Merry Christmas....

Wishing everyone in Blog Land a very Happy Christmas.

We had a different Christmas to the one we hoped for as we have had a poorly Pickle for the last couple of days which meant Picklesgrandma and Picklesgrandad could not come to stay and had to do a very last minute shop for food on Christmas Eve.
But despite another 4am change of bedcovers on Pickle's bed we did have a very nice day. Especially Picklesdad who got to build a pyramid and me who got a new iPhone toy!





Happy Christmas from Picklessister too!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This is normal.....

isn't it?

Surely every Mother, if they were to investigate the bottom of their 6 year old daughter's wardrobe would find a plastic box, containing over 50 empty toilet roll tubes?

This doesn't make Pickle 'unusual' in anyway does it?

HaPpY HaLLOwEeN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Remember back in August when we had the mystery plant growning in the garden and we thought it may be a marrow or a courgette? Then we picked it because we thought it was a funny shaped marrow?
Well THIS is what it was, A PUMPKIN and it made it all the way to Halloween to become this beauty!

What is it with me and.....

...growing things?

Just a simple hyacinth bulb. Half cover in compost and leave in the dark, the instructions said.

5 days later......

This freaky thing is escaping from the pot in the garage.

You Only Get One Chance To Make a First Impression!

I lived in Bury itself for 28 years until we moved to a village a few miles away. I still regularly visit Bury as my parents still live there. As I do not drive we usually go by train or bus as many visitors to Bury do to.

Recently I have started to notice how shabby some of the areas are on the way into town from the train station, so to the MAJOR embarrassment of Pickle, Picklesister and Picklesgrandma I decided to photograph some of the highlights and am asking if there is anything that can be done to improve this first impression that visitors get when arriving in Bury St Edmunds.

This is the view from the platform at Bury Station where a little weed killer is called for.

On leaving the station itself you are sometimes met with a line of taxis and a bus stop but no sign posts to know which way the town centre is for those wishing to walk.

It seems the most popular route is across the road and up the muddy hill and through the 'Kids Play' car park as there is so defined pathway!




Past the remains of last nights kebab.

Past the remains of Rollerbury!

Past the Toyota Garage, where I'm sure there used to be a river of some sort, now just stinging nettles.




Past the Gas Holder - never get permission to build THAT there these days!





Almost there, just a very large pile of Domino's Pizza crates to pass.


With so much time and money being spent on regenerating the centre of Bury, is it time to look a little further out and make that first impression as good as the rest of Bury St Edmunds?

The answer was...........

The old eastbound carriageway of the A14, otherwise known as

The Haughley Bends,

It is now a footpath/cyclepath/ Bridleway. One half has been dug over for the horses, whilst the other is left tarmaced for pedestrians and cyclists.
The westbound carriage way is now the local two way road into Stowmarket from the surrounding villages.
It feels very strange to be walking where we have driven so many times and there are a couple of floral tributes in the trees to those who lost their lives on this once dangerous stretch of road.

Where are we????

Any ideas?

Goodbye Holly....

On Wednesday we had to make the very sad and difficult decision to have one of our beloved cats put down. Holly was Basil's sister and was nearly 15 years old.
She used to be a 'fat cat' but over the last few months her weight her reduced dramatically and for the last week we had been unable to tempt her to eat anything at all.
Our lives have been better for having her in them and she will be greatly missed by all the family.
Sleep well little cat.

From a 'friend' of mine!

Says it all really.

A visitor

Picklesdad thought it would be nice to attract some birds (feathered) into our garden, though why when we have 2 cats I am not sure!

Finally after several months of NOTHING, we have a feathery visitor....

Not quite the pretty, dainty little bird I was hoping for!

All she wants for Christmas.......

is her two front teeth! Hopefully they will be through before that!

Babies, babies, babies!

We had some wannabe stowaways on Saturday when we left the local swimming pool after Pickle and Picklesister's swimming lessons!

Apologies

Apologies for the absence from blogging. I was going to do a big catch up with where we have been over the Easter break but now our computers are poorly and I am limited as to what I can do on it.
So instead I will just show you where we went yesterday, which was the blue bell woods at Haughley Park.

They are absolutely stunning but you have to be quick if you want to see them, the gardens are only open Sunday 3rd May from 2pm until 5.30pm but they are definitely worth a look and the tea and cakes on sale in the barn were delicious!

A long day....

For Pickle's 6th birthday we spent the day in Cambridge, mainly in Build a Bear in the lovely Grand Arcade (how a shopping Centre SHOULD be built) but we did find time to admire these beautiful flowers. We were supposed to be going to the Cinema there but due to an ever crashing sat-nav we were unable to find it, so we came back to Bury and watched Monsters Vs Aliens there instead. Afterwards we had dinner at Frankie and Benny's then decided to go for a walk into town to see The Cattle Market in the dark!

It has been a few (many) years since I have walked through Bury at night, but we were surprised at the amount of rubbish on the streets. I appreciate that it was after a market day but the rubbish we saw was not created directly from the market itself, it was mainly take away drink and food containers. Another shock for the time of night were the 'gangs' of young lads either riding skateboards at full pelt through the Cattle Market, swearing at the tops of their barely broken voices or speeding around the Buttermarket in their clapped out old fiesta, shouting at everyone from their windows. This used to be 'expected' at 11pm when the pubs were closing but at 8.30pm?
We were aware that there were absolutely no Police anywhere to be seen in the town centre during our time there and I am curious to know if this is normal or if they were all called upon to prepare for the Queens visit the next day. If it was the latter it is sad to think regular people have to suffer just because of an hour or so's visit to the town by an old lady.
I bet the Queen only saw the shiny sparkling Angel Hill area of Bury and was spared the shambles the rest of the town had become in preparation for her visit.

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty Time!

With just 3 days to go until Pickle bursts with excitement, or her 6th birthday (who knows which will come first?) Picklesdad and I braved the heat of Playworld with 7 of Pickle's friends for 2 hours of FUN!
They all had a brilliant time, even if some of them did get a little hot. One boy was heard to say
" I am so sweaty, I will be sweaty FOREVER!"

"She was a skater cat...."

I fear Pickle has been inspired by Stuffonmycat.com. This is Sapphire our oldest lady cat, after Pickle has given her a make over.

Needless to say Sapphire was not amused!

The Rebirth of The Cattle Market

On Sunday the Pickles went to check out the new shopping centre in Bury St Edmunds. It has been a LONG time coming and we have not been feeling too positive about what the architects have done to this part of Bury. We approached the site from Waitrose car park, so didn't have the best view of it as the rear of Debenhams leaves you feeling like you are about to be abducted by a large alien spacecraft.

However once in the main square of the CATTLE MARKET I began to feel more positive, it actually didn't look as bad as I had imagined. The fronts of the shops look fine, it is the grey wood above them that is the problem.

After our visit we went to 'Old Bury' through a dingy walkway which looked far worse than it
used to after being in the shiny 'new' Bury.

After seeing a gentleman in costume we went to check out the museum in Moyses Hall which was having a free entry heritage day. Picklesister has wanted to go in here for ages, so she was happy. Pickle was considerably less happy, as upstairs there were 'models' or 'mannequins' of some soldiers which terrified her to the point of screaming hysterics and we had to make a hasty exit.


Moyses Hall Regiment Gallery

SURPRISE!

On Saturday night the Pickle family were amongst many guests sitting silently in the dark at the local community centre waiting for the guest of honour to arrive. It was my friend's 40th birthday and her husband had arranged a surprise party for her with people coming from as far as Europe and as close as the village to be there.
She was told she was going for a meal with her husband at a local pub (which doesn't even do food!) and they were stopping off at the community centre because a friend of their had blown all the electrical fuses and needed help.
The look of surprise/shock/horror on her face when she walked in was priceless and luckily for everyone she did not swear out loud and was REALLY happy to see everyone there.
I am still in shock as one of the guests was a teacher from my Upper School Days who hadn't changed a bit and said he remembered me, but I expect he says that to everyone!
The music was a bit on the heavy side for me but Pickle and the normally pink and princessy friend of Pickle LOVED it!

Headbanging Pickle style!


My friend's 40th birthday continued in style today with a Pudding Club lunch at the local pub (it's a hard life!)

We had a small pasta starter followed by 7 (yes SEVEN) puddings to choose from.
Rhubarb Crumble
Apple Pie
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Trifle
Chocolate Heaven
Chocolate Brownies
Lemon Cheesecake

Sadly I could only manage 3 but they were delicious.
Roll on the next 40th!

Happy Birthday PICKLESSISTER!

This is slightly distubring, I sneaked into Picklessister Meez account to get her latest version and the above picture is what I found! Not yet an accurate representation of her but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Until then she will be my little Flipper and we all wish her a very happy 11th birthday for Saturday.

What on earth.....

At Rainbows the other week, Pickle and her friends decorated some gingerbread people, with icing, silver baubles and some strategically placed Smarties.

Not sure who the second one is supposed to be.....

ME: ...errrr Pickle? What are those red bits supposed to be?
Pickle : BOOBIES!


I dare not ask what the silver baubles are!

Only in England.....

...can just 2 inches of snow cause so much chaos. After following Fourpints adventures with his snowblower since before December, I am almost ashamed to post this about OUR snow.

After listening to Heart and Radio Suffolk this morning I eventually discovered both schools were to be closed today by word of mouth from one of Pickle's dinner ladies!

A big thanks (NOT) to Suffolk County Council's School Closure page which was down until the afternoon and to Pickle's Primary School for not telling the relevant people that the school was closed.

Ok, ranting over, Pickle and her sister today made their first ever SNOW ANGELS!
I am usually too scared of what lurks beneath the snow to let them make them, but today I thought 'why not?'




This is Pickle's Snow Angel.

The trains have somehow managed to keep running today, probably because they have 'SNOW PLOUGHS' attatched to the front and back of the trains.
Not seen those before.

Russell in Suffolk

On Monday evening, with our babysitter happily installed, Picklesdad and I set off for The Ipswich Regent, to see RUSSELL BRAND, in only the 2nd date of his "Scandalous" tour.

We had good seats (12 rows from the front) but sadly were not allowed to take photos of the man in action, as there were several scary bouncers telling people off who tried.

When 'Sachsgate' broke I was worried this would be the end of Russell's tour, that he may not do a show. How wrong could I be! At least the first third of the show was 'Sachsgate' from Russell's point of view, not once did he bad mouth Mr. Sachs or his slightly unsavoury granddaughter, instead it was from the angle of how much of an over reaction there was from the media at the time and how much he enjoyed being the main topic on the Ten O'Clock news night after night.

Having since read some press reviews of this ACTUAL show, I am astounded at how much reporters make stuff up. One reviewer said there was a ripple of polite laughter at some of the jokes, and people were not finding the material funny. Was she in a different theatre, because from where I was sitting the WHOLE audience was in stiches for the entire 90 minute show.

After the show Russell did a brief walk around the foyer of the theatre where many many females of all ages were pushing and shoving to get closer to the man himself (yes..me included!)
Picklesdad was in charge of the camera and managed to get this photo over the heads of all those people.




Thanks Picklesdad!

Russell Brand Shows 1 - Katherine Jenkins Shows 2

YOU STILL OWE ME ONE!

X X X X

I have tried....

Ok, I have done my bit to educate my daughters in the world changing events taking place in USA today. In spite of much protesting I switched off Harry Hill's TV Burp from SKY+ and put on Sky News so they could watch Barack Obama being sworn in as President.

Pickle : Is that him?
Me: No.
Pickle: Is that him?
Me: No.
Pickle: Is THAT him?
Me: No, that's a woman.
Me: THAT ONE!! THAT'S HIM!

I explained that he was making a promise, similar to the ones Pickle and Picklesister made at Rainbows and Brownies. Good so far.

After watching this I checked Pickle's understanding of what she had just seen.

Me: Pickle? Who is that man?
Pickle: Um, um err...Gordon Brown?
Me: No, he is Barack Obama. What country is he now in charge of?
Pickle: CHINA!
Me: Close enough Pickle.
Pickle: Can we have Harry Hill back on now?

SSSHHH Pickle!

In Tesco (other Supermarkets are available) yesterday a man walked past us. Ok so far.

As SOON as he had passed by us, Pickle said in her loudest, clearest voice..."Mummy, was that man wearing a wig, because his eyebrows were a really different colour to his hair?"

Time to make a hasty exit I thought!

Thanks to Jo for making me think of blogging this one.

One Year on....

It is a year ago exactly since I blogged about Pickles 1st Reading Book. She has progressed really well and I thought I would show you what she is reading now.

There are now lots more words on each page and 32 pages in total. The words are much more complicated too with Pickle mispronouncing the name 'Kerry' every time it appeared in the whole book!

Quiteness........

Since Basil died things have been so quiet in our house. Our other 2 cats, just don't DO stuff like Basil did....

Meet Holly....



and Sapphire.....

Lucky things!

New Year Walk

Before things got sad in our house and the weather got silly we had a new year walk across the fields near us.

Here is Pickle looking at some trees......




...but none of us fancied these **SPOOKY** trees much.



This horse was not particularly pleased to see us as it sounded really grumpy. We kept our distance just to be on the safe side.

Not such a Happy New Year....

Sadly Basil died on Monday night, he was 14 years old, with the body of a much older cat but the mind and spirit of a much MUCH younger one.





Rest in Peace Basil, you will be greatly missed.

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