Tree fellers wanted

Yesterday was a sad day, from an arboreal perspective, as we finally oversaw the demise of many of the trees in the garden. The first to go were the two rowans that framed the entrance to the drive. They were diseased and not worth pollarding. I'll miss their brilliant red berries against the blue of the late summer sky. I can remember standing Sean up on the front window-sill when he was a few months old, as Angus is now, looking out at the trees just as the sun was coming up and wondering what he saw through his eyes. We do intend planting new rowans. For now, the holly tree on the boundary between us and our downhill neighbour is the prominent feature visible as you drive up the hill.

Sharon has been keen to see the back of the massive cypress that dominated the front aspect for some time. I've always felt it was too big for the garden and it has sucked the life out of the front lawn, but its twin-trunked mass was solidly reassuring and, latterly, the boys had made a den under its cloak of branches. I liked watching its foilage dance in the winds that attack us from the Pentland Hills and it did afford a degree of privacy to the rooms at the front. However, despite one of our neighbours' observation that it had a good hundred years left in it, it too fell prey to the buzzing saws and stump grinders of Delisle, who did a very good job of completnig all the work in a single day.

Next to go were the conifers on the uphill border, which, together with the removal of the cypress, makes the front garden appear much wider than before. Unfortunately it's at the back that we could do with the running-about space for the boys! Delisle also cleared the conifers out of the beds next to the conservatory and below the patio. We've preserved the laburnum and the lilac bush (and the hedge, more's the pity) at the front and the camelia bush at the back. The apple and plum trees were pruned and the juniper tree next to the patio was left unscathed. The cable supplying power to the rear garden lights was cut in two places. Ironically, now that the lights have emerged from the tangle of trees, we can't use them!

The wide open spaces will take a bit of getting used to but hopefully we can come up with a planting scheme that we can maintain that will signal the start of a new era in the Wallace garden.

Stop noying me

Rowan is a bit poorly at the moment. He had a good week last week, attending Duncan's birthday party but he hasn't been eating well the last few days and has lacked his usual boundless energy. He has been quick to tears and was sick at the breakfast table this morning. I got the bowl in front of him just in time. He perked up after that to remonstrate with Sean: "Stop noying me. I am sick."

An indicator of Rowan's lack of energy was his preference to mostly walk with his scooter around the park at Newtongrange yesterday afternoon. Sean continued to improve on his bike, even managing to start himself and keep going, although his steering and braking need work. He managed to ride into a chain link fence and nick his wrist which prompted squeals audible 80 yards away. Finn was impressing too on his balance bike and looks close to being able to try the real thing soon. We need to get Sean a bigger bike for his birthday.

Angus is still a delight with lots of smiles and plenty of yowling chat when he gets your attention. Unfortunately he hasn't cracked the night sleeps despite taking 7-8oz of milk at midnight. More often than not he wakes between 5 and 6am with the occasional bonus of a post-6am wake-up. He now shimmies on his back, emerging from his baby-gym on to the carpet if left for a few minutes.

The garden has been mostly overlooked this summer and is very overgrown. I tackled the front hedge and trees yesterday so that at least looks a bit neater. I could have done with the practical advice of a house guest we had last week. Joachim, a German living in Canada and a friend of a brother of one of Sharon's team, was staying with us prior to an interview with the Forestry Commission. We could do with a policy for controlling our woodland as the "dwarf conifers" we inherited when we moved in eight years ago have grown up to be large, unwelcome surly teenagers. As in the garden, so in the house...

The plums are hanging off the tree so it looks as though we need to start up the compote and jam-making assembly lines.

Finn has a taste of P1

It was Finn's P1 Induction Evening on Thursday at which we found out who his teacher would be and who would be in his P1 class. Mrs. Henry will be his teacher. "She shouts sometimes," was Sean's only remark on her. Finn's class has most of the children from his nursery class that he plays with, principally Zoe and Rory and also Evan and Ethan and Patrick and Rosie. We're quite pleased with the allocation but they'll have to re-do them all at the end of P1 as the three P1 classes will be amalgamated into two P2 classes.

On Friday, Finn had his P1 taster morning. He lined up in the dining hall and trotted off quite the thing with his classmates and new teacher to spend the morning in the P1 classroom. His class, comprising mostly pre-schoolers, were used to the routine and the surroundings of the school but some of the non-pre-school children were a little tearful, without there being any great dramas. Finn enjoyed his morning and made a butterfly. He also received his pre-school report in which he is described as quiet but a good contributor to discussions who uses good vocabulary. He is able to recognise numbers up to 20 and count up to 35, knows his letter sounds and likes to choose books to look at. Finn has an enquiring mind, which I'd say is true, preferring to observe things and try to work out why they are happening. Maybe he is a scientist in the making, although he told me when we were chatting at Seven Acre Park near Alnwickhill at the weekend that he wanted to be a hairdresser. Hair By Finn. He might have to sort his own out first!

Sean had his report too and it is generally very good, comprising "skilled" ratings in his reading, writing and maths (and art & design, though I may challenge that - his creativity and speed aren't quite matched by his execution!) and "competent" ratings in other disciplines. His effort was rated as "very good" for everything and he is cited as being excellent at working and playing with others in his class.

I wonder how Rowan and Angus will match up? Rowan will start pre-school after Christmas. It hit me the other day that by the time Angus is Sean's age, I'll be pushing fifty! Better not think too far ahead - it's not good for me!

My achievement for my week off work, apart from welcoming Angus into the world and keeping the rest fed and watered, was to get the back hedges cut and the clippings (branches, boughs and prickly leaves more like) to the dump. It's always a chore and I'm glad when the first, big cut of the season is behind me.

There was one in the bed

It was strange last night, putting one small boy to bed and tucking one small boy in later in the evening. This morning we were able to waken up in our own time and I was able to go upstairs to get the small boy out of his bed. Rowan is very good at staying in bed until someone goes to get him, although when that someone is Sean or Finn he usually goes from 0 to 90 in no time and is soon shouting his way around the house. Last night Finn went away for his first sleepover, to Zoe's house. Sean was on his third and last night of a second caravan holiday with the Patersons, down at Melrose this time. So we only had Rowan to feed, change and put to bed. He's enough of a handful on his own anyway!

Sean sounds very grown up when he phones home. He and Ross were doing laps of the campsite on their bikes, motivated by money to try removing their stabilisers. In the event, they came home with one stabiliser each. They visited Floors Castle where Sean really liked filling in the quiz as they went round and went for a walk yesterday despite the heavy showers. The boys ended up with chocolate and strawberry ice-creams. he has thoroughly enjoyed his two caravan holidays and is asking if we can go on one sometime. I'm not sure if Sharon and I are up to the thought of four children in a confined space!

Without Sean, Finn and Rowan tend to be a bit rudderless. I took them to see Lesley and Stuart on Saturday then on to Beecraigs Park where we went for a walk in the woods, following the blue trail. Rowan did well to walk the 1.25 miles, only complaining towards the end after Finn had bumped him to the ground and left him with dirty wet knees. They had a good play in the playpark then we drove home, them asleep and me silently cheering St.Mirren's 2-0 victory over Falkirk which lifted them off the bottom of the league and more or less assured their survival this season. On Monday, Rowan, Finn and I went to Ratho on a fruitless trip to the soft play. It was too busy, so we looked in Tiso, had lunch and came home via Sainsburys and IKEA. Zoe came round and that was Finn happy again. Zoe even came to watch him do his swimming lesson. Sharon said they were funny, waving to each other. Finn is now at Zoe's swimming lesson, no doubt looking to pass on some tips as he closes in on the last couple of stickers that would earn him his yellow hat.

I started the annual hedge-trimming today, doing the front and driveway hedges. I didn't cut the cable this time (it gets shorter ever year): today's feature mishap was standing on the cable as I lifted up the trimmer, thereby pulling the wires out of the connector. Just about every time I use that trimmer I end up having to repair something!

A mild mid-term

The boys had a good mid-term break and so, thankfully, did Sharon who enjoyed their company for the week. She took Sean and Finn through to the Science Centre in Glasgow which they really enjoyed with the highlight for Sharon being the photo morphing. She morphed Finn into Cameron Diaz and Sean into Finn!

The weather was pleasantly mild compared to the previous snowy week, just like last year's oddly imbalanced February, so the boys spent a lot of time out in the garden getting plenty of fresh air. I was even moved to dig over the three vegetable beds at the foot of the garden, with Sean and Finn helping me root for leftover spuds. We gathered 44, which went well with the dinner! Rowan was desperate to help too but had no gardening gloves, much to his (vocal) annoyance.

On the Sunday we went out to Beecraigs Park, finding the alternate car park by the playground. We had a play there then a walk into the woods which is always fun, pointing out the types of trees and especially any that have been cut down or fallen over. The latter type almost did for Sharon though as she tried a bit of tightrope walking, slipped and came crashing down astride the trunk. Fortunately she didn't fall sideways but a stumpy branch nicked and scraped her shin and she ended up with bad bruising too. It was rather painful. I think she'll give log-rolling a miss until after the baby is born.

After Beecraigs we enjoyed a very tasty lunch at Kaim Park Hotel in Bathgate which is looking far more swish than when we checked it out in 2000 as a possible wedding venue. The boys behaved well and it was nice to just relax and enjoy a lazy lunch with the sun shining in. It does make us realise that we're getting close to getting over the worst of the baby years, yet we've opted to "revert" by having another baby. As Sharon says, that's what we've signed up for so no (well, sporadic maybe) complaints!

Catch-up week

Sean and Finn are on holiday this week and it's giving us all a chance to catch-up on some sleep. They're still up at their usual hour, albeit with the clock half-an-hour slow (as per British Weekend Time in the Wallace household), but have been reading or playing quietly and Rowan has been sleeping on until 8am. Without the guddle of getting everyone fed, dressed and out the door it makes for a more relaxing morning. Rowan gets a full lunchtime nap too, rather than being compromised by Finn's drop-off at pre-school and the boys' collection afterwards.

Saturday was a lovely mild day and I took Sean and Finn to Tom's 4th birthday party in Braids Ave. It was good spending the afternoon in the Moran's back garden, all the kids having a great time running about. We even took a detour to Buckstone Park on the way home; the first playpark outing for some time. Sharon let Rip Van Rowan sleep for 3.5 hours while she did a big kitchen tidy-up and food prep for the evening as we entertained Lesley and Paul. A fine spread and enjoyable evening of chat was had by all.

Sunday started fine then became curiously foggy but I was able to tackle some gardening, turning over a vegetable bed and trimming the bushes behind the bottom shed before the usual burst of spring growth renders them impenetrable.

Today the boys were making Valentine cards. Sean for his Mammy, Phoebe and Cara (spreading his favours around) and Finn for Zoe. Finn can manage a decent signature of his own these days. Sean keeps trying to do joined up writing even though he said they don't do that until P3. Rowan gets cheekier by the day with his a-low! a-low! a regular chant from his cot of a morning. He's usually standing in the corner craning his neck round to try and see through the chink of the door.