'City boy mauled by country kid'

Oh my. I know it happens sooner or later, but I was hoping for a bit later. I took Rowan to the local baby and toddler group today, I was hesitant about it because when I went last week there weren't any other babies, only toddlers, but I had met some nice people and thought maybe some more might be there with babies. So we walked up the hill in our little old-fashioned pram - quite a stylish original Maclaren, Jam was in it himself, his father had stored it all these years and it's still in good nick!

On the way Rowan fell asleep, but woke up promptly when we got there and heard the other children playing. I lay him down on a pillow in the play area, turned my eye one second to pick up a giraffe toy to show him and another child came out of nowhere and grabbed at his face, scratching his eyelid quite badly. Oh my god! The boy's mother told him off and made him say sorry, Rowan was screaming, I was cuddling him then when I saw his face I burst into tears too! I got up and we went to the tea making area, one of the other mother's got me some hot water, to cool and wipe his eye with, I calmed Rowan by feeding him, he didn't seem to mind too much, it was me that was more upset! The child's mother took her child away, apparently she is having trouble with him at the moment doing things like that, one of the other children had scratches on her face from the week before!

Once things had calmed down and the session was ending, Rowan had fallen asleep and so I popped him in his pram so I could help clear up and suddenly another child was at the pram scratching his face, copying what the other boy had done - oh my god! This was even worse, Rowan screamed blue murder, I cried even more, feeling stupid for having put him down, even though the first boy had left, I just wasn't thinking and poor Rowan's face, covered in scratches!

All the other Mum's were really sweet and had kind words and stories to tell of similar experiences. They insisted I come back next time but I'm not totally convinced. It's amazing the way you feel so protective for your little ones. I feel so guilty every time I look at his face and have flashbacks to the scene itself. It stirs up all the emotions. I shouldn't have taken my eyes off him for a second - lesson learnt.

The View at Night

It's not quite the same as looking down the canal, but it's not a bad view either! This was after a beautiful day of sunshine and I am standing right outside our front door, or is it the back door, it's either or, really, for they are next to each other, which is slightly odd in the first place and certainly confuses guests who aren't sure which door to knock on, although both doors have doorbells, which are very loud, which is a good thing, for if doorbells were quiet then what would be the point?

Ah, distraction, there I go again, started talking about the sunset and ended up on the doorbell, which doesn't actually get rung very often anyway and in fact the first time it did it startled us - what was that? A doorbell? You mean there's somebody outside wanting to see us? But we're in the middle of nowhere! Who found us? Well, of course it was the postman, asking if I didn't want the parcel he had conveniently placed beside the front door when we were out last week and I hadn't seen it, for being used to the city I wasn't expecting post to be left outside my door and still be there a week later! He said he had posted a note through on the back of another envelope, but I fear that may have fallen straight into a recycling box behind the door and luckily I phoned my friend who had sent me some books to confirm they had actually arrived just as she was in a very long (London) post office queue trying to ascertain where the parcel was!

She sent me the second two books in the Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson, which I wolfed down like a hungry bird. What a great read and what a great thing breast-feeding is! So much time to read! I'm open to any suggestions of good reads out there please?! Ooh, time for the next book I'm gulping down like a new mother out on the town that's not drunk alcohol for over a year - The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (I'm not drinking alcohol at the moment really, although I did try some of our slo gin that we made last year - ooh, very sweet and yummy, must work like medicine for the little boy!) ;)

Monument walk

On one of our first days here we popped to the shops to get bread and milk, but Jam was so happy driving around and seeing the countryside that he forgot about the shopping and we were suddenly in the car park to walk up to the Monument. I didn't want to be a killjoy, but had to for Rowan was screaming and the shops were shutting - we're not in London now man! So we carried on with our errands and decided we'd do the Monument another day.

So a few days later, we decided we had done enough unpacking and needed to stretch our legs and go for a bit of fresh air. We got in the car and headed out along the windy roads to the top of the hill and parked the car in the carpark for the walk up to the Monument. We took our super huge pram with us, that we had been given by a friend who had spied it on freecycle ( a great website in London, I wonder if there's one here...) and off we trotted.

It was a breath-taking but brief walk. Beautiful trees whispering all around us. A wide path through the woods and at the end of the path there was the Monument, which is leaning slightly and has railings around it for that fact. The Monument is a 175ft/53m high triangular tower located at the highest point of the Blackdown hills, built in honour of the Duke of Wellington, who was actually called Wellesley and only went to Wellington once in his life. We met some other people out there who had always seen the Monument driving by and thought they would stop and see it close up. We read the information about it together and you could get a key for the tower from the local landlord, so we said we'd race to see who got there first, but we were jesting for it needs some work doing to it now and there is a great fence around it.

Heading back Rowan started to get quite upset for he was hungry, so I said we should stop at a bench, but Jam suggested I get in the pram, which was not such a bad suggestion, as you see, the pram is really quite large and it was quite a lot of fun, so much that I almost wet myself laughing! Must go and practise my pelvic floor...

Welcome Home!

Hello dear friends,

For those of you who have been following me on Londonboatlife ~ prepare for something totally different! If you're just joining me ~ hello, here's an account of our new life in the country, a lot has happened in the last month and I shall endeavour to update and regail you with all the fabulous stories that unfold!

I change the names of people I write about to retain their anonymity, it's also quite good fun doing that!! My name is a nick-name I acquired a few years ago and it's stuck. It's taken me this long to think of another blog name, I thought I couldn't really carry on with Londonboatlife, not living on a boat in london anymore. Last night just before falling into bed exhausted after a long day, it came to me ~ Country Mumkins! Combining the Mummy aspect, with the country and the endearing tendency for everyone on Jam's side to add 'kins' after our names ~ when Rowan (his real name!) was still in my tummy, we called him Squirrel, and we had the inevitable 'nutkins', which I really didn't like!! Ha ha! 'It's Squirrel not nutkins!!' Honestly!


So here we go ~ waking up to the sound of the cockerels in the neighbour's chicken run - aptly named 'Peckington Palace'!! That was Derek's first comment to us when we arrived ~ 'here look, you come from London, look, Buckingham palace you know well, now meet Peckington Palace! See, eh, what do you think?' Great Derek, great, let's try your eggs! Ooh and we do, and they're lovely and yellow, and half the price as in London!!