Indian Summer

Well, 22 degrees heat at the tail-end of September is pretty astonishing really. When I were a lass, it was cold frosty mornings by the beginning of September to herald our return to school. But maybe I'm remembering October / November after the half-term break...

Anyway. It's still pretty astonishing, this heat.

We've been out in the garden, the doors and windows wide open, painting and eating in the sunshine. (My) Mum's got a desire to make a collage out of seedheads - of which there are plenty in the garden! - so I've also been having a think about that. A whole new world has been opened up to me: I never knew you could create a brush in photoshop out of a photograph. So we may be photographing seedheads soon! This was this morning's effort at photography, I half-blinded myself trying to get this shot ;)

I started this green painting with Ben with the idea that maybe it could form the background to our collage, but I'm not sure it will now with the addition of handprints and footprints. Ben was all for climbing on the table to do some painting by foot but I managed to persuade him to let it dry first and do the foot painting after lunch in a different colour once the painting was safely on the ground. Mum enjoyed helping, and I even managed to get her to do some handprints!! Individual pics are over on the other place, starting here. Very enjoyable, having an assistant to help with the painting / photography!! Still haven't managed to get the handprints on my tummy picture that I SO want in my collection of bump-pictures though...


We're having a much better day today. A better night, even with lots of cuddles, meant less stress and therefore no bed-wetting from Ben. Even the early start (7.30am Ben was raring to go and I actually didn't mind!) didn't dampen spirits. We'd nearly finished breakfast by the time Mum got up! It's amazing what some even slightly better sleep can do for the body and soul. I'm wondering how the rest of the afternoon will pan out given that Ben happily and willingly settled down for a sleep but then didn't actually go to sleep. I'm hopeful that the half-hour of "downtime" cuddles will suffice....

Edit: downtime cuddles sufficed beautifully! We sat outside to eat dinner in the 20degree shade. I had made cauliflower pasta cheese - three things that apparently Ben doesn't like when combined together. Ah well. Mum and I enjoyed it! Chocolate mousse (mouse yoghurt!) and icecream after, and then watching the bats flying round and the stars coming out.... lovely. And to top it all off, Ben went to bed quite happily hurrah!


Meanwhile back at the ranch, the electrician from Building Control has been round to inspect the works and Steve's glad he came when he did. Seems there's a diagram in the regs which doesn't contain ALL the information held in the words - one single line of words got missed by Steve meaning he's having to re-lay all the upstairs cabling, which he thinks is going to set them back a couple of days. He's glad it got picked up on because he'd rather the wiring be done to regulations than not, but irritated because he kind of expected that the diagrams accompanying the words would be complete and accurate! Hey ho. I'll be staying in Manchester an extra few days to give them the time they need to finish the job, which is fine by us now that we're settling in and relaxing again. You never know, by the time it comes to go home, maybe the cats will have learnt that Ben isn't the crazy child he was when they first encountered him a year and a half ago!