Day trip to Brighton with Great Auntie Averil

Brighton merry-go-round, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We had a lovely day out today, taking the train to Brighton with Great Auntie Averil. Sofia had an ice cream, a sausage and two merry-go-round rides so she was happy. William had three bottles and a sleep so he was happy too. I bought lots of things so I was happy too.

Here's a picture of the great aunt in action.

My first jars of raspberry jam

Raspberry jam, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Clearly it is time I went back to work, before I start knitting my own socks. These jars of jam were made with 17 of our own raspberries and £4 worth of raspberries from the farmers' market. So I'm calling them homemade AND homegrown. Technically there may well be at least one homegrown raspberry per jar...

Garden update, triathlons and celebrity spotting in Queen's Park

I pulled up my first two potato plants today and I think it's fair to say it could be a lean Heath Christmas this year. The prize for the world's smallest potato goes to this guy, sitting next to a small Braeburn apple for scale purposes.


Also harvested five red onions (small) and a handful of very small raspberries. To think I saved some jars specially for making raspberry jam...Still the blackberries are rampant as usual so I guess we can make blackberry jam instead.

The pears, apples and tomatoes are all doing very well and our cucumber plant has five babies while the red pepper plant has four. The butternut squash plants (2)are growing well and today I put a pumpkin in the raised bed that I pulled the potatoes out of. Also to go in is a chilli pepper bush - I figure it's a good idea to grow things that are expensive to buy.


My friend Alison and I are planning to do the Tri for Life triathlon at Eton on 6 September. You swim 400m in a lake, bike 20km around the edge of it then run 5km. This morning we went swimming at the Parliament Hill lido which is 60m long and unheated - it was lovely on such a hot day. Now I just need to hire or buy a wetsuit for the lake swim and a triathlon suit for the rest of it. And of course get back on my bike, which I haven't done since I fell off when I was pregnant with William.

In other news, I met Cillian Murphy in the cafe in the park today. We were both going for the napkin dispenser to wipe our accompanying child's face clean of ice cream. I wanted to say I really liked Breakfast on Pluto or whatever that film is called, but I couldn't remember the title so I shut up. And last week Tamsin Greig from Green Wing held the gate to the playground open for us so that's two celebrities spotted in a fortnight.

Row row row your boat

Row row row your boat, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Here are our two playing nicely together - and you can see that William's enjoying the attention, for once...

Day trip to Lavenham

Poppies in Lavenham, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We had a beautiful fine bank holiday Sunday, so we rented a zipcar and drove up to Lavenham in Suffolk, an old medieval market town. Had a lovely pub lunch in a garden bar and then went to see Little Hall, a 14th century timber-framed house. I found these poppies in the garden there.

There are pictures of all the family in Lavenham on flickr - just click on the poppies to see the collection.

Our two in the baby gym

Sofia and William, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Running back to happiness

On the advice of my psychiatrist, I've decided stop whingeing and get back exercising, as the fastest route back to happiness. Two runs so far this week - just around the park a few times but you have to start somewhere.

Anyone who hasn't sponsored me yet for the Race for Life on 7 June can do so from right here below. Thanks to all the lovely people who've already done it!





Lolo arrived safely this afternoon, and we're all thrilled with the presents he brought with him.

Sofia's had a great day at Millie Barnes's birthday party - she was too full of sweets and cake to even look at a sausage at the bbq lunch. And she managed to score 3 presents at pass the parcel too!

Fortnum and Mason's morning tea

Fortnum and Mason's morning tea, originally uploaded by Racmol.

A bit of a week of contradictions, really. Fortnum and Mason's morning tea on Tuesday and then I joined Weight Watchers on Wednesday. Don't know what the WW leader would have had to say about our morning tea - I had a black forest cake and hot chocolate (with real chocolate) and Christine had two strudels and a toffeecino (mainly whipped cream). Still it was lots of fun.

Then we went to the V&A in the afternoon, only to discover that the dolls' houses Chrissie wanted to see are actually at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green now. Still we enjoyed the fashion and jewellery exhibits - some amazing stuff on display, including 200 and 300-year-old shoes for women with tiny feet. People were smaller in general then, I guess.

That evening we went to see Mamma Mia, also good fun. I really enjoyed just being out in town at night - a rarity with two small people in the house but something that definitely needs repeating - and SOON!

It's been lots of fun having Chrissie to stay. Unfortunately for her though, Sofia has taken to waking up at 5.30 now that it gets light so early, which isn't the best. She came to see us at 5.45 and we weren't that thrilled to see her either.