Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

What a treat to come home from a lovely few days and for it only to be Wednesday and therefore to have half the week still to go with a bank holiday to look forward to as well! Having got home late afternoon we settled in and unpacked and I got to take the dogs out as well - happy to be back with my babies. Glenn was off to a funeral on Friday and then had his London to Paris 24 hour bike ride to do over the weekend, so with Abi still away, Izzy had the bright idea of seeing whether we could take one of the riding school ponies out for a hack. We were allowed to so off we went to spend a very happy couple of hours pretending this was her own pony - in your dreams! Saturday was a round of pick ups and drops offs before Sharron arrived for a well overdue catch up. I had to drop Izzy at the stables, drive to Cranborne Chase to pick up a tired, smelly but not too disillusioned Abi before driving back, dropping her at the house for a huge dog love-in. I then headed back to the stab...

With Abi safely off to Angie's for the week Izzy and I headed off to North Devon for our getaway. We braved the A303 on a Sat morning in August (foolish people!) and after we'd sat at Stonehenge for the obligatory hour or so we motored smoothly down the rest of the way, stopping in Taunton for a break. We had lunch at Mum & Dad's before heading off to see the tail end of Laurie's riding lesson and to meet Amanda's new horse. Despite Amanda trying to persuade us to stay down for dinner we managed to extract ourselves and reached our destination at Northway on the coast just after 7pm. We settled in nicely making the most of the peace and quiet before Zsara and Aran tuned up the following day. In the morning I left Izzy in bed and went for a stunning walk along the coastal path - something I repeated every day we were there and it was a fab way to wake up - amazing scenery on the doorstep. This was followed by Izzy heading out with the owner Bob to feed his...

So she's definitely out there, alive and well, but we've heard very little from Abi since she disappeared off to Somerset. We know she managed to get from Mum & Dad's to Kerrie's house. We know she entered the flower show, even managed (possibly, we aren't sure) to win a prize for her miniature garden. We know she's had a fun day out today - we've seen the photographic evidence... We think she's been on her iPad (we had a request for a new game)... but we've barely heard from her directly. I did mange to get her to answer the phone today, but it was brief and clearly I was interrupting whatever else she was doing because almost immediately I got "can I go now?" We believe she's back tomorrow - I hope it's in a good mood after all this independence. I've missed her, even if she hasn't missed me. Oh well, sometimes it's good not to be needed... I think!   So while Abi has been off doing whatever she has been ...

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...

For those of you who read last week's post... it's still raining. Having had a beautiful 6 weeks or so as we moved from late spring to summer we are now at the 'height' of summer and it hasn't stopped raining since we got back from France. I can't complain though - the forecast today was horrible and actually we ended up being able to spend most of it in the garden - you have to take your chances where you can! It's a good job we've been able to get outside as we are still clearing up from our builders. So much for them leaving everything spick and span. At the point they finally finished the work itself on Tuesday we'd just had enough - they asked us if we were satisfied with the end result and basically we said yes - the house itself looks great, but the surrounding areas needed loads of tidying up to get back to what we would say is normal. Anyway - having spent 4 hours this afternoon, plus the time over the week we are finally getting back to ...

  So we are back and it hasn't stopped raining since we got home - the holiday is definitely over! We travelled up from the Dordogne on Thursday having spent time reflecting on the fact that for us this year 10 days was too much - we were all missing home and the dogs and were very much looking forward to our own beds. Before we left we stayed in a brilliant little B&B near the Normandy coast, location for much of the WW2 American landings. The place we had chosen was a great setting, themed in WW2 memorabilia and very near to St Mare Eglise, the first Normandy village to be liberated in June 1944.   We went to the Airborne Museum which gave the kids a reasonable idea of what happened (as much as they can take in now), particularly the exhibits which combined sound and visuals with relics, many of which bore the bloodstains of the men impacted at the time. The thing that hit home for them, other than the story of the Parachutist who got stuck on the village ch...

So after a slightly cooler start to the holiday (i.e. mid 20s and perfect for me), the weather has got properly hot and we're all melting. Currently it's plus 30 at 6:30 in the evening and we're hiding inside - even the pool is too hot. The rest of the family mainly love the heat. I love it when it cools down and we can move around without collapsing into a sticky mess. The good news this year is that a) the girls understand that suncream is a good thing if you don't want to burn and are pretty good at remembering to apply it, and b) they love, love, love reading on the sun loungers when not in the pool and so it's been an amazingly peaceful time. We've also been blessed by having some friends here for the first part of the week and the kids have loved having Del to play with in the pool - he may be in his 50s but he acts like a 5 year old around water - perfect for them! We've been here so many times that I snap straight into relaxation mode within m...