Just Jo!

After a quick breakfast, leftoverbeansfromlastnight on toast with loads of veggie worcester sauce, and a panic-stricken hunt for my mug (I have more than one mug, but I can only drink out of the one with my name on, I’m sure it tastes different, it’s bigger as well!), we attacked the front garden.
Olivia raked up leaves, I swept the path and cut back various triffid-like things. Anyone who visits our house will now be glad, as they’ll not get shredded to ribbons by the pampas! One leaf/frond(?) managed to go down my trouser leg…huh? As you can imagine, I was extremely careful in pulling it out! Things we discovered today…. a ten year old thrown in a wheelie bin increases capacity by at least 100%! But she does cry to be let out after a few hours….
I even cleaned the front door, so it’s all sparkly and spiderweb-free….. which will please Adam no end as he’s scared of the little creatures. Which, in turn, actually makes for great enjoyment as Olivia isn’t scared, so any she finds, she very carefully tucks into Adam’s bed, then loiters on the stairs waiting for the yells and pathetic screams! Yeah…. so do I!
We have lots of ivy growing over the front of our house, I know it’s not good for the pointing etc, but it was already there when we moved in 10 years ago, just not so much of it. Now the council have decided it is bad for the house, why they didn’t know this 10 years ago is a mystery….. So they said we had to cut it down, which would have been a hell of a lot easier TEN YEARS AGO!!! I cut a section out of the main trunk/s, now we have to wait for it to die in a few months. Then the council will come and pull it off the walls. Olivia’s quite upset because there’s usually birds nesting in there, right by her window, and they won’t have anywhere to live now. It also means Maisy’s main supply of fresh meat will have been cut off….
All Christmas cards that needed to be posted, were written and sent. We have cards going to Spain, France, Germany, USA and Cyprus….. what’s the chances of them getting there before Christmas…. or Easter?! Well, if my family keep insisting on emigrating….. they should know what I’m like by now! And I cheated as well, all the Hastings/Eastbourne/Sussex area ones got bundled into one big envelope to my Dad. So he gets to play jolly Christmas postman. Ha!!! He’ll like that!?! But I’ve also discovered that I do actually have an aunt living closer now. She was living in France with her sister, who is, coincidently, also my aunt(!), she’s moved back to live in Wiltshire (well, it’s closer than Sussex!), t’other’s still in France.
A load of washing was sorted and put on, then I took a deep breath and attemted to tackle the Giant Redwood in the middle of the room. We pulled out my chair in front of the window, after Olivia had removed all remnants of her card-making activities.
Seriously though, how much junk can fit behind one chair??? It defies belief! And it is indeed junk, by no stretch of the imagination could it possibly be called ‘resources’. No matter how much Olivia says “Oh, this could come in handy”. OK, that’s usually my line, but come on! Even I have standards! And you know the worst part? Yep, it’s all my junk!
Anyway, moving quickly on…. we solved the problem by shoving all the junk in the Christmas tree box, which is plenty big enough for huge amounts of junk! So sorting it out has now been deferred to twelfth night!
We decorated the tree to the accompaniment of the last playing of the Sounds of Israel CD, because it’s still officially Hanukkah. Then we could get out the cheesy stuff. Decorating the tree is the first outing for it each year. Adam came home midway through, groaning, “Noooo, noooo. Can you put something else on?!”. Yeah, ‘cos he so much prefers Hava Nagila!
The rest of the cards got done, except for the new discovery of being 10 short, so more were printed and stuck.
In spare minutes, since last night, Olivia has started sewing herself a bag out of some scrap material she found. It’s got a contrasting pocket on the outside and she’s sewn her name on the front, along with different colured flowers. She’s really pleased with it, her name does look good actually, and her sewing’s getting loads neater. And I haven’t had to thread needles or tie off ends. And it keeps her quiet, which is always a bonus!