Splash!

Roo and I went swimming today. We joined the gym just before his 2nd birthday, so now we can go to the pool whenever we like, during off peak hours. Today was the first time he didn't get nervous and cry before we went in. Probably because we were there last week and he enjoyed it. They have a lovely children's pool that he can walk about in and he loves playing with the floats and toy animals. It's nice and warm there too, so that helps. At the moment our aim is to get him to enjoy the water, rather than try to teach him things. He still resolutely refuses to get his hair wet, but we made progress today when we moved out to the adult's part of the pool. There are lots of graduated steps which he likes to walk on and in one section there's a jacuzzi-type thing (middle right in the picture) that has a really useful seat/step which he can stand on and then I briefly lift him into the deeper water.

It was such a horrible day outside, but the pool offered a lovely respite from the wind and rain. (Yes, it's back again!)

Today is the anniversary of St Therese's death. Her feast day is tomorrow.

Blog this

Here's a close-up of my new lace edging. I took the photo on Lee's new mobile, which has a more direct link to blogger.com.

mobile blog

Still messing about with phones. This is just a check to see if my own phone can still send posts. It's a picture of my new knitting job next to what it should look like.

Farmer Roo digging the spuds

And here's one of the carrots:

The weather has been lovely here for the last six days. We've been enjoying very welcome sunshine with a cold snap in the air (which i love) that has gradually decreased as the days have gone on. Partly because the weather had been so awful, I'd kind of given up on the garden. Lettuce, courgettes and tomatoes had all been a bit disastrous... but our potatoes and carrots have been brilliant! We started harvesting the spuds after an attack of blight about 6 weeks ago and they are delicious. They are floury and work well boiled, roasted or as chips. I can't remember what variety they are- must check it up.


Babba-roo has been capitalising on the weather by spending most of the day outside with his 'little red tractor', which he inherited from his cousins and adores. There is a little trailer on the back that he likes to put dirt, flowerpots and stones into. Just now we were picking some carrots for Granny's tea later on. We delivered them by tractor to the back door and I had to be very careful about taking them out as he's a bit possessive of things that go into the trailer. Well he's really got into farmer-mode because I just spotted him with another carrot in the trailer of his digga which he must have pulled up himself!

My Introduction to Beekeeping

Removing the wax from the frame. The frame is resting on a nail in the short plank of wood, which is held over the collecting bucket.

Here's a closer look:

Next to this bucket is the ?extracting drum.
Here is a better picture of it: