What a month!

Summer was great, lots of fun family time.

Then came September which I can only decribe as manic!  I know we still have a week left, but as from today things are changing here, hopefully.

After Rowans birthday life seemed to gather momentum and snowball out of control.......

The house was/is a mess, the kids are bickering all the time, Tris has work coming out of his ears and pops in for tea before having to go back out to look at someones trees, we are struggling to find our feet in the flowing rhythm we had going before the summer.

Then things kind of came to a head....

Rowan lost the plot with Reuben and shouted that he just doesn't want to see him, this prompted a bedroom shifty round as all space in the house was shared space.  Now both boys have their own space which they can share if they wish but also they can shut their door if they wish!

Then bedtimes became a real battle, where it would all end in arguements and me not sitting down until 8.30-9pm.  So now we have a new bedtime ritual, which so far is going really well and has transformed bedtimes (more on this another time)

Then Reuben fell off his bike in the garden, whilst carrying a fishing net in his mouth ( as you do!?) and cut up his lip really bad....

Then last week, Rowan got a throat infection, which triggered his asthma, so over the space of 24 hours we had 2 hospital trips, to be told each time something different.  Part of me believes that Rowans body is strong enough to deal with these infections but then I panic when his breathing is fast and doctors use terms like 'life threatening', but then each doctor has a different idea on what 'life threatening' is, so we are no clearer on when his breathing really is an asthma attack.  Fortunatley his homeopath saw him at short notice and helped us out with some remedies.

Then me and Reuben came down with the throat lurgy, feeling rotten.  We have watched lots of DVDs this week and not gotten much else done.

Then to top it all off Tristan groundworker put all his weight onto a dead branch in a tree and it snapped resulting in a big fall and a broken arm.  So now Tris has 6 weeks full of work and no one to work with!

Autumn equinox kind of passed us by in a blur, so this morning when Rowan woke us up to cries of 'the sun is rising and the sky has turned pink' we decided that today is the start of our autumn, lets start afresh.  and so far its been a lovely day, Tris went to an archery competition this morning and was winning, but we had to leave to go for my nans 87th birthday dinner, which was a lovely afternoon too.

Other good things from the last couple of weeks;

Rowan saw his first sunrise on the way to hospital and now wakes up eager each morning to look through the living room window to watch it.
Rowan learning to ride his bike a bit more.
Reuben letting Daddy put him to bed.


I now feel like I need a good de-clutter and then I think we will be dancing along to our rhythm again..

Summer festivals: Part Three

The last installment of the summer!

After our lovely stay in Dartmoor the heavens opened and we headed off to the last festival of the summer in the pouring rain!  Spirits were very low, everyone just wanted to go home, but I had promised a friend I was going to work there so we couldn't let her down.  We arrived and it was so wet we couldn't really do anything, but the boys found some friends and cheered up. 
The following day bought better weather and by the weekend the sun was shining and it was glorious.

Aeon turned out to be our best festival. It was fun, chilled out, on a beautiful estate with loads of trees and space and crazy geese that honked all through the night!  The boys had a great time, there was just a bit more freedom to just run and climb. Or to just play with mud!  (Rowan really dislikes getting his hands muddy, but he fully got into it here and even caught on camera!)

Beautiful Dartmoor

After Beautiful Days we were going to another festival near Exeter, so had planned a couple of days in a B&B in Dartmoor National Park.

We got there a bit early and very tired and our room wasn't ready so we reluctantly headed off on a walk nearby.  It turned out to be a really beautiful walk, along a river, through a lovely oak woodland, filled with fungi.

The boys had a disposable camera each with only 12 shots on it.  After explaining how an 'old fashioned camera!' worked Rowan understood that when it was finished it was finished,  so he said he only wanted to take 3 in the woods and save the rest for the next festival.  They both used up all their photos!

The following day we headed off to see some more of the National Park and ended up driving up a big hill, off-road, to see the views around and have a picnic, it was very windy, but stunning.

Reuben was fascinated by the dung beetles

Then we headed off to see Becky Falls, a 70ft waterfall.  Only to get there and they wanted to chrge us £20 to see them!  So we headed off in search of some free nature instead.
We ended up on the Parke Estate, which is a National Trust property which is also the HQ of the National Park.  It was a huge old estate.  It was amazing.  It was one of those truly magical afternoons when you end up somewhere that you have not planned to go to, you know nothing about it, it doesn't look like much when you arrive but you all spend a long afternoon happily, ambling through the estate looking at trees, fungi, throwing stones in the river, climbing trees, sitting, listening, watching and just being, it was just lovely.

I think we will be having more family holidays to Dartmoor, it is truly a magical, beautiful place and it is so close to us.

FoR ThE lOvE oF FuNgUs FriDaY

Hey Hey, I'm back and as Tristan says whenever we go out walking at the moment, "Tis the season to see fungi, tra la la la la!"  So heres this weeks, many, many more to come.......
This trumpety beauty we found on Dartmoor National Park

Summer festivals: Part Two

Beautiful Days.
It was very wet and rainy on the way up and the forescast for the weekend was grim, we were not filled with much enthusiasm driving up, but the rain held off for most of the weekend until Sunday night at which point Rowan had said that he didn't want to see anymore bands, so by the time the rain poured down (and I mean poured, you could not hear each other speak in the tent!) we were tucked up in our tents.
The weekend, however was fun, good music, lots to do.  But I think it was a bit too big for Rowan (who isn't really a lover of crowds at the best of times), but we all enjoyed it.
One of Rowan and Reubens favourite songs is called London Town by Bellowhead.  So when we heard that they would be playing, Tris wrote on their facebook page and explained about it being our sons fav song and could they play it.  Anyway, they didn't play until 11pm on Saturday night (not a chance the kids would still be awake!) So Tris went to see them anyway.  Then they said, "This next song is for Rowan and Reuben because apparently it's their favourite song.  Are they here?  No, well sod them we'll play it anyway!"  Tris couldn't believe it and couldn't stop telling people that they were his children they were talking about!  Its such a shame they were on so late as that would have been so good for them to see/hear!  Tris did manage to get to speak to one of the band later and thank them anyway!

Anyway time for photos.....

 Crowds, music, dancing, ice creams, face painting (Reuben = tiger, Rowan= horse?!), rocket making and launching, more bands and dancing, van painting, fairground rides, festival food and lots of merryment!