How come your daddy...

How come you daddy doesn't have any nose hairs Poppy?!

Ho ho ho! How observant mr Rutherford! During a wee break (pies and pastries!) my good friend (who is helping us in the garden of Claypots, for a final splurge of getting it ready for sale) suddenly notices that all my dangly nose hairs have disappeared! I did indeed stick the trimmer up my beak this morning... I fear it's still up there... who knows.



hello again!

that's that...

that's that then!

WOOOHOO! today, we finished the inside of Claypots! We actually did it! We can now proceed with putting it on the market! (we still need to do a little tidying outside, but that's by the by, all the hard work's been done! YAY!

I'm wrapping her up...

I'm wrapping her up like a sausage roll!

We're at Claypots again today, you know, like every weekend (so it feels)... We're working away, and suddenly there's two faces appear at the window! It's George and Melissa (Our Neighbour and his daughter), Poppy is so happy! someone to play with at Claypots! A first! We show Dod around, and head upstairs, only to find Poppy wrapping Melissa up in blankets... I didn't know this was Bate's Motel meets Balamory!

If you swallow macaroni down the wrong pipe...

If you swallow macaroni down the wrong pipe, don't worry Poppy, you can still breathe if it goes in long ways.

this was preceded with "ooh! I've swallowed a macaroni down the wrong pipe!" after noming into a nice macaroni pie from the bakers, on our way to Claypots today. I think this works for any hollow food stuffs... the downside? your breath then smells of said food stuff for 4 days, until the food turns into CO2. Or a burp.... which is smelly CO2.

I think she dislodged it with some moshing, so that's OK.

It's been 4 hours...

It's been 4 hours, and we're still alive!

We found a "new patch" of chanterelles on the way home from Claypots yesterday, and had them in a garlic / cream sauce with gnocchi...simple, but damn tasty!

I think they are escaping...

I think they are escaping through a hole in the floor!

Hmm... My dad and I headed to the quarry today to pick up 1/2 a tonne of chuckies... "you must have a cover for the load"... we did... shame we didn't have a floor without holes! (seems the pouring decided to pound the weak bits). oooops. Never mind, we got back to Claypots with 8 stones (not weight)... just kidding.... or am I?

Oh hell!...

Oh hell! There's no L!

Claypots again, we've been fascinated by the beautiful collection of ceramic letters that used to spell out "Claypots" on the fence approaching the house... but sadly, only "C A O" were left stuck to the sign.... today, we went digging at the front of the sign, hoping to find the remaining letters... bingo!... bar one... but, we're going to look harder next time! Check these beauties out...

I've built myself a...

I've built myself a tree house!

Claypots entertainment... our illustrious and inventive (yes yes, I gush) nearly 4 year old is so bored wathcing us paint a fence, she starts to pull all the chords, strings and seatbelts together in the car, tying everything together (like a mad climbing wall / spiders web)... somehow, she's managed to unclip the booster seat, and hang it out the side of the car, attached by some crazy "no knot"... "look at me! look at me!"... wow... it's holding! "it's really stron...." boing! splat!... Boo hoooo... oh... back to the drawing board then!

I love plastering...

I love plastering the ceiling, well, no, I don't actually

Seriously difficult job... and I'm probably doing it wrong... but, when the sitting room roof peels off because of old water damage (we hope is now fixed, thanks to the joiners sorting out the abysmal dorma windows upstairs) I've got to sort it out... nae money left to pay for a professional to do it (well, and in minutes). I sanded some old bits I did two days ago... it's looking OK...better than Mr Smith's DIY disasters sprinkled around the place.

yes...this is the delightful scene after a recent downpour + me picking at it with a blade... Lets just hope it was the Dorma windows that were the source of the water... I have a sneaking suspicion it's the chimney / skews ...

Ooh! I just bashed...

Ooh! I just bashed my belly bone!

The feral child is rolling in the dust... a temporary "slide" (read - pile of underlay) is keeping the feral child happy... even when a mysterious body part is knocked. Good news is, the Carpet fitter fired on tonight, and got the master bedroom sorted...my goodness! it looks like a proper house... even sounds like one too!

Thanks for coming...

thanks for coming to visit me today mummy

have we been at claypots that often and left pops at granny's place so much recently? Ok... Don't answer that one! Poor pops. It'll soon be over...

Daddy, you used to live in...

Daddy, you used to live in a strange country

This one dropped in the car today, on the way to Claypots. Gabi was supposed to go to Hoodles for Aidie's 4th birthday yesterday, with Poppy of course... I'd recommended a way over the back roads, and Gabi got lost... so she'd explained to Poppy that I used to live in these strange lands... mind you, I used to think that Elgin was millions of miles from lossie when I was a kid.

Yippeee, if we go to Claypots...

Yippeee, if we go to Claypots, it will be mega fun and mess

Poppy is fidgety. We're going to Claypots - then She and Gabi are off to Hoodles for a Party... She's not eating her Cheerios... so "you won't get to go to hoodles" gets dropped. Apparently, rolling in sawdust, mud and cut grass is vastly more appealing than running around a soft play centre, with your friends.

I want to stay here...

I want to stay here, now can we go back home?

Pops stayed all day at Granny and Granddad's place today because we were working all day at Claypots... we head back to pick her up from G&G's.... seeing as we're looking to work at Claypots tomorrow too... Granny asks if Poppy wants to stay again... confusion - never.... stayed ... away .... from ... mum...n....dad....for .... more...than.....one ....night.... tzzzzk

Poppy clutching the "Scone Monster"... from my Art gallery Class.

I don't know if you are interested....

I don't know if you are interested, but there's an Osprey flying above your van!

Parked outside Inverurie's 'home base', Gabi runs in to get some paint n sheeit for Claypots (it's the weekend! we're always at Claypots!) - I'm in the car with Poppy, and look up... there's a massive Osprey, with a fish in its talons! interesting to see the gulls take a wide berth of this amazing bird! I shout over to the two guys in the burger van (and one customer), and they run out of the van and look up... they were amazed too!... I just hope the burger didn't burn...

this isn't a photo of the Osprey, but one from http://www.fs.fed.us

If you put that on your thumb....

If you put that on your thumb, it means you'll marry a goblin!

Poppy picked up some plumbing castoff today at Claypots, an old washer or a small bit of pipe, and starts to wear it on her thumbs... beware! beware! "Oh! I don't want to marry a goblin!"... so she swaps it to her pinkie..."oh oh...you'll have to marry a Fairy now!"

Oh! That's the salt...

Oh! That's the salt police coming to get you!

After smashing a salt cellar at Claypots today, on cue, a hollicopter heading to the airport appeared...perfect for some tall story scaremongering. Cruel? perhaps...but fun, watching as Poppy hides behind a tree, moving round slowly as I tell ther they can see her from the left.

It's a satisfying sound...

It's a satisfying sound, hearing a fly pop

We headed to Claypots today, for a mega paintathon... seems that the hot now cold weather has brought all the fat bluebottles out... well, in an empty house with holes in the bathroom dorma, they must flood in, as there were HUNDREDS of them, all slowly buzzing / flying / walking all over the windows... we were SCOOPING them out to freedom... but this was taking too long (!)... so a more brutal method was employed... which worked. We now have several piles of flat fat flies... nasty.

I'm opening this window...

I'm opening this window, so you can't fart Daddy

Driving to Claypots, I think my daughter is fed up with Daddy's tum tum. he he...

Red is the mummy...

Red is the mummy of pink!

and white is the daddy...