Give peas a chance

Nanny & Grandad came to visit on the weekend of 14th / 15th March which gave them a chance to be enchanted by Fudge and Humbug, watch Thomas at rugby training (not a player of the week performance unfortuntely!), get an early Mothers Day present and get the first vegetable seeds of 2009 in the ground. Thomas and Martha planted some peas with Grandad so they've got something to lovingly tend as spring turns into summer.





Is it the done thing to cut the lower branches off a silver birch to provide the required 'pea sticks'? We also need to decide what to put in the regular veg patch. After two years of less than spectacular butternut squash harvests I'm thinking of giving sweetcorn another go and probably some beetroot and maybe some nice brocolli. Anything that can broadly speaking fend for itself would probably be best.

Pet sounds (and vision)

Our last post mentioned that Martha received an empty guinea pig hutch for Christmas. Since then she's been very patiently waiting for us to get something to put in it. Last Saturday we finally got two female guinea pigs who we've today decided to call Humbug and Fudge.

Here they are


They're in their hutch out in the shed, which must be a bit cold at the moment but we've been bringing them in every day so they can get used to us.





They seem to like to be held and stroked. Humbug is definitely more inquisitive at the moment while Fudge just seems content to take it all in. Humbug is a Merino breed and Fudge a Texel. You have to brush their fur now and again as well as cut it if it gets too long!

Ruby sunday

The weekend of October 4th saw us in Lydney for a three fold celebration - the centenary of Lydney United Reform Church where we were married, Rachel's mum & dad's fortieth wedding anniversary and Martha's fourth birthday. We went to a lovely celebratory afternoon at the church on Saturday and Martha had a properly chocolately birthday cake back at nanny and grandad's while dressed in her new favourite clothes - the Disney princess outfit.



We had a really good Sunday lunch at the Ugly Duckling restaurant in Lydney the following day.

Young at heart

We went and stayed at Rebecca and Rick's on the weekend of the 17th May and gave Nanny Baldwin a bit of a surprise by turning up en masse on her birthday. We all got fish and chips for lunch and went to Blakeney Straights to eat them.



Lunch could only keep the children's interest for so long when there was the competing attraction of a stream to play in.



Thomas found a rock



It didn't always go entirely to plan but no one got really wet



Grace found something to amuse her, she's still a bit little for streams!



After the stream we walked up to some different woods where the last of the bluebells for which the Forest is justly famous were still in bloom.

Pan's people

A combination of World Book Day (see here), Peter Pan Week (see here) and a visit to Braintree District Museum (see here) meant a veritable frenzy of dressing up for school and nursery.

First, on March 6th, came Thomas's visit to Braintree museum where he saw a Victorian classroom, wore the back straightening device and came home with a slate to write on. As that was also World Book Day Martha went to nursery dressed as one of her favourite book characters.




Then on Friday 7th, as part of Peter Pan week Thomas's school took part in the Big Time Rhyme and the whole school read an extract from Peter Pan in Scarlet. So, everyone at school was encouraged to dress up as a character from Peter Pan - Thomas chose the eponymous hero and Martha stuck with Tinkerbell.



P.S. Don't forget to click on the button at the top right of this page to sponsor Nanny Crisp in the London Marathon.

Second home by the sea

Another short trip over the holidays to Waxham Sands in Norfolk to take advantage of the Crisp / Collins joint venture holiday home. Yes, it's a Sprite Alpine caravan.
There was some rain and the on site chippy's chip machine was broken rather scuppering our dinner plans.
Thomas and Martha took to sleeping on the bunks really well in their new sleeping bags.



The sun was out the following morning so we headed for the beach (all of 2 minutes walk away).



Guess who had to do all the digging for this!



Here's the co-owner



It was also a good afternoon for kite flying, Martha enjoyed it.



Having sussed things out this summer we'll probably go back next summer.

(Theme) Park Life

A milestone in Thomas and Martha's development over the holidays with their first visit to an actual theme park. In the company of Jamie, Claire, Lily and Isabelle we chose the relatively sedate surroundings of Legoland where disappointingly many things are not made of Lego. This is a swizz.

We went on lots of fun rides, queued for what seemed like an age for some of them (although they thoughtfully provide Lego bricks for the children to play with while waiting) and saw a fun puppet show. We seemed to have walked miles by the time we left at 7pm (closing time) and a good time was had by all.







One tip, it costs a fair bit when paying cash for a family of four so paying with all those loyalty points the supermarkets give you is a good idea.

I would like a hut I could call my own

We've rented a beach hut at Walton on the Naze for the summer (and some of the autumn). It's great to have somewhere to make a decent cup of tea, store your stuff and chill out when the tide comes right up to the sea wall. As you can see it's very blue.
All we need now is some half decent weather.



Some children enjoying the benefits of having a beach hut:


So, if you know anyone who's selling a beach hut in a nice place on the Essex coast, tell them to get in touch.

I raced for life

The Braintree Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK took place on 17th June at Notley Country Park. Loads of participants including Rachel, Lynda and Stella. Obviously children, male members of the family and dog went along to offer moral support.

Everyone finished in under 30 minutes, which was pretty good.

Next step for Rachel is a new set of running shoes and twice the distance in Wiltshire on 23rd September (sponsor her at the link on the right).

Rachel raised just over £100, so thanks to everyone who sponsored her.


Before the start



Waiting around


Lynda, Stella, Jackie and Rachel afterwards


Sally, Rachel & Debbie, the Rickstones contingent

Stood on the seafront laughing

Given that the weather was generally rubbish over half term, we didn't do much. However we did go to Walton on the Naze for the afternoon with Jamie, Claire, Lily & Isobel. Some paddling, some rides on the pier - Martha had never seen so many flashing lights; her eyes were the size of saucers - and some doughnuts. So what if it rained?













Thanks to Jamie for the photos

It's not all beer and skittles you know

Someone once said that life's not all beer and skittles. Well, here's a few photos of us playing skittles and if you look very carefully there's probably some beer in there too. If you can't see any, it's definitely just out of shot. The occasion was Rachel's mum's 60th birthday party. A good time was had by all.

Waiting for the Duck Race

May 7th is a big day in the north Braintree area - the Bocking Village Fayre, culminating in the duck race down the river to Kings Bridge. We had a few friends round and despite the less than ideal weather forecast had arranged a barbecue for when the fayre had ended.
Luckily the weather wasn't too bad in the afternoon so we all wandered up the road to see what was happening and get wet in another downpour.

Thomas and Lily seemed generally positive having played at the new school playground.



Martha is still getting to grips with the fact that ice cream melts, even if it's barely above freezing.



We took our places early next to the bridge for the duck race, perhaps a bit too early given that the previous couple of weeks unbroken sunshine meant that the Blackwater was hardly a raging torrent. It took quite a while for the ducks to travel the couple of hundred metres down from the other bridge and for the third year in a row one of our ducks failed to win.

Still, the weather was good enough to enjoy the barbecue when we got back, too late for the fayre organisers unfortunately and we'd done enough to ensure that some of our guests were worn out.

Flying visit

We had a visit from Kate over the weekend of 5th /6th May, a weekend break from her RAF basic training. Thomas and Martha were naturally delighted to see her and the general excitement level went up a further notch with the simultaneous arrival of Rebecca and Amelia (no Grace sadly, she wasn't feeling very well). Everyone went to Boydells Farm in the afternoon (does anyone detect a pattern emerging?) and spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden. Here's a picture of Kate and three of her nieces and nephews on the hammock in the garden.



On Sunday Kate ironed her RAF greens, sadly the camera was charging at that point so there's no photographic proof, you'll just have to take our word for it.

Pleased to meet ewe

Despite the fact that this messes up the chronological order here's a little roundup of Easter holidays activities.

Three visits to Boydells farm in Shalford (got to make sure we get full value from the season ticket!). It's a great place where you can get really close to the sheep and there's lots of other animals like goats, chickens and llamas to feed. Their website is here, they're well worth a visit and if you come to ours we'll probably drag you there ourselves.





Thomas and Martha also visited Halstead fire station thanks to our builder Dan needing to put in a couple of 'community relations' hours.

Here's Martha in the back of the fire engine.



And Thomas giving his verdict on the whole fire station experience.



Martha also had a play in a toy digger at the site of Tom and Dan's latest construction masterpiece - Dan's extension.



Finally, we visited the Bignall family in Hempnall and as usual made full use of Hempnall's far too good for a small village in Norfolk playground. Here's Martha on some Finnish wooden bouncy thing that had just been installed.