The nice thing about my recurrent mastitis is that it is relatively mild. One day of feeling like I have flu, and then I'm back to normal except for having a sore boob. And it forces me to spend a day resting in bed, which presumably my body really needs. I certainly feel ten million times better just for having some rest.

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The first few months of Willow's life have been a huge contrast with River's early weeks. No pain, no despair, no isolation, no borderline PND. It's been wonderful, in fact ( Read more... )

Matt and I spent a couple of hours looking through my LJ archive on Sunday night. We had a lovely time, remembering little unimportant events that we hadn't thought of for years. Life before children: simpler, easier, a little more self-absorbed. Recently it's felt as if our days are spent running triage. What's the next most urgent, overdue ( Read more... )

I love our new allotment. There are no child-unfriendly hazards (broken glass, concrete steps, 3-foot drops onto concrete and broken glass, aggressive neighbours with aggressive dogs, cat poo everywhere, etc) and when we took possession it was totally new -- a blank slate full of potential. The old plot was full of problems caused by the previous ( Read more... )

Oh gosh oh dear oh my -- a lot of time has passed since I last wrote one of these. Where to start? I'll break it down into sections, and then maybe it won't be so overwhelming to think about. (And now she's nearly 30 months! There's just never enough time these days.)


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We chose small varieties for our pumpkin patch this year. One smallish pumpkin is enough for two meals for two people, so there's no need to go for the enormous kind. However, one of the small pumpkin plants got attacked by slugs. All but one of the small pumpkins it was producing got eaten while they were still babies. With only one fruit left ( Read more... )

We came back from Paris via Milton Keynes and Aylesbury (visiting friends and godson for a night) and Crewe and Liverpool (eating noodles with sister), and finally crawled into our house at 11.30pm on Tuesday ( Read more... )

Before we went to Paris (more about that when I've picked out a handful of photos to go with the text) we spent a frantic weekend trying to get the allotment in order ( Read more... )

It's time for the Southern Agricultural Show again. I have no chutney (we appear to have eaten it all) so I probably won't win any prizes this year. I've entered Plum & Mulled Wine Jam and Blackcurrant & Sloe Gin Jam in the jam class, and Apple Lemon & Lime Marmalade in the marmalade class. The other entries looked beautiful and sparkling and ( Read more... )

I pootled at the allotment on Thursday -- doing fiddly but necessary tasks like tying in the new tomato growth, pruning the grapevine, picking caterpillars off the cabbage seedlings, watering all the wilting things.

Just as I was about to leave, I spotted something -- something red and glorious in the strawberry patch.

( Delicious picture of perfection under the cut. )