Pig, poop and paint

To entertain ourselves this weekend, we made a regular favourite - 'Pig Pie' (aka cheese and onion pie).

For a little variety, we also tried 'Poop Pie'. (also aka cheese and onion pie).

On Saturday Daddy took Kitty to see Grandma Pih who is recovering from a hip replacement op. Olive and Ben were there too, so Kitty had a lovely time playing with her cousins.

Mummy made the most of the day off and got a hair cut, the first time in about a year! Unfortunately, the hair dressers understanding of 'about 2-3 inches' translated to a scary 6-7 inches off the length of mummy's hair!!!!! It does look neat I guess, but 'neat' is not really a look mummy normally goes for. Oh well.

The weather was windy and wet on Sunday, but we didn't let this stop us enjoying being outside. We turned the greenhouse into a cool art and craft studio. Kitty did some painting, while mummy messed around with paper and glue. Daddy watched the Grand Prix and the World Cup final in peace.

Day tripper

We took an extra day off and went to Blackpool.

It was VERY windy but we had fun. We had veggie burger and chips in a café, then went for ice-cream on the North Pier.

Kitty loved the arcade.

We took the tram to South Beach and watched the Big One. We were too late to get on the beach, as the tide was coming in. Maybe next time.

June - the good, the bad and the ugly

The sun has been good to us this June and we have enjoyed every minute. Kitty caught her first tadpole at Mama and Grandad's house.

She also learnt the fine art of escape via the dog-flap.

The garden came into bloom and the tomatos are coming on well too.

Vegetables are growing, but it's tough as the snails are big and there are 1000's of them. Kitty and me try to do an early morning raid on them as often as possible. This is an average catch so you see the problem! I don't use any other method of pest control at the moment, though someone did recommend slug-off recently, as it doesn't kill slugs and snails they just don't like it but I have yet to find any for sale.

Kitty playing in our Visitor Centre recently.

Tory cuts to public services have hit us hard already. We are looking for 40% cuts across the board, with non-statutory stuff going anywhere it can. Several community centres, leisure centres and libraries are already on the hit list and our little Visitor Centre has been one of the first to get the bullet. All that work. We close the doors on 18th July. Just a months notice to get out. Luckily we have justified that the service should be kept, but only really as we have managed to find a temporary building with no rent - for now. As for my job, well I'd say it's looking like 80-85% possibility of redundancy at the moment. All we can do is wait and see how things go. Probably time for a change anyway, but I doubt there will be anything else for me around here so we may have to move from our lovely little house on the hill. I just hope all those people that were fooled into voting Conservative, now realise what they have done and that Tories do not and never will have the interests of the lower classes in mind. Unfortunately, it's a hard lesson to learn and much of the work that has been done to improved the lives, prospects, health and wellbeing of poorer people in this country will be lost. The North will be devastated after just a few years of this.

We spent fathers day at Grandma's house as it was also her birthday.

Bert got a bad hair-cut.

Kitty is moving into 'big-girl class' next week and will be joining Friday ballet class. We went to East Lancs School of Dance on Saturday to buy her outfit. She looks like a proper little ballerina now and is very excited about the up coming lessons. Note the cute little stool Grandad Simpson turned for us.

Flower power?

Two little girls and a slide

Kitty was obviously impressed by Uncle O'Neil's full arm tattoos. Last weekend we awoke to discover she had got out of bed, selected herself a nice black marker from my pen pot and decorated both her arms up to the elbow!

Whilst we slept on, she also decided to decorate the edge of the sheet on our bed. Rather than being mad, we both agreed that the result was actually quite impressive and I have since decided to try and embroider Kitty's design onto the sheet as a permanent record of her work!

After 45 long years of service, my friend John at work retired last week. He is one of the nicest people I know and we will all miss him. To mark his last day, we went on a five mile walk across the West Pennine Moors before enjoying a curry and a couple of pints of Thwaites Wainwright (which is really nice) at one of his favourite pubs. I took this picture of a cow on the way. I quite like it.

Uncle Steven, Auntie Suzie and cousin Olive Pih have been visiting from London. We went up to Grandma Pih's house on Sunday to see them. It was really lovely to see the two little girls playing together. They are thinking about a move back to the North West, which would be great for everyone.

Grandma has a fantastic slide, which Kit is still talking about now.

Steven took these lovely pictures of Kit. Family only can see pictures of the pair of them playing here. (I don't post pictures of other peoples kids on this blog, unless they specifically say it's ok).

Kitty meets Uncle David

But in May, Kitty had the pleasure of meeting Uncle David Pih (centre). He was visiting all the way from Australia and we had a lovely day playing with him and in the garden at Grandma Pih's house. Uncle Robbie and Auntie Carla came too and later on, Auntie Sue Pih (right) and great cousins Lisa and Iain joined us for a lovely meal. A real family get together. Grandad Pih was disappointed with the way his food turned out, but we all enjoyed it.

I only just discovered this picture that Peahead took using his Hipstamastic app on his iphone. I wish we had taken a better one of everyone.

Enjoying Spring

A birthday get together at Auntie Alison's for cousin Kohan's 7th. Kitty chilled out in the hammock while the others had a water-gun fight.

Kitty continues to develop her interest in photography - this one is called 'experimental grass'.

A visit to Great Mama Kitty's in May. I love this action snap of Grandad, Kitty and Great Mama Kitty in the garden on a very hot and sunny Saturday. Not many men can pull off the open shirt denim look, but I think dad is very much one of them!

Grandam Pih made Kitty another lovely cardigan. She used my Jaeger pattern with a slightly different colour way.

May is great, there are so many parties! Kitty invited her two best friends - dolly Yvonne and Baa to a tea party to show off her lovely Hello Kitty tea set that Auntie Alison bought for her.

As the weather warms up, we made a start at getting this years vegetables in. Kitty is a real help with the watering.

Making biscuits is a good way to fill a rainy Sunday afternoon. We have just about mastered a yummy recipe for chocolate shortbread swirls from the Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes book.

Another charity fancy dress day at school, meant mummy had to make a TV character themed outfit for Kitty. The Fent Shop in Skipton provided the perfect pink and yellow fabric (for just £4) for Tombliboo Eee outfit. Kitty hated it (as you can see) until she got to school and realised that everyone else was dressed as silly TV characters, then she took great pleasure in showing off her best Tombliboo dance! She raised £6.00 for Barnardos.

We fixed the swing in the field with a new seat from Ikea. It get's used everyday!

Our Premium Bond win bought a pink apple sandpit from Argos. This too gets used almost every day whatever the weather! When it's warm, the lid can be used for a pool too.

Our neighbour Fiona's chickens were settling in well, but as they were fully free range the foxes were picking them off one by one. Fiona decided to give them to a friend to keep safe until she can create a big avery for them. We miss them.

Kitty received a good stash of chocolate eggs from the Easter Bunny that she is still enjoying. She also had fun making a fancy Easter bonnet from a craft kit that Mama Simpson bought for her.

As usual, making cakes was the most popular activity. Do we have the next Nigella?