Half term - Cathedral, Craft, Cats and Colour

I know many of you are having half term holidays right now but ours was last week. I like half terms so much better than the main holidays. A week out of the routine is just long enough for us both to recharge our batteries - it's amazing what difference not having to set the alarm makes.
Not that we slept in very much later, mind you, but it is nice not having to rush out of bed!

I really wanted to take the Little Man to visit a castle, as that is what he has been learning about at school. There are several good ones locally - Chepstow, Raglan and Goodrich are all wonderful to visit - but it is just too early in the year for them to be open. I think we may have to save that trip for Easter or maybe summer hols.
Instead we had a mooch around Gloucester Cathedral (you know - where they filmed bits of Harry Potter ;-) ) Little Man just loved it and it I loved seeing him gazing around in awe.

Later in the week we went to my mum and dads for a few days.

I always like going to my parents place for a little break. I like not having to run around and do everything. I like eating big meals together as a family. As someone who normally does supermarket shop online for delivery, I love that we can spend three hours in a big supermarket mooching around looking at the clothes and magazines (my dad's not so keen on this one, neither does he relish the Ikea trip - which I am saving for next visit ;-) ). I love that there is usually a cat in every room I go into. I love that I get a cup of tea in (sofa) bed every morning. I love watching the Little Man interacting with Grandma and Grandad, and this time he had some fun with his little cousins too. Most of all I love that I can spend all day looking at crafty magazines and knitting while Little Man does colouring or chases round the garden with the dog, or goes for a walk with his Uncle and the dog down by the canal, leaving me to enjoy the peace for a while . . .

 My mums house is full of stuff - whilst not *technically* a hoarder, she is certainly a collector of a great many things! Pretty china, ornaments and books are everywhere. Then there are projects both she and my dad are working on and finished articles are dotted around the house. They love to knit and needlepoint/cross stitch. Their walls are covered in beautiful pictures and samplers, the conservatory furniture is draped with hand knitted throws and made comfy with tapestry cushions. It's all so very inspiring!

Now I am back home and the Little Man is back at school. Right now the sun is shining (although we have been threatened with more snow later in the week!) The primulas are looking colourful, the bulbs are all coming up and I am expecting a parcel from Abakhan any day now so I can start my Creative Budget project for Easter.

Spring is definitely in the air!!

Meet DJ - the newest member of our family

You may remember I lost my beloved kitty (and friend) last year. I still miss her like crazy but 18 years in another creature's company is a long time...

We talked about getting another cat but neither of us were in a hurry. We talked about what kind of cat we would like - I was certain I didn't want a long haired cat (all that extra grooming/matted fur and uber fur balls etc - no thanks). We both really liked the idea of a tabby cat. We talked about how nice it would be to have a female and maybe let her have some kittens (which we would keep or re home with family) so that the Little Man could witness the wonder of birth. Although we both knew that there were plenty of cats out there needing homes already and adding more kitten to the pool was not the most responsible thing we could do.

Most of all we were adamant that we were not 'replacing' Ron but adding to our family and as such we would all go to the rescue centre/Cats Protection League together to choose...

Well that's what we intended to do. However fate decided differently.

On the morning of January 14th a friend posted on Facebook that she had found 2 tiny kittens in a bag abandoned on the side of the road. She couldn't keep them herself so put out an appeal for someone who could home and care for them. Well I couldn't just ignore it. 6 hours later (after kittens had been checked over by vet and vet had approved of new carers) one teeny, tiny, extremely vocal bundle of fur was riding home in a borrowed cat box...

Meet DJ

Isn't he adorable?

The vet said both kittens were malnourished and needed a lot of care as they were, technically, too young to be away from their mother (she guessed at around 7 weeks) but their overall health was good. Our kitten has a crooked tail where it had been broken at some point in his short life, but it doesn't seem to bother him.  What they both needed more than anything else was warmth, love and to feel safe again.

 He didn't waste any time making himself at home...

I love his unusual fur - at first glance he is a black and white moggy but a closer look at his fur shows that there is a good peppering of lighter brown fur and longer white hairs in his coat (what did I say about NOT wanting a long haired cat . . .? ) It makes him look a bit dusty - hence the name Dusty Jake or DJ for short.

He is very playful - as you would expect with a kitten at this age - and is still learning to control his claws! 

He has developed a habit of running up my legs and back to perch on my shoulder. It's very cute but also very painful so we are trying to curb that one (any suggestions on kitten training gratefully received!)  He has virtually destroyed this old waste paper basket. The day we got him, Little Man gave up his Gruffalo toy to keep DJ company so he didn't miss his kitten sibling.  Gruffalo is the perfect size for kitten to practise his pouncing and clawing techniques. Needless to say poor Gruffalo may have preferred a life of calm quiet oblivion in the bottom of the toy box! (as for me, well the scratches on my hands/arms/legs/belly/back/face will heal. In time . . .)

He has become my little buddy - I think he thinks I'm his mummy - and follows me around everywhere. His favourite place to be is perched on my shoulder or draped around my neck. That will be interesting once he grows into his (huge) paws!  He has also developed a fascination with my sewing machine! He is also happy to pose for photographs and has already modelled for one of my tutorials.

Gazing wistfully outside - I can't wait until the weather warms up a bit and we can spend some time in the garden.

After a less than brilliant start to life, DJ has well and truly settled in to life on Mount Pleasant. 

And we are more than happy to have him here. 

If you can give a cat a loving home please contact your local Cat's Protection League or vet who can give you details of animal shelters/rescue centres who are desperately looking for homes for abandoned animals.

And if you find yourself in a position with an animal you can no longer care for/provide a home for please PLEASE contact your vet or animal shelter to re-home them. There is no excuse for simply abandoning an animal - young or old.  DJ and his sibling were fortunate to be found when they were, having spent the coldest night of the year outside they were lucky to be alive. I expect there are hundreds more who aren't so lucky.

A day out to the Zoo!

Last week me and the Little Man spent a few days at my parents house eating well, playing in the garden (yes, the sun appeared!!!!) going for walks along the canal and generally just taking a break from the routine. My dad has mentioned before how much he would like to take the Little Man to the zoo but, to be honest, I didn't feel he was really ready to appreciate it fully until this summer. So we took one day out of our break to head across the Severn Bridge and visit Bristol Zoo Gardens.

We arrived at about 10.45 to see the car parks were full and queue about half a mile long at the entrance! Luckily for us we were travelling with my mum and her wheelchair so we were able to get a special parking spot close to the entrance and, because we had pre-booked our tickets online we avoided the queue too! (plus you get an extra 10% discount so it's well worth remembering!)

The Gardens are beautifully laid out and we were blessed with lovely weather which made the whole experience much more pleasurable!  Yes, it was busy, but we expected it to be. There was more than enough space for everyone to enjoy their picnics and, with the exception of the nocturnal house which was dark (well, duh!) and humid and quite frankly I couldn't wait to get out, nowhere was over crowded and manoeuvring a wheel chair around the place was pretty easy too.

Food and drink available to buy on site (from cafe/restaurants/booths and vending machines dotted about the place) was over-priced, as you would expect, but take a picnic along and this is, overall a pretty cheap family day out. And it's educational too!!  Just be aware that you have to walk through the gift shop to get out and if you are watching the pennies then put blinkers on the kids as you walk through or I guarantee you will be going home with a collection of cuddly meerkats and plastic dinosaurs!

Here a few of my favourite pictures from the day. . .   Enjoy x

snoozin' is what us Lions do best!

Dinosaurs roam free at Bristol Zoo!

T-Rex (scarily huge)

the seals were mostly asleep...

but they still managed to captivate the Little Man

beautiful Silver back Gorilla had his 'I've just woken up' face on...

even the meerkats were trying to nap!

...although there is always one left outside, keeping watch

butterflies feeding - these were about the size of my hand!

LM with Alfred - one of Bristol Zoo's first, and most famous, Gorillas

gorgeous snuggly ring tailed Lemur. Also napping. Hmmm.....

Please visit the 'Bristol Zoo Gardens' photo album on the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page for loads more gorgeous pictures of the zoo's inhabitants. Some of them are even awake!!! ;-) 

Taking a Little Time...

It has been good to take some time out this week. Time away from the computer and social networks. Time to enjoy the little things, reflect, heal and BE.

We have spent most of the time enjoying the sunshine, (well you gotta make the most of it, it may not last!), tidying up the garden and playing in the garden. We had family round for a BBQ. We did some baking. We painted pictures. We even painted a wall with water - the cheapest, funnest (yes that IS a word. Honest) easiest way to keep a four year old occupied for more than 30secs on a hot sunny day! I made a few pretties for my SIL's birthday and we went for a walk in the woods. We watched the sun go down and the moon rise. We fed fish, climbed gates and lay back on the grass, watching the clouds. . .

It's been a week for counting blessings.

I have many, for which I am very grateful.

Normal bloggy service shall resume shortly . . .    xx

#TheGallery - Hands

I have a 'thing' about hands. When my OH first came into the bookshop where I worked to place an advert in the local rag all I could do was stare at his hands - big, slightly dirty - he worked in his dad's motorbike shop - and I was smitten (his just over 6ft stature and long blond surfer dude hair may have had a little bit to do with it too . . .) My collegue noticed straight away (not that I was flustered or anything), a friend passed on my phone number and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, yeah, hands are very important to me...


When I read this weeks Gallery theme ONE photo immediately sprang to mind.

It's a picture that melts my heart everytime I look at it...

Getting away...

There has been a lot of talk on the ol' internerd this past week or so of holidays. Must be the reappearance of the sun that has got everyone thinking of beaches and pool side loungers...

Me and the Little Man are heading up north to Windermere in 5 weeks time with the rest of the family (my parents, siblings and assorted littlies...) We are going to visit my nan (LM's great-grandma) who is in her 80's and convinced she's not going to be around much longer (her mum lived til she was 99 so we suspect she has a few years in her yet!)  We are renting a house in the town and will all be staying together for a whole week...

I am looking forward to it, obviously, but I really can't think of it as a holiday.

Busy...

Presents. I love presents. I love wrapping presents. I love giving presents. And I would be a liar if I said I didn't like receiving presents too!

My parents don't celebrate Christmas or Birthdays (religious reasons) so they kind of compensate by making a big fuss of their wedding anniversary and turning into a celebratory family day when we all get together, have a nice meal and exchange gifts - and why not? After all the day they got married was the day they began their own family and 41 (41!!!) years later, with five children and three grandchildren, they have something worth celebrating, don't you think?

#HandmadeChristmas - An Apology

Life has a way of taking over, have you noticed that?

Despite all my plans and ideas for a whole series of Handmade Christmas posts, we are less than four weeks away from the BIG DAY and... well... time is running out.

It's not that the ideas went away more a case of being pushed to one side while I was forced to concentrate on more important stuff like working out how the hell we are going to keep both shops open now we are a staff member down and all our friends/family/nice people who help out are either ill or have other commitments. It doesn't help that while much of the retail sector is building up for the Christmas rush this is traditionally the time of year our business tends to wind down a little as all the fair weather bikers pack up their gear for the winter...

I have been ill for best part of three weeks too, and last week Little Man was struck down and spent 3 days in a semi-zombie state on the sofa, temperature going up and down like a yo-yo and with barely enough energy to keep his eyes open.
Evidently he was not considered serious enough for a home-visit from the doctor so I had to bundle him up, fish out the long unused pushchair and take him down to surgery in the cold and dark only to be told there was very little to be done and to continue giving him Calpol every 4 hours.

A week of sleepless nights compounded by worry about the business, our finances and family stuff has left me feeling drained and exhausted.

So this post is mainly an apology that the promises of Handmade Christmas posts I had planned will not be happening now - I will not be making my own mincemeat because we simply cannot afford the ingredients (although I still hope to have a go at fudge...)
I have been asked by MENCAP to create a tutorial for their Christmas Make with Me campaign which I am more than happy to do but the tutorials I had hoped to share with you here will have to wait until next year. I will, however be posting a list of fab tutorials that I have found around the inter web for you to have a go at and I still hope to highlight some great handmade decorations available to buy for those of you who have neither the time nor the inclination to create your own.

As life continues to do it's damnedest to butt in and spoil my plans I will be taking a little step back from the blog. I am determined that no matter how stressful and depressing our situation may seem at the moment, we will have a wonderful, Handmade Christmas to remember.
I hope you all do too! xx

#TheGallery - Just Chillin'

This week's theme for The Gallery is 'Chilled Out'. Typically my contribution is late. Partly because Blogger broke and partly coz finding time to do anything this week has been a nightmare! I am at the moment feeling anything but 'chilled'...

There are many advantages to running your own business. The final decision is yours, there is no jumped up manager telling you what to do and, in theory, you can work the hours you choose.

In theory.

In practice that often means working all hours under the sun and getting very little time off! This means any days off we do manage to arrange as a family are extremely precious and, as much as I would just love to spend a day in the sun, reading a good book, sipping something long and cool, when you have an over-active toddler with a zest for life it's just not possible. Mores the pity.

Last Wednesday was Little Man's third birthday. I arranged for cover at the shop so Daddy could have the day off and we decided to celebrate in style with a trip to the seaside. It wasn't the most relaxing day out ever - first we missed the turn off the motorway and when we did get there the tide was so far out we couldn't actually see the sea! (This is a recurring theme at Weston super Mare).  But we had fun - just Mummy, Daddy and Little Man. And a day of fun, forgetting for a few hours the stress and worries of day to day life, just enjoying each other's company and going with the flow is about as chilled out as we get these days :)

Of course if you really want to chill out properly you need to take a lesson from the Master of Chill...

...and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it is done :)

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Here's a synopsis of a well known storybook I bought for the Little Man the other day :

'after escaping from a hot oven, our hero runs for his very life, being chased by various villagers and farm animals until he comes to a river. There he is tricked by a wily old fox who carries him across, apparently to safety, before eating him.'

Scary stuff eh? It is, of course, The Gingerbread Man and this particular version is beautifully put together by those fab people at Ladybird. The 'Well-loved Tales' collection were a big part of my childhood reading adventure and I felt it was time to get some traditional stories to balance his current 'Aliens love Underpants' obsession. This little series has been developed for little ones and is aimed at 2+ year olds. I let him choose which stories to start with and as he was already familiar with the 'Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!' line from nursery it was a dead cert he'd pick that story.

What I didn't realise was that he wasn't familiar with the ending...

He woke up around half one this morning, crying his eyes out and babbling about the fox 'eating me all up'! Now I know he's a smart lad with a very active imagination but he is at an age where his understanding of everything is very literal. 'It's only a story' just doesn't wash with him yet. The Gingerbread Man is as real to him as Mummy and Daddy, as is the threat of being eaten up by a sly old fox...

So what do I do? Shield him forever from the horrors of traditional fairy tales? Or explain that as the Gingerbread Man is made of gingerbread and, therefore, meant to be eaten, he was actually being very naughty running away...

It's a dilemma.

I am really not looking forward to explaining the other book he chose - Three Billy Goats Gruff. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it... (pun intended)

Potty Training (part two) - By George I think he's got it...

You may remember, just over a week ago I blogged about how we were taking the plunge and letting the little man go nappy free during the day (Potty Training - part one) Well despite my initial trepidation it has all gone swimmingly well!!

I think the sticker chart had a lot to do with it (what is it with little kids and stickers?)

That and his eagerness to please. "Are you happy now mummy?" is one of his most well used phrases - which makes it sound like I am a miserable old bag most of the time.

I'm not.

Honest.

But I digress...

"Are you happy now mummy?" he says as I praise him for being a good boy for asking to go to the bathroom BEFORE he wet his pants... "Yes, darling, I am very happy." "oh goody" he beams "Can I have a sticker now?"

And that pretty much was that.

Still the occasional accident but he is learning to recognise the feeling of needing to go and when he says he doesn't need a wee, he really doesn't.

And mummy really is happy now.

p.s. You may notice that one column on the sticker chart is empty. That's the 'I did a poo on the toilet' column. And no he hasn't yet. So we still have a little way to go...

A Birthday Tea

This week my little man celebrates his 3rd birthday.

Now I could go on about how the time has flown and how he is growing up so fast etc etc.
But I won't.

Instead, here are some pictures from his birthday tea with family and friends in Nanny and Grampy's garden.
Enjoy! 



Opening pressies - OMG it's a picture with me in it! I am so sorry...



Getting the hang of this 'unwrapping' thing now...



See, Paige - this is how it's done...

Off for a wander around Nanny's garden

Cake!!!!

fun and frolics in the garden

A friendly, completely non-competitive (honest, guv) game
of footie - AKA Boys will be boys

more ball games

Time to go home now. Thank you for coming to my party!





A Slice of Village Life: The Duck Race

Once a year, on a late spring morning, the brook that runs through the little Forest of Dean village of Clearwell is taken over by excited kids in wellies and about 400 yellow plastic ducks...

Heading for the race start

Queuing for our ducks. This is a serious business!
(and a great fundraiser for Clearwell Primary School!)

Checking all ducks are in position...

Some lovely floral tributes to 'Will and Kate'  made by the
primary school kids

Waiting for the first ducks to appear

Here they come...

...and there they go! The race is on!

Gathering at the finishing line

The leaders are in sight!

and the winner is...not my duck :(

Chasing up the stragglers...

No slice of village life would be complete without a lovely rural
livestock scene...