I Want to Ride My Bicycle

As a mother I am a constant worrier about my daughter's health, weight, height, eating habits, fitness, etc, etc. I'm sure you know what I mean.

One thing I've noticed is that during term time my daughter puts on weight. Sitting in school all day and eating huge portions of unhealthy school puddings does her no good. (And yes, I know she does, because I work at the same school and sometimes I can catch her at lunchtime in the dining room feasting on a portion of syrup sponge and custard that would feed all three of us at home!) The school nurse has reassured me that children grow like Christmas trees, out then up, out then up, but I know that those puddings are a slippery slope!

So, at weekends and in the holidays I try to redress the balance. There is lots of healthy food and lots of exercise: games in the garden, walks, bike rides, trips to the park, swimming, etc.

Since I bought my new bike earlier this year I have been out cycling with her a lot as she seems to enjoy cycling more than anything else, but I fear I have overdone it.

Cycling to the shops, to the Water Park, along the Mersey, down the Bridgewater Canal, all over Center Parcs for a week and then Delamere Forest has been too much for her.

When I asked her to cycle to the Post Office with me this morning she said;

"Mummy, since you bought your bike I've had the tiredest legs in the world!"

Perhaps I should give the poor girl a break?

Delamere Forest

This week we took advantage of the weather and took our bikes down to Delamere Forest for one of our Family Fun Days.

Delamere Forest is a place close to my heart. My parents used to take me and my brother there for walks and picnics and we used to get our Christmas tree there.

My grandparents use to pile 5 or 6 of us grandkids in the back of their car (you could do that in the 70s) and take us for walks and picnics.

When daughter was born it was a place we could go for a nice long walk with the pram and she first met Father Christmas there.

My brother proposed to his wife there and, as a wedding present from daughter, we bought them a tree there to remind them.

Now we take daughter for walks, picnics and bike rides. There are even open air concerts and a "Go Ape" aerial ropes adventure course now; never had that in my day!!

It's easy to get there by train (Delamere Station) or car (plenty of car parks) and the station cafe sells the most gorgeous Snugbury's Ice Cream ("White Mountain" and "Turkish Delight" are my favourites, not that I've had lots of Snugbury's ice cream, honest, I haven't)

So, if you want a nice family day out, pack a picnic and head to Delamere.

A Plum Harvest

It's plum picking time again!

So far my plum tree has yielded 12lb of lovely ripe Victorias.

In the past few days I have made 7 jars of jam, 6 jars of chutney, one plum and hazelnut cake, 72 bars of sticky plum flapjack and one delicious plum drizzle cake:

Next I'm going to try plum and almond crumble slice........

For recipes click on the links

The difference between men and women, again.

This weekend there was a good forecast for once so on Saturday morning husband I were sitting eating breakfast deciding what to do. Spot the difference.........

Him: We could go on a bike ride or a walk or visit the new maze at Speke Hall.

Me: It's not raining so we're doing the gardens, weeding the drive, mowing the lawns, washing all the bedding and cleaning the windows.

Well, you have to take the opportunity when it arises!

Back, but exhausted!

We're back from Center Parcs.

And I'm exhausted.

As predicted, husband filled every minute of every day with swimming, cycling, walking, aerial ropes course, canoeing, crazy golf, quadbiking, archery, driving range, horse riding, laser combat, etc, etc.

You get the picture!

Actually, it was great fun, and we had such a good time.

What surprised me was how quickly I changed from being a caring mum saying things like:

"Are you warm enough, Izzy? Do you want your fleece?"

to running through the woods shouting

"Die Izzy, die!"

He he he!

Beware flying slugs!

Daughter and I were enjoying a walk and a chat on the way home from Brownies on Thursday evening when, all of a sudden, a slug fell from the sky and landed right in front of us.

Followed by another.

And another!

Raining slugs!

Then I realised that this was not a natural phenomenon.

It was a neighbour in his garden launching slugs out into the road!

Eugh!!

Oh What a Glorious Thing to Be.....

It's been a busy couple of weeks since I went to the Good Food Show.

It's also been a hassly couple of weeks for various reasons.

There's been some good stuff and some irritating stuff, but I've finally made it to the end of term!

Yes, I've broken up today!

So what have I been up to?

Well, there was Sports Day where daughter gave it her all:

At work there was Speech Day, "Picnic in the Park" featuring a Take That Tribute Band, our Department End of Term Meal and millions of reports to write.

There was singing in a concert in Manchester.

There was the usual taking daughter to parties.

There was driving all over the Northwest before and after work due to problems with husband's car. Don't get me started on last night's quest to find him at Saddleworth Golf Club!

And there was husband's triumphant second place in his work's Masterchef competition:


You can see why we were happy for him to practise on us at home:


(I taught him everything he knows!)

And now, finally, I can relax.........

......... well, apart from the shopping and packing for our holidays!