The painting doesn't look like it is moving on but I have been working on the bushes at the side of the path. I don't usually fair too well with bushes but I am taking my time with my new learnt techniques and I'm pretty chuffed so far. The big test will be tomorrow when I work on the 2 large bushes at the front. I am getting keen to try these new oil pastel skills on a portrait since that is the area I would like to build up, so I have rooted out some photos of the children and will probably try a couple more portraits over the next few weeks. Still no car, I assume it is still in the car park but I have not checked. I don't really like playing games like this, with 3 children to look after, work and a household to run I don't really have time for tit for tat things...and at the end of the day that kind of living is what I was trying to get away from. It's amazing how when you suggest a walk the children suddenly have friends houses to invite themselves over to, so it was only me and my daughter that walked down to the library yesterday. Luckily I had enough food in, but will need to do a big shop tomorrow so will need all hands on deck to carry the bags back from the local co-op. It reminds me of my youth when we had to walk to Tesco in Knutsford each week and carry a weeks shopping back. I always got to carry the lightest bags because I was the youngest. I can still remember the landmarks along the route, particularly the exciting ones. There used to be a house we walked past that had a pond in the front garden (strange even in these days) and we loved being the first to spot it. There was also a grassy bank that ran along a footpath. If my dad was in a good mood he would let us walk along the beaten path at the top of the bank. If he wasn't in a good mood we had to stick to the path. The only things I remember about the supermarket itself was my dad having an argument with the woman behind the Deli counter. He wanted specific slices of bacon that he pointed at from his side of the glass counter and for some reason the lady behind the counter was determined to give him some from another pile. I guess looking back now he was right to ask for the ones he wanted but at the time I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. It was embarrassing your dad arguing in public. The only other thing I remember was that as a treat sometimes we could pick a yoghurt. They weren't sold in 4 packs like these days, then they came individually and I can still remember that indecision between strawberry or hazlenut yoghurt. Inevitably if I chose one I usually wish I had gone for another, some things never change! Today I went to a freind's house in Nantwich for lunch. Another friend drove us over there and her husband brought us back (very kind of them). It was the first time my children had met her child, who is only 2. The look on my youngest sons face at having to play shop and build dens was a picture. It wasn't long before he was whizzing her 2 year old around on his new JCB dumper truck, scraping paint off her walls and skidding through the living room..what lovely habits he taught him.