Sleep Interrupted

So with over a pound of blackberries, one child who doesn’t like them and one husband who isn’t keen, I decided to attempt to make jam. I have never made it before, so sought out a recipe from the BBC website. They have a pretty good collection of recipes, and you can search the site using just a couple of random ingredients as a starting point. Anyway, they had a recipe for bramble jelly, so I began. The boiling of the fruit was easy. I added a couple of apples and lemon juice to thicken the jam as per the instructions, then had to boil a tea towel and suspend it over a saucepan to strain the mixture of pips - that was left over night. This morning I boiled it up again, added the sugar, boiled it some more and poured it into jars. That’s it, jam made. Both children tried some when it had cooled down and declared it yummy. Am feeling rather proud of my first jam making attempt, and it is nice to think that the whole family had a hand in making it. Ben has now decided he wants to go fruit picking again, and says we should sell the jam. Sadly I don’t think Smith’s Jams are set to go public yet, but will keep you posted.

Yesterday the four of us decided to walk to our newly discovered local pub and have lunch. On the estate where we live we have always bemoaned the fact that there was not a “nice” pub within walking distance - there was not even a slightly dubious pub. A few months ago a friend of mine who lives a few streets away, told me how she and her family used to walk to this really nice pub. When she told me what the pub was called, I was somewhat doubtful, as I had been there previously, and it was a car journey away. It is the Land’s End pub, and looking at it on a map, it is a fair distance away. In fact the AA route planner lists it as 2.2 miles, and an 11 minute drive. Not so bad you might think, but with two small children, that is a bit of a distance. So the other afternoon, Ben and I followed the rough directions given, and set off through the woods across the road. After being soaked in a summery shower, and more by luck than judgment, we found the pub, about 25 minutes walk from the house. So this Bank Holiday Monday the four of us set off, and after slightly longer than 25 minutes - we had to stop to look at blackberries, pop the “granny-pop-out-of-beds” (bindweed to most people), sit on the picnic chairs, quack at the ducks, and admire the fallen trees pointed out by Ben. When we got there the pub wasn’t quite open so we wandered down to the ford and watched cars drive through it. Lunch was lovely, it was just warm enough to sit outside, the food was good, the children pretty well behaved. After lunch we went back down to the ford where both children and I paddled in bare feet - Andrew sensibly declined. On the way back home we all picked wild blackberries, I had brought some bags along in readiness. There was quite a bit of competition between the children to see who could get the most/biggest berries. Andrew was good at reaching the high berries, I managed to get stung by stingy nettles, and scratched by the brambles. Jessica ate a fair amount of berries, Ben decided they were yucky. But we still managed to pick over a pound (half a kilo) of fruit. And that leads nicely onto my next post.

Ben has recently learnt about the concepts of “jokes” from his friends at nursery. He knows it’s something that you say that makes you and the other person laugh. What he hasn’t cracked yet is what constitutes funny. He just thinks that a joke is something out of the ordinary, so for example one of his first jokes was “you went to the toilet but you went on a potty”. Okay, slightly amusing perhaps but not a joke proper.

The other day he wanted us to tell jokes to each other so I reached into the recesses of my brain for some playground classics. Whatever I said he’d riff on to come up with his own, so we ended up with some bizarre ones like:

Why did the banana cross the road? To get to the other side!

What do you call a deer with no antlers? An antelope!

That last one actually made me laugh. I can remember my sister going through exactly this stage at around the same age. Strange to be seeing it all again with a new generation. I guess that’s how grandparents feel all the time.

Jessica is not to be left out from the comedic endeavours. After taking her to the bathroom before bedtime I said to her, “Okay, now go back into your bedroom”. She immediately turned round and walked into her bedroom backwards. One of the (many) things they don’t warn you about is how often you have to keep a straight face when you’re a parent.

I was perusing Facebook the other day, as you do, when I came across a link to James’ blog. Cool! I’m always happy to see friends start blogging, particularly when I don’t get to see them very often. James had a bit of a slow start so I’m hoping if I mention him here it will encourage him to continue.

I’m on the fence about Facebook “friending” of folks I went to junior school with. Of course I’m interested to see what they’re up to now, that’s only natural, but I don’t think I need to keep tabs on them that much. I mean, I’ve wasted more than enough time on that site already and I’ve specifically stayed away from all the Pirates and Zombies and Vampires malarkey. Call me miserable if you like, I’m just trying to use my time wisely; I’m not very good at that as it stands.

And what’s with all this “wall” business? That’s got to be the most ass-backwards form of communication yet invented. Clearly I’m just too old to “get” it. Oh well, I am a dad after all, I suppose I can’t feel too bad about it, it’s my role in life.

As I was randomly browsing for “Doctor Who” the other day (as you do), I came across this video. A lot of YouTube stuff can be a bit hit and miss, this is definitely more hit than miss. It does go on a bit, and the last bit could have been left out. Andrew says it is one for the ladies.