So, this is what's been going on...

Hey there my lovelies, ta muchly for hanging about during one of my longest absences in my entire blogging career, and hello to my new followers - resounding silences and blog posts with the dramatic contents of what is about to follow are not usually what Cait Nicholas is all about.  No. Mostly its about doomed attempts at growing things, and bit of kitchenaria, a lot of grumbling on my part, teacups feature as do burnt cakes and NO, even though I am a writer I cannot spot a tyop to save my life.

So here it is...
1. In laws are visiting - life is busy
2. Miss 5 has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome - along with a lot of What The Fu**ing on my and hub's part.
3. Grandad is in his last days - or weeks, in usual form the stubborn old thing is doing his own thing at his own speed

I was told, by a psychologist, the other day, that any one of these things would send a frazzled mum over the edge.  And I consider myself so far over the edge just now that not even a vat of red wine would bring me back.  No.  Someone asked me as well, if I'd started the grieving process over Miss 5s diagnosis, to which I replied, that I wasn't sure which grieving process to start first, her or Grandad.

I do not want to talk much about Miss 5, this is not a blog about a kid with a thing, and whilst there will no doubt be reference to the myriad of activities we are undertaking with her, don't expect the subject to come up again.

With Grandad, all I can say is that I know more now about death and the terror of it, than I ever wanted to - and any slim chance that there might have been of my believing in a merciful God, is gone.  Mostly I hover somewhere between wanting to throw up, and wanting to cry until I throw up.

Still. I am here. My sense of humour is still intact. I have so many many people around me to support and listen, I had no idea. No idea. I've even been invited on a pub crawl.

Be back soon. Promise.

Quiet

I'm quiet.  I've got a lot on and I'm stressed and tired, and this is when I lose my words.  There has been a paradigm shift in our lives - nothing tragic or terrible (the kids are fine, no divorces, or illnesses, apart from Granddad and his agonising decline which continues relentlessly, no unemployment) - and I will blog about it all soon, when I can.  But for now I don't have the words, so be patient with me.

And NO, I am not pregnant!!

The garden is in full spring flush, and I'll get some photos up when my damn phone stops losing them - another reason I've been quiet, having photo issues - even when I do have them, due to bloggers ineptitude, it can take me up to 30mins of fiddling to get a photo up here.  It makes me want to scream. Frequently.

Back soon. :)

Bed 1 Harvest

Spent Saturday afternoon working in the garden.  This is Bed 1, root vegies.  I took out a row of potatoes, which hadn't been doing well, or so I thought until I earthed up a heap of spuds.  Where the potatoes had been I put in some chard, carrots, beetroot and some beans.
At the front of the photo there's carrots and swedes which are just about ready for harvest, then behind are more carrots which went in about a month ago.

Bed 1; Root vegies

This is what we had for dinner...

Spuds, a turnip and baby carrots

Tidy Up - the final result

Observe, if you will, my wonderful clean and tidy house...

Like. Like. Like.

Erm, well except for the Spare Room of Doom...

*crickets*

Excuses for scooping up all the clutter and depositing it in one room include (but are not limited to)...

• Spending Monday morning driving back and forth to school due to Miss 5 and her fake earache
• Having Miss 5 at home with her fake earache for the rest of Monday and confining her to the house in order to hammer home the lesson that sick days are not fun
• Miss 5 having revenge by fundamentally and comprehensively trashing the few untrashed parts of the house
• Having Miss 5 at home on Tuesday due to genuine cold, which obviously caused the earache, which was in fact not fake, and I am a bad, bad mother
• Miss 5 Retrashing the house to prove the point that I am a bad bad mother
• Then on Wednesday... hmm, well I'd had Miss 5 at home for two days and I chose not to spend my few precious hours of peace tidying (she refused to stay home  - heh)

So the tidy up mostly happened this morning.  I got it done, kind of, even though the day started badly due to a bin-juice in hair incident (full story tomorrow).

The Cleaners upped the price by $10 after they saw the state of the place (the dust was pretty spectacular).  Honestly I think they deserve double!