Pre-Christmas rush

It's been a very, very busy time, this pre-Christmas period. I expect it is for most families-with-small-children in the western world. In the past 10 days, I have been to a Guides'/Brownies' Christingle service, Joseph's school's Christmas nativity play, Joseph's school's Christmas carols service, our town Christmas concert with the combined town brass bands (we have 2 brass bands in this tiny town) and Joseph's school choir, Orla's pre-school group's nativity play, Orla's pre-school group's Christmas party (featuring Father Christmas), the town's Christmas shopping festival with a seasonal performance by a group of children from Joseph's school (including Joseph)– and dress rehearsals for some of the aforementioned. Pre-Christmas events are nearly over, with only the Scouts'/Cubs' Christingle service this evening and Joseph's school party on Friday afternoon.

This is also the busiest period for my business.

It was a little unfortunate, therefore, that Marie had a “bad” spell at this time.

Despite all of the above, I still found a little time to go rock climbing with Joseph.


I had my nephew to visit. Orla likes him!


I walked Blaze and rescued him from Orla!


Marie's bad spell wasn't a major one. She was able to dress Orla as an angel for her nativity play.

She made a Christmas cake, and let Orla help...


However it was my mother-in-law who rescued me from almost certain burnout and terminal domestic chaos! Many, many thanks to her! She went back home again last night after spending 5 days with us. As well as rescuing me, she also helped to cheer up Marie, who appears to be back to her normal self. By the end of this weekend, my busiest business period will have ended and although still very busy, will be gradually be returning to normal. I'll be able to relax a little!

Finally, here is a short video clip of my precocious 3 year old with her big brother. It ends with her picking her nose! Please forgive the quality of the clip.

The golden retriever, the children and the beach

Shhhh! Don't tell Marie, but I'm getting as much enjoyment from our puppy as she is. Maybe more, in fact. The children are enjoying having him, too.


Blaze, our 5 month old Golden Retriever puppy, has been with us for less than 2 weeks, but he's already housetrained, sits on demand, fetches (indoors only) and only chases the cats occasionally. He's got used to his new environment and his self confidence has grown. Both cats have dismissed him as a threat to their safety and wander around our home as if he's not there. If Orla would stop pestering him some of the time, everything would be perfect.

What I most enjoy about having a dog around the place again is walking him. I had forgotten how enjoyable that could be. I live in a particularly beautiful area. My little town is surrounded by gentle hills, each of which offers panoramas of both countryside and the sea. We have open moors and dense woods right beside us. When, some days, it is misty, the countryside takes on a mantle of mystery. When it is windy, the coast with its crashing waves and sea-spray is the place to go. A walk this close to Nature never fails to lift my spirit. I've tried to pass this fact on to Marie, but she simply cannot conceive going for even the simplest walk. She gets to see a lot of scenery while we are out driving, of course, but much of the countryside and the vast majority of the coast is inaccessible by car.

It is an interesting fact, unknown to the majority of the many tourists who visit us, that we have coastal erosion all around us. The headlands on either side of our town with their cliffs between 20 and 40 metres high are disappearing into the sea at a rate of about 1m per year. As they collapse, fossils become exposed. Ammonites predominate. And when one of these becomes exposed, it is the first time it's seen light for 400 million years! We regularly get busloads of university students here looking for them. I try to imagine what the coast would have been like when my house was built about 400 years ago. The headlands would have stretched out into the sea about 400m further than today. That's the length of 4 football fields! A nearby town lost an entire row of houses complete with all their gardens the sea side of the road. If you were to walk there now, you wouldn't find any evidence that they had ever existed, but you might notice the high wall subsequently built there to defend the houses on the land side of the road from suffering the same fate.

Back to the present day - and the children, the dog and I could be found today at a nearby beach enjoying the calm and relatively mild weather and beautiful sunshine. (Apparently some parts of England are suffering from freezing weather, snow and the like. The weather is kinder to us here.) Blaze was dashing around in and out of the shallow sea water and digging pointlessly in the wet sand while the children were having a ball getting thoroughly soaked (see short video). Fortunately I had taken the precaution of bringing towels and blankets. Life can be very good here. We are all so lucky.

Marie continues to take the dog to the grassy area 20m from our home (in daylight only) but hasn't progressed beyond that. However, she is currently victim to a stomach bug and is unsurprisingly disinclined to be adventurous.

A visitor from Down Under

Marie spends so much of her time on her laptop that the kids think it's an appendage. She uses Facebook, MSN Messenger and the No More Panic chat room – usually simultaneously. She chats with many, many people from many different countries. One of her chat buddies and fellow anxiety sufferer who has been chatting with her for over a year is a New Zealander called Tracy. One day Tracy asked Marie if it would be ok to visit her while she was on a trip to the UK. Marie immediately said Yes.

You never know if you are going to like somebody until you actually meet them. In the flesh. No amount of emails or chat room conversations can totally prepare you. Thus it was with trepidation as well as excitement that we went to meet Tracy at the local railway station. It was like greeting an old friend from the start. Even the children took to her straight away. Tracy stayed for several enjoyable days and it was with regret that we drove her back to the railway station at the end of her stay.

Marie has several chat room/MSN buddies who live within 50 miles from us, but have never suggested visiting. Strange, therefore, that someone from the other side of the world should visit, isn't it?

Strange, but nice.