be able to spend much time outside, so that will help me keep in touch!

For all in tents...

Ta da! We managed to get it up with very little problem (other than the fact that our garden isn't really quite big enough for it). It took over an hour, but that was the first time, and doing it with no instructions, so I don't think that was too bad. Next time it will go much faster because I will know which poles go where, having done it before.

The bit to the left is a "kitchen extension" - it zips onto the main tent, so you put the main tent up first, and then add that bit, if you like. Inside, there is a separate sleeping area, which is self-contained and then the main tent area. I think when we go camping, we will probably put the kitchen extension up even if we aren't going to cook in it, because it makes the inside of the tent really roomy. More photos are in my yahoo album.

A multiwash day

I'm sure there is something inherently sad about measuring how nice a day it is by how many loads of wash you can hang outside to dry, but after so many "don't even think about it" days, it's nice to have one that's only limited by the length of the clothesline or the amount of dirty washing in the house (not usually something one is short of, as once the clothes are done, there's always towels, sheets, duvet covers, and then sofa covers, etc). I did three today - two clothes and one sheets, etc with some fabric thrown in - I don't mind using the dryer in the winter or the rainy part of spring, but once the good weather is actually here (which it seems it may finally be) it seems wasteful not to take advantage of it.

My friend Mandy and I were talking about hanging out washing earlier (her comment being that her sister told her she was "such a housewife" when she responded to "isn't it a nice day" with a comment about how much washing she could hang out - but we all do it!) - that was what made me think about measuring good weather in terms of washing. And then I thought I should blog that. And then I thought, it's just as sad to plan to blog about washing as it is to measure the weather in washing in the first place. Possibly sadder. But there you go - there's the excitement otherwise known as my life...

A-camping we shall go...

So, we seem to have acquired a tent. This has come about because some friends of ours are planning to (eventually) move from a rather large house in the country with lots of storage space to a not so large flat in Belgravia with rather less storage space, and so are clearing out their stuff, of which after many years and four grown up kids, they have rather a lot, and redistribute it among said children and anyone else who will take it. Geoff made the mistake of mentioning that we were thinking about trying out camping as a family activity, and hey presto - tent. If there's good weather this weekend, we shall try putting it up in the garden and see how it goes. Photos (if successful) to follow.

And now for some real news...

In as much as anything I blog can be called real news... I think if there is actually a God up there watching, he wasn't paying much attention yesterday, as although the kids had the day off school (polling) and Geoff had arranged to take the day off, it was absolutely amazingly gorgeous - mid 20's and sunny all day. We went to Bekonscot Model Village in the morning (I had tickets won from the Christmas Fair) and in the afternoon, after a brief encounter with some ugly traffic (remind me never to listen to Geoff when he and I differ about which road route to take - he is, poor thing, invariably wrong), we hung out in Richmond Park, mostly in the Isabella Plantation, which, being full of azaleas, was pretty nice at the moment. The kids spent an hour or two playing the water with other half-dressed children - kids do love that sort of thing, and it was so nice out, we growups were content to just sit and soak up the sun and keep half an eye on the littles to make sure they weren't going all Lord of the Flies on us. Usually when there's a day off school it pours rain, so we were all well pleased.

And to top that off, it was lovely today, as well - a little cooler, but still gorgeous, and after school, the kids all went off to play together in the front gardens and on the pavements. I went out around quarter to six to have a quick word with a couple of neighbouring mums - Lorayne and Karen - to thank them for keeping an eye on my girls, and found three of them out front drinking wine and chatting. Well, I couldn't let that pass my by, so went back and got MY wine glass (already full, of course!). Lana & Rod peeked out a bit later and suddenly appeared with two glasses and another bottle, and gradually, impromptu street party, with most of 5 couples (the men kept disappearing and re-appearing) and Sophie, who isn't a couple... And a couple dozen kids - well, between us we have 14, plus there were at least 2 or 3 others, whose parents weren't out... It's one of the reasons I love this street - so many places, you barely know your neighbours, let alone, want to socialise with them. When most of us dispersed around quarter to eight (it was getting kind of cold, plus all us grownups were starving!) the kids all complained we "never let them play outside and always made them go to bed early".

If I wanted to sound like an old fart, this is the point where I'd say "Honestly, kids these days..."

Because men are basically sad gits...

Here is a photo of our friend Alex. Because most of you won't know him and won't care, I won't even bother to suggest a caption competition for this photo, it's just here to sooth his poor little ego - he's concerned I haven't mentioned him much in my blog. [Obviously, the poor soul hasn't really worked out why it's called "Kate's Blog" and not "Kate's Blog all about Alex Gann"]