Prince Charles

Julian reminds me of Prince Charles in these pictures. This is our yard. We have a deck also (I was standing on it to take these pictures.)

Julian dug all the excess bricks out of our garden. Our £5 Compost bin is posted within 35 working days (this is how things work in England!). But I think I will buy Julian a wiggly wigglers worm kit. It's expensive, so if anyone out there knows if worms freeze and die in subzero temperatures, please let me know before I buy it. They're cold blooded of course, but does this really protect an animal from freezing?

Julian is off to New York this week to leave me with the baby shower preparations. I discovered a terribly cheesy but quite ingenious website - it emails invites and tracks RSVPs. Check it out! Betty or Ossie's Baby Shower
The designs are terrible - this was the best one - and I am not too keen on the baby Target plug, but the idea is good. Tick tick.

So, I am a bit nervous about having the responsibility of providing enough materials for people to decorate their own cupcakes with, but it should be fun. I don't really know what people do at baby showers, so I was thinking lots of champagne could alleviate the boredom for everyone (except me), and custom treats are always popular. I have made it only a 2 hour event incase it gets tired.

By the way, at the top is one of my favourite pony images - not retouched and it may not make the final select, but this project is finally off the ground. Enjoy.

They don't call it labour for nothing!

We went to our childbirth course last weekend at the Active Birth Centre. It was all about active management of labour and pain management. Epidural is for pussies - this was the theme for the day.

They showed us a video of a birth and I could hear about 5 girls weeping. It was all a bit much. I even saw a couple fighting afterwards. I think the conversation would have been along the lines of "you bastard - I can't believe you've done this to me!!!"

So I have been asking near strangers to send me photos on email of newborns and other babies. Just something to remind me that there is a little reward at the end of it all.

I have started to nest aggressively. More like a hawk than a bluebird. Julian is the rabbit.

Exciting Wales and the Cotswolds Zoo

We went to Wales last weekend. Julian had to either travel to Swansea and get a new licence or entrust Royal Mail to safely deliver and return his only passport to the D&V in Wales. So we just went to Wales ourselves. We decided to drive the long way and found this amazing zoo in the Cotswolds. I thought the drawing of a zebra on their signage was just for show - but it wasn't! They had happy breeding animals. Every animal was visible but not in a depressing environment (except the lions - they had cruelly put the zebras in full view of the lions - they spent a lot of time staring at what would have been their lunch in the wild).

I played for the cows again - the cows in Wales were horny for the horn. Ewwww. (see pic - if pic doesn't come up, go to weblog link). We stayed at an old rectory with animal trophies and guns all over the walls. Lots of Hunting magazines too. And even more strangely portraits of Prince Charles cut out of magazines and framed and on the mantel. We arrived late Saturday night. The view out one window was gorgeous fields, night sky, pan left and you see a giant Texaco oil refinery lighting up the night sky.

Went to Micah's birthday at Les Trois Garcons. As usual the atmosphere was amazing (dead stuffed versions of all the animals we saw at the zoo, covered in Tiaras and jewels). He is 35. Sweet crowd, had a lovely time.