Ruth's Space

I haven’t posted for a long time (it’s already sounding like a confession!), mainly because I have just been doing the mundane, day to day things…taking the children to school, seeing to the animals, making sure everyone is well and looked after.

But when I look back, I have fitted in quite a few other things too. I usually manage two bike meets a week, where I am regularly plied with coffee and reduced to fits of giggles. I have had some issues with the groups of people I choose to socialise with, it seems that the first group don’t particularly like the second group, but I know where I fit in best and who looks after me. It gets complicated, but the looks I got turning up at a meet of the first group with the second group made me furious, until I realised that I shouldn’t care what they think of me. I make my own choices in life.

Anyway. My tattoo is not yet finished as the second sitting of and hour and forty minutes was much worse than the first two and a half hour sitting. It’s going to take some time, but the outcome will be well worth it.

The animals are all looking wonderful, as we are coming into that magical season of Autumn. It’s the season that I love best; the beautiful colours, that starting of the frosts and the darkening of the evenings. Now if I could only find the battery charger I’d be out with the camera getting new photo’s!

The three ferrets are growing their winter coats as are the ponies. Alfie is gleaming black and Winston’s bright blond mane is beautiful against his chestnut coat. Both are hugely fat and lazy, and absolutely spoilt rotten by several ‘friends’ that use the footpath parallel to their field.

Theo has recently turned one and is a very happy, independent little boy. Louis is desperate to move up to school out of nursery and Hannah is making new friends all the time.

As for the dogs, well, poor Benny doesn’t get a minute while Theo is around, that boy adores him. Ben is the most gentle beast with him though, despite being a great lumbering thing. Taggy and Jasper are as thick as thieves and are always causing trouble together somewhere. At least Jasper doesn’t escape from the garden anymore.

And then there’s Mehitabel. Why do we have cats? She is hardly ever in. When she is in she wants feeding, a quick cuddle and then she’s off again chasing rats. Unless it’s really cold out, then she wants my bed. She is a beautiful animal though, and very cheeky too.

So really, I don’t have a dull life, it’s not really SSDD. I have a wonderful family, friends I thought I could only ever dream of, and I am finding my niche in life.

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Today, I let an 18 year old loose on my body.

Now, there’s more than one person would like to get their hands on my body (!) but this was the guy I wanted.

And just look what he did with me!

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We visited my brother and sister-in-law over the bank holiday. The 200 mile journey took just over 4 hours but the children were happy colouring and sleeping in the car.

Christian had to work on the Saturday but his wonderful wife Nicki had organised a fantastic day at Tilgate Park; a huge area of woodland, parkland and a nature centre.

It was lovely, and Nicki brought a picnic for everyone. The children all wore out themselves (and us!) so it was back to Christian and Nicki’s  in time to meet another guest, also from Sheffield.

Saturday night was spent watching DVD’s and catching up with each other’s news.

Sunday is the day of The Family Barbeque. Poor Nicki spent all day running around organising, cooking cleaning up after people and generally being a more than perfect hostess.

She baked with the children, looked after them, fed them and kept everyone’s drinks flowing. As for my dear brother, he offered to buy her some new shoes when her feet wore out! Tut tut!

I can’t put into words what a great time we had, so this will have to do. And the photo’s of course!

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The kids have been on about going to the seaside with Momma since before the holidays started. Yesterday was the day we managed it.

We decided on Sutton-on-sea because we’ve been there before and it’s a lovely place. Right between Mablethorpe and Skegness; it is not ‘touristy’ at all. There are a couple of cafe’s, a cafe/bar on the sea front, the obligatory gift shop and a wreck on the beach. Unfortunately the wreck has been deemed unsafe and had a lifeguard tent around it, but we know it’s there!

When we arrived at about 10 o’clock, the car park was deserted. We parked and had a cuppa before strolling up to the beach. The beach was also deserted and even later in the day when it was at it’s busiest, there was hardly anyone to be seen. Wonderful.

All the children had a great time digging holes in the sand, burying toes and paddling in the sea. I was very brave, stripped down to my bikini and dived in for a swim. I came up gasping for breath and wondering how I was ever going to make it back to the shore (all of 30 metres away!) and then realised I could still reach the floor…

After warming up for a few minutes I had another leap into the sea and this time it was actually quite nice. I love the way you can just float lazily in the salt water.

There is also a fantastic little play area with a paddling pool that we had to have a play in too. Theo loved it in there as the floor wasn’t shifting under his feet all the time!

Momma wasn’t very well, having caught a sore throat and cough from me and Hannah, but made it through the day.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photo’s as my camera had no batteries in it and Hannah has done something with the SD card. I have no idea where she’s put it!

We all thoroughly enjoyed our day out, went through vast amounts of clothes and nappies and all three children were exhausted last night.

I had been told about Matlock Bath Aquarium, but never been in. Since it's inside it didn't matter what the weather was doing so I stuck the kids in the car and off we went.

Every place has some down sides, so the problems we had were 1) I couldn't take the pushchair upstairs so had to carry Theo and 2) There were no toilets. Fortunately I asked this first so was able to sort it out before we paid to get in!

The children were all enthralled by the fish, HUGE beasties they were! The aquarium is at a Victorian Spa Bath and it is this bath that is filled with koi and other large fish which can be fed.

It was very cheap to get in, just £2.40! There was also a hologram exhibition but again I had some problems here. The pictures were all hung at adult eye level, and to see them properly you need to be right in front of them. This meant putting Theo down, lifting Hannah, catching Theo, lifting Louis and catching Theo again. Not something to be done on my own next time! We did discover that if the kids stood far enough back from the holograms they could see them but there wasn't always enough room to do this.

All in all it was excellent value for money, and the children never get bored of seeing fish swim around. But next time I'll make sure I have help on hand!