Will you stay still - I'm trying to take your picture!

Whilst downloading the picture I used in the previous post, I discovered a couple taken on a flying visit from Anni, Ciaran and the girls a couple of weeks back - this one of Lilly and Caleb I thought was sort of funny.
It was quite surprising seeing how many cousins there are now - for a long time there was just Joy... Not so now! (though Joy does mother the others rather a lot!) 

Going to Brighton...

We spent a lovely couple of days visiting family in Brighton - it was so cute to see Elias and his little cousin Luther chatting and playing together! We even had a chance this morning to have fun on the pier and going out to lunch in the shadow of the quite remarkable Pavillion.
I took this super cute pic of Robin, Joy, Elias and Luther just heading on to the pier.... sadly my camera phone is not all that great and this was really the only one worth sticking on the blog - I hope that Robin was snapping too and may post a couple later. 

Re-cycling really works!

So we've moved into a new area, and one thing I checked out pretty sharpish was how to dispose of our household waste - this being a house in need of renovation, and us being a family who obviously produce a fair amount of waste, it was pretty important to figure out asap.

Well, I have been SO pleasantly surprised - West Oxfordshire District Council are fabulous. The local rubbish tip (I'm told by Robin) is clearly laid out and easy to use in order to dispose of stuff and recycle as much as possible too. But it's the kerbside recycling that I really have to praise. The list of things that can be recycled is SO long! They have obviously thought it through carefully too, as you can request how many recycling boxes you'd like, I have 3 lovely new ones (which arrived so quickly!) that I can separate the different sorts of waste into and make it easier for the recyling guys, but also, potentially I can recycle that much waste every week - instead of adding to landfill.

The result of this is that we are now producing 1 1/2 bags of waste that is not recycled per week - not bad at all for a family of 4. And, I have plans to cut that still further, at present we are not composting, and when I have that sorted, then perhaps we'll be down to 1 bag??!

It is a joy to have recycling made so very easy - if it were as easy everywhere - surely we'd all be cutting our waste dramatically?

All that said, there is one small problem with recycling so much - storing 3 large plastic boxes. At present we keep them out the front of the house, which in my opinion is a little untidy - but there is simply no space inside to accommodate them. A small price to pay for polluting the planet a little less I guess......

Settling in and making it ours

Sorry I have not posted in a while - as you can imagine there is a lot keeping us busy in our great new house.

Joy has settled in well to her new school - on her first day she gained her first invitation to go and play - the next day! ( I was more nervous than she was!!!) Her school have been very welcoming, and it was lovely to drop her off in those first few mornings with a smile on her face. There was only a small wobble on the third morning with a few tears - otherwise she's a very happy bunny. Yesterday was one of the highlights of the school year, we enjoyed the country dancing and Fete.

We're still in the period of time when furniture is moved often to see where it will settle - the kids are finding it pretty funny to sometimes find in the morning that a sofa has moved! But things are getting more and more straight - only a few boxes to clear and then we can start on making Elias's room which is pretty exciting. I'm sure it's going to take a few visits to Ikea in the near future! In the research for a good bed to utilise the rather small space I've found probably the coolest boy bed ever at Dreams (sadly too big for a small space though!)- take a look....

The garden is proving to be a big job that we are tackling in small stages(see picture above) - when we moved in it had been unloved for a year or so and was set out with a number of rose beds and small turf pathways around them. So far we've removed about 1 1/2 of those beds - to make some decent play space for the kids, and trimmed back the lovely hedge to make that tidier. We still have a lot of clearing, digging, trimming to do - and if you want some rose bushes we'd be glad to give you some! (better hurry though as they may fall prey to a strimmer!)

We also have finally got a washing machine - which in itself proved a bit of a saga. We had to send the first one back as it was damaged and then had to wait a further week for clean clothes - argh. So the washing machine sticks out like a sore thumb in our kitchen - we're still settling on the type of new kitchen we want, and are planning to book in the bathroom replacement ASAP.

All that remains to be said is that country life is agreeing with us. Although we've a lot to do, I'm thrilled to have this house.

More pictures etc...

...On Robin's blog, he has finally grabbed a minute to post, with a couple of photos and his take on the move, and house. (so far)

Plastering (with help)

Photographic evidence of Robin plastering - and Joy 'helping' too - even Elias tried his hand at it! This was whilst creating an office for Robin from a spider and dust infested old utility room with manky carpet - now a fresh magnolia with new carpet and plastered wall.