Hats and hurried preparations

Nana has finished the latest in her series of funky crochet hats for Hermione. I think this one may be my personal favourite.





Now that she has nothing on she's crocheting some bits and pieces for Valentines Day and has kindly said I can give some away on here. I'm hoping to have figured out how to get my camera back onto close up mode and post pictures tomorrow.


It's Craig's birthday tomorrow and we need to go shopping, but for the first time ever Hermione is taking meticulous care over her map work. Typical, on the only occasion I possibly would have been pleased if she rushed it off she's actually taking it seriously.

Just grazing and stuff

I have had a long overdue day at home in my nightie (and occasionally wellies) today. It was lovely, the sort of day I regularly dream of but rarely happens.

I ventured no further than the garden to generally cluck about and plant a few extra early broad beans. Nana did the swim run which I'm ever so grateful for and the greatest disturbance of the day was when Polly flew up onto nana's roof, startling nana who sitting inside thought there must be something not smaller than a moose on the roof, and also startling a passer by who stood at the bottom of the drive gawping at the big fluffy hen right up top of the ridge tiles. I think I need to have words with that window cleaner about this one. He'll know what to do.

Hermione did her 'lessons'. We did more exciting stuff about water using ideas and a resource pack I got from here. I'm going to blog all our water stuff when we finish it. She then spent much of the rest of the day writing an article called 'Hen keeping today'. She is hoping to have her efforts published in the Durham Exchange newsletter.

Miles helped to bake a chocolate cake and then spent the next half hour wandering around licking his top where he had spilt almost half of the mixture down it. Other than that he has spent most of the day just pottering.


This afternoon a box arrived from Graze (graze.com) who make nutritionally balanced snack boxes. They are usually quite expensive (£2.99 for smallest one) but a friend gave me a discount code to get one free and a second half price. We were impressed with ours today. It had fresh grapes, chocolate covered raisins, macadamia nuts, banana chips and huge raisins in. If anyone would like the discount code then drop me a line - email link in profile. Not sure how it fits in with the conversation Hermione and I had this morning about food miles but hey ho.

With children happily pottering and grazing I had time to rattle off a bit of crochet with that lovely hand spun wool. I felt ever so fuzzy watching the children playing while crocheting their clothes. This is how I always imagined it would be - happy children, me making their clothes while watching them play, cake in the oven, jazz on the radio. Shame it's only ever happened once. Never mind, I now know it's possible and it may come again!

Songs of Higher Learning.

We have recently discovered clips produced by Songs of Higher Learning on Youtube and thought we would share as we're quite impressed.

The aim of Songs of Higher Learning is to help children achieve through the power of music. They cover all sorts of topics in a funky sort of style that is more likely to appeal to children than a dry lecture. You probably need to watch one to see what I mean!

Here is one about the earth and here is one about continents and oceans. There are lots on Youtube if you search songs of higher learning.

Priorities in the face of a recession

Feeling the pinch in the face of the recession I decided that today we would hit the beach again as it's free - the indoor beach I hasten to add - the sleet showers could possibly have interfered with sand castle building at the 'real' beach. Sounds great in theory but sitting on the deckchairs, watching the children play, nana and I commented on all the shops around either empty or having closing down sales. That's when the beach excursion stopped being free. 'Well I'll look first while you watch the kids, then you go' said nana. Sounded good.

What a luxury, child free shopping. I could really wander and rummage. So many bargains to be had. I staggered out of the shop with easy thread needles, fabric paint, a shoe organiser, candy canes (there was shortage last Christmas and I don't want to be caught short again this year) plus lots of other very essential purchases. They were essential. Honest.

In fact not only was my little splurge essential, it was also for the greater good. We must SPEND our way out of recession. Perhaps I should have spent more. Bought more essentials for the greater good. Thinking about this I decided to ask Craig to bring me some chocolate home - kill two birds with one stone - hormones and recession - what a result!

I guess it's true - you can add whatever spin you like to suit your purpose. I've seen this a lot recently - people taking a situation and putting a spin on it to suit their own objectives. Never mind, on this occasion I've managed to bag myself a whole load of goodies and have chocolate on the way.

I suppose the only question to be answered is why the purchase of crafts and chocolate is for the greater good in the midst of a recession, yet last night I advertised on Freecycle for an exercise bike. Priorities eh?

Can I really blame the recession for my skewed priorities? Guess not but it was worth a try.

Edited to add that if I can justify spending on chocolate and crafts to help ward off the recession I really must do the exercise bike business - I've had no responses from Freecycle some I'm now 'watching' a couple on Ebay. Wish me luck. I desperately need to shake what I've got.

Sand and stuff

What a weekend! We've had great fun.

I reflected on our 'lesson' schedule for the past week and we only missed one lesson which is darn good for me even if I do say so myself. I struggle to turn down invitations and life is a bit of a whirl these days - it's great. In my defence I can say that the children have learned lots of things that weren't on the lesson plan - Hermione had her first couple of games of pool thanks to as friend, learned how to use a special crafty card cutting machine, researched a new line for her shop (more on that below), learned how to switch on the oven and set it to the correct temperature and loads more stuff - sometimes there is so much to be learned from 'just living'.

On Saturday we had a lesson in ingenuity and baked a Date and Walnut Loaf with no dates or walnuts. I really should check that I have the ingredients before we begin. It turned out to be more of a giant fig roll. Anyway, on the afternoon we headed off to meet with a group of ladies who regularly get together to show their crafts and share tips and ideas. When we were invited I feared that I wouldn't be able to make it as I thought the children would perhaps be disruptive. Thankfully the lady organising it gave me lots of reassurance so we all headed along with our Date and Walnut Free Date and Walnut Loaf.

We all had a fabulous afternoon. I was absolutely blown away by the talent and generosity of the ladies there. They were so willing to share their skills, time and materials. They were hugely supportive of Hermione and her business venture. They, like me could really see the value of encouraging children into crafts. I am disappointed that the next gathering will be on a date that I am unable to go but nana is going to go along still and learn how to make fabric bags with a fluffy chenille effect.


Today we headed into town quite early and sat on the breezy terrace of a riverside cafe watching the seagulls swooping and the buskers on the bridge. Craig and I commented on how it has been so long since we have had lazy Sunday brunches in town - not since two became three, then four. So good to be able to do these things again and for the children to truly enjoy it as opposed to being reluctantly dragged along.


We were sitting on what looks like a ledge overhanging the river, to the left of the bridge with a blue canopy. You can just make out the shiny steel tables and chairs.

Later we went to the beach to make and break sandcastles - somewhere warm, surrounded by palms and deckchairs - the indoor beach has finally arrived at our local shopping centre! I can see us getting good use out of it.

Later we continued to prepare the ground for our greenhouse. I have flag stones now and have even been promised some special shelving on Freecycle. It's all coming together nicely.

Hermione has decided that the next product she is going to introduce to her shop is children's aprons. She made the first one today and I think she has done exceptionally well. This is probably the trickiest sewing machine project she has undertaken so far and she has done well. I'm going to help her to upload a picture into her shop tomorrow and at a pound each I expect they will fly out. She is doing really well with her shop. She is exceptionally pleased that it is going well 'despite the recession' - made me chuckle. She's thinking of buying a small weaving loom with the money she has made so that she can make woven coasters, place mats and other things.

A friend gave me some fabulous hand spun wool the other day. I don't do much crocheting these days - and certainly not garments - but I feel really inspired by this wool. I like how it's thickness keeps changing - it makes me think of how it was made and wonder about the person who made it. It's nice when things aren't artificially perfect. I'm making a waistcoat for Miles. It's going to be a chunky retro type made from squares.

Well, we've lots to look forward to this week, but unfortunately it's going to be a very tough week for Craig. He so needs a break from all the work crap and I only wish I had a magic wand. Hey ho. On top of everything else he must celebrate another year of growing old disgracefully this week. Never mind, worse things have happened.

Wylde Women Award

I have received this lovely blog award and would like to pass it on to all the Wylde Women in my life.

Sending you all much love and acknowledgement of how you brighten my day, teach me new things and live your lives fully with generosity and joy. Very bright blessing to you all.

Apricots

Ever wondered what would happen if you planted an apricot stone? We did today and learned that if we just planted it the likelihood is nothing would happen.

Apricot stones need to be stratified before they will germinate. This means taking the apricot stone directly from a ripe apricot, soaking it for 24 hours, then wrapping in damp paper towel then plastic (or in a bag of damp, sterilized sand, as is done in the nursery industry), and placing this into the refrigerator at about 4 deg. C for a period of four weeks (this cold storage would be four months for peaches and plums). This replicates what would occur in nature: The damp seed from the fruit would fall onto the wet ground and go through a cold, damp winter, which act to break the dormancy the stone retains when taken from the fruit. When conditions warm up again (when you take the stone from the refrigerator) and sow it into potting mix at about 20-25 deg. C, it will then be ready to germinate. Germination, however, could take some time as the hard seed coat makes the process of germination rather slow. Dr Lynette Morgan.

They are currently in soak and we will report back in time - possibly a long time! Miles loves fresh apricots and is hopeful that we will be picking our own soon. I think he'll have to make do with picking the punnet from the shelf for a long while yet!