I am so sad – we have been evicted from our allotment. For weeds, which to be fair are out of control, and because (pointed look at my midriff) you are not going to be able to do anything for 3 years are you. Which also might be fair enough but is not for them to say, and from past experience it is the period from 18 months – 2 1/2 that is the problem: newborn babies are quite happy on an allotment. I suspect the reality is that nearly all the other plots are dug by a gang of old boys, and one of their friends wants on.

On a purely selfish personal level, I am utterly gutted as this is my escape; somewhere I can pop to for a few hours in the evenings, weekends, or when the children are at school/nursery. Without it my day to day life will consist almost entirely of house stuff and mumming – I spend too much time here as it is. Conversely I am sad for the children who love coming down with me: Maggie has been in tears (why don’t they want us? and I just want our allotment back) and Tamsin gets ridiculously excited about digging potatoes from the ground, and is made happier by a fresh raw from-the-pod pea than almost anything else. I am also cross that my parsnips, squash and artichokes will be lost.

I am really annoyed that there was no warning whatsoever, beyond one of the plot-holders yesterday suggesting that there had been “whispers” about me (and she was only telling me because I am so nice. Huh.) Surely “sort your weeds or you are off” would have been only polite? And I don’t want to see any of them, so will have to go after dark to dig up all those potatoes, retrieve raised beds and sandpit, and remove all the other plants that I can hopefully find a home for here.

Train travel with small children – fantastic in that they are not strapped into a seat, they can colour and draw as they have a table, can get up to go to the loo and there are interesting things to look at out of the window. Drawbacks? They are not strapped into their seats (!) and I have a horror of impinging on other people’s peace and quiet.

We travelled from Chester to London, arriving around lunchtime – dumped our bags at the hotel and made our way to the Natural History museum. Brilliant, but unfortunately the entire under-13 population of London had chosen the same day to visit so although we spent time in the fascinating geology section and saw the whales, some of the mammals and some ichthyosaurs, there was a huge queue for the dinosaurs. Of course, with hindsight and post-disney, a 45-minute wait is nothing and we should have just queued and looked on it as good practice and getting our eye in.

The next morning saw us trundling cases to board the Disney Express! (more…)