Amazing

The weather this past few days has been glorious. The photos that follow are from the village where I live, I might be biased but I feel I am very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

 

 

 

 

Sol found a caterpillar down by the beach, she brought it home and called it wriggly.

Seb and Sol made a tent, complete with camping stove.

Movie mania came to town. Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley are in a movie and its being filmed near where I live. They turned the street with period houses into a run down road with an upturned car and stuff laying around.

This is the make up trailers.

 

Sol got up to mischief one night when she was supposed to be going to bed.

 

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Continental Style

The continental market came to town. It was a lovely sunny day today so we decided to go and check it out. I only took Toni, Seb and Sol with me, we left the pup at home with my oldest child who is currently studying like a mad man for his exams. When we arrived in town and got out the car I just took one look at Sol. Well, it was funny but not funny at the same time ... Sol was wearing a wrinkly old coat that I save for the garden for her. I made her take it off and go put it in the car, but of course then she was cold. We ended up going to the clothes store in search of something warm for her to wear. I started rummaging through the sale rails and found a cute little coat for her for only £7, so the pain was lessened.

We spent the next couple of hours just wandering about then I took the kids for lunch at the KFC. I cheated and bought them snack boxes instead of kids meals, they didn't notice lucky for me.

 

Sol showing off her new jacket on the beach this afternoon.

 

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Sun, Sand, And The Wetlands.

What a busy week it has been for me, for us all really. Last weekend the weather was pretty good and we spent a few days on the beach. Not sunbathing beachy stuff, but dog walking and playing in the sand weather. The puppy loves the beach too which is just as we'll considering we live a two minute walk from the sand.

Sadly on the way back from the beach last Monday Sol had a bit of an accident. We were almost home, maybe 30 yards from the house when she walked into a wall and hit her mouth. She badly broke one of her front teeth and hurt her mouth considerably that she couldn't stop crying for quite some time. Lucky for us the emergency dentist was on hand and we were able to get seen within about half an hour of the accident happening. They repaired Sol's tooth with white resin like material and she went back the following day for x-rays. It is left with this repair on it, which actually looks pretty good, and we have to watch for discolouration incase the tooth dies. Sol is fine about it now, but I am still a bit upset at the damage.

Yesterday we went to the wetlands, we've been before and it's not really advanced much since it was created three or four years ago. Still the wildlife must like it as we saw a few birds and came across a frog. The frog was just sitting in the water, we picked it up but didn't realise it was spawning till we got it out the water. Amazing though.

You will see in the photos that Sol is wearing a patch on her eye. The patching has been ongoing due to various eye problems that she has had since birth. She patches three hours a day now and it's an essential part of her treatment even though it isn't nice to look at. Sol is having surgery at the end of the month to help the cosmesis of her eyes, is going to be milestone for her and probably a traumatic time for me. It's taken many many years to get to this stage in her treatment.

 

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Snow Day

A couple of weeks ago we had snow.  I regretted so much that I didn't get any photographs I actually wished for more snow.  You see, where we live the last time we had snow was two years ago, the time before that was ten years ago.  So when I missed the opportunity to take photos of the children building snowmen and playing I really kicked myself.

Seems this morning my wish for more snow came true. At sunrise I was out taking photos, the fields and sky glowed red, it was beautiful.

The children were quick to get dressed to go out to play.  By nine o'clock everyone was outside busying themselves in the garden with shovels and tools for scooping snow.  Who cares about lessons on a day like this.  This snow bunny appeared in no time at all, with forecast showing rain at lunchtime everyone knew the urgency.

 

 

This is our park, not 'our' park but the village park.  The one where usually you sit and look out at the sea soaking up the view, while the children play.  Today was different, the only sitting involved was sitting on a sledge.

Down the hill towards the park at quite a speed, screaming the whole way!

If you steer just right you can sledge your way down and under the climbing frame, its important you duck otherwise you will get a sore head.

The toys get a go on the sledge too.

 It gets to a point where everyone is cold and wet and its time to go home.

 

Washed Away

The weather today is dreadful.  That statement is an understatement!  With much of the UK on flood warnings all I can say its pretty darn cold and wet.

We braved the rain yesterday, I needed to go to the bank to pay my wages in and Toni wanted to spend some of the money she received for her birthday.  When we arrived at the shopping precinct I sat in the car texting my friend, telling her I didn't want to get out the car.  It was funny, she told me to send the kids instead.  I am glad we did the errands yesterday as today is no better.

When it is not raining, or windy, or cold and I am not working I would walk in the evenings. I know this doesn't really make an interesting blog post but I wanted to share some of the sunset coastal photos that I have taken on my walks.  Just a little note though, the photos are mostly phone photos and are not top quality.

 This one is my favourite, just because I sat and watched the heron fishing for a while this particular evening.  That night whilst I was taking the photos there were bats swooping around me each time giving me a near miss as they followed the line of the harbour wall.

Round Up

The last couple of weeks have been a blur of going out every day for some reason or other. I'm not sure if I could recall it all and publish it here on my blog.

Easter was interesting, we spent almost every day that week out soaking up the sun. We spent a day in Kearney Village flying the kids kites and had a very tasty picnic. Two days on the beach and several other days just out and about, we hit the town of Portrush too. The children all have a little colour in their cheeks now and me a healthy glow.

Other things were GCSE exam papers, three of them to be exact and now a stack of revision work for the eldest child's next three papers. Once the 27th May is here that will be the last exam for a few months. I am wondering what subjects he will sit next - its a real toss up between doing three more GCSEs or a couple of AS/A levels. Mag also got the results of the six GCSE papers he did back in March, 3 of them he got 100% on, one was 98% and the other two were in the high 80s. Not bad for a 14 year old kid who doesn't go to school.

We have been busy planning out foreign trips, we have two weeks travel coming up and another couple of weeks in the pipeline including a possible trip to the USA on the cards.

Sol has had problems with her feet, well she always did. As a baby Sol had what was called Positional Talipes, in other words her feet were real bendy and curved inwards. This was caused because of her laying breech in my belly for the whole time she was in there, once she was born she has a real tendency to lay with her feet tucked under her. She had a little bit of physio and wore boots to try keep her ankles straight. The last few months I started to notice her feet turning in again. I called the hospital clinic where she was registered before and they wouldn't see her, they said it was acceptable that her feet turned in again despite her history. They suggested that Ryan Giggs the footballer has feet that turn in and because he does its okay for Sol to have that too. What the F***, Ryan Giggs has millions of pounds and a full medical team at his beck and call, and further research shows that he actually gets treated for his foot problem.
I wasn't going to accept this, after all we neither have a million pounds nor the skills of a footballer. We ended up going private and she has been diagnosed with pronation, in most cases pronation turns the feet outwards but in her case they went inward. This un-natural curve in her feet had her hips misaligned so she had to have them manipulated and is now having to do special excercises. A long time ago talipes was treated with ugly boots and frames - Sol is very lucky now to be able to have orthotics made to wear inside her shoes. They are sort of like insoles but actually have a heal and are moulded in a certain way so her feet are shaped properly. She has had them for a few days now and I can already see how straight her ankles are compared to before. 

Tropical Beaches

The weather here last week was glorious! We spent a few days on the beach just soaking up the sunshine. Who would know we would have a paradise beach here just a couple minutes from my house. Love it!

Walk from Groomsport to Orlock

I love where I live. Its not until you are forced to make decisions which are life changing that you really appreciate what you have. My husband has been offered a job in England and it is, in theory, a step up for him. Originally we were to be off by the 1st of march but that didn't transpire. At the end of this month there will will be a further job offer, a different package and hopefully a better one at that. Then we have to go through the whole agonising decision making process again. It really is a toss up between the 'lifestyle' we have versus some extra money and the lifestyle that we don't know about yet. So the jury is still out, we are still living in limbo but it is no longer a closely guarded secret. Its days like this, meaning the other day when I took these photos, that you really realise what you have on your own doorstep.

~~ The children call this the giant chess piece, and it does look like a rook.

None of these are ours, our boat is teeny in comparison.

This one was after we had trekked along many little sandy coves - 'enough is enough mom'.

Shells - my five year old is fascinated by them. I guess last year she didn't really appreciate them the same as she does now.

We found this old boat on the sand at Orlock, the children had a lot of fun playing in it.

I love this shot these two are just like man and wife.