A Merry Christmas

Well, a rather belated “Merry Christmas” to all Blog Friends and Readers!  I hope you all have had a lovely time, with whatever you most enjoy in the Holiday Season – family, friends, lovely Church services and sweet music, good food and company. 

 
We have had a quiet Christmas here; normally my sister, nephew and nieces come over on Christmas Day, after lunch, but this year my elder niece is expecting a baby and they decided to stay at home for their Christmas celebrations.  We were invited to go there, but my mother can’t cope with such a long journey and my mother-in-law was also here; so there were just five of us here.   We had a lovely time though and opened our presents together after breakfast.  

J. was very pleased with a Nintendo DSi game from Santa.  He would hardly have put it down since he opened it, except to have a shower, eat a meal or go to sleep, but now and again we persuade him to take a break! 
D. was happy with a couple of DVD’s and the usual pair of new slippers (sad I know, but he needed them!).  He also had a small stash of chocolates and a few other bits.

I am spoiled – I now have a lovely new jigsaw puzzle, from D, some pretty sewing stuff from Su; I now even own a pin-cushion!  My mum gave me a pretty necklace and a box of toffees from Thorntons.  J. gave me some printing plates for my little Letterpress, which I’ve been experimenting with this afternoon – I’m making “Thank You” cards! 
I also have a set of lovely tins, which my sister bought me; I asked for a large cake tin, with “Cake” written on it, but she bought me a set of three nesting tins, with a design of pink roses and old-fashioned writing. I don’t think they will ever make it into the kitchen – they’re too pretty – they are currently on the shelf in my studio, waiting to be pressed into service as craft storage!

All in all, I have been very lucky for nice pressies!  I hope you all had a few nice surprises too.

We had a surprise visit on Christmas Eve, just after lunch.  My sister turned up, with my niece Keri-Anne and little Elle, to deliver our Christmas presents.  We were pleased to see them, but Elle hadn’t been very well the day before though and was still rather spaced out; Keri-Anne was also a bit under the weather and my sister was still recovering from a rotten fluey cold.  Not sure why they came out on a cold, horrible day, all the way from Northampton… I was pleased to see them, but we’ve been taking lots of vit. C tablets, in an effort to avoid inheriting their various lurgies!  Keri-Anne spent Christmas Day on their sofa, feeling really ill, (which can’t have been helped by her 60 mile round-trip in the cold! ) I think she’s on the mend now though.

The nice thing about having our visitors, was seeing the little one play with our Christmas books, reading the Christmas Story with her mummy – and Spot’s Magical Christmas! She had a go with our Nativity Set,  setting up the Holy Family, the Angel, lambs and donkey, shepherds and wise men, camels and cows… It’s lovely to have a small person here again, playing with the little people in the Nativity Set – J. is 13 now and too old to play with it any more. 



Somehow Christmas is more special when there are little ones to share it with.

   
 

Later in the day, my Mum-in-Law arrived to spend Christmas with us.  She brought her budgie, Bailey, so we had a nice “friend” for the cat. We were all woken on Christmas Morning, at 7am, by MIL telling off the cat and bird for shouting at each other!  I thought it was supposed to be the cry of a newborn baby, not the squawk of a new-woken budgie!

J. gave his Nanna a lovely little gift:


This was from one of my favourite shops on Etsy – The Felt Menagerie, by Feltmeupdesigns.

And the garden birds weren’t forgotten either:


J. in the garden, in pj’s and boots, feeding the birds some breakfast!

All in all, it’s been a quiet, but very nice Christmas.  Mum-in-Law went home yesterday morning, so the afternoon was very quiet here, with just the three of us, relaxing.  

I popped over to my mum’s this morning, with her shopping and to check she was okay.  She hasn’t been too well, as she has had a few dizzy spells.  She ended up in the hospital on 23rd December, because she nearly fell down.  We’re still not sure if the problem is with her inner ear, or connected to her other problems – she has arthritis in her spine/kneck and osteoporosis. It could be caused by pressure on the blood/nerve supply from her kneck to her head.  We’ll be seeing her doctor in the next few days, to see what he thinks.  Meanwhile, she has some tablets and is coping okay.

So, we’re back to “normal” really! Off to the shops tomorrow, so J. can spend some pocket money and play Warhammer games at the shop.  Taking Mum to the nurse on Thursday.  But on Friday we’ll be having a lovely roast-beef dinner, for New Year’s Eve and if everyone is well, we’re off to my niece’s house on New Year’s Day, for a nice family lunch.

Christmas is not over yet… So Merry Christmas to All!

Next, Please! (and a Weather Report)

My Current Project




These three book-blocks will be diaries, which I am making as Christmas presents.


I have a lovely choice of fabrics!

The light-coloured sprigged fabric and the red, plus the William Morris to the right of it are cottons.
The remainder is a selection of amazing jewel-coloured silks. There are some dupion silk (one colour all through with a slight texture) and some great pieces of tussore/tussah silk (the warp is one colour and the weft another, giving a “shot silk” with a nice slubby texture).

You can’t really see the richness of those colours… they are just wonderful.

I am covering the diaries with fabric – two with the cottons and one with silk. Each will have a silk strip on the spine – like this :


This is a traditionally bound book I made last January, on my book-binding course.  My diaries will have a wrap-round spine that is a different colour, like this book.

I have just finished the first book, but it is drying under weights and I don’t want to mess about with it just yet.  You will have to wait, if you want to see the Finished Project!

But doesn’t it sound exciting? Go on, admit it!

* * *

The Weather Report

Yesterday lunch time, it started to snow.  Big fat snowflakes, so that by 4pm it was like this:





By evening we had about 5 inches on the ground:




It looked rather magical by moonlight.

D. brought in a snowball, which Sherlock thought he should try:


The Snowball Tester

This is as close as he’s been to the snow so far.  He looks outside, shivers and walks away huffily! Of course, it is all My Fault!

This morning, 8am sunrise:





The Boys had to go out for a Snowball fight.  I couldn’t join in, as my asthma was playing up (boo…), but I watched and took some photos:






They were attacked by some boys, from the other side of the garden wall!


All snowy!

Sadly the snow was too fluffy for good snowballs and they abandoned attempts to make a Snow-Bot, as they just couldn’t get it to stick together.

D. got some snow in his eyes, which scratched him and he had to give up and come inside.  Still, they had some fun before that and got some exercise too.

I enjoyed my role, as Official Snowtographer!

Whether the Weather...

The Weather:

It's a commonly held conception, all over the world, that the British - or at least the English - spend half our time in conversation about the Weather.

I suppose it's hardly surprising, when it is so very changeable, that we do really talk - and write - rather a lot about it!  

I mean, really, when it's like this one day...

then the next it's like this....

and this...

and you wake up and look out at a sky like this...

with the garden looking like this again...

and even the birds are fed up...

Is is any wonder we all Moan?

For several days, we've woken to snow and ice.  By 11am it's all been gone away. 

Except for today.  When we woke, it was snowing.  The kids went back to school, after their half-term holiday, getting snowed on and making bets that it would be gone by lunch time.

Today it wasn't. It snowed all morning. And half the afternoon. 

Problem was, it was only 0 degrees (c).  Which meant that the snow was just wet and sloppy.  Although it sat on the ground, the underneath layer got warm and melted, making piles of yukky slush. 

I had to go out to do my Monday jobs.  It involves driving to the village nearby, where my mum lives. I visit the Post Office, to collect her pension money, the doctors' to get her prescription, the lady who sells eggs, to get hers & her neighbours' eggs, then her house, delivering all the above, plus her weekly shopping which was delivered here first thing in the morning (along with mine!).

I have to walk: from the car to the post office (not far), from the post office to the dr (not far), from there to the car, from the car park to the egg-lady's house (not far), then back, from the car to my mum's (really not far!) and back....

Not a lot of walking.  Just a few yards really.

So, why were my feet soaking wet?!

After lunch, the snow finally stopped.  By 3pm, when the mums went to get the littlies from school, it was all gone away.  J. walked home in the dry, though he went out in the wet.

My boots were finally dry, but I won't wear them in the snow again - not if it's going to be slushy.  From now on, it'll be waterproof boots to and from the car!

FED UP WITH THE WEATHER!

Giveaway Reminder

Remember that, if you would like a chance to win the little pink sock-bunny from the Sock Rabbit tutorial, you need to leave me a comment after last Wednesday's post (just below actually!). I will use a random number generator to select a winner and will publish the winning person's name this Wednesday evening, some time after 8pm.

On the Subject of Art Journals...

Well, Rinda, has been showing us lots of lovely pages from her Art Journal, at her blog here.  I have been meaning to re-start my Art Journal, which I used to keep a loooong time ago, but don't do right now.
I need to have some way of recording ideas and experimenting, before I start a project etc.  I also need somewhere to write notes, ideas and make drawings/sketches/diagrams for my bookbinding projects. 

So... as I am going on a Bookbinding Course next Friday (yay!), I thought I really should have a Bookbinding Journal/Notebook.  I looked at some books today, while I was in WHSmiths, finding a photo-display book (which they didn't have in 6x4 or 7x5, only A4, so I had to buy a slip-in photo album instead, but it's very nice ... more about this later).  Anyway, I looked at various notebooks and stuff, then thought that really I should be making my own. After all, am I, or am I not, a Book Binder?

So I did a quick re-purposing job on a set of plain book signatures that I salvaged from an old sketch book some time ago.  They were already stitched together and had glue all along the spine, which did limit the way I could bind them, but I have produced something I am pleased with:-

A 12" x 8.5" Bookbinding Journal/Notebook

This has hard covers, made of stiff boards, with some great marbled paper that I have had a long time (there's a little mini-book, with a Japanese binding, in my Etsy shop, that has covers made from this paper).

I really like this paper and it just seemed the best thing to use.  The little label on the cover was just made from a trimmed-off piece of the marbled cover paper, stencilled on the back, with the edges inked in gold.

The back is lovely... I was going to use it as the front (the benefits of plain paper inside!!), but I couldn't bear to stick the label over it, so I turned it round. Now I still have that lovely area of marbling, unspoilt and wonderful!

I have left the spine un-stiffened, so it curves round the book and allows just a little room for expansion, if I put any other bits of paper etc inside.  Because the four book signatures were already stitched and glued, there wasn't much option for leaving space to expand. I could've tried removing the glue, but I think it would have proved difficult as it was from a commercially produced book originally and the glue is mega-strong.  Still, it's nice enough and I dont think I will stick lots of bulky things into this particular journal. 

I'm pleased with this - not bad for an afternoon's work?

To return to the photo album.  I wanted to produce a Portfolio, showing all (or most of) the books I have made over the last year or so.  I tried setting up a mini-book on Snapfish, but they only do fancy stuff, with big wide borders round.  Also, when I did set it up, the edges of all my pictures were cropped off, leaving only about 2/3 of the picture showing. This wasn't much good, as I had already cropped and prepared my pictures and no-one can tell what a book looks like, from picture of just the middle bit! 

I did order prints of all my pictures, but I don't have a laminator, so I need to protect the prints in some way, also to present them.  So I have bought a plain, slip-in style photo album.  I feel this is rather admitting defeat, as I should produce my own book. On the other hand, I couldn't find suitable slip-in pages, to enable me to make my own photo book quickly.  There were some designed for postcard collections, but each page held two postcards, there were only 5 pages to a pack, which cost £4.99. To display 50 photos (oh yes, I do have 50!), it would cost me £25! Not a viable option. 

Some time soon, I may well make myself one of the "old fashioned photo album" books, such as I have, to order, in my shop.  However, I am short of time just now, so a ready-made album it is.  It's nice. It's plain red, leather-look stuff, with the word "Photos" in silver on the cover. The pictures are displayed portrait style, so many of mine will be sideways, but that doesn't matter really. Anyway, I like it and it will do nicely!

So that's my news...

D. was away last week, working in Stockholm.  They had SNOW there and the average daytime temperature was around -10 to -15 degrees Celsius (yes that's right, not an error!).  It was even colder at night. 

He took these photos:

These were all taken during the day.  the second one was at around 9am, when the sun was up. The other two were taken on his way home from work, after 5pm, but not very late.  He said that all the trees had a coating of white ice, like sugar. It's very pretty, but amazingly cold!

Of course, the Swedes are fairly used to snow in winter time, so they all get on with it, go to work, drive their cars etc.  No school closures because it snowed and froze! No factories closed because of a gas shortage!  I think the UK needs to get a bit more used to this - we may have more winters of snow and it's costing us millions every day, because we just can't cope. Maybe we should invite the Mayor of Stockholm to come and tell Parliament just how they cope in Sweden!

Anyway, he is home now and wanted to know what we had done with all the snow that was here when he went away!

Made, Listed, Sold - all in one day!

Well! Talk about speedy turn-round! I made the second of my funky "Nonsense" paper mini-books this morning.  After lunch I set up my little white photo-box and took pictures of it, then I listed it on my Etsy shop in the afternoon.  I spent some time updating photos in my shop, as some were really rather rubbish and my new box means I can replace the bad ones with better quality images (yay!).

I went down for tea at about 6pm, with 29 items for sale in my shop.  When I came back and logged on to see my e-mails at 7pm - the book was Sold! Amazing! That is definitely my quickest sale ever.  It's really rather exciting.  So I now have to package it nicely and head for the post office, to send it on its way to Wyoming in U.S.A. I hope its new owner will be very pleased with her purchase (as pleased as I am to sell it to her!). Cheers, lovely customer!

I think I will make another of these tonight. I still have enough papers to make at least one more, with a few modifications to the original design.  The nice thing about making books is that each one is different, even when I make several "the same"!  Every person who gets one of my books has a unique item.  I really like to think about that - it makes me feel special! I also love to give my books to people, especially ones I have designed and made specially for that person.  I made several as presents last year and it gives me a great feeling to make someone a special item, just for them. I get the same feeling if I make someone a scrap album or layout too.

I need to get organised, as I have loads of book ideas buzzing round my head! I'm also going on a course in 2 weekends' time. I need to sort out what I want to take with me, in terms of materials to create my book. It's so exciting!

* * *

Other Stuff from Today

I was logging on with the intention of posting about my day.  I took a couple of photos of the garden birds, which are quite nice, so I will post those. 

Our garden has been thronged with birds this week.  We put out seed, mealworms and fresh water, which they appreciate very much.  Yesterday and today I also grated a chunk of cheese (cheap cheese!) and put that out as well, to give the poor chilly birds a bit of energy value. 

We have watched in amazement, this last week to 10 days, as the number of Blackbirds in the garden has gone up, and up, and up... Usually, the most Blackbirds you'll see in the garden will be two, except when there are fledglings being fed in Summer.  They are very, very terratorial and will chase other blackbirds - in fact any other birds at times - and even fight them, to preserve their territory.  They will only tolerate a mate, during the time they are starting and raising a family. Then they go back to the "one bird per territory" rule!

Well... about 2 weeks ago, Mr. Blackbird began to court a lady Blackbird.  She was a bit unsure at first, but soon came round to the idea that he might be her Ideal Husband.  She was further convinced when a couple of other females came hopping around and chased Her Mr Blackbird round the garden! She chased them away very fiercely.  We watched all this with amusement. 

So 10 days ago, there were up to 4 blackbirds in our garden - three females and one very harrassed male! 

Then it snowed. More birds came to the garden to feed and we put out more food for them.  More blackbirds appeared - mostly females - and were chased by Mr. & Mrs. Blackbird.  However, they stayed around and Mr & Mrs were a bit more tolerant.  It's interesting that the birds do share more when the weather is bad - so long as there is plenty to eat anyway!

Gradually, over the last week, the number of Blackbirds has gone up... two, four, six, seven, nine... yesterday there were 10 and we were amazed. 

Today I counted 18 blackbirds, of both sexes, eating seed and drinking water, in our garden!  It's almost as if the local Blackbirds have decided to host their annual conference on our lawn! We are gobsmacked! 

Sadly, I haven't been able to photograph this amazing thing. Firstly, my camera battery ran out when I did try.  Secondly, they just don't keep still!  They hop and flap all over the place, chasing each other away and dodging about.  They sit in the trees, watching for a chance to nip down and snatch a quick snack..  But they do not all sit nicely, waiting for me to say "Now then, Group Shot, please.  Say 'Birdseeeeeed'!" 

Maybe they will tomorrow.... Meanwhile -

A starling and a greenfinch snatching a few snacks at our seed feeder.

These two lovely goldfinches were eating Niger (thistle seeds) as fast as they could, before the starlings chased them away.

We are so lucky with our bird visitors.  Yesterday there was a Blackcap in the garden! We have never seen one before.  We think it has come South because it's so cold further North just now. Or else it lives quite happily in some local woodland, but was hoping to find a few snacks in the village gardens.  They do live all over Britain - according to our RSPB Birds book - but we have never seen any before.  There was also a Pied Wagtail (one of those cute little black, grey & white birds, with long white-barred tails, that they waggle up & down).  They don't come very often either.

The Redwings are still regular visitors.  There are usually four now, who we think must have decided to stick around for the winter. I did take a couple of photos, but they never come close enough to the house and the photos are too blurry to bother with really.  Just a brownish blob on the grass or tree!

* * *

J's school was closed again today.  He was less pleased about this when we got a text message from school, to say the children could pick up some Maths, English and Science work from school, or the school website!  He was quite good about trying to do some work this morning though, then he went out to play snowballs with some friends.  He came back for lunch, then was off again, with his sledge.  Later on he turned up, all tearful.  It seems that he and the other boys had piled snowballs up on the sledge, but some other boys had ambushed them, stolen the sledge and thrown all the snowballs at them.  J. was pretty miserable about it, as they were hurting him and wouldn't stop.  He had managed to retrieve his sledge, but obviously felt that home was the best idea.  Poor man! I gave him a warm drink and a pep-talk and he was soon okay again.  His dad was home by that time too - supposed to go to a meeting in London, but no trains for his colleague and ours were all delayed. Dad gave J. some moral support and he's fine now.  I suppose the other boys were a bit over-excited.  They probably didn't mean to hurt anyone, but it was a bit much for J. to handle. His two friends arrived to check he was okay and then they went off home too (D. had bumped his nose on the slide - unrelated incident - and it was growing a fine bruise. I sent them in search of a parent with an ice-pack!).  So, J. and his friends have all had an exciting sort of day!

* * *

Sherlock thought his day was looking up too....

"You got a new Cat-Tent!"

I had to tell him, kindly, that this was not his new bed, but an Important New Piece of Business Equipment.  He wasn't impressed by that - cats don't care about business. He doesn't even care that I sold a book today, in record time. But we love him anyway.

He has just come into my room, to ask what I'm doing... he has found the photo-box, partly folded, under the desk and has sniffed it hopefully... Now he's having a wash - I expect he'll settle down on my "guest chair" and go to sleep.  Love that daft old cat!

I'm off to cut the men's hair... D. starts his new job on Monday and wants to be presentable. Just now, if he's not careful, he bears rather a resemblance to the Boss in the old Dilbert cartoons!  (In case you don't know what I mean, you can see Dilbert and his Boss here). J's doing a good imitation of Cousin It just now too... so the clippers are comin' out! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Bye all! Mind the Snowballs!

Yaffle

Well, today we did get one of our parcel deliveries - the party presents arrived in a nice big box (much bigger than needed, but that was fun)!  Also a small present arrived for J. and two t-shirts that I forgot I had ordered for my niece's husband and my other niece's b.f.  Now we only need J's "Dad present" and all is set!

Walked to post office in the village just before lunch.  The day was much milder than yesterday and the snow showed signs of melting.  We wore walking boots anyway, as it was very slippy underfoot. I didn't want another fall-induced injury thanks! Posted our Important Letters and bought some mistletoe for over the fireplace.

On our return I started to make some sandwiches for lunch, but was very distracted by this:

This is Mrs Yaffle, who dropped into our garden for a snack!

She is a Green Woodpecker - the largest of the British Woodpeckers.  She must have been very hungry, as she dug a hole in the lawn - probably after insects or perhaps ants. 

The photos are not very good, as my camera is only a snapshot type.  I was so lucky to get any pictures at all really. I spent 20 minutes standing at my open bedroom window, with the camera poised, taking as many shots as I could. I had to be patient, as she flew off and came back several times, when the garden birds decided they had seen me moving. 

Green Woodpeckers are not that unusual in countryside gardens, but they are a bit rare in gardens that are in a more built-up area, like ours.  She must have flown over from one of the small copses or woods round the edge of the village. She certainly was lovely and I felt very privileged to see her! 

This is a pair of Goldfinches, who dropped in to eat seeds off the garden shrubs.  My patient waiting today certainly paid off. I saw about 12 different types of birds in the garden during that 20 minutes. They were all getting on with eating as much as possible. It was a lovely thing to see them all.

We do get a few unusual birds in the garden from time to time.  There have been a few Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, plenty of fnches etc, also a Treecreeper, going round our willow tree, looking for insects.  At our last house we had (as occasional visitors) Kestrels, Skylarks, Willow Tits, Grey Wagtails (which are, in fact, largely yellow!), Swallows, Swifts and House Martins, Fieldfares, Waxwings and also something we think was a Harrier of some kind, or perhaps a Red Kite.  Our garden backed onto open fields, which led down to the river, so we had a lovely view and very interesting birdlife. Where we are now is more urban, even though it's a village, so the birds are mainly "garden birds", but now and then we get the odd bonus visitor (like the heron who ate all our goldfish!).

While we had our lunch, I put the first part of "The Box of Delights" in the video player.  It is really starting to feel like Christmas Time!

Snow Day

Well, this is what we woke up to this morning:

Brr.. but very pretty!

Our shrubs looked so pretty with snow on them

It snowed most of the night, I think and it was very windy and cold.  By the time we got up, there was a good lot of snow out there - about 4 or 5 inches I think.   But we had to try and go on as normal.  D got up at 6 and went to work. He said there wasn't any snow in London (don't know if that's true, but quite possible).  It all seems to have fallen in the East.

I put out lots of food for this little chaffinch and all his friends!

Me & J got up and ready for the day, but we had a group text message from School, to say they would be closed today, as the bus company had cancelled the buses.  As more than half the kids come by bus, I suppose it wasn't worth risking worse weather this afternoon for the rest.  So a bonus extra day on the school holidays.  When I told J, he said "Wooo-hoo!" and went upstairs to change out of his uniform. 

We had to get all the snow off the car and go out at 9:15, to pick up the lady who helps me do my cleaning.  She comes every other Friday and does the heavier stuff that I still find hard (like vacuuming, floor washing, blitzing the kitchen or bathrooms - I can't do it all in one go!).  She had wondered if I would make it today, but was happy to come over and help.  I have a shiny kitchen and clean floors now. 

Meanwhile, J went out with his friends and made lots of noise and mess, as kids do.  He arrived home an hour later, wet, chilly and happy, with glowing cheeks, asking for hot chocolate.  We had to go out to take his Grandma for her dental appointment, so no more snowballing after that.

J and friends had a snowball fight

So, it's been a funny old day today.  There is still snow on the ground, though the main roads were clear by mid-morning.  It snowed a bit more this afternoon and I'm wondering whether we should attempt our usual run to Trampoline club.  It's the last of term and we're supposed to re-book for next term... maybe they would do it by phone!

By the way, thanks everyone who left such nice comments yesterday.  I did feel a bit like "Superwoman" actually.  It's the most I have accomplished in a day for a long time.  I am getting fitter and it seems that I work best if I have firm deadlines. 

The teacher cookies didn't go to school today, of course.  As they won't keep til New Year, we have decided they will make good "going home presents" for J's friends on Wednesday, when some of them come for a Christmas party.  J. has a party each year, in the days leading up to Christmas.  He has no brothers or sisters to share the Season with, so it's a great way for him to enjoy himself, share the fun with other children and get ready for Christmas.  It's quieter than the rowdy celebrations at school, which suits him better - he really doesn't enjoy loud music, shouting etc for any length of time. He's a quiet sort, with very sensitive ears, which hurt if the music is too loud (won't go to disco's), so the more relaxed and controllable atmosphere at home suits him better.  We all have fun and his friends are a great group of girls and boys.  I look forward to it too. 

I mentioned Origami paper boxes yesterday, which I made to pack the cookies in.  I think I may try and make up a tutorial for these.  They are dead easy to make, especially after you've done it once.  The box and the lid are exactly the same pattern; you just cut the paper for the lid a little bit bigger, so it will go over the top.  I got the instructions from a lovely book that I have, called "The Simple Art of Japanese Papercrafts" by Mari Ono.  There are a number of lovely projects inside, for all kinds of things, including boxes, plates, wrappings, books, decorative items, play-things.  I use it a lot and find it so useful. It was a good investment.

So, I'll try to make a tutorial, to show her pattern for square lidded boxes.  There is also a set of instructions in the book for rectangular boxes, but I can't quite work out part of the instructions and keep getting it wrong. Must work on that one. Once I solve it, I could make a tutorial for that too. 

Anyway, I must go now and sort out Trampolining (or not) and tea-time.

Happy Friday, everyone!