My Computer is not well, i think it has got the end of summer blues, so if you don't hear from me for a while-do not panic, i will be back!

Late Summer Fun in the Sun!

Well i have finally finished my theatre work so i have heaved a sigh of relief.  I couldn't have manged it without the help of my lovely Mum and my Mother-in law.  They both did stirling work looking afetr little one for me, and my Mum is a whizz at sewing on buttons and removing the miles of tacking.  We did manage to get out for a few days out, and of course we had to go to Southwold.  I have to take Mum there every time she visits, and Little man and i are definitley not complaining.  We parked at Walberswick and had a lovely lunch in the Garden tea rooms(thank you Grandma), and then walked across the marshes to Southwold Common, it was absolutley boiling hot so it was good to go for a cuppa at the boating lake .  We met a friend and her little girl and my other half, and enjoyed a good pot of tea.  Unable to contain themselves for much longer we then made it onto the beach, there were many brave souls taking a dip, but we made do with a paddle and all ended up with soggy hems!

There were many squeals of delight, and not just from the half pints, as the waves washed over our hot feet.  It was so lovely to see lots of people enjoying this last burst of Summer warmth, and made me realise how lucky we are to live in this part of the world.

 

Good lordy Gourdy!

I escaped my work for a couple of hours today to visit the wonderful Raveningham Hall Gardens, with my Mum little fella and my hubby.  I think this is one of my favourite places to go on a late summers day.  It is only a few minutes drive from where we live and well worth a visit, check out the website as i believe it only opens certain days from september onwards.  It was open today as it is a bank holiday, and had the added bonus of a tea room in operation(it has been closed other times we have visisted).  So we sampled a few of their wares.

The main pull for us is the magnificent walled vegetable garden which is always immaculate and a constant source of envy and inspiration, especially for my other half who is usually busy in the garden over summer(our building works have halted most of our veg this year, and our greenhouse has been storing a bathroom suite so no room for tomatoes).  They had some marvellous gourds and squashes growing up frames between the fruit trees;

The other speciality of the place are the large swathes of Agapanthus which are in bloom at the moment, they seem to have every shade of purple through to pure white growing there, and as our own single plant hasn't managed one flower spike this year it was lovely to see so many together.

I have lots more lovely photos to show you of my brief time off sewing duty, but my laptop has gone weird and won't let me post them, obviousley someone is sending me a message to get on with some work, so bye for now!

Feast or Famine!

Well this phrase perfectly describes life here at Lulumama Towers at the moment.  We have had a lovely few weeks of various relatives visiting, and i have been inundated with work.  The relatives have been a marvellous help looking after little one whilst i get on with things, but i wish i could have spent more time with them as they live a long way away.  As usual i am very happy to have all this work, we need the pennies, and it has given me a chance to use our newly (nearly) completed extension.  However, why is it that it is always comes along in a big clump?  I'm sure that every self employed person lives within the feast or famine world but it is still very annoying.   For anyone reading this thinking "ungrateful cow, at least you have got the work" i say, yes quite simply you are right, but i'm still allowed a little moan.  So i hope that explains my absence from the blogging world recently. 

 The above shot is the inside of one of the three tailored frock coats i have been making for a certain musical about a green witch and a blonde white witch, it goes on tour this week.  I thought that you would like to see what goes on on the inside of a tailored coat.  The cream colured area is the inside chest canvas, the black stitching is the pad stitched collar, this stitching gives the collar its "roll" and the black tape line is the break line of the collar, the fluffy stuff is the chest padding and helps give the jacket structure. So there you go now you know a little bit of what your ticket money goes towards.  This is a character which is going to be played by 3 artistes, so each actor has to have his own costume, which is drafted and cut to his size(by a lovely man called Mervyn), fitted on him, and then finished off.  For each actor i have to make a separate coat, shirt, waistcoat with working pockets, and a pair of trousers.  So there you go, i'm off now to carry on sewing, but keep checking my blog i will be back soon.

Ps, i have been treating myself whilst i work with some trips out to the veg patch to see what is ready to munch, our blueberry bush has done us proud! 

Family

I am very lucky this week to be enjoying the company of a few members of my family.  This is a tremendous treat as they live over 5 hours away, and we don't get to see enough of each other.  I miss them all immensley, and wish my little one could see his "big Cousin" much more. They are both growing up at an alarmimg rate, mine is leaving toddlerhood and my nephew is turning into a young man.  Little man loves his cousin and vice versa despite the big age gap! 

Today we visited Dunwich, a pretty coastal village, of which a great portion disappeared  into the sea in the 1?th centuary. 

  We went for  a walk around the abbey ruins and a mooch about the church, we were impressed by mobile lawnmowers they had in the churchyard

 The lone tame sheep keeping the grass down in the churchyard.

Fun, Food and Fine Company

We have enjoyed lots of this all weekend, it began on friday when we headed off, car packed to the limit, for a weekend campmg with friends.  We headed off to a gorgeous part of Suffolk, with a  very different feel to our area of the region.  The reason for our trip was a Beer Festival in the picturesque village of Hawkeden at the Queen's head Inn.  We had been invited by a friend, whose parents are big cheeses in the camping and caravaning club, to stay in what was essentially someone's (very large) back garden, it was heavenly.  There were several of her parent's friends all staying in their tardis like caravan and motorhomes(became rather a fan of these over the weekend-very comfy and cosy) there too and we had a very nice few days, eating sitting about and enjoying seeing the littlies loving being outside and amusing themselves.  My friend and i escaped for a spot of shopping therapy to Bury-St Edmunds after depositing the boys(small and big) at the pub.  here we indulged in a bit of afternoon tea.

 

 After some helpful advice from my pal i purchased a new camera, something which i should have done ages ago, my old one used to take ages to take a photo, so i have missed many fab shots of my little man as he moves quicker than a whippet, but with my new equipment i can capture it all.  It has lots of fancy features, so expect a lot of sepia shots over the next few posts!

 After our retail therapy we headed back to the pub to rescue our boys and to their delight an old routemaster pulled up, bringing more drinkers to the festival. The driver very kindly let our boys(small and large) on board for a mooch about.

 We ended a lovely day with chips and chinese on the green at long melford and headed back to the camp for bed!

 There was even something to see when you bwent to do your ablutions, a blackbird had built its nest right next door to the facilities, and the birds fledged over the weekend we were there.

 Camp Lulumama-with the most important bit-the food table,ready for breakfast!

 This is what i enjoy most about camping with lots of people, everybody chipping in and sitting around in the open all eating together, things definitley taste better in the fresh air.............................................................

 .........especially sausage butties!

A big thank you to Karen and Dean for a lovely welcome, and thankyou to The wren's(in laws) for inviting us!

Summer Pleasures

 We have been enjoying lots of local fruit at the moment, my little one would do anything for some strawberries/raspberries.  On a Sunday night the ice cream van pays a call to our road, so we did the usual purse scramble and ran outside to get our fix.  The ice cream is made down the road and is proper old fashioned italian stuff( Parravanis), they will fill your bowl if you take it outside (as we used to have to do before we got our freezer box), this time we plumped for Strawberry flavour to compliment our soft fruit-yum!

 

                  We don't like Suzy hen to feel left out so she gets the strawberry tops to keep her quiet!