Listening to my smallest small loudly giggling away in the bath, under the careful supervision of The Grandma One, and the two biggest Smalls arranging the flower bouquets for a knight and Barbie wedding it is hard to believe today got off to a rocky start.
But it did, before breakfast tempers had been lost, voices raised, pulses increased. I made soft boiled eggs and buttered white toast dunkers for Middle Small when it was porridge that was required. It all went wrong. Very wrong.
It did improve though, and, as I have mentioned in earlier blog posts was probably less than 5 minutes out of the whole day. In the end Middle Small had both porridge and two soft boiled eggs and dunkers for breakfast.
In my twelve dog years of parenting, a friend told me the other day that your parenting dog years is when you add the ages of all your children together, this is the toughest phase I recall. Hugs and Mummy Milk have fixed most things in the past but domestic harmony is a slightly trickier goal at the moment.
Grandma took Big Small swimming this morning, she is on the cusp of independent swimming and just needs to keep going!
Sometimes it feels like there has to be something to take the gloss off or else life would all just be too perfect. It has been making Big Small really sad though, yesterday she told me it makes her feel like the saddest girl in the world when tempers are lost. I wonder where the corner is because I need to turn it.
After an early lunch we headed off out and spent the afternoon at Parham House, it poured for the first five minutes we were there but then the grey blew over and blue skies provided the backdrop for our stroll round the garden and play in the Wendy House. If there is somewhere with a brown and white signpost in a 10 mile radius of our house that we haven't visited I would be surprised!
The Wendy House at Parham is stunning, built in the 1920s all the doors and windows open and it is chocolate box cute.
It is a few years since we last went to the gardens at Parham and my initial impression was that they looked a little more 'shaggy' than usual but, after we had been there a while, I began to suspect that this may be a deliberate ploy as the flowers and grasses were buzzing with enormous bees.
When we went to Horsham Museum we read that there was a unicorn horn at Parham and, although the house part is closed on a Tuesday, we asked the staff and they were able to show us a photo. It is actually a narwhal horn and over 400 years old. S knew straight away that it was from a whale and not a horn but a tooth. "How do you know all this stuff?" I asked her. "Octonauts." she replied nonchalantly. Big Small loves unicorns she also had my camera for most of the visit today which is why the photography on the blog today is way above its usual standard!
I was after some bronze fennel from the garden shop at Parham today but sadly they had sold out. We did have a cup of tea though!
When we arrived home S immediately set to work on a florist's shop of her own and wrote out signs and set up a display. When the customers were not immediately forthcoming she arranged a fairy flyover to attract their attention.
After the start to the day, Parham House & Wendy House there was only one song for this blog post Rock the House.
Peace in our time.
6 comments:
I love Parham House gardens.When I asked last summer, one of the garden staff said that they were trying to encourage the honey bees-hence the 'natural' planting style.
Ironically enough, today I and C were on their way to ride 'Honey' the horse in Barnham, and were chatting away about a white/gray horse they once rode in Ferring. The owner had told the girls that the horse had been a unicorn that lost its horn. The chatting in back of car today was commenting about how S told them of a book she read that says unicorns come from gray-shaggy-horses, and since Honey (whom the girls think was a unicorn, or knows unicorns) is gray/white, and the Ferring horse was gray/white..they are interested in S' thoughts of just how much 'gray' and how much 'shaggy' (and how much white allowed) makes for a unicorn.
In meantime, I'm now thrilled that I can now explain my shaggy-back-garden as a 'natural Parham House' styled garden that encourages honey bees. (we do see more bees! flying amongst dandelion weeds the size of climbing trees)
I like the natural planting - thought it was very Chelsea Flower Show! After the high manicure appearance of Arundel Castle gardens it felt more comfortable and we need more bees.
The books S is talking about are called "Secret Unicorn" they are a series about a young girl whose pony turns into a flying unicorn when needed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Secret_Unicorn
I haven't read all 15 (S has) but he is pretty grey and shaggy at the start as I recall!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Secret-Unicorn-Dreams-Come/dp/0141313420/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1306869457&sr=8-13 Here you go there is a drawing on this one!
Parenting dog years? Oh gosh I'm astounded to find mine add up to 38 years! Gulp.. 39 in two weeks time! Thats older than me lol
Zoe x
Maybe that is where the expression "older than your years" comes from! I like it Zoe, you have been a mother longer than you have been alive!
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