Village Life

Thought I should do a general news up date as there are many I have not had a chance to chat too in a while. I hope everybody is well. We are doing very fine and dandy here, really getting into the spirit of village life. We have our allotment now and have already planted the potatoes. Plans for corn, pumpkin, carrots and beetroot are in the works. Ben and I are also trying to help out the community here as well. They need to raise funds for the upkeep of the church. It has some amazing paintings "During a general restoration of the church in 1929 – 30, inappropriate wax treatment damaged wall paintings, leading to recent major restoration of these works. In the chancel, paintings of foot soldiers with lances are probably thirteenth century, with fragments of foliage arabesque perhaps even earlier. Saints, the Virgin, and panels with black text, date from the fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeeth centuries. A horned demon, symbolizing the seven deadly sins, and a wheel, symbolizing the seven acts of mercy on the west wall of the north aisle, are late fifteenth century." for more go to

So you can see its worth doing something to keep such art and history alive. Well now as you would expect, we raise money in our own style so we are putting on a beer festival. We have started with getting a social group or club together and all the blokes have picked a weekend to 'investigate' what beer should be at the event. Sounds like fun, well it will be. We are holding it in our village hall, along with toys and games for kids and adults alike. This will be held in June. For more use of the hall, I have hired it for each Friday morning, from 10 to 12 for a playgroup. Everybody has been very helpful and generous towards getting this up and going. We already have lots of toys and activities for the little critters, morning tea and kids snacks are provided and we will put on special events now and then as we already know art teachers, music leaders etc. So its going very well, I even had a trial run last week with just friends and it was so much fun. I am still waiting to hear about the insurance though. I may not have to get any if the current hall insurance is enough but I won't hold my breath.

The boys are growing in leaps and bounces, Matthew loves bouncing. Matthew is also very keen to follow Timothy everywhere and so is already trying to crawl. He can sit up and get onto all fours but so far progresses in reverse more than forward. Timothy is now really accelerating with his words, which is good as Ben was a bit worried. Alas Timothy mostly has girl friends (definitely a ladies man this one) instead of little blokes to hang out with so comparing them is not equal as most boys are a month or so behind their female counterparts. But he is having fun each day trying out new sounds and words. Yesterdays new ones were Lock, Pink and Leek (as in the veggie) Each morning we are greeted with 'Bic, Bic, want Bic' I think he considers it a right to have biscuits since he can say it, bless them, their so cute. Timothy has also moved into a big bed. Ben made it a while ago and it is working out well. Matthew has moved into Timothy's old cot and both of them have now moved out of our bedroom and into their own, (party, yippy) though Matthew usually ends up in our bed before the night is out as I run out of energy to get up and feed him. It is much nicer lying in the water bed to feed him and dozing off afterwards instead of sitting up.

May is getting busier as we go through all the birthdays. We are having a joint party with friends for Timothys second birthday. We are holding it in the next village's hall. Quite a bit bigger than our Kingston's one. We are having a pirate theme and have just bought a jumping castle for little ones. Its so cool, we tried it out this weekend, naturally Timothy and his pals loved it. We are also going to have sand, water and other craft activities at the party while all the adults get to hang around a bbq. We had a super weekend this weekend just past as we have also bought, second hand a trailer for the bike. Both boys fit in it and it is a super design. We got it from our friends up the road who had it brought over from the dutch. They do a good trailer, this thing turns into a pram like device once you reach town. It also means ben can now do the shopping in two small loads with the trailer during his lunch twice a week instead of taking the car after the kids are asleep at night. We have found that if Timothy notices Ben is gone shopping, he tends to freak out so it will be good to avoid that. We also get fit on the weekends instead of the stress of parking in cambridge with the kids. Well Ben is already fit but I will catch up soon, I hope. It is also good this has come along as I car blew up. The cam belt went on Friday and we have yet to hear how much damage it did. They are saying it will be at least thousand pounds, bummer.

Anyway I think that is about all our news for the minute but I am sure more will come. TTFN