friends

twenty-five years ago four extremely youthful girls met as they began their year itogether in a student house in Hull. 

Last Saturday we all got back together again and spent a day catching up. We have remained in contact over those twenty five years but it was 9 years ago that all four of us were last together.

We spent a fabulous day in Oxford. This city was chosen as it was a central meeting point - we are not learned enough to have met there as students.

We enjoyed lunch at Jamie's and went for an absorbing historical wander before heading for the Ashmolean. At the museum we appreciated the modern art halls before heading to the rooftop restaurant for afternoon tea.

Since that October day in Hull our life journey's have taken us along very different paths. Some of us are now citzens of another country, some have children, some are married, some work full-time, some part-time and one of us is taking the adventrous step of self-employment.

Yet when we met the years fell away and we were laughing as we had always done, enjoying a glass of something bubbly as we had always done and exclaiming at the youthful antics around us. We are still the same people with many of the same habits, beliefs and most importantly still friends.

a week ago ...

the four follies had prepared early for Father's Day whilst Mr Folly was away in China.  In fact so early that they forgot it was this last weekend until I reminded them on Saturday. There were then hastily made plans as to getting up early to prepare breakfast in bed, what to have for breakfast and trying to find the rather well hidden presents.

Sunday morning dawned and I couldn't hear any stirrings so after giving strict instructions to Mr Folly not to get out of bed, I decided to go and see what was happening. Three follies fast asleep and one downstairs watching tv having eaten her own breakfast.

Folly 3 gave me instructions to keep Mr Folly talking but after another half an hour there was still no-one about so Mr Folly started his day. He made his own breakfast and left the house for a dogwalk before anyone else stirred ... so present giving eventually occured late in the morning.

we seemed to have ended up with a Bear Grylls themed day and the family spent the afternoon watching dvd's of 'worst case scenarios' though thankfully without wearing the Bear Grylls baseball cap.

jubilee

homemade bunting

with all the diamond jubilee festivities occuring around us I struggled to think what we did for the golden jubilee.  Then I realised that would have occured just 2 months after Folly 4 arrived in our family and I was juggling family life of 4 children aged 6, 4, 3 and 2 months - no wonder there are no jubilee memories there! I do recall mustering up some union jack headscarves (no quite sure why this fashion item) and the Follies each painting their own red, white and blue t-shirt.

This time around we managed something a little more. The village jubilee committee had planned a whole 4 day schedule of events including bbq, tug of war, the annual village cricket match, silver band concert, village walks and to top it all off a mug for all the village primary school aged children.

Mr Folly in true patriotic style left the country on one of his work related jaunts although not without first buying us a union jack flag and did apparently keep up-to-date with national events via the internet.






At yewtreefollies we did a little house decoration and held a small family party.  Grandparents were staying over the whole weekend so we invited over our cousins and went with an afternoon tea theme.

  

The table was groaning with homemade cakes.  Folly 3 placed herself in charge of drink making and the nojitos (alcohol free mojitos) went down well.  The time just flew by and because we back on to the playing fields where all the village events were occuring the follies could pop in and out of those as well.

 


I'm sure all our memories of the diamond jubilee will stand out more than those of the golden despite having no headscarves!

An unfortunate event

oh dear. I'm not proving to be a good wife to the beekeeper. In the past I have received queen bees in a little jiffy bag through the post and then forgotten to mention their arrival until a couple of weeks later when they are no use to anyone.

This week I made another omission, but in my defence I also had the eldest folly with me.

With the cool and wet weather the bees in the garden were just coasting along. Foraging when they could, feeding the young bees, storing honey but all at quite a slow rate. We have four hives in the garden though only one was really strong.

So along came the sunny hot weather and the bees went into overdrive. On thursday I was outside hanging laundry when Folly 1 says, 'look at dad's bees they are going mad'.
All around the four hives was a buzzing and commotion 'oh yes' says I and disappear in the house without a second thought ...

Until Saturday morning when Mr Folly mentions the numbers of swarms around at the moment and I happen to mention the commotion. Yes you've guessed it - the bees from the strong hive have swarmed - so at present no queen and no eggs. 

Mmm not boding well for a bumper year of honey.

last day

so it was Folly 1's last day of compulsory education yesterday - what a milestone. 

About 60 of the girls met at the train station dressed in St Trinians versions of their uniform and progressed through the city to school singing at the top of their voices.

They were alot more organised than in my day when we finished at lunchtime and all went off to the pub - though at 16 I'm sure we were all only drinking lemonade!

birthdays galore

may is always a busy time for us as we have two birthdays to celebrate on consecutive days.  This year the birthdays were a little more special as Folly 1 is now 16 and Folly 4 is 10. It seems particularly significant to me when a child moves from single digits to double digits and as it is my baby this year I am feeling this most keenly. We had a mini celebration with a meal out and the parties are happening later on in the month when all significant friends are available to join the festivities.

The girls all thought carefully about presents and as always it is interesting to see what they notice about the lifestyle and likes of their sisters.

Folly 4 decided that at the grand old age of 10 she no longer needed me to say 'goodnight', though happily this resolution only lasted 4 nights. 

Folly 1, however, is really showing her independence and has joined Mr and Mrs Folly as wage-earners in the household.  It is the last day of school for her later on this week and I'm not sure which one of us finds that harder to believe. 

pride and joy

i think the part of the extension most exclaimed about by any female visitors is the new pantry.  And I have to admit that I too get quite excited about this little place.  It is squeezed into the corner of the kitchen and has an almost full sized door. We did have an experiment as to how many people we could get into the larder and managed 4 almost adult sized. 

There are shelves along two of the walls and a little room left for hooks most likely for aprons but you never know it could be onions! The internal walls are painted white and the electricians even put me a light up in there.

It is marvellous having all my food stored in one place. All the Follies like seeing exactly what we have available to eat, though I am finding that the stash of treats gets eaten more quickly than in the past.

The pantry is the perfect display space for my tupperware
bought about 15 years ago from my Canadian friend
(do you still use your boxes Heather?)

Whilst using the internet to research the design of my pantry I came across a couple of pantry titled blogs which I've enjoyed.

http://penelopespantry.blogspot.com

http://avillagepantry.wordpress.com