Lantern tour

Craig and Hermione went on a lantern light tour of Durham Oriental Museum last night. I wish I had been there. Apparently it was really spectacular.

Hermione returned home with a couple of paper lanterns and wondered if we could put candles in them. Obviously the answer was 'no' - a tea light in a small paper lantern would not be a good idea. However, I've had a scoot around online for some sort of alternative on I think these may fit the bill.

Not exactly a Chinese lantern but they do glow, they are orange in colour and are made with oranges which are associated with Chinese New Year festivities. They don't look too difficult to make (says she who has never made a candle in her life) and if the orange peel starts to smell mouldy before the candle is all used then presumably you can just 'peel' the candle and reuse the wax that is left.

Possibly a bit late for this year as I think Chinese New Year is all but done. Must make a mental note of this for next year.

Scarves for Survivors

Debs over at a Simple Life has set up a venture called Scarves for Survivors. She is making scarves herself, many from reclaimed wool and selling them to raise money for Rape Crisis. I think this is a fabulous idea and hope that you will all pop along, check out what's on offer and tell your friends and family about it.

Having spent most of my adult life working with women in need, in the capacity of solicitor, counsellor and homeopath I know how desperately these organisations need funds. The trouble is that many people don't want to talk about rape. It's not nice. It's not pleasant. It doesn't make for polite conversation at the bus stop or have the 'feel good factor' of a gift donation for the third world to purchase a goat (another very worthy cause I hasten to add).

Please support people like Debs in bringing rape out of the closet. It happens. It's real and there are women out there at this very moment in desperate need of help.

On a different note, I want to thank Debs for giving me the Lemonade Award for bloggers with great attitude or gratitude.

I don't know many people in the blogosphere so instead of choosing folks to pass this award onto I just want to say a huge thanks to all you folks out there who let their attitude be a positive guiding light for others.

Hearts, gourds and speckled swans..

I awoke today feeling lighter and brighter. I've let go of the fears and stresses that kept dancing across my mind yesterday. Back to focusing on each new moment and all of the potential and possibilities that life holds. Coming back to comfort and ease.

Miles is still doing well, generally messing as I type. Hermione is coughing slightly less and is busy playing Trivial Pursuits with Craig. I think I'm getting a touch of the lurgy now too. I've a very sore throat. Ho hum. I was hoping that we could reschedule all that we cancelled last week - I hope we don't end up having to cancel more arrangements. Why does lurgy always hit when you have so much stuff to do?

We made some hearts from a beyond repair brushed cotton sheet and some 3d fabric paints yesterday.

Not long to go till Valentines Day. I'm hoping we get round to making a wreath of sorts but will have to wait and see.

I've reviewed our January learning objectives and I'm pleased. I think we're quite on track. I think it was helpful from my point of view to make a list on post about it as I've referred back to it a few times during the month. I'll have to pull together what we are doing next. We're going to make a start on Shakespeare and have other stuff in mind too.

Do you like the latest addition to my handmade ceramics collection? Another fabulous piece that cost me not a penny, just 'hours' at Durham Exchange.

I love the community feel of our group, the social aspect, the going 'shopping' with no cash plus the sharing of skills and resources. One member has agreed to teach me how to massage Craig and the children. Another has agreed to show me how to transform my wax scraps into pretty and practical candles.

The children have been perusing the seed catalogues trying to decide what they would like to grow this year. Ornamental gourds seems to be the way to go - they grow fast and are good fun. Also, since they are not edible we don't have to worry about them being in the front garden which is closer to traffic and fumes. Wondering if we could plant them in our old wheel barrow - a gourd wheel barrow as an alternative to pots of bedding plants.... I like the thought of that.

Miles has opted for Speckled Swans.

Hermione wants snakes.

We're going to get Russian Dolls too.

The seeds are all available from Thompson and Morgan online.

Surfing about I came across this picture. Am I a prude or are other people asking just why did she bother with that top?

Thank you to all of Hermione's customers. The orders keep coming and I'm delighted by the kindness and generosity of folks. Some orders may be delayed slightly this week depending upon our lurgy status *grin*.

What lurks within?????

Thank you to everyone who has commented, called or emailed to ask about Miles. He is now responding to treatment and is much brighter although he needs to be reviewed by our doctor next week.

I'm pleased that he's no longer in pain and I'm also pleased that come the early hours of the morning I hope to be knocking out zzzzzz's instead of crooning Fields of Gold to a restless babe.

We've had a pleasant day and I am feeling much more human but I'm scared. Hearing of the update on Jade's prognosis I can't help but compare our age and circumstances and feel afraid. I guess I'm not alone in that. I'm sure there will be mothers of young children up and down the country right now thinking 'it could be me'.

I think back to a time some years ago. I remember the waiting, the wondering and worrying. Thinking about the decisions I made then and wondering if they were the right ones. We never truly know what lurks within and in some respects I suspect that's a blessing. I hate to live in fear. It's such a destructive force. But for today I can't help but wonder, 'what if'?

Visitation by the goddess

Cuddling and nursing Miles through the night, (again), last night, I remembered something Vera Scheibner (world renowned homeopath) said at one of her lectures I attended. She said feverish illnesses in children are a blessing, a visitation by the goddess.

I'm tired, weary and and crusty. I want some sleep, I want a wash. I want to feel less like a camel hyde flip flop and more like a human being.

If this is a visitation by a goddess, (and I'm not saying it is), then she has outstayed her welcome. Please leave.

Multi tasking

We've been burning the candle at both ends and it's catching up with us. I have spent most of today snuggled on the sofa with both Hermione and Miles - all decidedly tired, aching and snuffly. Miles took the the prize for being most snuffly. He's like his father, he likes to 'large it up' when he's unwell and even demanded a blanket and hot water bottle.


Miles snoozed and nursed most of the day. In fairness he must be whacked as he never snoozes or nurses during the day now.

Hermione spent much of the day chilling and putting the final touches to her article about food miles for a local community magazine.

Food miles

Some of the food we eat has travelled around the world to reach us. There are some problems with this. The supermarkets say that is alright so that they can get more money but there are problems with it.

One of the problems is that food that has travelled a long way is not as fresh because the travelling takes time. If food is not very fresh it is not as good for your body as if it had just been picked.

Another problem is that aeroplanes, lorries and boats can cause pollution which makes our world less clean. If we ate food from closer to home there would be less pollution.

We look after hens to save having to go and buy eggs. They are very easy to look after. You have to feed them every day, give them water, clean their house, give them fresh bedding and lock them up at night so that foxes don’t get them. If they try to escape and get into danger you have to clip their wings.

We grow vegetables too so that we don’t have to buy as many. Most of our vegetables grow in summer. It is too cold and the days are not long enough to grow a lot in winter.

Growing your own vegetables and keeping your own hens helps you to be healthier and helps to keep the world cleaner. The only problem is hen poo.

I multi tasked - I nursed, cuddled, helped with spelling and punctuation, recounted the Three Billy Goats Gruff lots of times AND crocheted squares for the granny square challenge I've joined. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but being very engrossed in this and that, (particularly trying not to poke nursing child's eye out with crochet hook), I have now realised that the squares are not uniform in size. They are supposed to be six inches square but mine vary from just over five and a half inches to six and a half inches. Drat. Do I start over? I don't know.










I've cancelled our lunch arrangements with two other home ed families tomorrow which I'm disappointed about but I really don't think Miles will be up to socialising. Hopefully another day on the sofa will see us right and raring to go later in the week.

Snow Glow, snow experiments and stuff

Amidst the snow flurries yesterday we heard a strange repeated knocking on our patio doors. It was this little fellow.




We didn't know what it was but a friend who knows a top twitcher has had it identified for us. It's a woodcock! Hermione and Miles decided they didn't really like it because it didn't look like the other birds we see and therefore is scary. This prompted much talk of how 'different' doesn't equate to wrong or scary.


I was awoken at 3.35am today by what sounded almost like riffle fire at the windows. Hail. Big hail. We don't have as much as a lot of the country but it's enough *grin*


'Honest mummy, I wasn't eating the snow....'








Would you believe her?


This prompted a quick experiment to try to demonstrate that all that's white is not clean. We filled a big pan with water, melted it over a low heat and strained it through a clean white handkerchief. 'Take care ' I said, 'Don't hold the pan handle too close to the pan,' at which point I interfered, got hold of the handle much too close to the hot end and had to dash into the garden to plunge my throbbing finger into the snow. Goodness, did it throb!


This is what we found in the snow.






Now I wouldn't fancy eating it having seen this but Hermione was completely undeterred and has continued to have the odd snaffle while out playing. In short I burnt my finger for nothing!



We also did an experiment to illustrate how a mass of water can expand when it changes it's form to a solid. We filled a plastic drinks bottle to the very top and put it in the freezer this morning. By this evening it was frozen solid. The ridges in the bottle were pushed out and in one place it had split.





Tonight we went out in the dark to make a snow glow lamp. It is actually very pretty and effective but has not photographed well at all. Basically we made a hollow mound of snow, decorated it with food colouring and put some candles inside. The light shines through and makes it look really pretty.









Confined to home, engagements cancelled, I've been busy with this and that. I've made some fragrance sachets for the bathroom. I filled them with capoc (not sure how to spell that) with geranium and lemon grass oils on them - something which is zingy fresh but also reputedly balances hormones too.






I also took an old baby sleeping bag which was badly stained and therefore not fit to pass on, and turned it into pyjama bottoms for Miles. I think they're excellent and confess to basking in a very rare 'uber mama moment' until Miles announced, 'I not wearing them mama, they very horrid'. A long conversation followed in which I tried to point out how warm/comfy/funky/practical etc they are - but to no avail. Hmmmph.