Busy, Busy Week!

This week has been a right old busy one, just the normal stuff...School runs, work work, house work, routine vet visits, car work, etc etc.  I don't really like busy.  I spend a lot of my time trying to find stuff in my house and really need a declutter.  That would save hours.  I did take two large black bags to The Salvation Army that were full of outgrown children's clothes, so I try!  On Thursday I went to collect my youngest from school and he had a whopping great hole in the knee of his school trousers, we have spares but I like to keep enough pairs ready and waiting, so we had to go shopping for school trousers one week in to the new school year.  I don't know about anyone else, I did not find it simple.  He tried on loads of pairs in four different shops until we got sorted.  He made me laugh when he tried on the first pair he announced 'These are good!  It's just I can't bend over!'  I told him it was an essential function of school trousers that they allow you to bend over!  I have a few pairs of trousers like that though too.
Today I had my MOT test for my little car.

It passed the test so I am legal for another year.  The garage was running late so I made the squares at the top of the post while I waited.  The hour and a half passed very quickly and I enjoyed the rest and the peace and quiet.  I told the owner I would be back the same time next week!
I used these beauties:

Very pretty and indulgent, but as I am feeling extreme deprivation from my diet Healthy Eating Plan, I refuse to feel guilty!  Jeepers a girl has got to have some pleasure in life!!!  I did lose weight this week by the way, but not really enough to shout about in the first week.  I have stuck to the diet Healthy Eating Plan though.  Euan is worrying himself and has said he thinks I will look weird thin, he doesn't want me to be thin!  I reassured him that there is no fear of that!
Also today we had some Autumnal fun together.  It is a family tradition, Once a year to go and gather Conkers, like they are going out of fashion.

We found hundreds of the shiny little lovelies.  They were all on the ground this year due to the blustery weather.  I use them every year for a week of 'Bonkers about Conkers' Maths Lessons.  Then I bring them home and my boys enjoy 'Conker Tournaments' in the back garden.  I must find some laces.  They thread them and take aim at each others conkers, taking turns to hit each others.  There is much excitement as they assess the damage after each strike.  The last conker standing is the winner. I used to play this at school in the Autumn but now due to 'Health and Safety' rules Conkers are banned in most schools.  My Dad used to take my brother and me conker picking each year and my brother used to go to great lengths to select and manufacture a winning conker, baking them, pickling them, drying them and keeping them for a year...I was never quite so serious about it.  We used to throw sticks into the trees to knock the conkers down.  Poor Lacey came 'Conker Picking' she had a lovely time wrestling fallen branches and then ran over to me and sat down with a raised paw:

She is a very strong dog and as tough as old boots but when she is hurt she usually runs to 'Mom'.  I looked at her pads and almost straight away found the culprit.  A nasty Bee sting!  I managed to pull it out and she limped back to the car feeling very sorry for herself.  The pain seems to last two or three hours.  She has only been stung twice, once in Cornwall, where again I managed to remove the sting and today.  Poor old soul.  She is all better now though and was very reluctant for me to photograph her.

I don't think I have ever told you about my 'Old Sausage'.  Josh was my first Dog when I left home.  He really was my soul mate and the love of my life.  He was was fourteen and a half when I had him put to sleep a couple of years ago.  He had been blind, deaf, diabetic and smelly for the last two years of his life but we still loved each other!  He used to get a reaction to bee stings and his face would swell up like Scooby Doo.
Here is a photograph of him with his best friend 'Blue'.  They were the same age.

This was his last 'walk' with Blue.  ( I drove him to the field so they could meet up.)  Bless him he got stung on the paw by a bee that day too!  Josh and Lacey overlapped by about a year.  Josh thought she was wonderful and always tried to sneak into her basket, she seemed to think he was disgusting and not a day went by when she didn't growl at him.  It didn't bother Josh though because he was deaf.   I had to keep them separated unless I was there.  He used to come before the kids many a time!  He would also have prize position on 'Mommy's' lap every night.  When he was put to sleep I took up craft again after a break of many years!  I guess it was hard to work with an old Sausage dog on my lap.  One day I would love another Sausage dog and so would the kids...we still miss him terribly.  'Better to have loved and lost. . .and all that. . .than never to have loved at all!' . . . . .