Mass murder & cleaning up afterwards !! :o)

I've gradually been losing the will to live these past few weeks :o( 

The rain has brought nothing but slugs & snails, weeds & knee high grass. The slugs & snails have been like the Armada crossing my garden path to get to the flowers & plants - late one evening last week, I counted 78 snails coming out from under the ivy, across the path, marching on towards their goal. Gawd knows how many others there were further up the garden in my veggies & elsewhere. I didn't have the heart to look.

The weeds have more than doubled in size, amount & strength. I nearly strangled my stupid self doing battle with some bind weed that had really taken root amongst my Aquilegia & Hemerocallis.  As I grabbed a handful to pull out, it not only decided to fight back, it had a secret weapon. A great big fat, ugly slimy slug hidden in its leaves, that decided - the ONE TIME I wasn't wearing my gloves - to look me square in the eye & slither on to my hand !!!! SCREEEEEEEEAM !!!!!

 I rushed straight indoors, scrubbed my hands with antibacterial hand wash 5 times - yes, FIVE times - & then had a shower as well !! A bit OTT ? Maybe. But once you've had a slug touch you, you never feel clean again. Or maybe that's just me !! :o) Shudder !!!

My veggies have either been eaten by snails, drowned or gone to seed overnight :o( I'll be lucky to salvage anything except raspberries. THEY have the survival skills of a . . . . . a . . . a great survivilling survivor !! :o)  Not only are they bursting out of the fruit cage, they are tunnelling under the paths & popping up in flower beds & the veg plot as though they were escaping from Colditz :o)

  I'm seriously beginning to think that my garden is being used by aliens, cleverly disguised as raspberries, weeds, slugs & snails, as a training camp for taking over the world.  I keep expecting to look out the kitchen door & see slugs abseiling down the conservatory windows & snails trying to fit Army issue backpacks on top of their shells :o) In the background will be raspberries in tanks & weeds in full combat gear, marching ever onwards, cutting down any lovely flowers or veggies in their way !!

This rain really has a lot to answer for.

Although the sun is shining today - well, it WAS up to half an hour ago - I still can't cut the grass because the ground is wet & squelchy under foot.  You can bet your bottom dollar/pound/euro (insert currency of your choice)  that by the time it's dried out enough, before I have chance to get the lawnmower out, the rain will decide to come back & have another go.

BUT !! *What about the mass murder ??* I hear you cry !!  Well, hold on to your hats. Confession time !!

No, I haven't shot Shaun - those of you who know us, know how often I say it'd be easier just to shoot him - I've been on a snail & slug killing spree !! Oh yes, I will not let those!"**%$?*!  get my garden goodies without a fight. They may have won the battle, but they haven't won the war. Yet . . .  .

I can't use slug pellets because Grandsons 1a & 1b are often here, playing in the garden. We also have foxes & hedgehogs, as well as loads of birds & I don't really know how pellets would affect the wildlife. Eggshells & sharp sand haven't worked & as we don't drink, we haven't tried the beer trick - waste of good beer anyway, I think :o) - so I'm afraid I've been left with no alternative than to use salt. Yep, plain old table salt, the cheaper the better :o) I sprinkle it on the paths & on any slug or snail that tries to escape my evil clutches !!  They only sizzle for a minute . . . .

The next morning, the clearing up begins.  Bodies lie scattered across the battlefield  as far as the eye can see. Some have almost made it home, just to be cut down on the final leg, others have scarcely left the safety of the ivy before it's *Goodbye cruel world !!*

But do I care ? Do I eckerslike !!!! I spent a lot of time early in the year preparing the garden, sowing seeds, planting out, weeding, watering, feeding & tending everything. And I did NOT do it for the benefit of all the flippin' slugs & snails !! What good do they actually do in the garden ? I mean, if they ate the weeds, then fair enough, but do they ? No. They are in cahoots with the weeds & all they want to do is hide amongst them & pounce on any poor, unsuspecting gardener who happens to cross their path. Well, they've got a fight now, cos I am armed with salt & I ain't afraid to scatter it !! So there !! :o)

And on that note, here are a few pics of some flowers that HAVE managed to survive the rain, the wind & the slugs & snails :o)

This orange lily looked lovely against the brown fence. It was a real splash of sunshine :o)

Hollyhocks that smack me in the face every time I come out of the greenhouse :o)

Sweet smelling pink carnations :o)

Green plums :o) Not very good as eaters, but fab in a crumble with lashings of thick custard :o)

A beautiful, delicate poppy, one of my favourite flowers.

Part of my poor, overgrown, wet, soggy, neglected garden. The daisies are out in force this year, taking over the grass.

Even though the garden is somewhat overgrown, this is one of my favourite photos. I love the poppies against the marguerites, it just looks all meadowland-ish to me :o)

Let's hope the weather forecasters are right & that summer will be here next week. It seems to have been a very long  & very wet Spring :o)

Friends, Sunny Sundays & Long Walks

The weather was kind to us this weekend - it was lovely to see the sun again, but it was much lovelier to see good friends, to sit, eat, chat & laugh. A few hours in good company can lift even the most depressed spirit & the old saying *laughter is the best medicine* really is true.

On Saturday evening, we played charades. Yep, the old fashioned parlour game :o) In these days of hand held games consoles & techie type stuff that I have no idea about, we actually played charades. And it was FUN :o) Well. I certainly had fun & judging by the laughter of everyone else & the wild guesses that led to howls of laughter & screams of *NOOO, that's not it !!* I hope everyone else did too.

Sunday dawned bright & breezy, so off we set for a lovely long walk from my house to Pegwell Nature Reserve.

This is the view across the field to Pegwell Bay, from the bridlepath that I've always known as Dead Donkey 'Ole :o)

Cliffs End is on the right, Pegwell Bay straight ahead. The ground was a bit shaky & hard going for Shaun on his mobility scooter, but walking it was fine as long as you kept any eye on where you were going.

Looking across the bay toward Pfizers & Richborough. There were loads of kite surfers down on the beach - it was perfect weather for them, sunny & windy :o)

From here, it's a L O N G way down to the beach, so you can imagine how high these kites were to appear above the cliff top like this.

Here we are at the Viking ship *Hugin*, a replica of the Gokstad. The Hugin was built in Denmark & was sailed across the sea in 1949 by 53 Danes.

It was a gift from the Danish government to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the arrival of Hengist & Horsa, who landed at Ebbsfleet, not far from Pegwell, in 449. The boat actually arrived at Viking Bay in Broadstairs, but was put on display here at Pegwell.

Hengist's daughter, Rowena, married King Vortigen of Kent.

The Nature Reserve is owned by Kent County Council, Kent Wildlife Trust, The National Trust, the RSPB & Thanet District Council. Kent Wildlife Trust, which was founded in 1958, manages the site. Until the 1970s, the area was actually a landfill site. I can remember walking along the Sandwich Road in October 1981 when they were turning the area into the nature reserve. How do I remember it so clearly ? It was the day after my now brother in law got married :o) 

The site is home to many varities of plants & animals. It has mudflats, saltmarshes, sand dunes, coastal scrubland, cliffs & beach. Kent has more than a third of Britain's coastal chalk & the cliffs at Pegwell comprise of caves, tunnels & pillars. Bees & wasps build nests & burrows in the soft rock & Turnstone flocks roost & feed there.

The views are beautiful. We didn't get to see much in the way of birds, although we did hear them singing their little hearts out in the nesting area & the trees.

At different times of the year, you see different things. The site has over 300 varieties of moth, rare orchids & sea grass. Birds fly thousands of miles to spend the winter here.

 Towards the end of our walk - before turning round & heading home again - we came across the Highland cows. Beautiful eyes but ferocious looking horns !! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to have to try to out run one of them !! :o)

You lookin' at me ???

We walked as far as the gate that leads onto the Sandwich Road & turned round to start walking home again, stopping off at the *Dog Walker's Rest* for a well earned drink. Two teas, a diet coke & a coffee came to the grand total of £2:90 - fantastic value for money & a decent coffee it was, too :o) You never know,  we may well sample the bacon rolls or a burger next time. If they taste as good as they smell, we'll be onto a winner :o)

All in all, we walked over 6 miles. It was perfect walking weather, warm & sunny with a cooling wind. The only thing is, today I look like a Belisha Beacon because my face got sun burnt !! :o)

 

 

Today, we're back to rain :o( BUT - that doesn't matter, we had a fantabulous weekend & if it hadn't been sunny, we'd still have had a fantabulous weekend because we spent it with good friends :o)

Fings wot I 'ave made recently :o)

I don't usually speak like that, you know :o) I may be a common, working class girl - & PROUD of it - but I do know 'ow to speak proper, the way wot me muvva taught me :o)

BUT !!! I digress. (See ? I DO know posh words !!)

It's been a busy week or two here, what with trying to get the decorating finished, medical appointments for his nibs, a special little someone's 2nd birthday & trying to avoid the rain, but I've managed to make a few cards & knit a few bits. So, for your delectation & delight (Heh !! MORE posh words !!) not to mention boredom, here are a few of them.

A 30th birthday card for someone who's a bit of a punk rocker. I didn't have a stamp of someone with a mohican, so this had to do :o)

 Gorgeous grandson 1b was 2 & he is besotted with Thomas the Tank Engine, so this was a must birthday card for him. He loved it & kept saying *Thomas, Thomas* over & over as he looked at it :o)

 Some of my best friends have had birthdays recently. This one is for Karen, one of the most dedicated nurses the NHS could wish for. Undervalued & unappreciated, in my opinion, except by those of us who love her.

 This card was for Peter, who loves steam trains. He's very kind, has a great sense of humour & like his wife, Liz, is just one of the best. When you need a friend in time of trouble, you couldn't ask for anyone better  :o)

 I made this card for 'imself, his nibs, the other 'alf, whatever you want to call him :o) When he's awake, he answers to *Shaun*, but as he's asleep more than he is awake, I call him whatever I like & he knows nothing about it !! :o) Mean ? Cruel ? Yep !!! That's me !! ;o)

 This card is for Terri - I hope she doesn't read my blog before Friday, otherwise she'll see her card here first !! :o) Terri is another fab friend. She's quiet & thoughtful, she's a listener & doesn't judge people. Terri is someone you feel comfortable with from the very first time you meet her.

This card was for Val, who, over the past year, has become a much loved & valued friend. She's been Shaun's personal Occupational Therapist, teaching him to make lace, something he always wanted to do, but being a big, burly bloke, used to worry about what people would think. She's encouraged & helped him every step of the way & gives up most of her Wednesday mornings to come over to us. Being mostly in a wheelchair, there aren't many things Shaun can do without help,  but he's made everything he needs to make lace & he's spent many an evening spangling his bobbins !! :o)

We've both been blessed with some wonderful friends & although we don't say it often, we appreciate everyone of them.

Now, onto a bit of knitting :o)

 SOCKS !!! As I was knitting the first sock, I thought the colours reminded me of Fruit Pastilles. So, I just had to buy a packet & - purely in the name of research, you understand - opened them up & put them with the partly knitted sock to see if I was right. Well, they could be twins, really, couldn't they ? :o)

Here are the finished socks - not a very good pic, really & quite why my *PJK :o)* watermark thingy is that big is anyone's guess !!  :o)

Anyway, these socks are for my daughter for Christmas & I've called them *Sweet Feet Fruit Pastille Socks* :o) She knows I've knitted them for her, but hopefully, by the time Christmas gets here, she'll have forgotten. If she hasn't, then I hope she'll have perfected  her *Oh-what-a-surprise-they're-just-what-I-wanted-however-did-you-know ?* speech !! :o)

Disclaimer: No fruit pastilles were intentionally hurt in the making of these socks. They gave themselves willingly !!! :o)

Have a great Wednesday, whatever you do :o)

I've said it before . . .

. . . and I'll say it again:

Why, oh why, don't the council and/or the water companies invest in a *sucky-up* machine & clear all the blocked drains ? Surely if they were cleared of mud, weeds & other debris, the rain would get to where it should & we wouldn't have hosepipe bans & drought orders. This past couple of months, when we've had so much rain, some of the roads have looked like rivers because the rain has gushed over the blocked drains & not gone down them as it should. 

As much as the farmers & gardeners need the rain, they also need sun & warmth. The few good & extremely hot days we've had, haven't really done much for my veggies - they're either parched or drowned. If I get anything decent out of my veg patch this year, it'll be a miracle :o(

This pic was taken just last Saturday at the end of my road & is a prime example of the blocked drains.

Now, I'm not saying ALL the drains in the town are blocked like this, but I've seen a fair few this year - & in past years - that are. One day last summer, when we were out for a walk, me on Shanks's, 'imself in his chariot, we came across a blocked drain that had a tree growing out of it !! It was well past my shoulders in height, so must have been there for quite some time.

(Memo to self:   Self - try to remember where it was & check to see if it's still there.)

 I'm also not saying that investing in a *sucky up* machine is the be all & end all to the problem, but wouldn't it at least help ?

Bring back the old corporation dust cart, I say !!! :o) The ones like my great grandad used to work on at night, cleaning the streets of the day's grime, so that they could do it all over again the following night !! :o)

Other towns & cities manage to have nice, clean streets to walk along, so why can't we ? Maybe we just have a bigger proportion of litter louts than other places. Who knows ?

I do have my own ideas as to how the streets could be kept clean, but I'm sure if I voice them, I'll be given a lecture on civil liberties & then thrown in a dungeon somewhere :o)  No doubt the dungeon will have a grille open to the road which will then fill with mud & have weeds growing out of it, but, looking on the bright side,  if the rain can't get through, at least I won't drown !! :o))

The Sun Has Got His Hat On . . .

Hip hip hip hooraaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy . . .

After having rain, rain & yet more rain, which seemed to last FOREVER, it was lovely to have a BEEE-OOO-TEE-FUL day today :o)

I took advantage of the sun & managed to finish planting out the veggies. Although they're still quite small, I now have everything I sowed in the greenhouse out in the veg patch.  If it all grows - & survives the snail attacks - I shall have a lovely supply of fresh salad & veggies for summer & autumn. Any surplus will be put in the freezer to see us through the winter.

I also made up some pots with marigolds, pansies, gazania, cornflowers & Scottish wildflowers. I've still got loads of pots to sort out - get rid of weeds & old compost etc., but they'll have to wait for another sunny day AND some new compost.  I feel a trip to the garden centre coming on :o))

Everything is so green & lush after the rain & wandering around the garden, I took some photos that show  Mother Nature doing what she does best.

 Apple blossom on my cooking apple tree - pale pink & white, so delicate & beautiful.

 Bluebells, which seem to get more abundant each year. I don't know where they came from, but about 3 years ago, I discovered a couple of plants that hadn't been there before. Now, I have clumps all over the garden !!

 I love the colour of this wallflower - it's like peaches & cream :o)

I've had some lovely coloured tulips this year - vivid red, yellow, orange, deep pink & this beautiful red & cream colour. Planting bulbs in the rockery with Grandson 1a last autumn really paid off this spring :o)

Aquelegia - one of my all time favourite flowers :o) When this lot are all open, it will be the most glorious sea of colour, from cream to lemon, from the palest pink to deep pink & from burgundy to a purple that's so deep, you'd think it was black. 

 My veg plot :o)  It's chock-a-block with courgettes, runner beans, lettuce, onions, leeks, turnips, carrots, swede, radish, beetroot, spring onions, cabbages, parsnips, peppers & tomatoes. I hope the peppers & tomatoes do OK - I've only ever grown them in the greenhouse before, so this is a bit of an experiment :o)

  This year, I've planted the veg closer together, in the hopes that it will help keep the weeds down. I don't really expect it to work, but I live in hopes :o)  In a couple of months or so time, I'll be able to start harvesting the fruits (& veg !!) of my labour. Can't wait !! There is nothing better than eating your own homegrown produce - the taste really is much better than that bought from supermarkets & the good thing is, you don't really have to have a big plot of land. For example - salad crops can be grown in pretty much anything, even window boxes :o)

The raspberries, blackberries, red currants, blackcurrants & loganberries are really coming along. If the crop I get this year is anything like last year, I'll be happy :o)  The rhubarb is surrounded by raspberry canes that burrowed underground, but I leave them for the birds. That way, we all get to sample the fruit :o)

We're still officially in drought, here in the south east, but I hope we start to have nicer, sunnier days.  Farmers & gardeners need the rain, but we also need the sun & warmth to help our gardens grow :o)

I hope it's lovely wherever you are :o)  Have a great weekend.

As one mystery is solved . . .

another one takes its place :o)

I've often said that my Mum & Dad should have named me Patience & then there may just have been the slightest chance of me actually living up to my name :o) As I've got older, the saying *everything comes to he/she who waits* seems to be coming true. I'm not as impatient as I was when I was younger & I don't seem to mind waiting for things - although there ARE a few exceptions :o)

One of the things I've waited oh-so-patiently for, is to solve a mystery in my family tree & just a few weeks ago, I finally did so, after searching for more than 10 years. (See where the patience thing is heading, now ?!)

I don't know about other people who *do* their tree, but over the years, I've become more attached to some people than I have to others. Some people seem to draw you to them in a way that can't really be explained & I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Sarah, one of my great grandad's sisters. I always thought she had a terribly sad life & I just felt so sorry for her.

She was widowed young & had to bring up 5 small children on her own for a few years. For over 10 years, I'd searched for her husband's death, & although I knew it was between 1901 & 1907 because he was in the 1901 census & Sarah remarried as a widow in 1907, I couldn't find it.

When Sarah remarried, she had 4 more children, but out of all of her 9 children,  5 died before they'd really had a chance to live.  The only son from her first marriage was killed in action in 1915. He was only 18. Her oldest son, a twin, from her second marriage died as a tiny baby, her second daughters from each marriage, including the twin to the baby son, died when they were 8 & her eldest daughter from her second marriage died aged 7. I can't begin to imagine how she managed to survive all that. She must have been beyond heartbroken.

Anyway, I always hoped that, although it was only short, she'd had a happy & loving first marriage. How wrong can you be ?! :o)

My desk is what I call *organised chaos*. I know what's on it & I know roughly where things are. I make a note of something, put it down & it eventually gets buried by other notes :o) BUT - I know it's there. Somewhere :o) Every now & again, I have a bit of tidy up & about 6 weeks ago, I came across the note I'd made of a death registration for a little girl who had the same name & was the same age as one of Sarah's daughters. I had a sneaky suspicion that it WAS Sarah's daugher, but as the death was registered in Gloucestershire & Sarah & family were in Kent, I was unsure, which is how it came to be buried at the bottom of my note mountain :o)

I decided to throw caution to the wind & I got the death certificate. Yes, it WAS Sarah's daughter, but OH MY !!!  The certificate gave her father as Sarah's husband, but it also said he'd been in the navy & was deceased. The certificate also said that Sarah's daughter had died of tubercular meningitis in Bristol General Hospital & she had been admitted from the orphanage there. HUH ??? What was she doing in the orphange when her mother was alive & kicking ?? WELL . . . . :o)

It turns out that Sarah's husband had deserted her & their 5 children - aged between 2 months & 6 years - he'd enlisted in the navy as a single man, said he was 5 years younger than he really was AND he used an alias !!!!   No wonder I'd not been able to trace his death  !!

Poor Sarah had to rely on Parish Relief & the kindness of friends because she was left destitute. With a tiny baby & 4 other little children, she couldn't get work, so she had to have her 3 oldest children admitted to an orphange so that they could be looked after & educated.

She was unable to afford the train fare to get them there, so the local NSPCC Inspector asked the NSPCC to pay it, which they did. He took the children to the orphanage & got them settled & he also wrote to them on Sarah's behalf, saying that she was a respectable woman caught in a situation that was not of her making. It turns out that this Inspector had had cause to *admonish* Sarah's husband several times over his treatment of  his family. The fact that he died 8 weeks after deserting them, means, as far as I'm concerned, he got his just desserts :o) He died in hospital of pneumonia, though, nothing terribly painful or lingering !! :o)) Personally, I'd have smacked him over the head with a shovel, just to make sure !!! :o))

Sadly, two of the three children admitted to the orphanage died - the daughter aged 8 & the son in France in 1915. I don't know if he saw his Mum before going off to war, because he left the orphanage as an apprentice to a shoe maker & went to live in Wales. Only the eldest child returned to Sarah & that was just 2 days before her 17th birthday. She has now become my new mystery. All I know about her is the date she returned home. I can't find a marriage or a death for her & a friend checked the Australian records in case she ended up over there with her aunt, one of Sarah's younger sisters. She really does seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Along with a couple of others who seem to want to stay hidden :o)

So, back to the patience thing. Family history is not for the impatient, it's not for the disinterested or for those who can't be bothered. It's for those who like to get their teeth into a good mystery but who don't mind finding out that, for hundreds of years, their ancestors were nothing more exciting than agricultural labourers, housemaids, gardeners, char women or painters & decorators. It's for people who aren't shocked or offended at finding out that their great great gran had a baby before she was married or that great uncle Herbert ran off with the wife of the local butcher. But, most of all, it's for people who don't mind waiting TEN YEARS (or more . . .) to solve a mystery & then start all over again with another one :o)

Life & hobbies

As well as getting on in the garden, I've been catching up on my Family History, cardmaking & knitting. It seems the days are whizzing past & sometimes, after what seems to have been a particularly hectic day, there doesn't really appear to be anything to show for it. So, I now TRY to split my days into sections, a bit like like the timetables we used to have at school. If anything HAS to be done - i.e. shopping or appointments, then I try to get that done first thing in the morning. That way, it gives me the rest of the day at home to do what needs doing there. I spend a lot of time running between the house & the *husband hut*, making sure Shaun's OK & hasn't had yet another fall or fallen asleep at his lathe, still holding onto a particularly nasty looking pointy metalled object. AGAIN. Honestly, he's turning me into a nervous wreck & I'm getting greyer by the day. By the end of the year, I may well have turned to drink !! :o)

Once the shopping & the dreaded housework (shudder !!) has been done & I've made sure 'imself is settled with his wheelchair or Zimmer at hand, I then go hunting for card making inspiration. Sadly, most of the time I don't find it. I think it must have upped & left, which really would explain why I always feel sadly lacking, in OH, so many ways !! :o))

BUT - I needed to make a couple of cards recently & as I'd been given a lovely box of pearlised cardstock for my birthday back in January, I decided I'd try to use them. The biggest problem for me was that they were tall, thin cards & as I tend to use cards that are square, it was a bit of a challenge considering my total lack of inspiration & imagination. However, I managed to come up with something & although I think someone else could have done a much better job, I was quite pleased with the way they came out.

I find that once I get an idea in my head, that's all I can do :o) I can't seem to vary it very well, but I've also found that if I do a card based on me - plain & simple, cheap & cheerful (sometimes !!) - then it's usually OK.

I do wish I could do more artistic cards though. Some of the cards my friends do are just amazing - they belong on the wall of an art gallery, not on a mantlepiece for a few days & then chucked in a box or thrown away. I keep every card that's made for me, because I appreciate the thought & the time that's gone into making it.

The evenings are when I do my knitting. Again, it's not something I'm particulary brilliant at - I do wish I was really good at something (other than talking the hind leg off a donkey, that is !!)  - but I enjoy it & find that it helps me relax a little. As I've probably said before, I don't *do* big things. I get bored quickly & I get impatient when things take a long time. I know my limitations, so I try to stick to things that don't take more than 2 or 3 days at the most to complete. The majority of things I knit only take a couple of evenings, so probably no more than about 6 hours & that suits me fine. There are a few things that take longer, but I find that if I do a couple of quick things between the longer things, I don't mind it so much :o)

This little heart with a *kiss* is a Christmas tree decoration. It's just a jokey thing for Shaun, a silly thing to remind him of something years ago :o)

This bird is also a tree decoration. It's not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but I LOVE it :o)  Shaun's NOT so keen, but for some reason, I really love it :o) It's different, it's quirky & somehow, I managed to give it knock-knees when it doesn't actually HAVE knees !!! :o)

My oldest grandson is 3½ & he is obsessed with Harry Potter & super heroes such as Iron Man & Spider Man. My daughter bought a cheap pair of reading glasses, popped the lenses out & gave them to him to wear & she bought him a little super hero cape, which he says is his invisibility cloak :o) . Shaun made him a little wooden wand on his lathe & as he has a small scar on his head in the same place that Harry Potter has, he really thinks he's Harry Potter :o) However, he didn't have an owl, so he asked me to knit him one, but it had to be brown & stripy. I don't know why, but there you go. You can't argue the logic of a 3½ year old once he's set his mind on something, can you ? :o)

I found a very simple pattern that didn't require any real shaping & nor did it need wings, although you could always add some if you wanted to, I suppose :o) He loved the finished article, but I think the buttons I used for its eyes make it look somewhat startled !! :o)

For some peculiar reason, this owl is called *Red Wing*. It's not red & nor does it have wings, but apparently, it's got something to do with super heroes. Hmmm. As I said, you don't argue with the logic of a 3½ year old :o)

I couldn't make one for Grandson 1a & not for Grandson 1b, so this is the one I made for him.

They're small enough for little hands, but big enough to hug.



On the family history front,  a couple of weeks ago I made a significant discovery, something I'd been trying to find for over 10 years, so I was well chuffed. However, as time is now getting on, that will have to wait for another blog :o)