Time is fleeting

Wow, almost a week since I last posted - so much to do, so little time to do it:)

I had my 1st review at CAB last week - they keep regular tabs on us newbies, and I still have various bits of paperwork & training to complete along the next few months while I move from new to experienced advisor. It all went well. No problems from my PoV or theirs. I only seem to get through 4-5 clients a day, and others seem to manage more, but then again, I do get through 4-5, and write them up, so it's not terrible.

I also, finally, managed to write my first essay for my course this year. I have already decided to postpone it a bit & take the exams in October rather than June, but still, I need to get on with it. Now I do not need to spend all Thursday morning cleaning the house I am hoping to use that time to get on with studying.

We went up to the re-enactment market in Warwickshire yesterday to mooch around, but didn't really need too much stuff - Aggie picked up a couple of small badges to copy while doing his new trade of metal casting, and I bought a straw hat in the optimistic hope that I will need to shade my head from the sun at some point this summer....... But we have finally reached the point where we have most of what we need! Yay. I'm also not too far behind with the sewing this year - with two children & one adult fully kitted out, and only a couple more dresses to make to get everyone totally sorted (Aggie calls his a cote, but it's still a dress LOL). I even managed to sell on a few bit of old stuff. Hurrah. Mstr A is going to try being an apprentice this year, rather than a page, so will be around the living history traders rather than fighting with the soldiers - probably better all round we think!

Much better

I am feeling much better now I'm part time. A two day week this week was great:-) I ws able to collect the kids form school yesterday and check in with Mstr A's teacher, which I haven't been able to do for ages. I now Aggie did, but I wnt to be involved too!

Plus I spent the day getting a load of shopping and stuff sorted out, and still had time to cook supper, have a chat to the kids then get ready and walk to college - which I could sit through without falling asleep:-)

today has been taken up with getting ready for the first re-enactment of the season over the weekend. Snow is forecast, so I've been busy making sure we have every bit of clothing & kit possible, as well as quickly running up new dresses for the girls who have grown too much again! I've still got to make them nice new warm hoods, but hopefully can get tha done tomorrow.

It's the Easter fayre at school today, so I'll have to let them spend money to win back the eggs that I donated to the school last week! Then my mother is coming to visit for a day (probably with more eggs for the kids). I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow - depends on the weather and what my mother fancies I suppose.

I'm off food sopping now - oh the excitement! But it needs to be done:-)

My shiny thing

I didn't get any armour, what with there not being anything suitable (or of suitable price) available, but I did buy me a nice new shiny sword - well it's for me and Mstr A to share really, but still.....

Now I just have to wait for Aggie to make the pell he's been promising for a year for us to practise on.

Aggie brought himself yet another new box. Even bigger than the last new box he brought last year, which will house is ever growing tools collection. Which means I get his old medium sized box for my sewing kit, and my little box can be used for some gaming counters and such like. it never hurts to teach the kids about gambling early;-)

And of course we spent much money on yet more material to make yet more clothes for our ever growing children! Now to get sewing. Again.

Only a few weeks to go now before the season starts....

update

It's been a busy week. I went to battle practise again last Sunday - there were lots more people there this time, both old and new, so we got quite a bit more fighting done. Especially sword fighting, which un fortunately I was not really armoured for (still borrowing Aggie's archers jack and company spare gloves & helmet), and one of the lords got a jolly good hit on my upper arm. It came up almost immediately, and by Monday morning was a massive purple bruise stretching right around my bicep, from elbow almost to my shoulder, and causing quite a lot of pain each time I moved it.

Ho Hum. I'm off shopping at the re-enactment market tomorrow to solve the armour problem. We're taking a few people up with us, so it should be a fun, if expensive day out:-)

I've moved at work, and have spent the week covering a secretary in property litigation, as she's gone swanning off to exotic places on hols. I find property law quite boring, but property litigation was quite interesting. Although, considering i had three lawyers to work for, it was pretty slow most of the week. I am used to a MUCH higher workload off my lawyers. I get that they probabloy can't trust me with anything interesting yet, and that diffrent departments work in different ways, but there just didn't seem to be as much work being done. I'm sure it must be - they obviously run a very profitable business there:-) Today got quite busy though, so perhaps it is just stops and starts. Next week I think i'm in property proper, meh. I don't know though. I'll just see where they send me on monday. I don't think much of this floating role - you can never settle into anything properly.

I'm starting to get into a routine properly now. But it means I'm out at 8am and not home until gone 6pm. As the kids go to bed between 6.30 & 7pm, it doesn't give me much time with them. It's going to take us all a while to get used to it. hopefully we will.

Fighting talk

Just got back from my first battle practise. Despite having been reenacting for 8 years now, other tha a couple of very basic sparring rounds at my very first few events, i have not had a chance to fight at all - what with being pregnant or looking after young children all the time! But I always quite fancied the idea of wacking people with heavy lumps of metal:-) So now the kids are getting older, and Aggie is no longer fighting at all so can watch over the kids anyway, This year i get to be a combatant.



The group we are in insists that combatants must train prior to the actual reenactment season for safety and team-building reasons. A bill line is nothing unless it can work together as a team and follow commands without hesitation. Plus, a 12 foot pole with a bardbed chunk of metal on the end can do some pretty serious damage if mishandled - even through padding/armour, so it's imporatnt to know how to and how not to use them.


So every other week from Febuary until Easter, we all traipse up to Blaise Castle in Bristol and train. Today was my first session. I think i did OK:-) managed to carry the bill all the way to the top of the hill, stay in line, learn the major commands and advance on an enemy. It was much heavier then it looks when other people use it! And a tad unweildy - especialy with my short girlie arms and unused muscles! But i survived.


here's our bill line at Morimondo, italy, last year - so you can see what I'm talking about.


Then we did some sword fighting practise. I had watched Mstr A practise often enough so at least knew the concept fo the basic fives (head, L arm, r arm, L leg, R leg), but actually doing it was hard work too. those swords are heavy after a few swings - and they're not even half the weight the real things would have been! But after a few practises, I even managed to "kill" a couple of opponants - although I feel they may have being nice to me.


The we moved onto battle practise, a line of bills & swords against nother line of the smae. i died pretty quickly in all of those! But made it through the whole practise with only one major wack on the upper arm (I had borrowed Aggie's archer's padding which is armless - but will need to get my own full set soon i think), and one right in the sturnum which slipped between the buckles of my Jack.


Now I'm pretty achey and tired, but happily so. Hopefully there will be more recruits in two weeks time so we can have a really good fight:-)

Money & fun

We've been sorting stuff out this week. Today we sucessfully sold LMB's old bed (well, it wasn't that old...), and Aggies cross trainer (ha ha, had it for two years, used it two times - well worth it!). This has made a little more room in the house (not alot, but it's a start) and put enough money into our getting rid of stuff fund to buy Mstr A his own tent for next season, which will be nice for him, and us:-) Now we just have to find one we like for the right price!

It's been a very sucessful morning all reound really. More space should mean Aggie will be able to get on with the bedroom walls again (yeah right). The kids and I all made a nice banana cake which kept them occupied and means we have yummy cake to eat:-) Now they are`all fired up to cook all the time. Aggie and I have both made some bread - I made a loaf first thing this morning when I woke up, promised the kids toast for breakfast, then discovered we didn't have any bread in the house. Oops. When he saw it he decided that he would ahve to make his own loaf to see whose was best! I ask you. MEN!

Later this afternoon Nanny is coming over to babysit the kids while we go off partying for CQ's birthday. We're going bowling, then for a meal, then for drinking and dvd's:-) Aggie is designated driver as he can't drink anyway due to antibiotics for the plueresy, so i may well have a tipple or two.

tomorrow is the company archery tourney. I am reasonably confident that I will come last anyway, having hardly touched the bow all season, but it should be fun. Plus it will be a good time to discuss our plans for next year - I know they are not too happy with the idea of dual grouping, so i'd rather get everything out in the open and explain our reasons nice and early. Looking at the other groups nevent list (ours isn't finalised yet) I think we will only attend a couple of tem anyway - too many are too far away, and the whole point of dual grouping is to not make long journeys!

The kids are `all being rather sweet still. I don't know how or why! At the moment Mstr A is glued to the computer, and the girls are running round and round in circles in the front room talking on their phones. Aggie asked why they had to run round in circles to talk on th phone. "becasue we want to talk fast"

Obviously dad! :-)

Radiator Pants

That light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter:-)

For the first time in ages, we made it through to the end of the month without hitting our overdraft limit. Obviously being in the black would be better, but not taking out more than we put in is a good start:-) Admittedly this was helped by Aggie getting the back pay he was owed, and my mum coughing up for all my travel to London (she even sent me a cheque to cover the extra train fare which was nice), but still, finances are `starting to seem manageable again at last.

This weekend we're off to try out our new re-enactment group. It's one we've had connections with for some years, but never joined for various reasons. Some of thise reasons do not exist any more and others are less important, and we're hoping to dual group next season so that we can still do plenty of events, but only local(ish) ones as the travelling is getting too much. Plus it gives us the chance to learn plenty of new stuff, and for the kids to make some new friends as there are more children in this group. Hopefully it will go well this weekend.

We've even had a couple of nights out - I went off to see Spamalot with sister S while in London for her birthday. It was very entertaining. I did not think much of the London Saturday night crowds though. I'm sure it's got worse in the past decade or so. I felt very provincial, which was strange. I know that i haven't lived in London for the whole of my adult life, and that I don't like it much, but it was strange to feel provincial in a city that I grew up in.

Then last night me and Aggie went off to see Russell Howard. Best known from Mock the Week, but he was far better than I expected. Not only laugh out loud hilarious, but spouting off some fairly fantastic political hits too. If you get the chance, go see him. If not, check him out on YouTube - but you'll have to wait until his 2007 tour is shown to find out why my life is feeling like radiator pants again at last.

Stuff

We're off to Anglesea again today - because the windiest, wettest part of the British Isles is obvioulsy the best place to go camping in 600 year old design tents during the windiest wettest and coldest summer the Uk has had since records began:-)

It's our annual trip to Beaumaris Castle - beautiful place, shame about the fact that cars can not get into the grounds at all, so it's a long trek carrying stuff agan. Oh for a pack mule:-) last year went pretty well, if a bit wet, so this ear should be good too - I've packed all our wool, and cloaks, and hoods, and extra blankets - along with some nice strong alcohol to help the adults make it through the long dark evenings! July is mid-summer here you know!!!!

Talking about the weather - I am getting a bit annoyed by the sob stories on the telly every night about the poor people of Hull (how come the poor people of Sheffield aren't moaning so much?). I KNOW they were flooded and that was awful. But that is what insurance is for - it's a shit and then you get new stuff! The moaning mum on TV ad nuseum yesterday was complaining that the Government should compensate her for the fact that it rained, and she was too lazy/stingy to buy insurance. I'm not sure what her mortgage company will say about that, since it's usually a condition of the mortgage, but I say, tough! If she is homeless the council will house her. if she was too stupid to get insurance, why should I pay for her house and her stuff to be fixed?

I'm off work today cos that annoying chest thing has come back, and I was wheezing like a smoker last night so didn't get much sleep:-( Hopefully the weekend "relaxing" will clear it up.

Talking about smoking - we had a cooked breakfast in the local greasy spoon today - without the added taste of chain smokers for the first time ever! Hurrah for the smoking ban.

Mstr A had his Speach & Language appointment yesterday. Unsurprisingly the result was that there is nothing wrong with his speach or language! NO!! Isn't that what I said two years ago? In fact, she was rather impressed with his vocabulary - I pointed out that I had told the paediatrician tht he was very advanced in his language skills - his vocab, pronounciation & reading skills are all way beyond his average age expectancy - and have been since he was a baby. Speach & Language woman latched on to this as him being "gifted" and hence having behavioural problems becaus eothers can not keep up with him. Which is absolute bollocks to be honest. He is not that brilliant - his reading and vocabulary are advanced for his age, but his writing is barely average, and his communication skills probably below average (ie: making others understand what he wants), and in other subjects he's an averagely bright child (except art - he's inherited my anti talent in all things artistic!). That is not the sign of a"gifted" child!

So, we've now got to wait while she writes a report to the paediatrician, and see what happens next. I think we're still along way away from a label though.

Busy, busy, busy

It's been extraordinarily busy here recently (and it's always busy here!). The Milton Keynes event went well. It was actually a very relaxing event for us, as we were really only on show for a couple of hours a day. The place didn't open till late morning, and then everyone went and watched the horsey display & joust before wandering over to us. Although I didn't get to relax too much as i was doing all the cooking for the group for the four days. It's a fun job, but a hard one - it's pretty much non-stop. Cooking three authentic meals a day over an open fire means I had to be the first one up each day, light the fire, cook the breakfast, start the lunch before breakfast was cleared aay, start supper immediately lunch was served, tend the fire throughout the day to keep it at just the right tempreture and still be working ready to serve supper at the end of the day after the public had gone home and everyone else was finished. Whilst keeping an eye on the kids too of course, and trying to still do my domestic chores display. And watch the joust & chat up the yummy knights:-) They took a while to warm to us - I think they were a bit confused by us to be honest, but then us girls went down to the banquet on Saturday night, got outrageously drunk, and made good friends with the nice muscley stunt riders:-)

It was very interesting watching the stunts. The organising group is a very famous one, and does lots of film work etc. And even I, with absolutely zero knowledge of horse riding, could see that they were doing some very clever stuff. But On Sunday the owner attended the display, and I have to say, you can see why he is so in demand. He was in a different league, and obviously had a fantastic talent with horses, making the others just look like good riders:-)

We had lovely weather for pretty much the whole time, which was nice. But by the time we finished, took down the camp, packed up the cars and drove the three hours home it was about 9.30pm. Then I had to put the kids to bed, unpack the car, reload the car with work equipment, and get cleaned up ready to head off to tutor a course up in Huntingdon this morning. That's a good 3 1/2 hour drive away too, so I left at 6am. The course went well, but I didn't get home again until nearly 7pm! Now i've got three days to sort everything out, befre we fly out to Ireland for my sisters wedding!

Phew! perhaps my best bet would be to just forget about sleep for this week. That way I might just about fond enough time ot do half the things that need doing!

medieval concrete cows

And once again we are madly rushing around trying to get ready to go back to 1370 (ish). We're off on a four day event near Milton Keynes first thing tomorrow. It's a first for us, as we are going as us, not as part of a group. We have had a few invites to attend events as individuals before, but this is the first one we've done - partly because we've only just about got enough equipment to do it comfortably now.

Doing it ourselves means a number of things - no back up of kit from the group for one, but money in our pockets for another:-) It's only £10 per person per day, which will barely cover the food tbh, but it's still being paid direct to us (well, me) rather than into a group account:-) A few others from our group are joining us too. But mostly the event wll be attended by various other groups and individuals. I really like doing multi-group events. You learn so much from talking to other re-enactors, but our current group does hardly any multi group events (and no multi period ones wich are also fun). This one is being hosted by a famous Joust group, so there will be plenty of horsey antics for LMB to gawp at.

but it also means we have to be organised - take absolutely everything we have, including all the food for 7 people for four days, and enough clothes and bedding for the changeable British weather. Its forecast to be wet, dry, sunny, windy, cold, warm and muggy over the next four days:-) I am cooking for everyone. I love doing authentic food, and am quite looking forward to getting the chance to do so again.

We're hoping to leave by 6am tomorrow (we thought about going tonight, but I didn't finish work till late, and it would mean another night in a tent, and another night without fridge/freezer!), so having to pack up the car and get everything ready tonight. Add in the fact that I will have to leave at 6am on Monday morning as I have a course to deliver up north (we're not expecting to get home till 9pm ish on Sunday, then will have to unpack the car of re-encatment kit and re-pack it with work kit), so I have to have everything necessary for that ready too. It's all a bit hectic!

At least the kids are in bed now, so I'll get back to it.......

A long weekend in the sun

We spent last weekend in Morimondo, just outside Milan, Italy, re-enacting the battle of Caserote (you can see a video a few posts down). it's a great event for us, as we are only contracted to do the battle, and as we are severly restricted on the amount of stuff we can take with, we do not do any living history displays, just laze around in the sun all day until the evening comes round and it is cool enough to fight. Aggie shoots some arrows. I stay behind and watch (and look after the kids) although next year I'm hoing I can shoot too. Mstr A went of to battle for the first time, and was so good that he got to stay up with the gron ups till midnight singing songs round a campfire. I hope he does not repeat any of them at school!

It was a really relaxing time, although the journey home wa a bit of a nightmare. But I have finally recovered enough to post some pictures:

The rank and file ready themselves for drill. Mstr A joins in.

The rich and lordly ready themselves for battle. Mstr A joins in:-)



The girls enjoy their lunch in the shade.

We love the sunshine:-)

The heat takes its toll on LMD. Still, she was up at 5.30am, and didn't go to bed till 9.30pm each day, so it's not surprising really. Sadly, i couldn't join her...

Mstr A practises his sword skills under the watchful eye of his lord.

Daddy readies himself for battle by having a stiff drink:-)

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Sadly, now we're back in the UK, the weather forcast is single figure tempretures if we are lucky, rain/sleet and freezing winds for this weekend. Not sure if we will make it yet. I am working on Saturday anyway, so we'll have to wait and see......

and now we wait

Two exams all finished. There is nothing to do now but wait until the 16th August and see what the results say.

I think i've passed. I spent all weekend cramming - well, except for Sunday where I was too hung over, so researched some historical stuff instead! And I read trough all my notes beofre the exams. I have a very short term memory, so most of that stayed in my mind for the required two hours - it will probably be gone by next week. Thats my reasoning for not revising much troughout the year anyway;-)

Now I've got writers cramp! All that writing! With a pen. on paper! It's a skill i never use any more - actually, I never used it much even when I wasyoung - i just made it inot the computer generation and typed all my school work from age about 14! At Uni, we had to type our work - handwritten stuff wasn't marked! I can't believe that ILEX couldn't manage to allow us to use stand alone computers. they wouldn't even need to ahve any storage capacity or upload/downlaod ability. They would prabably be nearly as cheap ans paper answer booklets, and would make my life easier and the examiners lives LOADS easier.

I finished my exams in 1 hour 30 mins and 1 hour 20 mins respectively. This is not something I am particularly proud of - it probably means thta my handwriting wa just a little bit less legible than necessary - but I didn't want to run out of time! And once you've written everything you can, thre is no real point in staring at the questions you didn't know for a further half hour:-)

At least it's over. Today is our wedding anniversary so Aggie is taking me out for a meal. My sister S is always so good at remembering our anniversay and each year sends me a card with a little something of the corect material. Today I got a tiny bronze bell (well, it's brass really, but we'll call it bronze cos she thought it was), which was lovely. I don't know which year is which, but sh always makes the effort to find out and send something:-) For those of you who are interested, this is our 8th anniversary.

Tomoorow it's back to work for a day, then Thursday we're of to Italy. So much to do!!!! All the kit has to be packed and delievered to the holing garage tonight as the truck will be leaving tomorrow lunch time. IT has to drive ll our weapons & heavy stuff over there, and for some reason they don't like us taking swords, axes and bows and arrows on the aeroplane:-)

Time is fleeting...

where did the time go? It seems that only yesterday my pencil was telling me I have a month to do my revision, and suddenly the exams are on top of me! I'm trying hard to shovel three months worth of revision into five days - around work, kids and re-enactment! argggghhhhh!

Do you think it's really irresponsible to pin my hopes on my ability to "blag" exams? :-)

Aggie has promised to take the kids out over the weekend and let me read through all my notes. I have written up most of my revision notes at least! The poblem is, that I remember it all perfectly while I've got them in front of me, but I have a VERY short term memory, so it will all be gne by the next morning! I passed my A levels by revision on the morning of, and the 30 mins before going into the exam, then scribbling everything down in ote form on scrap paper in the firts 15 mins, and using those notes to write essays around. This is a practical exam - i won't have the option of scribbling notes. In fact, they have specified that no scrap paper is allowed!

Oh well - I take a very pragmatic approach to these things nowadays. i will do as well as I do, and we'll see what happens then.

On the positive side, the year may have slid past so fats that I didn't see it, but it does mena there are only a few days until we're off to Italy for the battle of Caserote. Here's a video of the same event in 2005/6 (I hope - I've not tried this vlogging lark before!)



Looking forward to guaranteed warm, sunny and dry:-)

Looking back`

Following the news today about piloting the new "megan's law" here in the west, I was looking back over some of my old posts. I was looking for this one, which outlines my reasons why it is a stupid idea.


However, having found it, I started reading through some of my old posts. They're quite good y'know:-) much more interesting than the current stuff imo. Go have a look:-)

And because Maggie asked, and because my kids are gorgeous, here's some more pictures of our re-enactments over the past few years......

Mstr A's first day learning real soldiering. Conwy 2007.

Children playing ball. Berkeley 2006. The three on the outside are mine:-)

The girls enjoying camp life. Farleigh Hungerford 2006.


Mstr A proudly display's his first sword. In the sleet at Tutbury Castle 2003.

I can't find any from 2004. Not sure why. If they turn up, I'll post some:-) Earlier stuff will be somewhere on hard copy. Maybe I'll scan some in one day.......

Mrs A - Domestic Goddess

It was a good event:-)

The castle is pretty big, but totally ruined. No camping was allowed witin the castle walls, so our campsite was down at the bottom of the back wall, next to the railway line. NOt too much of a problem, except it meant that everything needed to be carted from the campsite, up the driveway, along the path, across the car park, through the shop, and then straight up the steep slope & stairs into the upper keep. A full medieveal market is an awful lot of solic wood and canvas, plus all the kit, amour, boxes, food, and, on a personal note a bloody great quirn stone and three kids! I was exhausted befor the day even began!

Still, once set up, it went well. The quirn and butter churn were big hits with the MOP's (members of the public) who came visiting. The flour tended to be a bit grassy and muddy after several hundred three and four year olds "helped" grind it, but the butter came out fantastically. I now have two massive lumps of butter to eat:-) Although quite a lot was eaten on site:-) The girls quickly got into the idea, and LMB happily showed the others what to do:

Sadly LMD tended to think they were there as her own personal toys and often got a it possesive when others tried to play too - so spent a bit of time sulking on my lap!

Mstr A had a really good time learning to be a page to his young lord - who showed remarkable patience with him!

In fact, many of the group came and said how well he was doing, considering his age. He did look sweet following after his lord:-) And was ever so proud t be trusted with hi metal sword! In fact, he was so tuckered out after the first day that he just about managed to make it back to camp, then just crashed out on the floor of the tent for 30 mins cos he was too tired to get up on the bed! Ahhhhhhh!

Of course, at the end of the weekend, we also had to carry everything back down to the campsite again. Then strike camp and load the cars, before even starting the four hour drive home! Aggie was totally crippled by all the walking up and down, so I was left with the driving. We finally made it home around midnight.

Fun, but VERY exhausting.

Easter in 1370

We're here.

Back after the Easter weekend:-)

oooooooh! A TT Thursday!

Thirteen Things we have hand made for the first event of the season this weekend:Formatting still being sortd. Sorry 1 A Tunic for Mstr A, in his house colours, as he will be a page to the young Lord Hungerford (slight historical license there, since the young lord Hungerford is not yet born:-)! ) Note the precise tailoring around the hips, showing off his pert little bottom, as per fashion of the time! 2 Some mail mitts for Mstr A, so he can practise his sword fighting skills without having his fingers chopped off! He only has a wooden sword, but they can still pack quite a punch. The mail was made by his lord and givn as a Xmas present. Aggie had to get the gloves and sew the mail on though. Please note - these are MAIL gloves, not chainmail. That is a modern affectation, unecessary in the medieval period when there was only the one type of mail anyway! 3. And, of course, an undershirt for Mstr A. Woven wool is rather itchy, so a nice linen shirt is vital. 4. Along the same lines, here is my underdress. I am halfway through making a new overdress too, but it's not finished yet:-( The kids stuff took priority as I have one dress that fits OK enough, and they keep growing out of theirs! You may notice that it is armless - I am hoping these will be finished by tomorrow! You can't see it too well in the picture, but this has to be exact measurements to fit to my body. There were no bra's in the 14th century, and I am niether particularly small up top, nor "pert" after 30 mumble years and three kids! Comfort is achieved by good tailoring, which is not my forte! It's the first year I've made my own, so here's hoping it works! 5. LMB's underdress was much easier - pretty much straight up and down:-) 6. But she does get a pretty overdress to wear. Two colour, with a real silk band round the edge too. I didn't weave that though - my weaving still comes out pretty lumpy! This year she will get her own metal clasp too - I have a nice dragon one she can use. Hopefully she won't lose it! 7. And because we ARE camping in North Wales in April, a cloak to keep her toastie warm while running around:-) 8. LMD wanted a nice new blue dress too - and was promised one - but it's not done yet:-( But she does have a lovely blue cloak. I made it for the end of last season, where it earned her the nickname Yoda, as she toddled around in her cloak, using incorrect syntax and saying "mmmmm" a lot:-) I think the group may be surprised at her speech this year! 9. She does get a pretty underdress though. Made to be wearable as a simple shift on it's own if it gets hot during the summer. And when we're in Italy next month. 10. Here's the biggie: Aggie's tunic. Not only is there a lot of Aggie to cover, but our new status as yeomen or free merchants means that we have to show off our wealth with bright multi-coloured and labour intensive clothing. 11. And lets not forget pants! Or breeches as they ought to be known. Obviously we all need these items. The ones in the picture are LMD's - so you can guess the size of the others! 12. Equally important are shoes. Aggie spent ages researching the best designs and most comfortable shoes for LMB last year. Then she went and grew out of them within weeks! Grrrr. We are slowly building up a selection of shoes now though:-) 13. And last, but not least, a fully hand sewn, authentic doll. I made two - one for each of the girls, because sticks and stones will only keep them occupied for so long. About 12 hours at a stretch as far as I can tell:-) As overheard by a MOP (member of the public) watching the kids play in the dirt "you wouldn't see modern kids playing like that". Ummm, do you think they thought there were REALLY in 1370? Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Up and down

It's been a roller-coaster few weeks. Aggie has been getting really stressed out about the retirement thing, and with some psoriasis re-appearing and the arthritus getting worse, he has been well into depression for the last few weeks. This has a knock on effect on the rest of the family as he gets angry quickly, and I have to take on all aspects of looking after the children as he can not cope with them even for five minutes. Coupled with his lack of motivation for every day chores, and i nsomnia which obviously affects me too, it's been a tough time recently. I told him to go to the doc's a couple of weeks ago, but in normal depressive way, he didn't get round to it! I finally went with him on Friday, when our GP doubled his prozac dose & signed him off work for a month, so hopefully thigs will start to improve soon.

I tried to cheer myself up with some nice bright colours in my hair the other day, but because my hair is so dark, it didn't take well:-( So I'm going to have to go back in a couple of weeks to have it bleached, then coloured, for a lot more time and a lot more money:-(

On the plus side, work is still going well, and there was no problem when I asked (without notice) for an hour off to take Aggie to the Dr's:-) Also, although we have nowhere near the clothes I had intended to be ready for the start of the season in two weeks time, we do have almost enough for everyone to wear something:-)

Oh yes, and my pretty dress turned up today. I bought an outfit off ebay for my cousin's wedding & sisters hen night in April/May. The dress came today, and I was slightly concerned about buying without trying it on or even seeing it in real life, but it fit almost perfectly & was even nicer than the pcture. Now I just need to find some more places to wear it to:-)

The great outdoors

Spring has sprung here. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and there is that lovely crisp smell in the air that you only get on bright, dry & cool spring days:-)

So we've spent the day outside: We've dug out, bordered & raked over the vegetable patch. We're determined to give this a good go this year. We've talked about it a lot, but never actually tried to grow anything. I'm well known for having black thumbs (if brown thumbs are the opposite of green fingers, I am even worse than that, so have black thumbs), and have always killed any plant that has entered my house, but I really like the idea of growing my own veg, and anyway, it's the only way to get purple carrots for re-enactment! i've spent money on seeds now, so will be sowing them tomorrow!

I've also made a good start of digging out all the old mulched bark chippings from the play area. It's going to take a while because it's really packed down solidly, and full of grass/weeds and very heavy while wet. So i'm doing a bit a day, leaving the next bit to dry out ready for the next day. then we're going to spend the money for what i wanted first time round and put down rubber chippings. nothing will grow there, they don't need raking over, and the local cats hopefully won't find them to be such a tempting toilet!

We've also found the time to shoot some arrows, sow some cress seeds with the kids so they don't have to wait so long to see the fruits of their labours, fix the trampoline, move the water butt and clean out the big new fish tank I aquired from freecycle yesterday.

P & V are here now to have a shoot, and then pizza and alcohol are on the cards for a fun evening.

I like it when it's not winter:-)

Weekend work

We were supposed to dig the garden over this weekend and plant all the veggies we've bought in an effort to pretend we're that kind of family. But it rained. ALL WEEKEND! Horrible cold, windy sploshy rain, non-stop for the whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So all we managed was to spend some money buying a couple of little trowels & fork for the kids to help out with next weekend!

But it did mean we got on with some other stuff. We re-furbished our new butter churn, so hopefully it will actually be useable to make butter with this season. I'm going to give it a go during the week hopefully. We picked it up quite cheap a few months ago, but it was a dodgy "show" churn made in India with gaping holes all around it. When we filled it with water to test it's seal, it flooded out at approx 1 pint every 10 seconds! So Aggie sealed it with pitch, which seems to have done the trick. It only lost 2cm of water overnight. Now I have to work out how to make butter - I've had differing advice about using only cream, only milk, a mix of the two..... And I'm a bit concerned about using the modern homogenised milk that Tesco's sells. And you can't even buy unpasteurised from the farms any more:-(

We didn't cut the girls dresses, although we did mean to:-( But I did finally work out how to use the loom and made Mstr A a belt. Except it's too short, so perhaps it'll be for LMD! It's going to take a lot of practise before my weaving looks good though. It's pretty lumpy at the moment:-)