It's a gift.

I have had a splendid day today, super, excelled myself in all areas, if I may say so myself.
At first light we packed the car full of boxes and bags and stuff and boxes and also, children and drove the 1. point something mile to the new house, unloaded and we decided that H would stay and work in the garden ( again) Seth would stay with him and I would take the other 2 and just go away, somewhere nice, where boxes and smells and work of any kind would be a distant worry and not in my very grumpy and tired face.
Hoorah, off we go, feeling sort of free and a bit wicked and wasteful, have we really only 5 days to overcome the feeling of doom at leaving lovely posh barn home to reside in house that is now a bit lovely and clean and almost homely but still so filled with memories of how it was? Yes we do but times come upon us when we just have to say Bugger it all and have some fun or something.
Today was most certainly a bugger it day. Bliss.
Glorious sunshine and a couple of quid for lunch and off we set. Trago Mills, there is even a FACEBOOK club supporting Trago mills because I tell you it is lovely there, cheap household stuff and clothes and also a pets corner and eating area and kids rides. Just the job. A mere mile from the Barn and we set off first to see the animals, goats and ducks and pigs and guinea pigs.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone coming towards me with purpose, smiley face and most definitely, deliberately heading my way.....Oh look it's B! Lovely friend from single motherhood days, we were single together and close with my sister too, all 3 getting together with our collective children ( 8 all together) I married H and moved away and heard that B had got married and had another baby. Oh I was so happy to see her! She had a delicious blond haired toddler attached to her by a leash, I mean handy strap, to stop her escaping and being eaten by the goat or trampled by a holiday maker. Oh and she is having another baby, any day I think , she used to be a petite little thing and as so many of us tend to do had gained some weight over the years. Anyway she was pregnant and blooming and .......you know what happened next don't you? You just KNOW I asked her when her baby was due don't you?
Well I didn't, so there! Oh not me, oh no........ I twisted my face into as gleeful an expression as I could muster, eyebrows almost atop of my head, because I was SO genuinely thrilled for her , and then....THEN I put out my hand (and I am normally so untouchy feely, so unlikely to touch anyone if I can help it) but I put out my hand and as I screeched "HOW EXCITING!" as I RUBBED HER BELLY. I did, I really did.
She looked at me and she said... "Ha ha, nothing in there, I am just FAT"
Oh dear sweet powers that be, please open the ground and swallow me up.
I would NEVER, EVER presume anyone is pregnant if it was just a remote possibility, or if there merely a cute little pouch or something but this was honestly and truly so obviously at least a 7 month belly, so clearly full of almost cooked baby that I was compelled to show this lovely girl just how happy I was that she was about to be blessed again. Oh hell.
So, after I had blabbered on about my whole damn life for 30 minutes trying to pretend that I hadn't just done what I had just done ( oh but I really did it, oh dear.....) we went our separate ways and had some lunch and played for an hour or 3.
Back at the new house, H and Seth had worked miracles and things are beginning to look as though we could have a nice outside area any day now.
H has a hat, one that makes me just melt because he looks so fabulous and touching and ....well look



this is how that garden looked before....



and today.....



and we bought one of those metal bins to burn the garden cutting because it would have just been so hard to lug it all to the recycling place.....I hope we won't ruin the whole universe by burning this grass and stuff, we'll take our bottles to the recycling place and make up for it a bit but we are desperate to just get this done!

The front of the house was like this

it gives off such a gloomy feeling, all overgrown and dirty curtains at the windows, weeds, trash and misery.

Now its clean and cleared, still a bit unloved but definitely looking more loved and clean


We got home, weary, aching but brimming with feelings of satisfaction ( and mortification in my case) H had his bath, the 2 littler boys had theirs and when things have been going so well , you sometimes think you might be invincible and able to do things that really, you should never do. Like thinking 2 little boys could play unsupervised in the bath for 10 minutes......which they did, quite happily as it happens.
Oh hell.




And while I am posting so many pictures, here's one for you.



I am beginning to panic. Fortunately, I don't have the time.