Monday, 1 June 2009
Catching up
It's been so long since I've updated my personal blog that I'm not entirely sure where to start. Right now is probably the best place to start, so disregarding the last few years (they're with us in a karmic sense, but otherwise not really worth spending time on), this is us.
We've bought a house in Claremont, Cape Town. It's a small house that needs an awful lot of work, but that's how we like it. There's a 5-year plan (more or less) to renovate the house, extend it, and make it more eco-friendly. We plan to keep a diary of the work we do to the house on this blog.
Until we can afford to start Phase One of our renovations, we'll be living in the house as it is, and developing a food and pleasure garden.
What we love about the house:
1. It has a beautiful view of Table Mountain, that's even better from the roof (or what will be the upstairs once we've made the changes)
2. It has a pool, so Cape Town's long hot summer are going to be enjoyed with a splash.
3. We love the area that we are in, it's close to the children's schools, not too far from the city bowl for Pete's commute, and is close to the mountain, Kirstenbosch gardens and other cool Cape Town attractions.
We've bought a house in Claremont, Cape Town. It's a small house that needs an awful lot of work, but that's how we like it. There's a 5-year plan (more or less) to renovate the house, extend it, and make it more eco-friendly. We plan to keep a diary of the work we do to the house on this blog.
Until we can afford to start Phase One of our renovations, we'll be living in the house as it is, and developing a food and pleasure garden.
What we love about the house:
1. It has a beautiful view of Table Mountain, that's even better from the roof (or what will be the upstairs once we've made the changes)
2. It has a pool, so Cape Town's long hot summer are going to be enjoyed with a splash.
3. We love the area that we are in, it's close to the children's schools, not too far from the city bowl for Pete's commute, and is close to the mountain, Kirstenbosch gardens and other cool Cape Town attractions.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
And we're back
It's been a while. I blogged here for a bit, and I still blog here, and now I'm back here, where I started at my very first blog.
Update: we live in Cape Town now, we've recently moved into a new house that needs a lot of renovating, and in our usual fashion, we'll be retrofitting our suburban home for sustainability.
Update: we live in Cape Town now, we've recently moved into a new house that needs a lot of renovating, and in our usual fashion, we'll be retrofitting our suburban home for sustainability.
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Friday, 2 December 2005
Love, Peace and Pudding!
It's just over a week until Ayrton and Piper and I will be leaving old Blighty for a bit of time in the sun. And two weeks later Pete will be joining us, just in time for Christmas. We are going to be visiting my parents and Natalie in South Africa, and Nikki and Fiona, and Carolyn, will be joining us there too.
This blog post is our alternative Christmas letter this year, and a bit of a recap over our year.
Wishing you all lots of love, peace and pudding this Christmas, and to all of you who we are going to be seeing: "Hooray!".
Lots of love from the Stokes clan xxxx
----
January started with fish and chips at Portmadog harbour in North Wales, with all my sisters and my parents.
We hired Plas Penrhyn for a week and enjoyed a warm, wet New Year, visited Portmeirion, and Caernafon, and had a cracking New Year's Eve party in the farmhouse.
When my parents left mid-January, we got stuck into our allotment, that, I'm very pleased to say was a resounding success this year. My biggest bug-bear is the amount of weeding that is needed to keep the beds under control. And so we are looking at trying to sort that problem out with some raised no-dig beds, but that will have to wait until we get back from Cape Town mid-January.
The whole family got involved, Ayrton grew pumpkins for halloween and helped with weeding and watering, Pete was the best ever lawn path mower and weeder extraordinaire, and Piper shouted her encouragement from her buggy.
Oh yes, and I joined Freecycle, something that I can honestly say has changed my life!
February saw a fair bit of snow and plenty of windowsill propogation, and we booked our air tickets for December's trip to South Africa. Yeehaa! And the arrival of our chickens! Here they are again.
Nikki and I also launched the EcoStreet forum, that has attracted a friendly and interesting community for discussion and chat on eco-friendly subjects.
During March, Ayrton went on his school trip away to New Barn in Dorset. And work at the allotment reached fever-pitch.
Peter's birthday on the 1st of April was a quiet affair, Piper had only just started sleeping through the night! And on the 16th of April Piper turned 1. We had two parties, one on the Saturday with friends, and one on the Sunday with family, so we were suitably pooped at the end of the weekend!
During May we were visited by Herculano and Maria for a few really enjoyable days, and hosted a lunch in their honour to tempt other old Namibians Lindy, Julia and Norman round. Julia and Norman cycled all the way from Richmond-on-Thames.
And we spent another fun-filled weekend with Kate, Jez and Daisy in Whitstable, the weather was perfect for sundowners on the beach!
Tony was re-elected, Piper started walking and Ayrton learned to swim.
In June, Piper had her first hair-cut, and we spent a jolly good weekend up in Crouch End, North London. We stayed at Matt and Monika's, and Ben, Rachel and Joseph came over for a barbecue.
In July, the allotment started churning out fruit and veg. We had plenty of soft fruit, mainly red- and blackcurrents and I was up against a very sharp learning curve when I started making jellies, jams and chutneys, and preparing runner beans and courgettes for freezing. Sometimes the quanitities are unimaginable!
The weather was brilliant, and we had some enjoyable family days out.
We went to the Ambient Picnic with Nikki and Fiona at the end of July. It's a little festival held in Shalford Park in Guildford with various music tents and areas, some stalls for shopping, nice lunches, cider and ale, and a healing area for massages, reiki, yoga, herbs, etc. And Piper got a new hat.
The long summer holidays started at the end of July. One of things that I appreciate most about being a stay-at-home-mother is not having to struggle to find childcare for the school holidays. It's great to spend long summer days with the kids, keeping ourselves busy.
Mid-August saw us setting off on a very long drive to the Bordeaux region of France. We overnighted at Pete's folks place in Herne Bay (close to Dover), and drove to Dover the following evening to catch the red-eye ferry to Boulogne, and drive through the night to Le Prieure de Virsac. We met up there with Matt & Monika, Ben & Rachel, Colin & Sandra, Pete & Kate and Andrew & Karen, with all of our kids (12 in all between us).
The week in Virsac was very slow, relaxing and wonderful, apart from the terrible motorway traffic jams we encountered on a day out. So we went out less and enjoyed the pool, sun and beautiful big house more.
On the trip back to England our car was stuffed full of yummy French food and wine, and believe it or not, we still have one bottle of wine left in our wine rack.
During August I also started my TreeHuggerMum blog. It is a magazine style blog where I write about green parenting, eco-friendly toys and equipment, and living a sustainable lifestyle with children. It has been very successful so far and has received far more traffic than I would have imagined.
Ayrton started Year 5 in September, and turned 10 years old. My parents arrived in England on his birthday as a surprise for him, he was completely speechless when they came along to collect him from school.
My parents spent 2 weeks with us, then flew over to the US to spend 2 weeks with Carolyn in Boston, and the had a final 2 weeks with us before flying back to Cape Town. We all loved having the folks to stay, but for Piper is was extra special because she couldn't remember Granny and Grandpa and got to know them properly for the first time. She calls Granny "Gunning" and Grandpa "Padda", and is still talking about them frequently and looking forward to seeing them again soon.
Once the folks had gone home, we realised that we had lots of people to see before we were going to be heading off to South Africa, so we have been very busy socialising for the past two months. We've spend a weekend in Bournemouth with Ilse and Toby and their kids, had Dave and Sue round for Sunday lunch, had Tracey Shannon round for dinner, and had Sam come to stay from Switzerland (sans kids and husband) for a weekend. And what a weekend it was! Nikki and Fiona came round for dinner on the Friday night, Lindy and Azar and the kids came round for lunch on the Saturday, and Sam cooked us a seafood extravaganza soup for lunch on Sunday before jet-setting it back home to Geneva. We also saw Kate, Jez and Daisy for a quick tea and mince pies!
We spend last weekend at Pete's parents place in Herne Bay, saw all of his brother and sisters (apart from Nigel and family in Canada) and had Christmas early.
And now it's my last week in Knaphill. I am leaving on Sunday with the kids and flying to Cape Town where we'll be met by my folks and whisked off to Tulbagh. Passports and tickets at the ready...
Peter will be following us over on the 23rd of December for Christmas and New Year and then travelling back with us on the 14th of January.
See you then...
This blog post is our alternative Christmas letter this year, and a bit of a recap over our year.
Wishing you all lots of love, peace and pudding this Christmas, and to all of you who we are going to be seeing: "Hooray!".
Lots of love from the Stokes clan xxxx
----
January started with fish and chips at Portmadog harbour in North Wales, with all my sisters and my parents.
We hired Plas Penrhyn for a week and enjoyed a warm, wet New Year, visited Portmeirion, and Caernafon, and had a cracking New Year's Eve party in the farmhouse.When my parents left mid-January, we got stuck into our allotment, that, I'm very pleased to say was a resounding success this year. My biggest bug-bear is the amount of weeding that is needed to keep the beds under control. And so we are looking at trying to sort that problem out with some raised no-dig beds, but that will have to wait until we get back from Cape Town mid-January.
The whole family got involved, Ayrton grew pumpkins for halloween and helped with weeding and watering, Pete was the best ever lawn path mower and weeder extraordinaire, and Piper shouted her encouragement from her buggy.
Oh yes, and I joined Freecycle, something that I can honestly say has changed my life!
February saw a fair bit of snow and plenty of windowsill propogation, and we booked our air tickets for December's trip to South Africa. Yeehaa! And the arrival of our chickens! Here they are again.
Nikki and I also launched the EcoStreet forum, that has attracted a friendly and interesting community for discussion and chat on eco-friendly subjects.
During March, Ayrton went on his school trip away to New Barn in Dorset. And work at the allotment reached fever-pitch.
Peter's birthday on the 1st of April was a quiet affair, Piper had only just started sleeping through the night! And on the 16th of April Piper turned 1. We had two parties, one on the Saturday with friends, and one on the Sunday with family, so we were suitably pooped at the end of the weekend!
During May we were visited by Herculano and Maria for a few really enjoyable days, and hosted a lunch in their honour to tempt other old Namibians Lindy, Julia and Norman round. Julia and Norman cycled all the way from Richmond-on-Thames.
And we spent another fun-filled weekend with Kate, Jez and Daisy in Whitstable, the weather was perfect for sundowners on the beach!Tony was re-elected, Piper started walking and Ayrton learned to swim.
In June, Piper had her first hair-cut, and we spent a jolly good weekend up in Crouch End, North London. We stayed at Matt and Monika's, and Ben, Rachel and Joseph came over for a barbecue.
In July, the allotment started churning out fruit and veg. We had plenty of soft fruit, mainly red- and blackcurrents and I was up against a very sharp learning curve when I started making jellies, jams and chutneys, and preparing runner beans and courgettes for freezing. Sometimes the quanitities are unimaginable!
The weather was brilliant, and we had some enjoyable family days out.
We went to the Ambient Picnic with Nikki and Fiona at the end of July. It's a little festival held in Shalford Park in Guildford with various music tents and areas, some stalls for shopping, nice lunches, cider and ale, and a healing area for massages, reiki, yoga, herbs, etc. And Piper got a new hat.The long summer holidays started at the end of July. One of things that I appreciate most about being a stay-at-home-mother is not having to struggle to find childcare for the school holidays. It's great to spend long summer days with the kids, keeping ourselves busy.
Mid-August saw us setting off on a very long drive to the Bordeaux region of France. We overnighted at Pete's folks place in Herne Bay (close to Dover), and drove to Dover the following evening to catch the red-eye ferry to Boulogne, and drive through the night to Le Prieure de Virsac. We met up there with Matt & Monika, Ben & Rachel, Colin & Sandra, Pete & Kate and Andrew & Karen, with all of our kids (12 in all between us).
The week in Virsac was very slow, relaxing and wonderful, apart from the terrible motorway traffic jams we encountered on a day out. So we went out less and enjoyed the pool, sun and beautiful big house more.
On the trip back to England our car was stuffed full of yummy French food and wine, and believe it or not, we still have one bottle of wine left in our wine rack.
During August I also started my TreeHuggerMum blog. It is a magazine style blog where I write about green parenting, eco-friendly toys and equipment, and living a sustainable lifestyle with children. It has been very successful so far and has received far more traffic than I would have imagined.
Ayrton started Year 5 in September, and turned 10 years old. My parents arrived in England on his birthday as a surprise for him, he was completely speechless when they came along to collect him from school.
My parents spent 2 weeks with us, then flew over to the US to spend 2 weeks with Carolyn in Boston, and the had a final 2 weeks with us before flying back to Cape Town. We all loved having the folks to stay, but for Piper is was extra special because she couldn't remember Granny and Grandpa and got to know them properly for the first time. She calls Granny "Gunning" and Grandpa "Padda", and is still talking about them frequently and looking forward to seeing them again soon.Once the folks had gone home, we realised that we had lots of people to see before we were going to be heading off to South Africa, so we have been very busy socialising for the past two months. We've spend a weekend in Bournemouth with Ilse and Toby and their kids, had Dave and Sue round for Sunday lunch, had Tracey Shannon round for dinner, and had Sam come to stay from Switzerland (sans kids and husband) for a weekend. And what a weekend it was! Nikki and Fiona came round for dinner on the Friday night, Lindy and Azar and the kids came round for lunch on the Saturday, and Sam cooked us a seafood extravaganza soup for lunch on Sunday before jet-setting it back home to Geneva. We also saw Kate, Jez and Daisy for a quick tea and mince pies!
We spend last weekend at Pete's parents place in Herne Bay, saw all of his brother and sisters (apart from Nigel and family in Canada) and had Christmas early.
And now it's my last week in Knaphill. I am leaving on Sunday with the kids and flying to Cape Town where we'll be met by my folks and whisked off to Tulbagh. Passports and tickets at the ready...
Peter will be following us over on the 23rd of December for Christmas and New Year and then travelling back with us on the 14th of January.
See you then...
Monday, 28 November 2005
Friends Reunited
We've just had an excellent weekend of old friends, good food and plenty of fun. Sam flew over for the weekend from Switzerland, Nikki and Fiona drove up from Farnham on Friday evening and Lindy, Azar, Poppy and Adin had lunch with us on Saturday.
And more exciting news! Peter is buying me a ticket over to Geneva for May next year as a birthday present, so that I can go and spend a weekend with Sam, Nick, Blue and Tally. I'd better get planting some trees to offset my carbon emissions!
And more exciting news! Peter is buying me a ticket over to Geneva for May next year as a birthday present, so that I can go and spend a weekend with Sam, Nick, Blue and Tally. I'd better get planting some trees to offset my carbon emissions!
Cuppa Tea Anyone!
Our old kettle packed up last week and we've got ourselves a new kettle. The marvellous Eco Kettle.It is estimated that on average we boil twice as much water as we need when we're making ourselves a cup of tea. That means 3kW (energy needed to light 50 lightbulbs) ever time you boil it.
The Eco Kettle has an internal reservoir that holds 1.5 litres of water ready for use, and a measuring button to allow only the right number of cups of water to be released into the boiling chamber. No more waste!
And furthermore, Prince Charles has one too!
Wednesday, 23 November 2005
Vat Hom Fluffy!
Ayrton gave up football to concentrate on his rugby. He is playing wing for the Grasshoppers and doing very well and scoring lots of tries.
Woking's (Smokin') Wheelie Bins
We had our first wheelie bin recycling collection today, part of a new initiative by Woking Borough Council to increase recycling in the borough. It has made recycling much easier for the residents of the borough, we can now recycle paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and tins without having to make a special trip to a recycling facility. We will still have to take our own glass bottles and jars and other arbitrary bits and pieces to be recycled, but we will definitely reduce the number of car trips required to get everything disposed of in the right manner. And our shed won't get quite so full of recycling while we wait for there to be enough to make a trip seem worthwhile.
Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Snow on the Way?
The Met Office have announced this morning that we may be seeing up to a few centimetres of snow in the south-east between Thursday and Sunday. Get the sledges out!
Winter's Finally Arrived
We had our first fire of the season on Sunday night, after a few days of sharp frosts. It's very late starting, but the cold seems to have settled in now!On a warmer note... the cavity wall insulation that we had put in during the summer seems to be doing the trick, and along with reducing the ambient temperature in our house from 21'C to 19'C we hope to be saving our 20% this winter.
Piper is fascinated by the fire, but is keeping her distance. As far as she is concerned it is "Daddy's sire!"
And on the subject of Piper's words... she is coming on in leaps and bounds. Currently she is pretty obsessed with "sogs" or "soggies" (frogs).
Ayrton is suffering another bout of tonsillitis. We have finally been given a date for his appointment with the ear, nose and throat specialist with a view to having the offending tonsils removed, but it is for 2 days after we arrive in South Africa, so we are trying to reschedule for when we get back.
Only 3 weeks (give or take a day or two) until the kids and I leave for Cape Town. Poor Peter is feeling rather sorry for himself at being left behind, but he will be joining us on Christmas Eve.
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