Morning, What are your plans for this week?

Hi Trees, lovely to have your daughter visit, and what a difficult time for your step children and yourselves, quite a bit of adjusting, they have only just begun the bereavement journey, thinking of you all 💕

I am just imagining you out there in your garden B, all the gear and no idea, but stick at it, your inner Carol Klein is keen as mustard, go for it 🙂

My biggest hurdle this week is to get the dogs to the dog salon for their short back and sides, nail trim and teeth clean, never taken them in the car before, as dogs hairdresser has moved premises, gonna be a challenge 😀

Happy week to all 🥰

Bellatrix, your description of the dog-o-matic has had me chuckling away to myself. You painted a very vivid picture.

I hope you enjoy your home spa experience, very much needed after a day in the garden.

To say everyone's lives have changed forever is an understatement Trees, was this situation a reason why you took semi retirement? Your decision there was so well timed, a total change of life and priorities for you and your OH.

Yes BellaT, you have passed the test, exchanged a piece of canvas with colour on for proper real money...you are definitely a bona fide artist, your creative bits were just lying dormant until you were ready to unleash them on the unsuspecting public...exclusive invites to your soon to be first exhibition to be offered to your forum chums first obvs...it's the law!!

Gosh, almost the end of the week and only just reading what you’ve all been up to! We’ve had our granddaughters here since Monday, now on the train heading back to London. They are 3 and 5. We dropped them off at Runcorn station, drove home, put the kettle on then flopped in to chairs in the conservatory both with our iPads. The floor around us is littered with Barbie bits and pieces, books, jigsaws, a Sooty hand puppet, a builders set, shopping basket with plastic food, etc, etc. Most of it belonged to our own kids so Jax if you are reading this, consider what you are throwing out with your house move as you may need some of it in the future!
We went on a pumpkin picking expedition yesterday. Our YD was on a day course so we had 6 hours to entertain the little ones. I chose a pumpkin patch at quite some distance from home, Malpas, as it filled in an hour of the 6. We spotted dogs all day. Guess how many we saw? We also went threw a maize maze and the girls went on a bouncy castle. The day progressed with lunch in a pub then another stop off where there were some mini rides which the girls loved. We stopped off to chat to a few friends, that’s another 15 minutes per friend, funnily enough one is a dog groomer who was between dogs! She asked the girls to get her a pumpkin so we dropped it off at her house on the way back. Another friend brought her dog to meet the girls. She is a puppy and very bouncy!
So then back home and it was pumpkin decorating time! OH has always missed out on this activity but being retired now was able to get stuck in.
Anyway that was yesterday. Day before we went to Knowsley Safari Park. Monday we went for lunch in Mowgli at Cheshire Oaks having picked the girls up off the train. YD was with us too as she took 2 days holiday.
So I think you’ll have got the idea now as to my week. I’ve left out, meal times, bath times, clothes washing etc.
I enjoyed reading all your posts. Trees, how sad for your step-children to lose their Mum. You sound like everything is under control though which is great. Hopefully the change of venue at Christmas might help a little and being with their step siblings might be a good distraction too. Hope they settle in well.
Hugs to everyone.

I feel exhausted just reading your post LL, well done 👏👏👏 had my youngest two, 5 and 7, for two nights recently, luckily I could pack them off to school at 8.30am PHEW 😥 

Totally in awe of you B, our very own artist, who knew 😄 The dog-o-magic is probably ok for small breeds but think that my two need a full on bath, they look so smart now.