Flash floods!

Just a quick pic of my journey yesterday...



On the way to Wetherby, the rivers burst their banks and this happened! You'll notice the cars aren't moving either, not for ages. So much for the hosepipe ban!

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Midnight cupcakes...

What were you doing at midnight? On second thoughts maybe don't answer that! I was icing cupcakes for a school fundraiser - the joys of being a working mother! I'm quite pleased with them though, they started out quite cute but transformed into more gothy blood red vampire butterflies - much cooler! These ones are red velvet with a White chocolate buttercream and finished with a Hershey's cookies and cream sweetie ( now I know I've been watching cupcake wars too much!)

Here's a sample of the others...




Some are vanilla, some are lemon - I've just got to get them to school in one piece... And explain away our blue tongues...

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The boy done good!

Up until not so long ago we had a staircase that looked like this...




And that was after lots of knocking down and dust creation!

But now I'm pleased to say it looks like this...



I know, I know ... It's not finished but i couldnt wait to show you! BH did this all by himself this weekend - didn't he do well?!!

We still have to decorate it and put down new flooring and carpet - but hey, we have light! And a hallway that no longer scares the minis! So even though its now Sunday night and I'm wondering where the weekend went, I could slide down a bannister with joy!




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Just keep sowing...

Has spring really sprung? The signs in the garden all suggest so, I still have hellebores flowering...



And Muscari popping out all over the place...



The muddy brown palette of the past months has begun to be replaced by the acid greens that should shout springtime...




But if like me you were gardening today in hail and snow - yes snow! Then you'd understand why I'm a little confused. Its still so cold here in East Yorkshire that I'm way behind on all my usual garden jobs, so today it was an early start to get things done...

I dug and weeded beds...




And then I sowed,



And sowed,



And sowed!



I also sowed snowball turnips, oriental salad leaves, squashes, coriander, dill, radishes, little bear squashes,calendula, lisanthus and chinese lanterns...phew!

The Marys and the Mitfords were desperate to get amongst the seeds,



But Arthur had other plans and whilst my back was turned tried a little digging of his own...



The monkey!

Of course now Im finished for the day the weather has cheered up and the sun is shining. But as the next task is to clear up the main greenhouse ( a chore i'm dreading - note the poor bird that knocked itself out in there)




then I'll call it a day! Back to work tomorrow...


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Soft shell crabs at Automat

We had an amazing trip to a gorgeous diner called Automat while we were away - our food was so good that i just had to take a picture...




I had a soft shell crab 'po boy' which if you could hear my rubbish impersonation of a New Orleans accent, translates as a 'poor boy'. Trust me there was nothing poor about it in the slightest! I've always wanted to try one after reading recipes with them in, and now I have and it was very well worth it!

Now I just need to find more of them and to start walking back to Yorkshire to burn off all the calories that are in them!


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Weve been to London to see the queen

We gave up on trying to fight our way through dust and rubble and escaped to Citygirls London lair for Easter. I know that's not really playing the self sufficiency game but there is a limit! We did decide to be complete tourists this time though, a first for all of us, in fact it was a day of firsts all round...

The minis went underground on a train for the first time...



They had their first black cab ride...



First trip to Fortnums to buy a special treat for freerangenan ( shhh don't tell her!)...



First trip to the Royal Academy to see huge paintings of the streets where we live!



And their first sighting of Big Ben Or big benson as they insist on calling it!



We dropped by to see the Queen...




We would have stayed for a cuppa but apparently she doesn't drink Yorkshire tea!

And of course we had to go on the London Eye - we were being tourists after all!




You can just see it in the background - it's too big to get the whole thing in shot!

The minis loved it - they collected tickets and pictures everywhere to put in their holiday scrapbooks and boy did they sleep well that night!

As for me I was ready for one of these...


Possibly the most appreciated Margherita ever!

Hope you all had a good Easter too x

Blogger needs help!!!

I've been trying to comment on all my favourite blogs for days now - bit its a no go! I can write a comment but when I'm asked for ID the scroll down is blank, so no ID, no comment. It's driving me crazy!!!

Has anyone else had this problem? I tried going on the forums for help but again my comment wasn't published. Anymore of this and I'm going to Wordpress!

So please don't be offended if I haven't commented for a while - Su, I love your Easter eggs and Twiggy - get off the wii!!!

And somebody help me....please!

When life gives you lemons...

Our week ended on a sour note as BHs car went into the garage only to be followed by a serious phone call from the manager asking us if we want pour more money into it's life support or pull the plug. On top of dust filled houses, freak snow storms and our two lovely children being 'bored already' something's got to give... So I did the only respectable thing and buckled down to picking the wallpaper for the new bedrooms ( when all else fails I find a blatant disregard for the chaos around me the best way forward!)

So what do you think...


It's even zingier in real life! This is to go on the wall behind our bed. I suppose its called the feature wall - but I think that just means we can't afford to do the whole room! I know its bright - very very bright, but after months of looking at very tasteful, neutral colour schemes, I just decided that they ain't me! I want some colour to smack a smile on my chops in the morning and keep the winter blues at bay...

And besides it looks pretty grown up here...


In fact I like it so much I'm thinking of putting it at the top of the stairs, in a much more subtle colour of course...


But thats only so i can set it off with a bright red carpet! Bring on the colour!

And if a certain luxury car dealer sells you a lemon, don't ever go there again, have a bloody good cry and then pick yourself up and buy wallpaper instead ... Works for me...




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Back from the block...

Its been a bad start to the year for posts from the Freerangehomestead. I should have known it would be when I made it my new year resolution - nobody keeps to their resolutions, so why should this be any different - and why did I have to give myself a goal of something that I love to do, and never had any problem getting started with in the past.

Writers block - who would know it strikes bloggers too! But in this case, it was bakers block, gardeners block and just doing anything but working and building block. Ironically we are further on with our building work than ever, we've been having walls plastered and everything - seven weeks of plastering to be precise. We've knocked down walls and moved more dust from room to room than should ever be allowed. but there's something about getting things done...its draining...you start with CHEERS but as the weeks and months drag on, the YAYs start to sound pretty hollow, cos you just want the work to be over!!!

the hallway ceiling before...

and after!

I started this blog to follow and share the trials and tribulations of our lives in Yorkshire, and what do you know its those trials that almost brought me to a standstill. I suppose after a day of shifting muck around and climbing over palletboards to do your laundry you have to wonder who would want to know about it! but then I don't want to write this record through a rose tinted lens. I love our life in Yorkshire but I don't love living in a building site. I know it will all be worth it but that doesn't help me right now!

Our feature staircase...

Even the  vacuum cleaner has gone on strike!

And so I came close to calling it a day on the writing front and then something pretty amazing happened - people started to ask me when the next post was coming. A lovely blogger emailed me to ask me if I was alright and to top it all we watched Julie and Julia this weekend...and it all reminded me why I started writing this in the first place - to share the journey, to see the funny side and to make sense of it all. So I figured it was time to start taking my own advice and pick up the pad.

So i've got some making up to do, seeds to sew, a cardigan to knit, a whole season of events coming up and a plant sale to organise - more of that to come - oh and a building to finish, but enough of that. We're getting there....slowly!