Tea Room the Fourteenth

[amberlight]

Welcome to the 14th instalment of the Tea Room. It's now officially spring, and we've moved the tea room to a Gipsy caravan pulled by the tea room horses, which is making its way up the countryside in an effort to follow spring. There are of course hedgerows filled with spring flowers, Mellors the handsome gardener/driver/handyperson, the usual virtual Bishops, and the assorted animals and characters from previous tea rooms. All are very welcome to join in with us parents of one (or indeed more!) for general chat and the occasional very odd conversation. Climb aboard, grab a cuppa, enjoy the view, relax!...

I rather like the idea of a mobile steam tent, and am very glad to see that Mellors is using pint to line glasses to ensure a full measure.

Day 4 of operation bathroom, and there are floor tiles, about half the wall tiles, and the bath is in. Am really pleased with how it looks.

Hope the cold clears up quickly UniS. Fraid that I am unable to relieve you of it..

Sorry, UniS, we have a full complement of colds here.

I've had a sore throat for weeks, grumble, grumble.

Perhaps just a soupcon of Pinot Gigglio, then. Strictly for medicinal purposes.

Who else has got plans for the long weekend? Weather permitting, I'll be in the garden (mine or Kew's). I'm hoping that Mellors might come here to help me mend the fence and put up some netting for the clematis, once Unis has released him from the steam tent. Although it seems to be getting rather raucous in there, what with the pint glasses of Pinot Gigglio.

If, of course it stops raining, Trowel.

I have a particularly thrilling day planned for tomorrow - hoovering while DH takes Wriggle out to Easter arty stuff then giving blood.

You're making me feel guilty, Racing. I missed our last blood donation session. You are a Good Person.

Will Wriggle and MonsieurSerpent be making you something original and marvellous for Easter? Possibly involving sequins?

More wine?

Mine's a pint of pinot noir please! I'm off to my mum's for some tlc! Gizmo (ds) is going to spend a day with his aunty and uncle and I will spend a day in bed!

My school was far too rough for Head Girls or boys!

It's part of Moving On. In the last few years I have been ttc, breast feeding, ttc ... now is time to run out of excuses.

Sequins is the very least I expect. Possibly tassels and googly eyes as well.

A day in bed!!!!

And maybe a feather or two? Or some tinsel? I rather miss that sort of card, not that TrowelGirl's are more, erm, restrained.

I too am very of Roslily's day in bed. Although I do get a lie-in on Saturday mornings in term time when TrowelBloke takes the Girl to her dance class.

Did you go on the favourite flower thread? I have managed to narrow mine down to nasturtiums, lilac, sweet peas, columbine, honeysuckle, hyacinths, bluebells, violets, apple blossom, horse chestnut candles, queen anne's lace, Christmas roses, astrantia, cowslips, poppies, wallflowers, lady's mantle, old roses, buttercups, daisies ... but if I really had to choose, probably lilac.

If we are slowly following the spring, we should see most of those. Although we will probaly be reincarnated more than once before we get back to the Christmas roses.

Off to bed now, to dream, perchance, of flowers.

ooh - bunny ears smileys are here!

A lie in? oh how I wish I could get one of those but nae chance. miniThumb has a vice like grip which is employed on my fingers and used to drag me out of bed when HE gets up, regardless. MrThumb regards this with Humour, as he is always up before me anyway, and refuses to prevent miniThumb from his torturous ways.

So am also of Roslily's day in bed. AND T&E's saturday lie ins.

Have a few [ebiscuit] anyway to go with the pints of wine!

I've just been looking at the favourite flowers thread, but can't make up my mind. Of your list, Racing, I think I have everything in the garden apart from horse chestnut, lilac and cowslips. Hollyhocks may be my obsession this year.

Good night, all!

Hmm, well so far it hasn't materialised- I think the reality of getting up at 6am mean they are all still in bed!

I don't get a lie in ever- as my dh refuses to get up. So I do 6am, every day.

Hope you get a lovely easter theme craft!

As part of my adjusting to one child family-ness is realising that I won't have to do all the nights again, and one day Gizmo will be old enough to get up and watch cbeebies! Sounds pathetic but I am using anything to convince myself.

Right well as I've been up a while I've baked a victoria sponge, and I'm off to put the kettle on again!

Sorry to miss the Pinot G... catch up later. Busy busy busy yesterday and had meeting in the evening.

Off to look at some art in a minute dahling (explain later)

(snaffles an almond croissant and leaves with an icing sugar moustache and a wave)

Gizmo has a nasty stomach bug. We have been to walk in clinic, and everything I have brought with us is covered in sick. So much for the relaxing weekend. He is asleep now, so I'll chill out here and drink tea for a while

just posted on the 'old' thread - so have cut and paste here

can I join? DP and I are mums to DD (14mo) and have concluded that we can't persuade our donor to help us out again I'm getting my head around it - we don't have time on our side and I know about the advantages and disadvantages of being an only (my mum is an only as well as me - 3 generations!). It's not what I would have chosen for her, but I also know that we are blessed to have her and that she will be fine (despite the aging, toothless old crones of mothers she will have )

Please join us! Ageing, toothless old crones are quite well represented in here.

I hope that you have been lurking for a while and therefore we don't need to explain the guinea pigs, Mellors, Earl Grey, the nmb's, the bishops ... Obviously you have realised that we are in a caravan as part of a cavalcade following the spring at the rate of 1/2 mile an hour, otherwise you'd never have caught up with us before Mellors made camp for the night.

Getting our heads round the probability of having onlies is one part of what we do; just as important is drinking various grape products, offloading sharing our culinary challenges, recommending books for the tea room bookshelf, ogling Mellors, mutual support, swapping our various areas of expertise (mine is, I think, custodian of guinea pigs, but we have some rather high-powered inmates, including either the Queen or the wife of James Cracknell) and just ... being friends.

Our Head Girl, in the best possible St Trinian's tradition, will be along soon to ply you with alcohol and give you a few tips for the 4.30.

mmm, grape products (it seems to me from my lurking that parents of onlies are just more witty ) - I have one at hand as I type.

I think you'll fit in rather well then.

Hi DrivingMissCrazy - welcome to the madhouse tearoom. Can I offer you a wine top up ? I'm not toothless, but am distressingly white haired, and wasn't a young mum

Sorry to hear of the sick Roslily. So not what you need on a weekend away.

Builders came today, so still had to prise ourselves out of bed and be actually dressed by 7.45, bleugh. DS 'helped' them for a bit, and is super pleased with himself that he was allowed to cut tiles and stick some on. They are touchingly nice to him.

I had some delightful pistachio cake today, so by the magic of the tearoom am reproducing it for here

Mmmmm, pistachio cake. Good for my wan and bloodless state, I'm sure. And particularly good for anyone who has been covered with sick. Luckily Mellors always ensures a plentiful supply of hot water and warm fluffy dressing gowns.

Is the non-existent duck still with us?

CMOT gratefully accepted have spend evening mucking about on mn working, so am going to retire to sofa now, with grape juice - to be savoured particularly because I live in Ireland where all pubs, bars and offies are closed on Good Friday

No imaginary duck, but I do have two plastic budgies called Angela who are currently sharing a cage (donated by my parents who are unable to bin anything so still had it in the loft even though its resident died at least 10 years ago) with a purple Kiwi

I did think about checking my emails this evening, but just couldn't be bothered getting annoyed with people tbh. DH and I are currently negotiating who gets to drink tomorrow when we go out for dinner with his family - we won't even have the distraction of the teenagers to laugh at..

The kiwi lives with the budgies? Or the cage has a kiwi on top? A furry fruit or an Antipodean bird with a long beak?

Yum CMOT, fantastic cake! (reaching for a second slice before anyone else turns up)

Hi DMC and big welcome to you. I too am new and a bit toothless/saggy/crinkled. I've been here a couple of days and have NO idea what the bishops, guinea and nmbs and all about. However, I have met Mellors and now he's avoiding me (understandably!)

Umm RS, you called T&E Head Girl!

Roslily, really sorry your little Gizmo is a poorly boy. I hope it's a 24 hour thing and gone tomorrow.

SO lovely not working. Yippee! Spent a couple of hours yacking in a cafe with a friend while our 2 year olds entertained themselves by trying to drink from a glass of water using forks (simple pleasures).

Has anyone else got a puppy and wishes they didn't? I agreed to get a dog as DH and Little B are potty about them and were very persuasive (well DH was). It's been over a month now and we haven't bonded. I'm civil but it ends there...