Damp Tassels...

I was wearing an oft' admired grey poncho this morning. It wasn't exactly like Clint's, for starters I wash mine! Clint's, I understand, was never washed, urghhh! Anyhoo mine has tassels. Get me, fashion goddess!

I was feeling rather swish for 7:30am, poncho, boots with a heel rather than my trademark wellingtons, AND I had lipstick on, albeit that it was on my lips and my cheeks [face] as I couldn't find a blusher. I was lookin' good. I even managed to carry a porcelain teacup (it's my favourite,) filled with thick black sugary coffee, to the car. Coffee in one hand, bright orange Halloween bucket of mixed corn in the other hand [WHAT?....OK, OK, image ruined!]

I loaded the sprogs into the car for school and placed the gorgeous steaming cup of coffee on the roof of said vehicle while I went to open up and feed the chooks.

I know what you're thinking....... and you're wrong, I did not sashay back to the car forgetting that the coffee was on the roof, thus smashing my lovely tea cup to smithereens when I drove off, .... No, that was last week.... and the week before! No, I remembered it was there and placed the precious vessel in the cup holder that tolerates my cup but that would prefer a diet coke shaped drink.

There is a certain amount of off-roading to be done after we leave the comfort of our drive. There is a short strip of concrete from the front door to the stables and this is where our equine guests get washed, but out on the bridle path, the track that leads to the cross country tarmac road, we have to navigate Michigan lake-like potholes. I'm always nervous in case one turns out to be Vicar of Dibley size and the car is swallowed whole!

Along this stretch the trick is to pick the cup up out of the holder and balance it in your hand, trying to absorb the worst of the seismic activity. There must be some scientific explanation to this shock absorption but I read Art at Uni with a side order of 'dying one's hair,' so I couldn't hope to impart anything serious regarding this phenomenon.

All was well, we made it to the road; I wasn't wearing my coffee and the sprogs, unpeturbed by the usual gait of the car, were busy learning spellings and French vocab. I took a welcome gulp of nectar and placed the cup back in its holder.

Who'd have thought that poncho tassels made of a wool mix could be so thirsty. By the time I went for another slurp, the coffee had been filched by my cape. A damp patch on the material looked like Australia, plus I smelled like Starbucks! Sucking the coffee out doesn't work, all the wool bits get stuck in your teeth.

Poncho wash day here I come... Oh if anyone has Clint's number tell him I'm putting a wash on, he might want me to do his too.....







..

North West of London.......

It is always good when friends come to stay, and lately we have had a lovely array of visitors.

This weekend we hosted a pal from London with her wonderful hubby Fen and her two gorgeous children Cate and X. You must know her she writes the brilliant 'Cross the Pond blog.

She chose a good weekend to come, Ludlow has held street markets since the twelfth century and this weekend was no exception, the Ludlow Medievil Christmas Fayre was on too. We browsed stalls selling fresh produce, cheeses, olives, books and  local crafts while rubbing shoulders with wild, chivalrous knights and courtly ladies, soldiers, jesters and medieval musicians as well as menacing minders of King Stephen. All with the backdrop of the Norman Castle.

It was all pretty bizarre, but good.

We visited the yummy cheese shop too. Sadly I'd forgotten to bring a carrier bag, but thank goodness the weather was so chilly, as Miss 'Cross the Pond offered to store the cheese purchases in her handbag. If it had been warmer, her purse could have smelled remarkably like a french pond, so pungent were our cheese- choices! (Fortunately she was still fragrant by home-time, freezing but fragrant) Although cold, the belting sunshine made Ludlow look so pretty.

Fen and Hubby were in heaven too: Two international rugby matches on the TV on Saturday, beer and a thwacking Thanksgiving turkey - theirs was a marriage made in heaven.

It has been super-cold, a severe frost has covered the fields and frozen the water troughs for the horses. Although it's not snow, after our guests departed, Sledge Field was sufficiently frozen to allow the 8yo and the 6yo to sled for the afternoon, until their hands bottoms and knees could take the pain no longer!. It has been so cold in fact, that locally they recorded temperatires of -18 last night. Sadly, one of our chickens passed away last night. Poor thing, she hadn't looked well. Never fear however, Archie and mum are still doing well.

Well I'm off to cook dinner.

Just 7000 words between now and Tuesday midnight and I should complete the NaNoWriMo challenge. Will I do it? 'COURSE I WILL.......

Giveaway: Cinderella's Coach... (pre-spell!!!)

It's difficult finding appropriate transport to the Ball isn't it? Your gown or tails get caught in the doors of an everyday kinda car and those bloody tiaras scrape the low roof, not to mention the difficulty chaps have with their long, shiny swords! Well, here's the answer: I'm offering you the chance of owning your very own coach, (pre-spell of course.)

Just contact your very own Fairy Godmother, pick up several white mice, a rat and whooosh..... your very own coach, white horses and a footman. You'll be off to the ball in a jiffy.... well not actually a jiffy, more accurately a pumpkin! Not just any old pumpkin either, (Marks and Spencer advertisement voice please...)

this is an organic pumpkin, 

grown by the hands of Lou Archer in a walled garden:

An Archers at The Larches pumpkin.

Ooooooooo!

To be eligible for the draw next Wednesday to win gorgeous pumpkin all you've got to do is:

• register yourself as a Follower (add your little picture or logo to my Global Friends gallery,)
• AND add a comment to this post
• Existing followers need only add a comment to this blog post to be eligible for the giveaway

I'll post the pumpkin to the winner on Thursday 21st October.

Disclaimer
Lou will supply a fully functioning pumpkin (the one centre-stage of the picture above.)
If the said item refuses to turn into a coach please sue your Fairy Godmother and not me!
Please note, a pumpkin is not just for Halloween!
Your investment may go up, it may go down but always use appropriate pumpkin carving equipment and don't play with matches.
You have been warned!

What could possibly go wrong????

Usually, when my husband is away on business, (whisper please...)... disasters happen. I won't list the disasters of the past, for fear of reminding the disaster daemons...but suffice to say they've been, pretty, damn, B. A. D!

Today however, went quite smoothly. The sun was warm. I cleaned the car and the kids washed their bikes; having ridden them through the woods yesterday with friends.


No chickens died today. No horses escaped. OK, a rabbit was murdered before our eyes by a cat, while the children and I ate dinner in the garden,....but heyho that's nature. Actually, (she sniggered) when the children saw the bunny in Ben's mouth, they politely said,

'May we be excused from the table?'

I gave the nod, mafia-like (or murphia-like really, because I'm actually Irish, well; born to an Irish mum and dad....) I watched as the two cats, one carrying a bunny almost the same size as him, were pursued around the garden by two children. They were desperate to rescue the squealing bunny. All five lashed 'round the pond, hurdled the felled conifers and navigated the stone wall onto the bridlepath! I continued to eat my chicken and coconut curry, while sipping a glass of chilled Chablis, a left-over from the weekend. It was like watching The Goodies or a Benny Hill sketch in fast motion......the cats won. Bunny died. The End....

After dinner, we three played golf till 9pm! Husband has mowed Home field so that we have a par three golf hole, (for him it's a par three! For the rest of us it's a par 99, especially if you go off the fairway, as the meadow grass is up to our knees) The green has a hole in the earth containing an inverted 2 litre pop bottle. This in turn holds a natty flag stick I made....such a talent!

... Well anyway, our game was going really well, until the cats joined in, and then the 7yo had an urgent appointment with the loo, and then the 5yo discovered enormous black slugs, that he collected on dock leaves for the chickens.... so who knows who won. These people who won't take sport seriously! Honestly! Annoying really, as I'm sure I was leading the field... and yet I'm pleased to tell you, I felt none of the urges of Mr T let's-go-down-to-the Woods!!! 'scusting, should be ashamed of himself!

As it was 9pm, there were no sproglet shenanigans regarding bed. They surrendered easily. Pretty late, even for half term. I had just one more ordeal to conquer.......The nightly electrocution.

Well, my hair is slightly frizzier but I locked the chooks down, turning on the dreaded 'leccy fence. I love/hate it.

Oh yes, there was one slight disaster, I dyed my hair. I've had many disasters with my hair in the past...another blog post entirely. But I'm too poor/mean to get the professionals to colour my hair, so I expect failure every so often. Today, instead of just slightly toning down my brassy, gold-blond, shock of madness.....I am now a brunette. Oh well gotta laugh!

Before


After



Clearly my husband's fault entirely. No question!

No Horses, No Ponies Thank you.

Wow we're really motoring, kicking ass in the garden department. Husband's petrol chainsaw is cooking on gas, if you'll pardon my mixed metaphor. Trees are being felled, parts of the garden revealed for the first time in 10 years. Dizzy Disco is thoroughly enjoying being a part of the gardening team as we attach a tow rope to him, driving off to pull out deep shrub roots.




The stables are really quite busy now, creating a nice steady- if little, income. All welcome. We have three very social parent/child combinations and a lovely man with a hunter and an unbroken Shetland. It's wonderful seeing the stables buzz and my two sproglets are included in mucking out, feeding and grooming. Occasionally, out of the kindness of someone's heart they are put on a horse and walked down to the menage. It's idyllic but I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO INTENTION OF GETTING A HORSE. The plan may be to re-start riding lessons next year continuing on from where we left off in Oxford before I was thrown off and needed ankle surgery! So ABSOLUTELY NO horses for the next few years. (Just so we're clear ok?)

The kids are outside most of the time now as the bottom of the bath will testify! The 7yo, a very creative girl, has invented a new game a derivative of paintball - she rolls wet clay, the colour of diarrhea, into a neat golf-sized ball and throws it at her brother. If it hits the 5yo and leaves a mark she scores a point. Generally he thinks this is pretty funny - weirdo! I, being the gardener just use the clay and molehills for planting! Boring I know but that's just me!

The pond is an interesting spot and so far only Daddy has managed to fall in! There are pairs of common newt and millions (I do not exaggerate!) of tadpoles who have escaped the egg sack and are now being predated on by all sorts of creatures that I suspect to be aliens from another planet.

The next door neighbour took his 2 pigs for slaughter. This morning we ate sausages made from the pigs we sporadically helped feed. I'm sure they tasted so nice thanks to that huge apple crumble we gave them in October! My children are beginning to understand the concept of raising meat to eat and with this in mind we are considering raising two little lambs who are mummyless. They are currently residing in a tree farm (no they are not living in the trees silly but rather in one of their barns, raised by two young brothers.) As soon as the lambs are comfortable on the bottle we may be considered for adoption. I had THE conversation with my offspring...

'Now, you understand that we will send these lambs to market when they're older?'
The 7yo nods enthusiastically licking her lips but the 5yo sort of looks at me side-on! I continued:
'You can have one lamb and you can have the other,' I said pointing to each child.
'When we sell your lambs you can use the money we make from the meat to buy something. What would you like to buy?'
The 5yo seemed to immediately approve of this concept.
'I'm getting Star Wars Lego.'
'Good idea. What about you?'
Daughter smiled.
'I'm buying a Shetland Pony and D and L (girls with horses at our stables) are going to break it for me.'

O shit, that SO backfired.