Like father like son...

Looking on the bright side, he made it past his third birthday before sustaining his first head injury, which for a Burgess is not bad going. Fortunately the minor injuries clinic was not very busy at 7pm on Christmas day and he was in and out in a matter of minutes having had his head stuck back together with glue. The lesson for the day is "doctor said, no more monkeys jumping on the bed", or in this case the sofa (resulting in a collision with the radiator).
On a happier note, we had a lovely day with Nanna and Pops here at sunnyside. Here we are enjoying our roast duck and cwistmas quackers (ha ha...)

Happy Birthday James!

I can't quite believe where the time has gone but my boy is now three years old. Here he is wearing his new fireman's outfit which doubles up as a very useful waterproof...

Wrapping up

Jennifer getting ready to enjoy a jaunt across the fields in the backpack.

Getting settled

Despite the mess, mud and mayhem, not to mention the lack of washing machine, freezer, tv, phone and internet (meaning we are still very much dependent on parents - thanks mums and dads!), we are loving being in our new home. The view indoors may be not so pretty at the moment, but when we get sick of looking at unpacked boxes all we have to do is look out of the window.

Home sweet home

It has been nineteen long months since we first set eyes on Sunnyside, and yesterday the waiting came to an end as we spent our first night in our new home. It has been a whole mixture of experiences - excitement, hope, nervousness, anxiety, ecstacy, stress, worry, waiting, hard work, dirt, dirt and more dirt, mess, mud, more stress, more worry, anticipation, disappointment and finally relief and joy that we have now finally moved in. We still have a lot of work to do and if I think about it too much my head hurts, but words cannot express how happy I am to finally be here.

So close...

















Well, after a long wait we finally made a start on the sewerage arrangements for Sunnyside. A great big hole was dug, into which our nuclear missile was lowered, cemented and backfilled.

Trenches were dug, into which the pipes were installed and covered with pea gravel. Everything was going so well.

And then the rain came. It rained all day long, and all night long.








This is the scene which greeted Mab this morning. One of the trenches has collapsed and become filled with water and the pipes have risen up. A rescue operation has been launched and will continue tomorrow. However, we are disappointed with the setback and our moving in date has been postponed... again.

Varnished

The floors are varnished and we are ready to move in. Moving in is scheduled for this weekend – volunteer helpers welcome!

Rutting

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the park watching the wildlife in action.

James and Daniel have been

inseparable from their new toys since the recent trip to toytime. James's job was sawing up logs, and Daniel was collecting them in his skip.

Moving out!

We have moved out of the old house and are lodging with parents while we put the finishing touches on Sunnyside. Jennifer was in her element, eating as much newspaper as she could get her hands on.

Jennifer's baptism 12th October 2008

Almost there...

We are so close now. We are delighted with our bathroom which has now been tiled. All that remains is for the plumber to come back next week and finish off.

We hired a floor sander today and despite the fact that some of the floor boards are quite badly worm eaten, the result was pretty good.

Commando crawling

It's official - Jennifer is on the move.

Happy Birthday Auntie Hannah

We have had a lovely week with the northern Burgess crew. Today we celebrated Auntie Hannah's birthday with a day out at Penshurst Place.














Adventure playground for the small people and beautiful gardens for the not so small, and weather to please everyone.

"You can keep the costa brava and all that palava, I'd rather have a day down Dymchurch with all my family..."

Today we went on a big adventure. After a hearty meal of fish and chips we went for a steam train ride on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch light railway. What a treat!


We alighted at Dymchurch and headed straight for the tacky amusements which is an essential part of any child's upbringing.



Buckets and spades were bought and off we went to the seafront. We paddled in the sea, played sandcastles, collected stones and shells, and had a throughly wonderful time.

Jennifer finally gave in to sleep after the excitement of the train ride.

The Edwards family

We had a lovely day at auntie june's with most of the Edwards family. Absent Edwardses were not forgotten - wish you could have been with us Jill and co and Nikky, but here is a funny snippet from Saturday.

Rain stops play, again. And again and again and again...

The combine is having a rest as am I. The farm I'm working on at the moment accuse me of being like the Flump with the rain cloud over its head as it always seems to rain on the days I work there.

However there has been the odd glimpse of the sun leaving us with just over 300 acres left to harvest sometime before Christmas, we hope.

Progress at Sunnyside

The window restorers started today, a week ahead of schedule. Did you know that there are more carbon emissions involved in the production of pvc windows than in heat loss through well draught sealed victorian sash windows? Good pvc windows last around 20 years and take thousands of years to degrade in landfill. These soft wood windows are over a hundred years old and will probably last at least another hundred years if well maintained. However, we are restoring ours simply because we like the look of them!

Harvesting

One day Mab might get around to blogging some of his pictures from this year's harvest, but in the meantime here is my best effort. On Friday Jennifer and I were engulfed in a huge cloud of dust as these two combine harvesters appeared in the field in front of our house.

Happy Birthday Uncle Gilbert

Sorry it's late but for your birthday we thought you might like a picture of a beautiful young lady with a bare bottom. I hope it was worth the wait.

Just because...

For no other reason than that I am immensely proud of my two gorgeous babies, here they are being lovely.

Painting party

Thanks Lis, Andrew and Emma for your help yesterday - we made lots of progress and are now about 2/3rds of the way through the base coat. It's amazing what a difference a few extra pairs of hands make. We'll be back next Saturday for more - volunteers always welcome!

Rockin' and rollin'

Jennifer has been rolling around for the last week. Here she is in action.

The Juniper

After an initial false start, we are now back on solids. Jennifer has eaten baby rice, carrot, butternut squash, parsnip, apple, banana, porridge and marrow. After a few weeks of being woken up every two hours in the night we have restricted her to one night time feed, thanks to a trusty pair of earplugs. So far so good, we feel a lot more refreshed and more importantly, a lot less grumpy.

The dig off

We have had the most glorious afternoon at Sunnyside with our home group from church. These lovely people have given up their Saturday afternoon to help us with the garden and to share a much deserved barbeque. Thanks everyone - come back any time!!

A little light pruning

Before .......................................... After
The Burgess (senior)'s garden is transformed following a visit from a man with a chainsaw.

FURTHER BREACHES IN GOVERNMENT SECURITY REVEALED AS MISSING NUCLEAR WARHEAD IS DISCOVERED IN SMALL KENT VILLAGE

A government inspector is suspected of high treason following the discovery of a nuclear warhead in his back garden. The authorities were alerted yesterday to a breach in security at the MOD when it was reported that a nuclear warhead had gone missing after a security officer had fallen asleep on his watch. Fortunately the warhead carried a satellite tracking device which aided a rapid recovery and it was discovered today in the back garden of a government inspector. The inspector was released this afternoon without charge once it became clear that a mix up had occurred at a haulage depot who were due to deliver a sewage treatment unit instead. The real villains were caught by police trying to smuggle the sewage treatment unit onto a London bus in an attempt to blow up the city. The villains are now safely behind bars.

New duvet

Life is just one long list of new things for a two- and-a-half year old. James was very excited when he saw a picture of this new duvet cover I bought him on ebay, but was even more thrilled to see it on his new bed today.

Baby rice

Today, on her 5 month birthday, Jennifer had her first taste of baby rice. I can't really say that she enjoyed it given some of the faces she was pulling, but it went down.

Big boy's bed

It has become more and more apparent that, at nearly five months old, young Jennifer is just too big for the moses basket. We had hoped to make it last until the move to Sunnyside, but Mab has spent too many nights on the sofa after being pushed out of bed by a growing girl, so we have bitten the bullet and splashed out on a toddler bed for the grand sum of £15 from ebay. Both babies are very happy with their new beds. James's reaction was priceless. This clip was taken after he had calmed down a bit!

Cousins

We had a nice weekend with Hannah, Daniel and Bethan. This lovely walk from Sunnyside is now know as the jungle walk due to being a bit overgrown.






The boys and babes