Animal Rescue Week

We seem to have had a bit of an animal rescue thing going on this week. On Thursday we found this little bird on the driveway when we were heading off for school. At first I thought it was dead, but closer inspection showed it was still alive, though certainly not in tip-top condition. I wondered if it might have flown into our glass French doors and dazed itself. It must have been there a while as it was quite a windy day and the only movement it was making was the occasional shiver. I honesty thought the poor thing was probably dying, but I thought that I could at least make its last hours comfortable. I didn't want it dying from cold, or worse, being eaten by a cat. I fetched a shoe box and lined it with some soft fleece fabric and quickly and gently lifted the bird and placed it inside. I then put the box where cats couldn't get it and placed a shallow dish of water in there for the bird to drink if it rallied. Emma and I needed to go out so I checked the bird was safe and couldn't be disturbed, fully expecting to find a dead bird in the box when we got back. We were out for a few hours and I was thrilled to find the box empty when we got back.  I felt like I had done my good deed for the day.

Animal rescue number two happened this afternoon when Tom and I found a toad in the road outside our house. Now whilst I was quite happy to pick up the bird, there was no way on God's green Earth I was going to touch a toad! We merely chased the toad off the road and into the garden, where I hope it is now consuming lots of slugs! Being ushered off the road by the Podlings was probably a bit scary for the toad, but it was infinitely better than being squashed by a car!

Toad in the Road. Not to be confused under any circumstances with Toad in the Hole!

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P for Podling

Emma told me that she wanted to draw a P, by which I thought she meant she wanted to draw a scribble and call it a P. Imagine my surprise when she took the chalk and card I offered her and she drew this! We have done some basic letter recognition (mostly the early alphabet and the letters of her name), but she has certainly never done any freehand writing with me. Clever Emma!
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Rocket Craft

Emma and I did this name rocket craft yesterday (Thank you Pinterest!). She had lots of fun with the glitter glue and was rather pleased with her finished picture. To keep with the star/ space theme we finished off the afternoon by making star-shaped fairy cakes and decorating them with star-shaped sprinkles. Naturally, we had to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a few times as well.

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Picnic in the Meadow

There is a beautiful meadow at the end of one of our walks in Biddulph Grange Country Park that I have always wanted to picnic in. It is a picture-perfect picnic spot, full of buttercups and lovely trees to sit under. Mark suggested we take our lunch there today, so we threw some things in our hamper, filled up the Thermos and off we went. The Podlings were slightly put off when we arrived to find a couple of cows grazing in the meadow. However, they were a long way off and not remotely interested in us, so we were able to persuade the children that the cows would not, in fact, come and try to eat our picnic!

We had a lovely picnic and the slight fear of the cows meant that the Podlings actually stayed on the blanket and ate a decent lunch before getting up to play! Probably not the best place to picnic for hayfever sufferers though. Mark's eyes were quite a shocking shade of red when we got home, poor thing!

 Me in my dream picnic meadow!

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Walking in The Roaches

Today we enjoyed a fabulous walk in The Roaches, a prominent rocky ridge in the Peak District. More of a hike than a walk this one, but the Podlings did really well and thoroughly enjoyed it. The effort of the steep climb was more than rewarded by the fabulous views across Staffordshire. This beautiful countryside is a mere 30 minutes drive from where we live. We are incredibly fortunate.

After our walk, we drove down to Tittesworth reservoir and enjoyed a picnic in the lovely children's playground. The Podlings were too busy having fun to eat much, but they certainly had a great time. We were eventually driven out by the gnats at about 8.45pm. The Podlings should sleep well tonight!

My favourite people!

A steep hike up the hill. 

You can see why the area is popular with rock climbers! Tom is dwarfed by the massive rock formations. 

A fabulous view down to Tittesworth Reservoir 

It was lovely and peaceful on the ridge. Tom told me he wanted to live there. My boy loves peace and quiet. 

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Emma in the Rain

The summer term is nearing its end and I am painfully aware that these are the last few weeks of my special time with Emma. Emma turns four at the end of July, which means she will be starting school in September (much too young in my opinion, but that's the law!) I am getting terribly nostalgic over the little things we do together that we won't be doing after September. Little things like walking home together after dropping Tom and Lily at school.

It was pouring with rain today (typical British summertime!), so I knew Emma would want to jump in puddles on the way home. I slipped my camera in my raincoat pocket and captured some precious moments as we enjoyed our morning walk home in the rain. I am going to miss my beautiful girl so much in September. This girl lights up my day!

I love this photo because it will remind me of how she spoke when she was three. Emma has a slight and rather adorable lisp and you can see it here as she says 'Cheese!' (or 'cheeth'.) I know they have to learn to talk properly eventually, but I love their adorable baby voices.

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Remember me?

Maybe she fell down this hole...

I'm back! After six weeks without a broadband connection I can finally update my blog again. I have to say that I found the break from the Internet quite refreshing, but I did miss my little blog. We have now switched broadband providers and this new connection seems much faster, which should make it much easier to upload the huge backlog of photos I have accumulated during my blogging break. In the interests of continuity, I am going to backdate the posts so they appear around the time the events happened. I shall now continue to update the blog as usual, but please check regularly for backdated posts as I plan to 'fill in the gaps' as and when I find the time. I'm so glad to be back!
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