Munching in Munich!

I was going to get all travel-blogger style and give you a full run down of our recent two-day jaunt to Munich, where we got caught in a monumental hailstorm, rode to the top of the Olympic tower, learned to negotiate the German rail system without speaking a word of German, and drank many good cups of coffee, and even more good beers.

But really, this is me.  We were visiting a friend, and only had a couple of days, which is nowhere near enough time to do the city justice.  I want to go back for a week and fill in the gaps that I didn't have chance to explore properly.  With an umbrella to deal with the next hailstorm, obviously, though considering the wind I might well have a Mary Poppins moment & end up flying all the way to Austria.  Being my blog though, I have got some photos to share with you.  You know the sort.

Pretzels

CAAAAAAAAKE!

Being artistic at the Olympic Park

Beer. One of many.

If Frozen's Elsa worked in a Beerhall.

I'm slowly trying to improve my photography skills, bit by bit.  It's tough though, when time is limited and you're enjoying reality, to have the opportunity to set up a perfect shot.  This time I didn't have Squeaky dragging my arm down & making me run to the next streetlight, but even so, while I try to take a good shot, I also take many, many mediocre ones and more than a few outright bad ones.  I'll never be David Bailey (or insert other favourite photographer here), because life moves too fast for me.  But I'll have some fun along the way, and if some turn out good, all the better.

Take a look around

I think most of us are guilty of walking around in something of a dream, I certainly am. But daydreaming our way around the world means we can miss out on some amazing sights.

While I live on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, I find it impossible to capture photos of nature that match what I can actually see.  I think it's something to do with scale, and I'm endlessly admiring of those who can capture nature in its glory. Fortunately for me, the same doesn't apply to urban scenes, where I tend to see things in a tighter focus.

This is the top floor of a Euro-supermarket that's recently opened in town, full of Polish & Turkish products & some lovely cakes & fruit juice.  I have no idea why the upstairs has mock-Tudor beams, because the building is far from that old, but it makes me smile.  I can't even blame it on the previous occupants, because that was a cheap furniture shop with broken windows.

Outside one of the churches in the town centre is this beautiful drinking fountain, commemorating a previous Royal Wedding. What a strange way to mark a wedding.  I can't find anything commemorating more recent Royal Weddings, or even the jubilee, but this fountain remains a happy reminder of days gone by.

What hidden gems are there in your town?

Aberdulais Falls #NationalTrust

I start feeling terrifically old when my best idea for a day out with Miss Squeaky is a trip to the local National Trust site, Aberdulais Falls.  But really, should I? Or should I just suck it up and embrace the fact that someone thinks our local heritage is important and interesting enough to be protected, looked after, and shown to the public?  I need to work on those middle-aged & middle-class hobbies a bit more, don't I?  I'm good at charity shops, I own a picnic blanket, but I just can't get into Radio 4.

Well, National Trust it is then.  Off in the car 20 minutes down the road to Aberdulais Falls.  And perfectly for me, a great mix of nature and heritage, and not a stately home in site.  Aberdulais Falls is, as the name suggests, home to a waterfall.  A waterfall in a narrow gorge, that through the generations has provided the power to a tin works, as well as other industries lost to time.

Now, at this point I could bore you with a history lesson, but that's not why you come here. Instead, I shall bore you with photos, and tell you about what we did.

We stared at the waterfall and marvelled at how loud it was, while I tried (and failed) to take artsy photos.

We (OK, I) giggled at the name of a piece of equipment used in the tin works.  Wobbler is funny, right?

We skipped out on the educational DVD showing, in favour of a picnic.  Obviously.

We practised our leaf rubbing skills, and tried to find as many different colour leaves as possible.  And planted acorns to see if they would grow into oak trees.  Probably not, as they were planted in gravel.

And I got up-close and personal with a bee.  Apparently this is one of Robbie the formerly-invisible-bee's best friends.  He, and a couple of friends were making the most of the mint garden outside the old school house tea rooms.  It might be traditional to have tea & a slice of Victoria Sponge at the National Trust tea rooms, but I'm not quite that middle aged just yet.  Next year, maybe.

So, we did something cultured and educational with our weekend, as well as being in the beautiful, healthy outdoors.  What about you?

We're linking our trip up with Coombe Mill's Country Kids linky.  Why not pop along and get inspired?

That London!

Post Office Tower - a useful landmark for finding our hotel

We did something amazing recently. Managed to escape La Squeak for a whole weekend & headed off to That London for excitement, adventure and really wild things.

I do enjoy London, all the glitz and sparkle, though there's a bit of me that's glad when I can escape back to my quiet little town in suburbia, and get out of the hustle and bustle. There's something for everyone, I find, and that's what I enjoy the most. 

Carnaby Street

 Carnaby Street is a good way to judge someone's musical age.  It can be the centre of Swinging London of the 60's.  It can be the home of the Smash Hits office of the 80's.  Or it can be "Eh? Where?" if your knowledge of music begins and ends with Katy Perry.

Ducklings in Regents Park

 Having an adults-only weekend means we can walk and mooch about to our hearts' content, no moaning about hurting feet or needing ice cream. We strolled through Regents Park, looking at the gardens and ducklings, wished our bank balance away in the shop windows of Old Bond Street, and took in the randomness of Covent Garden, where I might have slightly got carried away with shopping, just a little bit. Ahem.

The only Easter Egg I want this year

We didn't really make any major plans, and so wandered from our hotel in search of something to eat in the evenings, and happened across a lovely Greek Cypriot restaurant, only a few minutes from the hotel.  For a very reasonable price (even by my standards!) we tucked in to the most tender, delicious lamb I've seen this side of Athens.  And I probably shouldn't mention the sticky cake I followed it up with.  Mmmmmmm!  We could have so easily spent a fortune in an upmarket restaurant, there's plenty to choose from, but by just stepping back one street from the main shopping streets, we found fantastic food at much better prices.

Daddy decided he wanted to see a show, and got himself a cheap matinee ticket to Eric & Little Ern - the Morecambe & Wise tribute showing at the Vaudeville Theatre. That show was totally not my scene, so instead I was all cultured and spent a happy hour mooching the National Portrait Gallery and being amazed by the Andy Warhol picture of Elizabeth Taylor (which is under copyright, so I couldn't take a picture.)  The theatre can be great value in the daytime, the matinee shows are often cheaper than the evenings, and you can pick up tickets from cut-price vendors on the day.  The major galleries and museums offer free entry, though they do ask for a contribution (and give a rather hefty suggested donation), but it's all voluntary, and they offer good value as well as making you feel that you're all civilised and grown up.  (And galleries tend to have good coffee shops as well)

What else did we do?  We found a Banksy - completely by accident.  Though to be honest I was more amused by the comment someone had left alongside it.

We took a tour of BBC Broadcasting House, where we met up with an old friend.  These tours are a whole lot of fun, and you never know if you'll bump into someone famous popping out to pick up a sandwich.  The tours are a really interesting way to see a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes at the Beeb, we even got to sit on the One Show sofa (with a special cover on it, because Alex Jones' bottom couldn't possibly be contaminated by the mucky jeans of a mere mortal!)

I'm still a bit confused by Daleks, to tell the truth.  They're evil and all, but it's even more like an egg whisk, sink plunger & washing basket up close.  The security guard who was hovering somewhere just to the left of this photo was considerably more intimidating.  That's my suggestion for the next series of Doctor Who, forget the Daleks & Weeping Angels, have a terrifying race of security guards who won't believe you that the "suspicious shape" in your camera bag is the magic string that connects the camera to your computer, even when you show them.

And then there was this.  I have no idea why the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square is currently home to a giant blue chicken, but it is.  Your guess is as good as mine.

That's the thing really, the randomness of it all.  There's a London for everyone, whether you're grown up and cultured, a traditional tourist, in need of a good pampering & an expensive meal or a really silly person who spends half an hour going on about Big Blue Cocks.  It's all there, somewhere.

A walk in the park

Some days, life is just a walk in the park.

I Wish I Was There...

In the interests of full disclosure, I'm writing this post whilst half watching the opening match of this year's Six Nations rugby.  And considering the weather, which has been a hailstorm all morning, I certainly don't wish I was there at the Millennium Stadium.  Far too cold.

Instead, I wish I was here...

Regular readers, and personal friends will recognise this photo, because I absolutely love it.  The photo was taken in  Neos Marmaras, Halkidiki, Greece, when I'd just got off a boat trip.  Boats are totally not my scene, I don't do boats without extreme terror, but this boat trip was the only way to see places on the other peninsulas so I put on my big girl pants, got on board and sat below deck crying.  We stopped here in Neos Marmaras, and the rest of the tour group spent their time exploring chic boutiques and coffee shops, whereas I just made the most of being on dry land again.  We walked up a little hill, and I spotted this view between two houses, out over the bay, and froze.  It just epitomises everything Greek to me, that shade of blue, the whitewashed walls, it's just everything Greek.  I can almost taste the glass of ouzo.

Right now, with the hailstones rattling against the window, and the winter showing no signs of letting up, this where I really wish I was.  The photo was taken in the years pre-Squeaky, but I just know she'd love Greece as much as I do, the beaches, the food, the dancing, though she'll have to wait a good few more years before the ouzo!

What about you? Are you keeping yourself going through the winter months by looking back over your summer snaps?  Where do you wish you were right now?  Thomson Al Fresco want to know, and they've got a competition to win a Nikon D3200 DSLR camera for sharing your wishes.

Disclosure: This is my entry to the Thomson Al Fresco Wish I Was There competition.  I have not been compensated for the post.

Kia-Ora's too fruity for crows!

It's just for me & my dog!

(sorry, a bad old advert there).  This is nothing to do with Kia-Ora, and everything to do with an old photo, as my dear friend Ginger Elanor, of Elanor's Nails wants to see pictures of readers & their dogs.

I haven't got any pets at the moment, though there's a friendly robin, and a blackbird family that pop into my back garden every morning for their breakfast.  They're not dogs though, and the rule was dogs.  So off to the archive we go.

I can't find a picture of me & my dog, but this is the one & only Fred Bassett, who I grew up with, in his favourite position - flaked out in the garden.  Don't blame him really.

The Mythical Deer of Cannock Chase

Despite living in South Wales, neither Daddy nor I are Welsh. I was born in Wolverhampton &; moved around a few bits of England before I settled in Wales, and Daddy grew up about 10 miles up the road in Cannock.  And that's where we've spent the weekend. Cannock. Famous for being the early years training ground of Stan Collymore, and that's about it as far as I can tell.

Warning. Mythical Deer.

Except for one thing. The deer. Cannock Chase is a pretty big expanse of woodland & the like on the edge of the town, and apparently home to a large population of fallow deer.  Which I'm not quite convinced actually exist. I mean, I've seen road signs, heard "friend of a friend" stories about deer leaping out at your car in the evenings, but actually seeing one?  No chance.  There's about as much chance of finding Bigfoot & Nessie out on a date at your local Pizza Hut.  I've just about convinced myself that the deer are nothing more than a myth, made up by the tourist office to make a fairly dull West Midlands town sound a bit more exciting.

No deer here

So, with that in mind, Daddy decided we should go out to look for the deer over the weekend. It kept me out of the pub, I suppose!  Off we went in the car, found a likely spot & hopped out for a walk.  Miss Squeaky decided that the best way to get the deer to show up was to call "Deers, come out, come out, wherever you are!" at the top of her voice. An interesting tactic, I'm sure you'll agree, but unfortunately not a terribly successful one, as they decided against.  We did see a few dogs though, out for a walk, and a fox, running across the road, but no deer.  According to Squeaky, the reason we didn't see the deer is because they were too busy chasing the fox.  Fair guess.

No deer here either

We did find a deer's bed, apparently. No deer in it, but that's what she decided.

The deer's bed, but no deer.

The only other thing Cannock Chase is famous for is, errr, people enjoying sexual encounters in public places.  So we decided to go home before it got too dark & the freaks came out to play. My commitment to blogging only goes so far.

A tree that sort of looks like antlers

Personally, I still think the deer are all a myth, and I think I know why.  There's an awful lot of trees on the Chase like the one pictured above.  From a distance, if you squint in the right way, they kind of look like antlers.  Sort of.  Maybe?

NB: I know that the deer are real, and just very shy animals, and the chance of seeing them in such an expanse of dense woodland is pretty slim. But I like to live in denial of the existence of certain things. Deer, the M50, and Jim Davidson don't exist in my world, and a very happy place it is too.

Linking up with the Coombe Mill Country Kids Linky.
   

A little walk

I take my camera out with me a lot, especially since I had a bout of gadget envy and replaced my dying compact camera for a swish & snazzy bridge camera with more functions than I can understand.  And I love to spot the details, things that people don't normally notice because they're too busy going about their everyday lives.

We live in Merthyr Tydfil, in the heart of the South Wales Valleys.  You've heard of it, the town gets a lot of negative press for being full of benefit claimants, scroungers and underachievers. That's not actually true.  The town's got its difficulties, but really, I wouldn't move (aside from the fact I can't afford to).  Let me show you some of the sites, with a bit of help from Squeaky.

Joseph Parry was born in the row of little cottages just along from my street.  He's known for writing "Myfanwy", apparently.  He's also quite useful for giving people directions to my house, because the cottage he was born in is a museum, and there's plenty of little brown tourist road signs.

I'd take you to town, but honestly, it's not that exciting, unless you want to see the shop that used to be Woolworths, a selection of charity shops and a couple of guys asking if you've had an accident in the last 3 years.  So instead, we'll walk the other way, up the hill to the castle.  Yes, you heard me right, the castle.

It calls itself a castle, anyway.  This is Cyfarthfa Castle, home of the Crawshay family, who owned the local ironworks.  They liked to remind their workers how much richer they were, and built their own castle.  Daddy & I got married in here, it's partly a museum, and partly the lower school base for the local secondary school, until they relocate next year.  The castle is set in a huge park, all open to the public, with a lake, fountains, and a playground (that you're not allowed to take photos in or the park police will get very cross with you)

Squeaky likes to look into the fountains.  They're quite unusual for fountains in the UK.  Not because of their design, the cherubs, or the fact they're actually switched on quite often.  But the fact that this is a pool of standing water in a public place, but people don't feel the need to throw money in it.  I've never understood that.  A real wishing well, yes. But any old fountain, pond or underground lake & people suddenly start emptying their pockets. 

I love having the park on our doorstep, it's only a ten minute walk away at Squeaky's pace, 5 minutes at grown-up pace.  Aside from the museum, playground, ducks, etc, the park is also used to host events.  The council's firework show is held there every year - we could probably get away with not going & just look out of the back bedroom window to tell the truth, as well as fun days in the holidays, the fair, concerts and all sorts.  Status Quo and Donny Osmond have held concerts there (not at the same time, I hasten to add).  We're just about far enough away not to be disturbed by the events when they're on, but it's great having so much happening on our doorstep if we want it.

I might do some more of these posts, show you some of the other interesting places around where we live. I can't promise how often, or how exciting they'll be, but it's almost like visiting, right?

Mother's Pride (Not the bread)

Yes, every day we're proud of our children, proud of ourselves for bringing these adorable creatures into the world & nurturing them to some sort of successful existence.  But some days you're more than that.  You're properly, really, truly, actually proud of your child, of how they behave, or what they achieve.  That you've done this, and this little person reflects well on how you've brought them up.  Today was one of those days.  A proper Proud Mummy Day.

Young Love, awwww.

First off, this morning, we went to a pre-school music & movement class.  We've only been there once before, it was recommended to us by Wednesday Boy's grandfather, who takes him along most weeks.  Last week was our first time & Squeaky was a bit hesitant, as she often is at these kind of things.  This week though, she & Wednesday Boy were not only angelic, but really actively participating in all the songs, all the dances, and having a whale of a time.  It's great to see her really joining in with something.  And seeing Squeaky & Wednesday Boy cwtching up together in the Dingle Dangle Scarecrow just made me melt a bit inside.

Then, the big adventure of the day, off we went to the school Squeaky will be starting at part-time in September.  For the next ten weeks, they're running "link-up" sessions, so the children can get to know each other, the teachers & the school so when they start properly, it's not such a big shock to the system.  Parents have to stay for these sessions, and they're only an hour, but it's a nice introduction to school.  We walked to the school without any complaint, and went in amongst a load of other three year olds, not knowing anyone (turned out later there were a couple of people we knew) and into the classroom.  Squeaky, rather than hiding behind my knees and trying to disappear, was straight off into the middle of everything. checking out the toys, playdough, paints, cars, computer (oh yes, the computer.).  Everything.  I don't get to see how she is at nursery after I've dropped her off, but this was great, it put my mind at ease that she'll be absolutely fine, and that this is actually what she's like the rest of the time when I'm not there.

EXTERMINATE!

After we got home from our school visit, it was playtime.  Or laundry time, depending on which one of us you're more interested in.  But after having sorted out the laundry, Squeaky decided to melt my geeky heart a little bit more.  She can't quite manage to say "EXTERMINATE" in a dalek voice yet, but we're working on it.  I should have grabbed the sink plunger really to complete the look, shouldn't I?  Maybe next time.

Remember that M People song "What have you done today, to make you feel proud?"  Well, my only real achievement was not screaming when a spider ran across the room earlier.  Squeaky's had all my pride for the day. She deserves it.

Worst Window Views

I had an email land in my inbox recently, asking about my worst ever window view.  My mind was immediately cast back to last summer, when I spent the evening after Cybher with Helen from Petitmom, Di from Superlucky and Claire from Ninja Killer Cat, in a hotel room with a view of a semi-naked 50-something bloke watching tv in his living room.

Not a flashback I really needed, to be honest.  And not a picture anyone needs to see.

So I thought a bit harder.  And had a good old look through my photo collection.  I rarely think to take photos from hotel windows, which is a shame, because my room in the same hotel as above had a wonderful view of, err, some scaffolding.    I normally only take photos of particularly attractive views from windows.  The boring views I tend to ignore & leave the curtains shut.  But then I hit the proverbial goldmine.

Room with a view, Toronto style

This is genuinely the view that greeted me from a hotel window in Toronto.  It wasn't the most salubrious area of Toronto, to tell the truth.  I didn't really see much of it the evening I arrived, and I was pretty shattered after my flight.  When my friend joined me a couple of hours later, we ventured across the road to a 24-hour supermarket for essential coffee & snacks, and collapsed without checking out the view.  It was only the following morning that I opened the curtains to find, well, judge for yourself.  A wall, a wheelbarrow, some scaffold poles, and I don't even want to consider what was in that box.

Room with a view, Niagara style

Fortunately, this was strictly a one night stay.  We moved on to Niagara that morning, where we had a much more exciting view of, errrr, a car park.  Seriously.  But it's Niagara.  You're not there to look out of your hotel window.  You're there to look at the falls, which even a couple of streets back from the main attraction still provides the most incredible soundtrack to your stay imaginable.

Despite really not hitting the jackpot with my hotel views in Canada, I still had a fantastic week with old & new friends (and got asked for ID going into a casino, at the ripe old age of 31!)

This post is my entry to the Wooden Blinds Direct worst window view competition.  If you want your chance to win a Kindle Fire, share your own view, but get in quick, the competition closes on 12 April!

Slow blogging. Very slow blogging.

There's a new movement going around.  Going around at much the speed of cold custard, or proper tomato sauce (when you haven't hit the bottom of the bottle).  Non-Newtonian Fluids, that's the bunny.  Sorry.  You didn't come here for science lessons, even if it is something I learned from Richard Hammond & that bloke from Big Brother on Brainiac.

New movement, yeah, that's where I was.  That movement is Slow Blogging.  What?  Well, it does exactly what it says on the tin.  Rather than broadcasting every thought that passes through my tiny little mind to an unsuspecting public, taking a bit more time over it.  Quality rather than quantity.  And a bit of reading more, posting less.

Now I'm all for this.  I've got a job (with slightly less hours than last month, but hey).  I've got a child.  I've got a husband.  I've got a house, and a garden.  All of these take up my time, some more than others.  I also have a blog.  A nail polish habit.  And somewhere along the line I have to sleep.  I can't post new blog posts 3 times a day.  I can't read other people's blog posts who do.  Slow blogging is clearly the way to go, for me at least.  If you have the time & energy to blog multiple times a day, and have that much to say, good luck to you.  If I had the time, I still wouldn't have the content, and no-one really wants to read about my washing up, whether the bin men have turned up this week, or my theories on the location of my missing socks.

So, that's my new mantra.  Quality Not Quantity.

However, as I haven't written anything more useful than a shopping list in the last fortnight & I've got the blogging equivalent of the DT's,  here's a pictoral guide to our Easter Holiday adventures.

We took a trip to Ikea, where I was remarkably restrained and didn't buy any random household items I didn't really need (partly because they've discontinued my beloved mini roasting tin).  We did, however, buy a large cuddly broccolli, and treated ourselves to hot dogs & lingonberry pop.  Hot dogs are, apparently, the best food in the entire world.  Closely followed by ice cream.

We went to the shops in town.  And accidentally bumped into De Li from Waybuloo.  I think she was heading to get herself a pasty, or visiting one of Merthyr's fine clothes shops.  Seriously, we've actually got some nice shops in town now.  I wasn't even expecting De Li to be there, she just happened to be there the same time as us. And by some amazing coincidence, the photographer who was taking pics for the local paper of De Li & assorted children was the same photographer who took the pictures at our wedding.  He didn't recognise me, mind you I wasn't exactly dressed the same!

 I caught up with an old (not Old!) friend from uni, and spent a happy afternoon with a 3 year old, a 6 year old, 2 bemused husbands, and a selection of owls at the Owl Sanctuary at Ebbw Vale.  An absolutely amazing place, that it seems very few people know about, despite the popularity of the neighbouring outlet village. They rehabilitate injured wild birds of prey, and provide a safe & secure home for birds who can't be released back to the wild.

Squeaky even got the chance to handle a Barn Owl, but as you can see, she was a little bit suspicious about the whole idea.  Either that or plotting a way to use the owl to take over the whole world a la Dr Evil.


And finally, as if that wasn't enough adventure for ANYone, never mind a three year old with attitude, we went shopping.  Shoe shopping.  And I made the amateur mistake of letting her have some input herself.  Admittedly, she hasn't had new shoes in ages, because she has surprisingly slow-growing feet.  And there's a small (ok BIG) part of me that's really jealous & wanted these shoes for myself.  But someone chose a pair of Hello Kitty hi-tops, and there was nothing I could say that was going to change her mind.  Please note the expression of smug satisfaction on her face.  I am beyond jealous, but I could only find them up to a size 1, and I'm a 5.  And just to rub it in, she's refused to wear anything else all week, and one of my work colleagues has threatened to disown me if I find a pair in my size.

So, that was our Easter break.  How was yours?  I've even run out of Creme Eggs now.  Must be back to normality.

Happy Easter

However you celebrate it, have a Happy Easter!  And don't wear chocolate on your head, it's much better in your mouth.

And another thing!

An unexpected bonus relating to my last post (what? You haven't read it yet? Hop to it!)

Miss Squeaky's still stuck at home with the chickenpox, and we're rapidly running out of the Toy Story Trilogy.  However, the paella ingredients came in a massive box, filled with what Douglas Adams called "missing matter" - polystyrene packing peanuts to you.  Add these items together, and you get... FUN!

So a second thank you to the folks at Thomson Al Fresco for not only providing Daddy & I with a tasty meal, but also giving Squeaky an afternoon's entertainment.

Our entry to the Tots100 Printerpix Competition

I have many talents. Apparently.  I'm not all that convinced photography is one of them.  I like taking photos, and occasionally I'll take one I'm really proud of, but there's an awful lot of misses compared to the number of hits.

Tots100 have teamed up with Printerpix to showcase our family photography talents, with one lucky winner taking home a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 bridge camera (that's the big clever camera, but not as complicated as a DSLR to us mortals) worth £500, and £100 to spend on prints & gifts at Printerpix.  4 others will also win a large framed photo or canvas print.  You can find out more, and all the rules at Tots100.

The photo I've chosen is one I took on our recent visit to Cheddar Showcaves.  This naturally formed raised pool is just inside the entrance to Gough's cave.  Squeaky was a bit scared about the idea of going into the cave underground at the time, until she spotted this little pool.  We'd been talking about people living in the caves, and she decided that this pool was the Cave Baby's bath, and had to test the temperature of the water to see what it was like for the Cave Baby.  (It was cold. Very cold. Poor Cave Baby.)

I love that this photo captures the innocence and imagination of a pre-schooler.  Would *you* have said it was a baby's bath?  Or would it just have been a pretty puddle?  We've got lots of posed photos, but I like that this was just a natural moment, and wonder what the Cave Baby would have thought of us.

I'm entering the Children Aged 2-4 category of the competition, though I suspect the Cave Baby is considerably older than that!

This post is Lorraine's entry into the Printerpix Photo competition

I Made This...

I clicked on the photo upload widget before I started to write this post, and as usual it opened the folder I'd used last.  It took all the strength in me not to post a picture of my nails & say "I made this".  But that's not what this is about.  Nor is it about cheese & apple scones (though they are yummy).  Nor is it the mess of the living room of my old house.  It's about the thing that makes me most proud, and fills me with a sense of wonder every day.

Squeaky still feels like a little bit of a miracle to me, she was a long time coming, and had a pretty scary birth.  There are moments and emotions that will never leave me, that I am still not sure whether I want to write about.  But arrive she did, like a miniature hurricane.

She stresses me out, don't get me wrong.  Today has been a very long day of highs & lows.  We've successfully managed 4 trips to the potty (don't lets mention the 3 accidents as well).  We've negotiated the car boot sale in the rain.  We've had monumental meltdowns over chocolate coins and one more episode of Ben & Holly.  We've even eaten Sunday lunch.

She definitely looks more like Daddy than she does me.  There's a couple of photos that are pure me, but normally she's the image of her Daddy.  That's as far as it goes though, because in her personality, she's 100% mini-me.  She has to be mentally active - reading a book, chattering, taking everything in.  If there's no stimulation, she'll find some, or make enough trouble that she gets some that way.

She's stubborn.  The joys of two Capricorns in the house, is that we both like to get our own way, and we're always right, even when we're wrong.  Daddy has a lot to put up with, between us both.  She's developing a wickedly silly sense of humour, mimicking some of our better & worse traits.  Today, trying to get into the car boot sale car park, stuck behind someone walking rather slowly, she piped up "Keep moving love", in a perfect copy of my own frustration at other road users (I've had to tone down my language, I'll be honest).

She's cheeky, silly, affectionate.  She loves to sing & dance, and to slap Noel Edmonds (that's definitely my influence.  It's an item on my Bucket List).  She's like holding up a little mirror to me, for good and for bad.

For all she is, for all she's made me.  Squeaky.  I made this!

Oh, and if you're interested, the nails I was going to post were... 

Thanks to Mel from The Diary of a Jewellery Lover for tagging me, this is my entry into Mellow Mummy's I Made This meme

And a quick set of tags to:
Esther at Diary of a Bad Mutha
Claire at Ninja Killer Cat
Joanne at The Blunt Truth
And you!