One word? When seven would do…

I booked tickets for UK Aware ages ago as it looked like a show the kids and I would enjoy. They’ve been to several big shows, accompanying Ady and I to some of the big NEC trade shows way back when they were still pushchair age along with Eco Build and the Car Show more recently. I did set my alarm and woke but only to turn it off rather than press snooze so I woke again with a start just before 8am and we had a mad rushing around half an hour getting dressed, making and packing a picnic and grabbing breakfast to go for the kids. We managed it though and were on Lancing station platform with tickets bought by 830am which I thought was pretty impressive. The casualty was my first cup of tea of the day though and sadly there was no buffet cart on the train :(.

We missed our connecting train (I suspected we might, we only had something like a minute and it was at Clapham Junction on platform 3 when we pulled in to platform 13 or something similar so virtually no chance). It was cold on the platform waiting and I debated going to get a cup of tea from the kiosk as we had about a 20 minute wait but Scarlett wanted to do some guerilla gardening and had brought several of her seed bombs as the woman who ran the workshop told us she’d thrown them off train windows onto wasteland. Scarlett wasn’t sure about throwing things off trains but she did find homes for a couple of her seedbombs today on miserable bits of train stations. It’ll be good to revisit them next year and see if a carpet of wildflowers have sprung up :).

We got our next train and were at Olympia by about 11am. My overall impressions of UK Aware were that it was far smaller, less well patronised by both exhibitors and visitors than I’d been expecting. There is still rather too much of a commercialist slant to it given it’s eco credentials and that far from the usual feeling at these events of not having seen half of what was there we managed to wander round about 4 times and do everything on offer. It was a good day out though and both Davies and Scarlett said they really enjoyed it, we all learnt something new and had a nice ‘just the three of us’ time so I’m glad we went. 🙂

We talked to people on various stands – I particularly liked Eco Creative Art (website still under construction) who had chairs, benches, a standard lamp and more made from old newspapers, a pair of shoes made from old maps and some toys made from water bottles. I liked inspiredtimemagazine and talked to Ecomodo
, 10:10 (where I bought a tag) and various others.

We spent lots of time at the Global Action Plan stand where we did quizzed about what appliances use most energy, Davies raced two cars round a track, one loaded up with luggage to see which was quicker and used less fuel, Scarlett balanced cows, lambs, pigs and chickens to see which animals have the most and least environmental impact to farm for food. We all had a go at cycling to run things by pedal power and later on we returned there to make newspaper origami plant pots and tetrapak wallets.

We watched Professor Kayoss and the Save the World club show and then decamped to sit outside the cafe upstairs with our picnic having nipped in to buy a takeaway cup of tea for me. At last :). We looked down at all the things happening below to plot what else we wanted to do and returned to do the arts and crafts. I got distracted by the Onya stand as I’ve been coveting one of the rucksacks for a while and they were half price at the show. One of the Global Action staff came around and asked Davies and Scarlett to go off with her to do some crafts so I said I’d catch them up and also chatted to a woman about eczema cream too on my way to them.

I wanted to check out the recycled clothes area as it had been really quiet earlier – there was a clothes swap (which was still really quiet), an upcycle area where you could customise things you’d swapped and the Morsbag stall which lured me in with sewing machines and funky fabric. The kids wanted to go off so having extracted a promise they’d stay together, not leave the building and come back to me I said they could go and set about making my bag. I chose a fab dark red material, cut out the pieces, ironed them and then waited for my go on the sewing machine, where under guidance I sewed it altogether :). Really pleased with it :).

Davies and Scarlett had gone off to the second showing of the Professor Kayoss show and I got there just as a poor adult was cycling to pedal power it – I had been the one to have to do it earlier in the day so it was nice to see what it did from the front view. I felt we’d comprehensively done all on offer at the show by then, so it being nearly 4pm and later than I’d expected to be leaving we headed off for the station.

The journey home was fine, about an hour altogether waiting on platforms but we were home by just after 630pm. Ady was dealing with a family crisis (his mother and brother had fallen out and Chris needed some big brotherly advice and support. Sometimes I wonder if Ady is harsh on his mother not seeing her at all and then I hear about the way she has treated Chris and realise she is a nutter and we really really don’t need her in our lives). I ran the kids a bath while they had a speedy dinner and we were just about to start reading stories when Ady arrived home.

I read about 10 minutes worth of ‘I was a rat’ and then the kids went off to bed, I had a very long soak in the bath to wash London and trains off and cooked dinner. Am very pleased indeed to have reached my target goal for my swim sponsorship tomorrow – thank you so much to all of you who have sponsored me xxx.

I worked all day today and Davies and Scarlett spent the day out at work with Ady. It’s easier during school holidays for them to spend a work day with him as they are less visible and prone to being asked the whole ‘no school today then?’ questions. I do like the fact that they get time with both of us at work every so often – I think seeing Ady and I in different environments is important, knowing just what it means when they picture us at work and having an appreciation of what we do is good. Frazer and I both spent large chunks of time in school holidays with our parents in their respective work – for my Mum this meant being at her restaurant, watching her manage staff, greet and serve customers, run a business and deal with planning, food preparation, delegating tasks and so on. For Dad, a painter / decorator this generally only happened when he was decorating an empty property although from time to time we’d come along when people were also there and meet all sorts of customers. This gave us a sneaky peek into how other people lived, what their homes were like, visiting builder merchants for materials, watching Dad actually do wallpapering, painting, repair work and seeing how the pace of his workday compared and contrasted to my Mum’s. From a really early age we had a really good appreciation of just what ‘at work’ meant for both my parents and I am pleased Davies and Scarlett are getting the same about Ady and I.

So while they were off doing price surveys and garden centre visits I was librarying. I had a lot of time on the Enquiry Desk today which I always enjoy as it’s nice and varied. I did some shelving and then it was lunchtime. More Enquiry Desk time and then my PDR (Personal development review). I don’t normally do a lot of preparation for these but this time I had taken time to jot down all the various things I have achieved at work over the last 12 months including various displays, training I’ve attended, events I have suggested and run, new skills I have learned and of course the whole Chatterbooks project. I have met all my targets and had plenty to add as additional things I have done so it was a positive session. I was told ‘we can’t praise you highly enough really, well done’ which was nice to hear. I also got a letter in the internal mail today from the head of the library service thanking me for Chatterbooks and noting what an important contribution I had made, particularly given it was voluntary. I guess for all the times of frustration I can consider the whole Chatterbooks exercise a success, in terms of meeting my own criteria of personal development, improving the library service offering for that age group and in actively making something happen that I wanted to see for Davies and Scarlett. I also have gotten recognition from high up people at work and made a name for myself with high up people. I think it was worth it overall :).

I had a brief stint on the counter at the end of my shift and then it was hometime. Ady and the children pulled up just after I did and the pile of Simpsons videos I’d found in a charity shop was very enthusiastically recieved and began playing while the kids had tea. I nipped out to get picnic lunch supplies for tomorrow and then came home to read some more of ‘I was a rat’ before their bedtime.

I’m feeling a bit better today although I still have a pretty sore throat. The knowledge that I am within £40 of reaching my sponsorship target is keeping me going for Saturday though and then I am fully intending to crash and feel perfectly justified in doing nothing at all on Sunday :).

This morning Davies and Scarlett had another episode in their rather workshop-tastic few weeks with a Roald Dahl Storybook workshop at Worthing Museum. I knew Toby was going along too and it turned out another home educated friend, Alex was also there.

I hadn’t decided whether to stay or not and when I asked the woman running the workshop what her preference for parents to do was she said she didn’t mind either way. I ended up staying for the first half of the session and then leaving for the second half as I needed a new battery for my watch so walked down into the town to get that and have a quick peep in some charity shops.

The workshop was good although Davies and Scarlett both said they felt there was too much to do in too little time. They were all given a 10 section storyboard and a 10 page book and the task was to create a storybook in the style of / inspired by / using characters or plotlines from Roald Dahl’s stories. There were various examples of his books, plotlines from some of them, illustrations (Quentin Blake ones mostly) and other prompts. Laura (the woman running the event) also showed the children how Blake does his watercolours using pencil, gone over with pen, watercolour then blotted off and she used an overhead projector as a lightbox which I thought was a nifty idea. She also had the fab idea of a clothes rail with plastic sheeting taped to it vertically so someone could stand behind it and you could draw their outline and details with a marker pen.

Davies very quickly came up with an idea for a mouse in a wood (he wanted something a bit like in The Gruffalo he said) who got scared by what he thought was a monster but was actually a machine chopping down trees. The man operating the machine would then save the mouse from harm. Davies said he wanted a story that seemed simple to us but would be a real adventure from the mouse’s perspective. I liked the way he thought it out :).

Scarlett struggled a bit but wanted to have a story about Candle our cat going to a museum. She was resistant to following the formula that Laura had which Dahl apparently used of 1. characters 2. location 3. event 4. ending when writing his stories and instead wanted less of a plotline and more a succession of pictures showing Candle going round a museum. We talked about different museums we have been to; little local ones, big London ones, museums for transport, animals, science, costumes, architecture, archeaology, local areas, industries etc. She chose the Natural History museum. I mooted the idea of Candle visiting all the stuffed animals around the museum and then at the end coming across another real animal visiting the museum but she went with just a cat visiting a museum :).

At that point they were both industriously working away so I nipped off for half an hour or so.

When I came back they were just finishing and had done really well. I love Davies’ front cover:

And my favourite of Scarlett’s is Candle seeing the blue whale at NatHist museum:

They had a quick go at the plastic sheet drawing too each

Both the children said they really enjoyed the workshop and indeed have been inspired to work together to make another book when we got home later. I did speak briefly to Laura at the end about a Home ed workshop during term time and she seemed quite up for the idea. Nice to find something so close to home for once :).

Which brings us to the afternoon. We’d booked to go on a dinosaur walk in Hastings last week but it was cancelled due to poor weather and we couldn’t make the alternate date. For some reason I had in my head we couldn’t make the second proposed date of this afternoon either but when a call went out yesterday for anyone else wanting to take places I realised we could get there if we went straight from the Dahl workshop so I grabbed 3 places and that was where we went. Hastings is about 50 miles away, a good hour plus drive but obviously a very historic part of England. It is also somewhere with strong family connections on my Dad’s side as his mother lived there and even had a shop there and it was somewhere I believe Dad lived for a while with an aunt when he first came down to Sussex from North Wales where he’d grown up. It’s not somewhere I’ve spent much time however and whilst I know I have been there before it didn’t seem at all familiar driving through it. Infact I suspected we’d driven too far and was worrying about being late when suddenly I spotted the road we were looking for and signs for the museum we were meeting at. We found a parking space and walked across, spotting Dani, Pearl and Leo already there. Nice to see them :). It was a fairly small group of people, I think the previous session had had more people. We had a quick look round the little museum first, it is mainly shipwreck finds and information, there are loads of little museums dotted all along the south coast for various things, very charming and pretty ad hoc. Ken, the archaeologist who was leading us first showed us some fossils he’d found along with some casts of dinosaur footprints, talked about what we can learn from finding fossils – environmental information, plant and animal life, which creatures lived when and so on. He showed us some pictures of what Hastings might have been like in dinosaur times and then we went out fossil hunting! 🙂

We clambered down the rocks onto the beach and Ken led us along pointing out interesting things, giving us little geological facts and hints and tips and identifying all the finds everyone had.

He split open various rocks we brought him and I think most people found something of interest. Dani had the very best find when Ken split a rock she’d brought him and it uncovered a whole layer of fossils, like opening an uninterestingly wrapped gift and finding a fab present inside 🙂

Scarlett found an interesting rock which when split had a bivalve inside

which Ken made smaller so she could bring home with us. Davies found several things including a stone which Ken said might be jasper and a rock with chalk and mineral fossils on it.

It was a really good couple of hours, great to spend time with someone so passionate and knowledgable and happy to share his time and passion with us. And cheap too – we only paid a fiver each for the children :).

The drive home felt longer although the traffic wasn’t too bad. I’d started to slump rather 🙁 My cough and blocked nose is persisting and I now have a mild earache / sore throat which I can’t decide is a possible infection or simply from coughing. My worry is that if it’s an infection it won’t be getting better by itself and I still have a very busy week ending with swimming 75 lengths which could well be really hard if I’m still unwell. I’m working tomorrow so will have to make a grown up decision on Friday about whether to continue with another busy day as planned to whether to be sensible and rest instead. I suspect unless I am feeling dreadful I won’t make any sort of grown up decision mind you ;).

Davies and Scarlett went off to make books while I got them some tea and then did some baking to use up some eggs. I made two batches of brownies; one with nuts (for Ady and I) and one with out (for Davies and Scarlett) and a double batch of snickerdoodles too. Then I ran out of caster sugar so that put paid to further sweet baking and a lack of cheese had already prevented anything savoury.

I tidied up the kitchen, Ady came home – and went back out again to get cheese for dinner tonight (pizza), I ran a bath, hoovered and lit a fire while the kids tidied up then we read some ‘I was a rat’ until my throat got too sore and they went to bed.

Ady and I watched Coast while we had our dinner and learnt about the Great Western Railway which runs right along the shoreline in Devon and Cornwall. We liked the idea of that lots and thought we might try and visit for a ride sometime this summer.

Am now taking my cough to join Ady’s cough in bed.

We had a much needed later start this morning, breakfasted, got dressed, packed some food and headed up to the allotment to meet up with Caz, Bid, Archie and Eliot.

There is a large field behind the allotments, bordered by the allotments on the south side and woodland on the other three sides. Through the woodland at the top is the South Downs Way. The kids were very keen to head off exploring and Davies, Scarlett and Archie went off. We told them to stay within calling distance and Caz and I got on with digging over two beds we put some asparagus crowns in last year but have seen no evidence of this year. We found one dead one but the rest are sprouting new growth so we weeded the beds and left them to carry on growing.

Eliot had been rather left behind by not realising that the others were heading off so he was in charge of cooking some sausages on a small barbecue fire Caz and Bid had brought up with them, while Bid dug over an area for planting potatoes. We ate sausages, paused for a cup of tea and then Caz and Eliot headed off to find the others (who clearly hadn’t stayed in calling distance) while Bid and I did more digging and planting and chatting. Everyone arrived back together (though from different directions) and all four children went off again, this time armed with a mobile phone.

We spent the next 2.5 hours very happily digging, planting, weeding, chatting, stopping to just enjoy the sunshine, drink tea and eat food and then carry on working on the plot. The time went really quickly. We spoke to the kids a couple of times on the phone to check all was well and they were off having a ball. So lovely for them to have that freedom and trust to go off and adventure, while we have the peace of mind of being able to ring and appease our concerns every so often.

Suddenly it was gone 330pm and we’d done everything we wanted to do at the plot and all had other places to be this evening so we rang the kids to come back. They took ages, well over half an hour, due to having wandered off so far from us and returned grubby, scratched and scraped by brambles with pockets full of ‘found treasures’ (interesting shaped stones, precious sticks) and stories of the adventures they had had. So wonderful 🙂

We said goodbye and all headed off for home. Davies and Scarlett had a quick clean up and some tea, I had a very welcome freshly brewed and properly hot rather than tepid from a flask cup of tea and sat down at the computer for the first time today. I learnt the very sad news that Freddie had passed away, told the children and shed some tears. Ady returned home so I told him and shed some more tears 🙁 .

Then we all left to go to Brighton for a sunset walk. It was called ‘starling sunset walk’ but there were no starlings to see (it’s warmer so they’ve mostly gone home) but it was still very lovely. There was a fairly large group and after an introductory chat we split into two groups. One walked along the path learning about Brighton’s history and architecture, the other group walked along the beach learning about the chalk, stones and sea aswell as buidlings in the sea – ie the piers. We joined the beach group and learnt about how old chalk and the pebbles are (95 million years), what chalk is made of, what the difference is between the brown stones and the grey stones on the beach, how grey stones were collected to make ceramic glaze, the purpose of the pebbles on the beach and loads more from our guide who is a geologist.

The walk lasted about an hour and we walked along from Palace Pier to just past West Pier to the bandstand.

It was a really enjoyable event and lovely to have watched the sun set having watched it rise yesterday morning. I’d not realised there is another sunrise walk in the morning and it would have been nice to have watched it set tonight and then done the sunrise walk tomorrow as it came back up again, but it was a late night tonight so I doubt an early morning would have been great to follow that tomorrow.

We walked back along the seafront to where we’d parked, stopping to take in the fab photos all displayed along the path as part of the Wild Planet store which has just opened. We watched the lights come on on Palace Pier and were able to see along the coast to Worthing Pier too. The kids were getting peckish so we bought them some chips each from the stall at the front of the pier and finally got home about 930pm.

Tomorrow is looking equally as busy so I need to go and get some sleep to prepare me for it…

Details of The Brighton and Hove Childrens Festival were put up on one of the local lists a few weeks ago and I went through the programme with great excitement as loads of the events looked like things Davies and Scarlett would be really interested in. Sadly about 4 of the best looking ones are for this Thursday when I’m working, which I guess saved us from the dilemma of which to choose. But I did earmark The Devils Sunrise and The Starlings Sunset walks as worth attending. I booked places on the Devils Sunrise (and we’re intending doing the sunset walk tomorrow evening to give a nice contrast) and have promptly been dreading it ever since given the crazy time in the morning it meant getting up. I debated for a while whether it was worth going to bed but in the end I went to bed at 1130pm, was asleep by about 1230 and the alarm went off at 4am. I woke fairly easily and everyone else got up and busied themselves with getting dressed, eating / drinking whatever they could face at such a middle-of-the-night time hour and we set of at 430am. I made an error in not predicting just how cold it would be on the the top of the downs pre-dawn and none of us really had sufficient layers on to keep us insulated but many other parents had made the same error and there were a lot of shivering children.

I had a fairly good idea of where Hove Station was which was where we were meeting the bus so drove in that general direction, fortunately found it and a car park next to it (which I had to pay the full day rate of nearly £5 for despite only being there from 5-8am grr) and we hoped aboard the bus. Davies and Scarlett counted cars from our house to there and it was barely 30. I think we left home at that sort of time when we went to France a couple of years ago but it’s a long time since I’ve been out on such early morning roads – noticing the lack of milk floats is probably an indication of just how long…

There was paper and pens handed out for drawing whilst on the bus and it was only about a ten minute drive to Devils Dyke. We got off the bus, the kids donned high vis vests, we had a H&S briefing and then were handed over to the storyteller:

Follow a storyteller around Devil’s Dyke as you watch night turn into day – the ultimate transformation! Hop on the bus which collects dawn adventurers at 5am and drops you back at 8am.

He began while it was still pretty much pitch dark and we stood on the edge of the hill looking into the blackness which would be a view come daylight with the Weald spread out below us. The storyteller told us he was going to tell us the tale of the horned, hoofed devil, Pan and how he created Devil’s Dyke many hundreds and thousands of years ago.

We then followed him through torch and lantern lit woodland and sat on logs while he told us of how Pan loved to party and drink and rabble rouse. Down in the Weald Christians had come and were disappoving of Pan and his wild ways and would torment his hungover followers early in the morning with the ringing of their church bells. So Pan, inspired by the white horses which were the waves crashing on the shore down in Brighton decided to create a channel from the sea to the Weald to flood it and drown all the Christians. This was done from halfway up a tree with much pantomime 🙂


Then as dawn was breaking we followed him down one side of the Dyke and up the other,

where we were given croissants and hot chocolate and sat in a circle as the storyteller stood on a stone and completed his tale.


Davies was particularly struggling with the cold and said his tummy hurt and he felt sick so he refused the hot chocolate (which I’m sure would have warmed him from within and had him feeling better) and was a bit wobbly but listened to the story just the same.

The story of how the dyke came to be finished we walked along the top of one side, down and back up again and then back along the top of the other side. Everyone soon warmed up and the group were soon chattering away and watching birds wake up and swoop about the dyke.

We were rewarded midway through the very toughest part of the uphill walk when the sun finally peeked over the horizon through some trees and went very quickly from a tiny bump to a glowing ball in the sky. There is something very magical about sunrise. I’ve not paused to just drink it in like that many times (probably less than five in my life) but it’s always an intensely moving experience somehow, the promise of a whole new day ahead full of promise and only just beginning.

Back at the bus we were given glasses of water and feedback forms about the event, which we all filled out very enthusiastically with glowing reports. A short bus journey back to Hove Station, a drive home with a fair few more cars than on the way there and we were home by about 8am.

As suspected we were all far too awake by then to go back to bed so I surprised my parents by ringing them to arrange to go over there later (Dad asked why I was up so early and I enjoyed smugly saying actually I’d been up for about 4 hours already 😉 ). We had some toast, I had more tea and then chucked an ecclectic selection of food in a bag and we went over to Pulborough Brooks.

We were early so chatted to the volunteers for a while, did some of the puzzles in the Visitor Centre and waited for others to arrive. And they did, in droves :). It was a really good turn out today and we walked round in a decent sized group – Caz and Bid, Julie and her Mum, Emma, Katy, Rossi and I and assorted children. We saw very little in the way of wildlife but did have a lovely walk chatting and enjoying the sunshine, before spending a further couple of hours in the garden / play area with picnics.

It was just lovely, the children played some of the time in smaller groups but ended up all gravitated together playing in one large group, in complete harmony, it was just fab :). The adults did much the same with three tables full of us eating and chatting and moving about between each other. One of those perfect local Home Ed community days :).

We left there at about 230pm, got home for a quick cup of tea / sandwich (our poor bodies were most confused about what time it actually was and whether to be hungry or not) before heading over to my parents. They are off to China for 3 weeks tomorrow – 2 weeks touring with a couple on internal flights and a 7 night river cruise for the third week. Ady joined us there for half an hour and then he brought the kids home for tea, I detoured to the supermarket for a few bits and came home to run a bath and cook dinner.

Davies and Scarlett were in bed for about 745pm but both had only just gone to sleep by 9pm. Not really sure there is anything more to do to wear them out really, I guess they just don’t need much sleep! Ady and I watched the Joanna Lumley Nile programme which was really good, I love Joanna Lumley :). And now, a mere 20 hours after I got up I am also off to bed as I am dozing off as I type.

instead of a whole load of letters on a blog post, but a quick one and then I’ll be off (alarm being set for 4am 😯 )

Today we had a long standing, weather permitting arrangement with Mike and Rose (the not swingers) to walk across the downs to Coombes Farm, the localish farm that does lambing during March and April. We’ve been the last 3 or 4 years and I am always slightly torn between awe at new life starting and a slight feeling of finding the animals being watched by such large, noisy crowds at such a time of heightened anxiety a bit offensive. Today it was so busy there we didn’t even see anyone to pay money for entrance to though so we did leave nearly a tenner up on that basis ;).

Ady had had a bad night with coughing and was feeling quite rough this morning and not up to the walk so he stayed home. He did drive up (it’s about 4 miles to drive by road, only about 15 minutes along twisty, turning roads) to meet us there and bring picnic lunch for us though, before driving home again with a view to taking along anyone who wasn’t up to the walk back.

So Davies, Scarlett and I drove up to Mike and Rose’s, left my car there and we headed off with Mike, Rose, Mike’s daughter Chloe (who is 13 and mostly lives with her Mum but has been staying with M&R for the last week) and their two dogs, Buffy and Bozzle. The walk there was 90 minutes, partially along some of the South Downs Way, up very steep hills and down equally steep ones but it was stunning scenery with rolling hills and panoramic sea views and it was gorgeously warm and sunny.

Scarlett was in her element, being allowed to lead one or other dog the whole way and I suspect she did about 1 and a half times the walk the rest of us did thanks to the running ahead and then back to us again. She’d brought her rucksack and spotter books and was doing lots of spotter birds, bugs and butterflies along the way and regaling us with animal facts. Chloe is a really lovely girl and she spent quite a bit of time walking the dogs with Scarlett and chatting. Davies and I walked together with Mike and Rose and had some interesting conversations about what traits he and Scarlett get from Ady or I aswell as talking to Mike about films, DS games and Star Wars.

We arrived at the farm at 1230 and Ady pulled into the car park very shortly after we got there, bringing a very welcome bottle of chilled cider each for Mike, Rose and I, along with hot water, tea bags and milk to freshly brew mugs of tea each too, which was a treat we’d not have got it we’d had to carry it all the way in the rucksack. We all picnicked and chatted then Ady stayed with the dogs while the rest of us went into the farm.

We saw a calf born and a lamb born, the kids got to cuddle and play with some of the orphaned lambs. I’d not seen a cow given birth before so that was lovely :). It was really busy there and they had two tractors running doing tractor rides, which I guess accounted for there being no one taking admission money. It’s gotten even more commercial than last year though and I dislike the way there is no farmer around at all keeping an eye on the animals birthing and ensuring they are doing okay or indeed talking to the visitors about the animals. A very different experience, and I guess a different sort of business enterprise to the farm we visited a few weeks ago where I did my lookerer training where the shepherd aimed to be present, not intervening unless necessary for every single birth and was there with anecdotes about each animal from previous years aswell as being happy to answer questions and talk to us about what was going on.

We rejoined Ady at the car, Davies toyed with the idea of going home with him but then decided he wanted to walk back with us so back we went, in a shorter route that was harder on account of having far more steep up and down hill bits. One particular hill was a two rest stop challenge :). I reckon it was between 5 and 6 miles of fairly hard going walking so am proud of everyone for doing it so well. Scarlett was still bouncing with energy at the end – as long as she is not too hot or cold, and particularly when she has dogs to distract her she could walk for miles. Davies is less keen but aslong as he is distracted with interesting conversation he can also walk a good long way.

We arrived back at Mike and Rose’s and while Chloe disappeared to get a laptop fix, Mike went to watch the pre match fanfare (his team Spurs played Ady’s team Pompey in the semi final cup match this afternoon), Rose, Davies, Scarlett and I sat in their lovely garden next to the pond drinking tea and eating jaffa cakes to restore energy levels :). We then drove back home to find Ady had got dinner on and was tending to it in various breaks in the match (half time, full time, half time of extra time, full time proper – it’s not just a game of two halves…). Davies and Scarlett went off to play in Davies’ bedroom, I sat with Ady and kept half an eye on the match so I knew which sort of noises to make (celebratory, sympathetic, ref is a wanker, that sort of thing).

Dinner was lovely, we had gammon in coke followed by Mars bar ice creams and talked about something really interesting which now totally escapes me (which is annoying, the children had both said how they enjoy it when we talk over dinner so we did and it was a really good fourway conversation, I just don’t recall what about). Then I read some more ‘I was a rat’ while a bath was running, the children went to bed (but not to sleep – argh!) and Ady and I had baths and watched the final of Masterchef Australia. We have LOVED this show and I spent much of the last show in tears as it’s been a really sentimental show with the final 20 contestants in the competition for 3 months – sort of Apprentice meets Big Brother meets Masterchef UK. My favourite contestant from day one won the show which was a total surprise as I never thought they had a real chance and their winning acceptance speech and being reunited with their family was just so touching. Loved it :).

Tomorrow we’re off on another two walks – I may be taking two weeks off of swimming prior to my sponsored challenge but I’m certainly not shirking exercise generally…. the first starts at 5am tomorrow!

Cough.

Cough.

That was me ALL NIGHT BLOODY LONG! 🙁 And I hate coughs. I hate me coughing and I hate other people coughing. I particularly hate coughs that keep me awake when I should be asleep.

I tossed and turned, hit the pillow, got up for a drink, got up for the toilet, threw the covers off, snuggled into the covers, took my nightie off, blew my nose, had another drink, considered turning the light back on and reading my book, pondered giving up on sleep and going back downstairs…I listened to Ady snoring, people walking home drunkenly at 3am, and the birds singing at about 430am. I listened to the cockerels crowing at dawn and then finally I fell asleep.

As a consequence, when I did wake, at 930am I was feeling pretty rough 🙁 My throat was sore, my head was pounding, my nose was still running, my cough was still very active and I was tired too :(.

But we had a full day planned, the sun was shining and so we headed off to Ady’s work to test our new tent on the nice big field next to the greenhouses. The plan was to test how long it took to put up, whether I could do it on my own and to check it was all intact and fine. So Ady’s job was to stand and time me and not get involved at all in tent errection. Which is the very best thing for Ady really as he calls the Outwell ‘the divorce tent’ and still believes it is black magic that transforms a pile of poles and nylon into a 3d object we can live in for a week. His utter ineptness in tent putting up just irritates me so he is far better staying in the background and keeping busy passing me pegs and opening my bottle of ‘tent’s up!’ cider afterwards.

So first ever time up I got from still in the bag to outer tent up in just over 20 minutes.

I did get Ady to come and hold a pole twice but either of the kids could have done that easily as it literally was just keeping a pole still. I didn’t bother guying the tent but did put the inner and ground sheet in to be sure it was all okay and I also put up the canopy too. Really pleased with how it went up :). Will reserve ‘chuffed-ness’ till we’ve slept in it (having had fingers burnt with declaring myself chuffed way too early with a tent once before and failing to heed the warnings of an old hand in all things tenting-related 😉 ) but am tentatively (see what I did there?) pleased :).

Davies and Scarlett put Davies’ little one man tent up while we were doing that and did a pretty good job of that. Then did some bug catching and identifying using the net and insect ID books they’d brought along. They found various bees and butterflies, several ladybirds and other bugs. Ady and I sat in the new tent and discussed what other camping stuff we want to acquire before taking it down and packing it all away again. Felt sad not to actually be sleeping in it really. Can’t wait for May :).

Next stop was Sainsburys for some ice lollies as suggested by Ady to soothe my throat. He also bought me some fancy cough medicine and some energy drink to try and see me through the rest of the day. Then we visited a couple of garden centres for Ady to take photos for work (thus shaving off some time he needs to spend at work next week in order for him to be home on Thursday for childcare) before meeting up with Julie and co for a walk round the woods at Slindon. Suspect it qualifies as a proper Spring Walk (but we’re doing a full on Spring Walk tomorrow so don’t want to peak too early today).

That was a really nice hour or so with Ady, Julie, Lorna and I walking at Lorna pace with the four older cousins went off ahead into the woods. Every so often Ady would whistle and Tarly (who was dressed in dolphin trainer outfit again today, complete with hat and whistle) would whistle back so we could track them. Who needs mobile phones all the time you are within whistle range…

We came home via Sainsburys again for picnic supplies for tomorrow and I was feeling really quite rough having had several coughing fits in the car (possibly brought on by the air con) so I went and had a nice long bath, blow dried my hair (which made it Carol-crazy) and got ready to go out. Ady fed the kids and they watched Total Wipeout and Doctor Who. Then I was picked up by a colleague and we collected another two colleagues and headed over to Brighton for a meal to say goodbye to a colleague who has left. It was a nice evening and I had several interesting conversations with some of the important library people who were there. The food was passable (although I should perhaps make allowances for taste buds dulled by the coughing?), the service, as is so often the case with large groups (21 of us) was pretty dire with long waits and several reminders before getting most of the things we asked for like drinks.

We said our goodbyes to Abi has left and then came home again. I’ve given Ady enough time to get to sleep before I go up and start coughing so I’m off to bed with fairly futile hopes of a better nights sleep.

I worked this morning. It was Baby Rhyme time which I did in the style of a 60 a day smoker, pausing to cough and wheeze between Humpty Dumptying and Row, Row, Rowing my boat. I was very pleasantly surprised to be presented with a card, chocolates, flowers and bottle of wine for me, along with card, sweets and chocolates for Davies and Scarlett from Brenda (big important boss) for Chatterbooks. I particularly liked the words in the cards which clearly showed my efforts and work had been both recognised and appreciated, ditto what she wrote to Davies and Scarlett :).

I had quite a long chat with Brenda about the changing of hours, where the library service is going, oh and my phobia of dogs 😆 There are great changes afoot in the next year or so which may or may not effect me, we’ll have to see.

Ady had taken Davies and Scarlett out with him for the morning and we met back at home for lunch before he went off to finish his days work. With Mum and Dad going to China next week we’re pretty stuffed for childcare in the coming weeks – not at all sure how that is going to pan out 🙁 .

The kids were in very self sufficient moods this afternoon so I left them to it, figuring they’ve had a fairly rushing around doing what other people say type week. So Davies Xboxed, Tarly spent a good hour out with the chickens before having a long bath while I read some of the current book group book and spent far too much time playing Bubble Island (I blame Jax ;)). I think we all needed some downtime in our own seperate ways though. Oh and I spent some time trying to capture a self portrait of me Carol Decker-eqsue. Will upload once I’ve taken the pics off the camera.

Ady came home, I made the kids pancakes for tea (working my way through that egg glut) and we all went to watch a ‘Flipper Show’ in Davies’ bedroom which the kids had put together. It involved Davies on the microphone while Scarlett, dressed as a ‘dolphin trainer’ a soft toy dolphin and a shoe box cut open and coloured in to be a pool along with various cardboard props they’d made such as hoops, balls and fish. Very entertaining :).

We read another large chunk of ‘I was a rat’ I know we’ve arrived at Pullman pretty late but he is rapidly becomming our new favourite author (Andy Stanton watch out!).

Toad in the hole for dinner further reduced the dozens of eggs :).

It’s all going on round here 🙂

I slept much better last night. I have this horrible suspicion that my sleeplessness (I get off to sleep fine but wake in the early hours and can’t get back to sleep again) could be due to alcohol consumption. My drinking has crept up again to levels that aren’t doing me any good generally and I know excessive drinking can have big impacts on sleep. It’s as good a reason as any to cut down again, certainly on a night in-night out basis. Binge drinking will still be fine ;).

So up early again to drive to Havant back to Making Space for a dragon puppet workshop. We were slightly less good at getting out of the house this morning but were on our way by 845am which is still fairly remarkable for us. We did the drive in just 45 minutes again which was great and had us there for 930am, a full half hour before we needed to be. We chatted in the car for a while and then I took Davies and Scarlett in. I’d decided not to stay today, partially because it sort of defeats the object of them doing workshops like that if I’m about and partially because it was stuffy in there and whilst I was feeling lots better the prospect of a couple of hours wandering around the shops alone was far preferable to sitting in a room with a load of kids doing crafts. Also having cast my eye over the names on the workshop I knew they were *all* home ed kids today and I didn’t want to be the mum who hangs around.

Scarlett was none too impressed at this idea but I persuaded her I’d come back early to see what they’d been doing and headed off into the sunshine. I had a wander round the charity shops in the little precinct near Making Space and then drove to the nearby main town and had a look round the charity shops there. I also continued my quest to find Horlicks tablets, which I have since discovered was destined to be fruitless by googling :(. Seems I am not alone in remembering them fondly from childhood or wanting to get some.

I went back at 1130am much to the faint horror of the receptionist ‘but there is still another half an hour!’ and found everyone having a great time making their puppets. Davies had done a rainbow puppet and made some eyebrows to give his dragon some expression. He was doing really well and didn’t need much help at all. Scarlett seemed to be doing really well too but wanted my help once I arrived so I helped her and also made myself useful with some of the other children as one woman was running the workshop on her own. I’ve been pretty impressed with what they do there and would definitely like to do some of the workshops myself. It is very close to the Sustainability Centre so I am half thinking of seeing if they’d be up for some sort of workshop when we’re there in September depending on numbers of other people interested. They are really friendly, great with children and it’s a really relaxed atmosphere with loads of inspirational photos, examples of work and other creative stuff around the studios. Shame it’s so far away but I quite enjoy pretending to be Michelle driving all over the place in the name of Home Ed every once in a while ;).

We were invited to join the other for a picnic lunch in a nearby park but I’d already arranged to call in and see Ady on the way home, besides we didn’t actually have any lunch with us anyway. A quick stop at Ady’s work to collect some logs and see the meadow and area of grass we are planning to go to on Saturday to have a go at pitching our new tent.

We then had to call into Worthing as I needed to pay for a workshop the kids are doing next week at the museum there. Davies stayed in the car while Scarlett and I went to do that. I then asked if they wanted to go to the circus today and was met with the resounding YES PLEASE! that had been absent yesterday. We had time to nip home for lunch first then back out to the circus.

We were sitting in the second row back and the kids really enjoyed the show – a mix of magic, bad jokes, balloon modelling, juggling, tumbling, trapeze and plenty of audience participation. New too this year was Harry the mind reading labrador who once he’d impressed us with jumping through hoops read the mind of an audience member. Who happened to be me 😉 Now I’m happy to concede it was a coincidence but actually I do believe this probably counts as ‘joining the circus’. I’m guessing my talent was spotted (and not just by Harry the mindreading labrador) and they just felt an at one ness with me. 😆 I had to send Harry messages to tell him the number I was thinking of (which had to be odd and between 1 and 4). I don’t wish to overplay my part, and it is true there was no spangly outfit but I do feel it is the first step on the path to my true calling 😆

We went for an ice cream afterwards and had a wander round Brooklands while eating them. The kids both said what a lovely day they’d had and we talked about looking forward to the summer ahead and all the fab stuff we have planned.

We came home and the kids played some xbox while I brought dry washing in, put wet washing out, talked to the chickens (broody hen has come out being broody, only to be replaced straight away by one of the others :rolls: ), thinned some seedlings I sowed a couple of weeks ago and put a few more seeds in.

I made the kids tea and decided thanks to the current egg glut to make quiche for dinner so cooked the bacon and made the pastry for that. As D&S were eating their tea I glanced in my diary and realised I was supposed to be giving blood at 6.10pm and it was about 5.45pm. I missed the last one due to illness and having read carefully all the notes it seemed as I am getting over a cold rather than going down with one I should be fine to donate. So I urged the kids to eat up and we dashed down there. Ady came in before I was seen (I’d texted him) so he took Davies and Scarlett home again while I hung on and donated. For once there was no issue with the prick test but the nurse really struggled to find a vein for the actual donation. With help she did locate one and all was well but I suspect all the poking and prodding will have created a big bruise for tomorrow.

Back home again we started ‘I was a rat’ for stories and Davies was asleep really early (for him) by about 930pm. Scarlett was less good and is still coughing in her sleep now – I suspect the early mornings most of the week have caught up with Davies :).

Ady and I watched Masterchef Australia – I’m so chuffed my favourite is in the final 🙂 and Ady staggered off to bed as he has now fallen prey to the cold 🙁

Can’t believe it’s Friday already tomorrow!

I worked this morning while Dad was here with Davies and Scarlett. My parents are off to China for a month next Tuesday and we’ll miss Dad lots, childcare and company both, although I am pleased they are doing this trip which has been quite a while in the planning and is something Dad particularly is really looking forward to. He talks about being a small boy and looking at maps and atlases and thinking how exciting it would be to voyage to these different lands. Back then it would have been weeks on boats to reach them, now he can fly there in under a day and he is still in utter awe at that being possible and within his reach :).

Work was fine although it felt like it went s l o w l y as I am feeling rough today having got the cold that lay the kids low at the weekend which is making me feel woolly of head, rough of throat and snotty of nose. I am also a bit low level sad thinking of two very dear friends and their respective sadnesses and troubles at the moment 🙁 and have not been sleeping well 🙁 .

I’d had a plan to take the kids to the circus this afternoon – there is a very small circus that sets up at Brooklands (local park with a lake, miniature railway and other expensive attractions on the seafront) every Easter holidays and we missed it last year. It’s pretty reasonable at £3.50 each and they sell tickets on the door so my plan was to wander down there for circus and maybe ice creams.

It turned out the the weather was grey and cold and none of us felt much up to walking there, let alone the prospect of back again potentially in the rain which gave us longer to decide whether to go or not. In the end neither Davies or Scarlett was sufficiently enthusiastic or keen to make me want to leave the sofa either so we stayed home.

We watched The Gruffalo dvd and the making of extras and then Puff the Magic Dragon which I’d picked up at work and was really good – three stories about children, one who didn’t speak, one who told lies and one who didn’t recognise the music in himself. Really nice classic animation and storytelling, took me right back to childhood ;).

I spent some time online and picked up the great news that the Home Ed sections of the DCSF bill haven’t made it through – this time. Interesting reactions from different sections of the Home Ed community ;).

I chopped some firewood and lit the fire then made the kids tea, which pretty much took it out of me for the rest of the evening. I slumped back on the sofa and managed to read the last four or five chapters of Humphrey to the kids, had a bath and raised my glass at 930pm with folk all around the country. Ady cooked a lovely curry (most of which I couldn’t taste 🙁 ) and we’ve watched some taped Masterchef Australia.

I’m hoping for a decent nights sleep and feeling better tomorrow.

I’ve booked a couple of craft workshops at Making Space – really it is too far away (a 50 minute drive on a good clear run, could be 2 hours on a bad day) but the prices are good, they come highly recommended on the local HE list and I’m always up for travelling for interesting possibilities so I booked Medieval Copper Jewellry today, Dragon Puppet Making for Thursday and one for sometime in August in the summer holidays.

Ady had been to drop the payment off and told me it was nice and easy to find so armed with his satnav and a half an hour buffer in journey time we set off at 830am which is far earlier than any of us are good at. Interestingly we managed to be breakfasted, dressed, snack and drink packed, chickens dealt with and the kitchen dealt with from last night within half an hour of my alarm going off though. We’d have never managed that with Ady home. We saw a funny tea towel at the weekend in a garden centre showing how men make a cup of tea with a bloke hanging around waiting for a kettle to boil and how women make a cup of tea with her getting loads of washing on, feeding the cat, writing some cheques and getting something out of the freezer for dinner while the kettle boiled. That is very much the case with Ady and I – he spends more time up and busy than me but I suspect I equal him in terms of productivity thanks to either innate laziness / fantastic time management.

There was no traffic at all thanks to school holidays so we had a nice clear run and were driving round the block three times to find the place a good 25 minutes before we needed to be there. I paid for parking, went to the toilet and we leisurely walked across to the building, arriving at the same time as Zoe, the woman running the workshop.

I went in to look around and settle Davies and Scarlett and was asked if I wanted to stay. I’d planned to go and walk round the shops but both the kids were keen for me to stay so I did. The other attendees were three teenage girls, brothers who I suspected were the children of a localish new to home ed person I’ve nearly crossed paths with a few times but missed actually meeting despite us being friends on facebook and chatting online. A girl who also attends HE book club and a couple of other children I didn’t know and may or may not be HE.

The workshop was good although slightly above Davies and Scarlett. It was delivered in a fairly low key way and the emphasis on medieval styling quickly got lost as the kids all had their own plans in mind. There was some really good stuff turned out by the various children though. Davies made a bangle and encorporated his initials into it, he made a pendant for me and then really warmed up at the end when he made a star enclosing a bit of rose quartz which was lovely. Scarlett made a ring, a bracelet and various pendants but really came into her own at the end when they were hammering and texturing pieces. I decided if I was there I’d made something and made a couple of pendants. I quite like the creativity but suspect wire working isn’t for me, far too hurty on the fingers 😆

I introduced myself when the supsected mother of HE kids came to collect them and was right so had a quick chat with her, thanked the women running the workshop and we left. I’d been a bit fed up with both Davies and Scarlett for being a bit feeble about coming up with idea / executing them without a lot of support from me but when Davies fell asleep on the way home and I started to come down with whatever they have I realised both their feebleness and my intolerance were more likely a result of illness rather than the workshop. Nevertheless I suspect copper jewellry making is not for us but I’m glad we had a go and I love the resource that is Making Space. I suspect Dragon Puppets will be far more Davies and Scarlett’s thing and know there is a smaller class group for that session too. I’m planning on not staying for that and will see if that helps too.

We called into Hobbycraft on the way home, simply as we were passing by the door. The children have both been after making a soft toy so I showed them the ready cut kits and they chose one of the very small ones each – Davies a snail and Scarlett a guinea pig. I much prefer making up designs as I go along but thought for very amateur sewers like them these kits might be better – I remember having a white cat kit when I was about Davies’ age.

Home for a late lunch and I began to slump rather and would have prefered to have been left alone to drink my tea. But I assisted with threading needles and reading directions for the kits, they both made really good starts with them. They were also both very enthusiastic about the workshop this morning which is so similar to previous experiences where I have thought they’ve got nothing out of something only to realise later that they did get loads out of it but internalised and processed it rather than being obvious at the time.

I helped and encouraged and then made their tea. Ady came home along with an organ he’d picked up (we decided as getting my parents piano over here is less than straightforward but Davies is interested in playing about on it we’d pick up a cheap organ to see if the novelty wears off or interest grows) which was an instant hit. Davies says he wants to learn more and I have a couple of keyboard books around to share with him aswell as Dad here tomorrow morning who is grade 8 on the piano but has not played since he achieved that as a youngish child. He said last week he had a twinge of regret for not keeping it up and I am secretly hoping Davies might persuade him to play a little. I remember him playing ‘Green Door’ for me when I was young and in my ‘I love Shakin Stevens’ phase but my Mum has never heard him play.

I read some Humphrey and am now feeling quite rough. Thankfully although we have something happening every morning this week we are quite free every afternoon so pm slumping is on the cards all week.

Saturday was Wildlife Explorers. After a wobble last month Davies has decided to rejoin the younger group. I was quite surprised at his wobble, particularly as I suspect it has much to do with expectations of him to read and write, just at a point where he is doing well with both and making some real headway but I was deeply impressed with the way the leader, Diane, dealt with it all. I haven’t been around for all the WEX (as they call it) meetings as they often fall on Saturdays that I work so I don’t know her that well but have always read all the newsletters that get sent to the kids each term and seen the crafts and activities they bring home. When Davies ran out last month she was really calm, went to great lengths to make him feel okay about it, reassure him it was fine, persuade him to come back for some or all of the session and try to find out what was wrong so she could put it right. I thought then she was great :). She’d rung here on Friday to say she was hoping Davies would be at one of the sessions on Saturday and looked forward to seeing him whichever he wanted to attend.

So I took Davies in slightly early while Ady and Scarlett had a look round the shop, spoke to Diane who was delighted to see Davies (I think she was really worried he wouldn’t come at all), thanked her for her phonecall and for being so great about the whole thing and then took Tarly in. I think Davies has just really struggled with the longer time of the session (one hour to two and a half hours is a pretty big jump) along with all new faces of children plus an expectation of him to be able to read and write and pull off more advanced stuff with less support. There are more kids in the bigger group too. Scarlett will technically be able to move up when she is 8 in December although I suspect if Davies struggled she might too but at least they will probably now move up together and I know that not only is Diane prepared to accomodate them and their particular needs she is very keen and able to do so :).

With just an hour to spare and an ever darkening sky Ady and I decided to be lazy and spent the time in the cafe rather than walk round. We had a mug of coffee and a pot of tea which came to £2.50 and filled the whole tray with little jugs, pots of hot water, tea, spoons and cups and saucers. I know that isn’t cheap for just two drinks but all of the different component parts made it feel like we’d got a real bargain 😆 Or maybe I’m still enough of a child to get a thrill out of pretending to be a grown up at a tea party ;).

Davies and Scarlett had spent the whole hour out on the reserve (and had to borrow wellies (Davies, I thought he’d picked his up, he thought I’d picked them up :rolls:) and coat (Scarlett, she only had a fleece) and had spotted adders and learnt about how they are cold blooded and need to bask in the sun to soak up the heat. They were given some chocolate eggs each and we left.

We had a plan to visit a camping shop as we were on the look out for a third tent (the big Outwell is fine for our longer jaunts, the mini tent is great for chucking up for one night / in friends gardens when it is literally just serving as a temporary bedroom, but we wanted something inbetween the two as a genuine weekender / two or three night tent) but we also wanted to get Scarlett a book as an Easter present. Davies had 2 x box games (from charity shops) ready for his and Scarlett had been eyeing up a wildlife spotter book in the Pulborough Brooks visitor centre the last few times we’d been there so I thought we’d grab that for her but it wasn’t there. She said she wanted a book to fit in her rucksack with more information about British Wildlife. Ady knew of a localish garden centre with a Works concession selling cheap books which we were halfway to being at Pulborough Brooks so we decided to go there instead.

We did indeed get a book for her (A field guide to the wildlife of the British Isles along with Spot 50 insects) and picked up a book for Davies too (Spot 50 trees) and Davies and I did the ‘Spot the Bunny’ competition they had around the garden centre while Ady and Scarlett browsed. When we realised chocolate treats were on offer for completing the bunny hunt Scarlett decided she would deign to write the answers on a sheet, copied from Davies’ and they both claimed a tiny Lindt bunny each :).

We came home with enough time to have some lunch before heading out again. Scarlett seemed to be coming down with a cold but happy enough in herself so after lunch we headed over to Ros’ for her Easter Egg Hunt party. As usual when Ros has a party it is one worth attending as the food, company, surroundings and general atmosphere are always fantastic :). Ady and I really enjoyed just sitting out in the sunshine while the kids went off and played. Eventually some of us adults hid and scattered the HUGE amounts of chocolate eggs around the grounds, in bushes and trees and flower beds and up in the woods before releasing the children with loot bags to find them all :).

When all the eggs had been successfully tracked down we got the kids to line up in age order and hold up their spoils; they had all done very well 🙂

More playing, chatting, gathering round the fire and enjoying the sunshine 🙂

Ady and I had a game of pool, then Scarlett and one of the lads had a game, which was most amusing to watch and listen to 🙂

Apparently no one won, they mutually decided they’d got bored and agreed to stop and find something more fun to do instead 😆

The rest of the kids all watched Doctor Who, more food came out which Davies and Scarlett partook of but Ady and I had curry slowly cooking at home (and it was early for us to be eating ;)). We left as it started to get dark and the threatened rain finally started to pour.

Home for a sleepover for Davies and Scarlett as promised (they begged on account of it being Easter the following day and therefore a special occassion and for Scarlett having seen a few snippets of Doctor Who and deciding she was *bound* to have nightmares if she slept alone 😆 ), curry for Ady and I and the taped Doctor Who for us to watch properly.

We went off to bed having laid out the books and x box games along with a selection of mini eggs strewn around the lounge.

Sunday started fairly early for Davies and Scarlett, less early for us as we agreed they could indeed go downstairs, eat chocolate and play x box games if they wanted :). We were both presented with the home made boxes and chocolates from our day with Tasha last week and Scarlett had painted a canvas for Davies of Simpsons characters too. I also got gifted the various chocolate eggs that the kids had found at the egg hunt but decided they didn’t like. I bought Ady a selection of egg shaped, only foil packaging eggs and he bought me a bottle of caramel Baileys :).

We had a fairly lazy morning although I made a cake (my most favourite cake of Baileys and chocolate brownie cake with baileys and chocolate meringue – two layers of each sandwiched together with Baileys and chocolate whipped cream. It is delicious, if I do say so myself :)) which solved the dessert dilemma and used up some eggs. Ady got roast dinner on and my parents arrived.

Mum has clearly been paying attention as she had given the children sensible gifts and a single, unpackaged other than foil wrapped egg each. Davies got a Science Museum star constellation kit and a Simpsons 3d chess board and figures – all from charity shops and Scarlett got a new top and trousers (charity shop again) and a book and dvd of Big Cats. Very successful gifts 🙂

Ady and Davies got stuck straight into a game of chess and I’ve been really impressed with how quickly Davies grasped the rules and idea of the game. I can’t play so have no idea what is going on with it all. Scarlett and I spent lots of time looking at her books and she did some of a kit she got from us for making sea life fridge magnets with plaster of paris.

We had a lovely roast pork dinner, served with plenty of fizz and folllowed by my lovely cake and triple layered jellies for kids topped with whipped cream and wafers which they were most excited about – my kids LOVE jelly :).

More chess for Davies and Ady, Scarlett spent some time snuggled up with my Mum and Dad looking at her globe, an atlas and a book we had on the shelf about China seeing where my parents are off on a month long trip to next week (China, touring about including a 7 day river cruise and taking in all sorts of sights including the Great Wall and Tianamen Square).

Davies and Scarlett went to bed (another sleepover) and Mum, Dad, Ady and I spent a very nice evening listening to music and comedy sketches and drinking quite a lot more wine and beer.

Monday a slower start thanks to sleepovers, wine and beer :). Ady did a spectacular cooked breakfast and for some reason we all watched Toy Story on video. Davies enjoyed the nostalgia – it was his very first Grand Davies Passion when he was 2 and very much the shape of things to come with all his subsequent passions) while Ady and I just enjoyed it for being a good film :).

Both Davies and Scarlett were feeling / looking a bit peaky but I was feeling a bit cabin-fevery after being in ALL DAY LONG yesterday so was keen to go out. It’s been a gorgeously sunny day all day so we persuaded them it would be good to go and look at tents and get the duck eggs we’ve planned need to start being incubated this week to fit in with May and June’s busy calendar of weekends away in terms of hatching and being fully fledged to go outside.

First port of call was DW Camping for tent perusal. I had a budget of £100 in mind for a medium sized tent and we found one with lots of money knocked off reduced to £130. We have since found it cheaper online (although not much once you factor in shipping and several places don’t actually have it in stock) but the service there is really good with lots of come back potential so we went for it and bought it. 🙂 I am itching to have a go at pitching it but for now have satisfied myself with checking all the parts are there and being impressed with the triple section bag (poles, ground sheet and flysheet all in seperate zipped compartments which roll together in one bag, I figure you wouldn’t put a crappy tent in such an impressive bag :lol:). It’s a Royal Memphis 400 in green (which caused some consternation, ALL of our previous tents have been blue :lol:) and I think it’s going to suit our needs perfectly.

We left there and went to The Old Gardens Rescue Centre for a look around and to check their ducks eggs are likely to be fertilised. Having chatted to one of the women there for a bit, admired the turkeys and peacocks, looked at the ex battery hens and looked over the ducks they have there we picked up half a dozen freshly laid eggs to bring home, incubate and hope for results :).

We drove along to Brent Lodge which is nearby and has an impressive selection of owls and other birds of prey aswell as whatever is in their currently convalesing – today it was an swan, a couple of herring gulls, a fox cub and some geese. We chatted to the volunteer there for a while and invisaged Scarlett working somewhere similar some day .

We made a brief stop at Pagham Harbour as we were driving past and I’d never been and had a quick walk around the first leg of the footpaths, stopping to try and identify a bird which I was sure was a ‘red something’. I was proven right when Scarlett found it in one of her bird books and confirmed it was a red shank. She’s loving her little mobile library of wildlife and bird id books :).

Then it was time to come home. I fed the kids, while Ady cleaned his car out. Ady and Davies had another game of chess while Scarlett and I researched duckling incubation a bit more and then they got into pjs and I read some Humphrey to them. I chopped up the fire wood (ever conscious I won’t be swimming this week so wanting to grab exercise where I can) and Ady cooked some chips to go with the leftover game pie from last week which was just as delicious a second time round :).

And in typing this last night this would appear to be the moment I fell asleep over my laptop 😆 I woke at nearly 2am and staggered off to bed. I suspect other than watching Masterchef and eating the ears off my chocolate bunny I’d pretty much finished my account of the day anyway.

We had a plan to meet Caz, Bid and boys at the allotment this morning so we headed up there and Bid and the boys joined us a while later. The weather has meant we’ve not spent much time at all there lately but it was good to see the onions and garlic Caz and I had put in were already shooting. I dug over some raised beds, pulled out some dead chilli plants and just turned over the soil they’d been in as they had self seeded loads of seeds so I just dug them in and we’ll see what happens with them.

Ady was desperate to ‘do digging’ so he made trenches for potatoes and dug the compost bin in properly. I had a good clear out of the tool store, turned the open compost heap over and generally gathered up rubbish and put it into bags. The kids mostly made a fire in the old washing machine drum we have up there and then Bid and the boys arrived just as it began to rain. Bid took all the kids up into the woodland while Ady and I finished up – he put in some seed potatoes Bid had brought along while I finished my tidying up. The bags of rubbish were drenched by then so we decided not to take them away with us after all. It was a good couple of hours even if rain did prevent us from being as productives as we’d have liked.

Ady and I walked up the hill to find Bid and the kids who had been trying to do den building. Davies and Bid seemed to be the only ones still loving it, with the other three all looking pretty cold, wet and miserable so we decamped to our house and the kids played, Scarlett had a very long bath and Bid, Ady and I chatted.

The time ran away with us and it was soon time for them to leave and us to head off to my Granny’s where we’d arranged to be. My parents had not long arrived so that was nice :). We had a pleasant couple of hours round there – the kids mostly played out in her garden, Ady mostly played with his phone, my Dad and I mostly teased each other and my Mum and Granny mostly sniped at each other – typical family gathering really, it’s unsurprising we are not clamouring for chances to do it more often ;).

We left there and called into Morrisons for a few supplies for the weekend before coming home. The kids had tea, I had a bath, I read a bit of Humphrey to them and they had a very late bedtime, then I had a very enjoyable time in the kitchen singing along to some music (Neil Diamond, Cure, Paloma Faith, Nina Simone for anyone interested) while cooking dinner while Ady had a bath.

We ate dinner, watched taped Masterchef Australia and as we have to be up early in the morning for Wildlife Explorers I really should go to bed.

I worked this morning, just for 3 hours which went very quickly. I did the banking first thing and then had a 90 minute debrief of Chatterbooks session with Cara (Childrens Librarian) and Russell (Childrens Services Senior Librarian). They had various questions which I rather pre-empted by presenting them both with a report on the whole Chatterbooks experience with stats about attendance, feedback from children and parents, a summary of each session, improvement opportunities and suggestions for the future. It was an interesting discussion though, I got all the points I wanted to make across, was bigged up for what I had done and taken very seriously. I was then asked if I’d consider doing it again for the 10 children on the waiting list if I was completely supported and had a third person to totally take over the refreshments etc.

I had said I wouldn’t do it again unless they paid me but I got swept up ;). Although they have emailed Brenda (big boss) to ask if I can get paid at least for the hour a week I do the sessions so we’ll wait and see what happens. I do have a bit of a conscience about that waiting list of names that were taken with the promise of another session running though and as all the actual prep and planning work is already done I would be prepared to run it again for that group, learn more from working with different children and of course be better supported anyway.

I can’t deny it felt nice to be in a proper meeting talking about higher level stuff than just issuing books even if I had to volunteer to get there. I have missed that element to working given the responsibilities I had in previous jobs before children.

I came down with only an hour before I was going home during which I was on the Enquiry Desk. I greeted several regular borrowers, worked through a list of books one wanted to borrow, chatted to a couple of the Story Time Mums and had a little audience of 5 of the storytime children who came out of Storytime, saw me on the desk and came to chat to me there. For someone who really, truly, genuinely doesn’t like children I do seem to spend an awful lot of time in their company…

I came home and Dad who had been here for the morning headed off as he was keen to make the most of the sunshine and do some work this afternoon. He and the children had had a nice morning together watching a film, playing with the lego and just chatting. They are getting so much out of each others company at the moment 🙂

I made lunch, shaped some hot cross buns to prove while we were out and then we headed out to Hove for a Seed Bomb Workshop. We’d been supposed to attend one a while back but a rainy day and a refusing to start car put paid to that, thankfully I was able to get us on another workshop for today.

The workshops are being run by Harvest which is an initiative in Brighton and Hove to get people growing and eating local food. I know we don’t strictly live in Brighton but we are close enough to be considered local and I love the ethos and ideas. I’d not heard of seedbombs before but they even sound fascinating so I was keen to learn more and the very best way to learn is to do. So along we went!

We arrived with time to spare, found a parking space right outside the door and then I realised we’d not stopped to get cash out to pay for the workshops so I left Davies and Scarlett in the car and dashed to what I was expecting to be a very nearby cashpoint. It turned out to be rather further away and I felt rather Anneka Rice-esque dashing along the street. I bumped into Liza and Andrew who helped to direct me to a cashpoint, I waited behind a bloke who seemed to take forever and then dashed back to the car again, even nipping under a ladder in my haste. I paid for parking and in we went.

The workshop was being run by Josie from seed freedom who introduced herself, explained what a seed bomb is and talked about guerilla gardening. There was Davies, Scarlett and I, and four other women there so it was a pretty small workshop. There was a quiz to get us going, matching up the seeds to the flowers which Davies and Scarlett had some directional help with but pretty much did on their own.

Then it was onto the actual seed bomb making. For those who have not clicked the links a seed bomb is a little ‘bomb’ of compost and clay containing seeds. They remain in suspended animation within the little ball until activated by water at which point the seeds are already enclosed in all they need to germinate and start growing. They are used for lobbing into wasteland, roundabouts or other graffiti style gardening or are an efficient way to sow seeds for various reasons (if you’re interested in that then click the link, Josie explains it far better than me ;)).

Scarlett had been initially fretful that she might not want to talk to ‘strangers’ to which Davies and I tried to tell her ‘there are no strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet’ but actually she didn’t stop talking for pretty much the whole time :). We mixed 9 scoops of a compost and clay mix with one small scoop of seeds, added water and shaped balls to create seed bombs. They need to dry out and are then ready to store, carry round ready for a guerilla gardening opportunity or reactivate at the right time.

Scarlett and Davies very quickly got creative when realising actually balls were not the only possibility and made bees for their bee mix of flowers along with hearts and stars. Davies then went really creative for his basil mix and made a fox, a brush, a pizza and some letter Bs. I made bombs for my bee mix and stars for my edible salad leaf mix. It was very enjoyable and quite theraputic.

Scarlett nattered away to everyone and when Josie suggested the children keep a seed bomb diary as part of their Easter holiday homework they told her they don’t go to school as they are Home Educated, explained a bit about how we do it and were then most impressed to learn that Josie herself was Home Educated. Her parents are / were travellers so she grew up in Wales, moving around and said she learnt about chopping wood, self sufficiency and spent a lot of time looking after her younger siblings. She has 3 boys of her own who go to school but did say if she’d stayed in Wales maybe she would have HE’d them.

Once everyone had made two sets of seedbombs we packaged them all up to bring home to dry and the seed matching results were announced with Davies and Scarlett both winning 🙂 Their prize was a seedbomb making kit each which they were most chuffed with and are looking forward to sharing with Ady so he can learn about it too.

As we left Josie wished us luck with our HE journey and said she had gone to uni and got her degree with no previous schooling and no GCSEs. Really cool to meet living proof of HE producing such a sorted person who makes her living doing something she is really passionate about, believes in and truly loves :).

We came home via Sainsburys for various Easter related supplies. Davies and Scarlett went off to play with the lego while I finished the hot cross buns and made game pie. Ady had found some game mix on offer at Sainsbury reduced from £5 to 99p last night – a mix of venison, rabbit, partridge, pigeon, pheasant and duck. So I cooked that up, made some rough puff pastry , reduced the stock to make gravy and constucted a very delicious (if I do say so myself) pie. Davies and Scarlett had an ecclectic mix of soup, baked beans, bacon and bread and butter at their own request, followed by yoghurt and honey and banana.

I read some Humphrey, Ady took over the rest of the dinner (he did saute potatoes, sweetcorn and gravy) while I had a bath and sorted out his laptop which is playing up.

Dinner was late, I’m worn out and should really be in bed as tomorrow is another busy day :).

Up far too early this morning even with me more or less adjusted to the hour. Ady spirited the children away to spend the morning at Julie’s while I went off to work. I had been scheduled to work all day tomorrow this week but we had the ill-fated seed bomb workshop rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon so I split my shift and worked this morning and will work tomorrow morning. There, a perfect glimpse into the fascinating minutae of my life ;).

So they all departed, I got dressed and gathered books and stuff to return and contemplated Candle the cat who I really do think is on her last legs now. I suspect she has weeks rather than months left. She has been blind now for about a year and is literally skin and bone, she spends most of her time in her basket asleep and has not made it upstairs now for two weeks. She still seems happy enough sleeping next to the radiator and getting plenty of love and stroking but I think her time is drawing near. This will be a HUGE deal for the children, particularly Scarlett. My beloved cat died when I was about 8 and I remember being devastated for weeks. I have since learnt, via something my Mum said to Ady without thinking that the story I was told about her being found peacefully dead one afternoon was not strictly true and that actually I was kept out of the way while Dad did the deed (not sure by what means, I like to assume vets) before coming home with Mum and having the news broken to me. I recall sitting on my Dad’s lap sobbing ‘No, no, no’ and really struggling to come to terms with my first experience of death. Davies and Scarlett lost Malice a couple of years ago and have lost various chickens and fish over the years so it won’t be a complete shock but Candle has been around since long before they were so there will be a definite hole when the time finally comes. There most definitely won’t be any shielding from the truth though. I hope it is a case of coming downstairs one morning, or coming home from being out one day and finding her peaceful in her basket having drifted away.

I say all this and she’ll probably still be going strong this time next year 😆

I had a good morning at work, caught up with Yvonne who has been given the vastly reduced hours she requested so is very pleased. I spent some time on my ‘subversive parenting display’ – I had ordered in loads of John Holt, Alfie Kohn and similar books to display with a good selection of Home Ed titles (And the Skylark sings with me, Teach Your Own), some Idle Parent, some Continuum Concept and so on. Be interesting to see if it is frowned on, well recieved or creates chaos! One of my colleagues with young children took out Punished By Rewards though saying it looked really interesting and another was asking me about Raising Your Spirited Child in respect of her granddaughter. I think the fact Davies and Scarlett are so well known in the library and considered really ‘nice’ kids means I have given some credibility to my crazy parenting notions :).

I put the finishing touches to a report about Chatterbooks too ready for a debriefing meeting we are having tomorrow on the subject. I am keen to get my points across while protecting my personal ideas and intiatives from becomming library property. Should be an interesting meeting…

I left work and headed over to Julie’s to collect Davies and Scarlett. They had had a lovely morning getting muddy at the stables then playing with Jack, Maisie and Lorna. Julie and I had a cup of tea and a catch up and planned some more getting togethers over the next month or so. Julie is definitely someone I miss lots when I don’t see enough of her. Chris is being an arse at the moment (he does regularly) so I’ve told Ady and he is planning a Big Brother Meeting in the next few days to set him straight.

We came home and the kids had an early tea, I gathered eggs (8 today – woohoo!) and did some reading of Joyce’s book :). I plaited Scarlett’s hair and all three of us arrived at Badgers looking reluctantly smart. Julie asked outright if I thought I might one day want to be a Badger Leader and I said no, feel quite relieved to have set that record straight as I could see it steam rollering. I confessed that actually I’m not that keen on children and she was astonished and said I hid it really well. I realised I am quite fond of several of the children but it all goes back to viewing children as individuals and realising in a room full of individuals I am bound to like a few and not like a few and a room full of children is just that. Next term we are all working together on the same badge so I think that will improve things – I’ll enjoy it for the time I am there and gladly walk away when my time is done. I have arranged that it will be fine for Davies to come along too in September and he can use that time to go towards some Cadet awards too which is good for him.

We did presentation night with badges and awards handed out. Ady arrived in time to watch and then took Davies and Scarlett home while I hung on with the other leaders waiting for a parent to collect the last Badger.

Home for a couple of chapters of Humphrey before bed.

We had a couple of interesting conversations sparked by the radio today. One was from Scarlett listening to a John Lee Hooker song and asking me if all big deep voiced singers were big people. I agreed they tended to be and asked her what she thought John Lee Hooker might look like, she described all sorts of things about him including what he might be wearing. I asked what colour skin she thought he had and she was surprised to be asked as that hadn’t even factored in her imaginings. I did promise to show her some pictures of him online but forgot so must do that tomorrow.

The other was listening to some homework slot on Simon Mayo which had algebra. Davies was listening and said he didn’t understand what was going on so we talked about being able to get full answers from part answers if we tried. I explained that N (Nic) = D (Davies) + 27 which is fine if we know what D is but what if we don’t. We then said that D = S (Scarlett) +2 which is fine if we know what S is. If we then disclose that S = 7 we can turn it round to show that D= 7+2 = 9 so N= 9+27=36. Which made perfect sense to him.

Finally Davies perfectly recited his a-z today. No big deal for a 9 year old obviously but I’ve never taught him it, considering that apart from filing or using a paper dictionary actually the alphabet is pretty useless. He said having learnt the twinkle twinkle little star song on the piano he knew that ABC was the same tune so had found it in a Dr Seuss book and taught himself it as a song. Wow :). As ever I am impressed, despite myself, at how very quickly they pick things up when the time is right for them. We are currently learning months of the year having done days of the week once in a half hour car trip. Maybe we should cover something like the period table on the way to Scotland later in the year…

Tasha and I had decided as part of boycotting packaged Easter eggs we’d do some making chocolate treats this year with the kids so today was the nominated Chocolatiers Day.

We nipped into Lancing first thing to collect some cling film and paint brushes from the pound shop along with some mini eggs and arrived pretty much on time. As an aside we seem to have caught up with the rest of the UK quicker than expected and are now functioning quite happily on BST, so it seems 20 minutes each overnight suits us rather than the 10 I’d been expecting. Still think 60 is way too much to expect all in one go mind you…

Tasha and I had a quick catch up with each other; wedding news, work stuff, bitching generally, that sort of thing 😉 and then we kicked off with the chocolate making. Tasha had done an amazing job of planning and getting in supplies and while she melted the first batch of chocolate I read which was very good but did make me start to feel ethically opposed to chocolate generally what with all the air miles it contains ( clearly things like calories don’t bother me but I do have issues with air miles 😉 ).

We started with chocolate coated shredded wheat (supermarket own brand, fret not) so the kids got busy breaking up shredded wheat into the melted chocolate and syrup mix and then made little nest shapes and put mini eggs in them.

Next they made white chocolate, chocolate spread, hazelnut and final layer of white chocolate delicacies and we cleared up a little while they went off to play. Four children, chocolate and creativity makes for a fair bit of clearing up ;).

We called them back for truffle balls although Scarlett had come back early as she wasn’t keen on whatever game the boys were playing and was much more interested in the mechanics of the chocolate making in the kitchen. So we set her to work smashing up biscuits into crumbs with a rolling pin instead 🙂

Added butter and melted chocolate to the mix we gave them a lump each to roll into balls and cover with dessicated coconut, chopped nuts or chocolate sprinkles to create truffle balls.

More playing by the children in the interval of clearing up and preparing the next delights before we called them back for peppermints creams and peanut butter chocolates. The peanut butter was milk chocolate, a rolled lump of peanut butter and icing sugar mix and then another splash of milk chocolate, sort of Reeces Cups style. Scarlett later did some white chocolate drizzling on hers but she was getting all fancy by that stage :).

Peppermint creams were supposed to have been chocolate dipped but the chocolate didn’t want to melt down properly so we went for peppermint cream discs instead. The boys wandered off again while Tasha, Scarlett and I did some faffling about with them – I made some pinwheels of chocolate and mint, Tasha did some little cases filled with both and Scarlett mostly licked icing sugar off her fingers 😆 In one of the books I’d taken round with chocolate and sweet recipes it has a recipe for lemon and orange creams so we’re going to have a go at them over the next couple of days I think.

Our final piece was the mold I had taken round which we coated with cling film and the kids painted melted chocolate onto. It didn’t come out so well, not sure if it was enthusiastic kids and paintbrushes runkling the clingfilm, a complete failure on the part of the mold or a need for much thinner layers of chocolate built up but hey chocolate is chocolate so they ate the results 😆

We finished off by putting their creations artfully and tastefully (or indeed shovelling them in as Scarlett did having said ‘I just like shovelling things in’ which Tasha and I agreed could be a motto for life really) into Tasha’s fab boxes. We were infact so impressed with them that when we came home we found a book we could rip pages out of to make some more of our own.

We had some lunch – Tasha had made some very delicious sweet potatoe and butternut squash soup and then left as we had swimming to get ready for and they had Circus Skills.

Back home we had about half an hour before swimming so we had a go at making our own boxes from the brief tutorial Tasha had given me. I managed to find an old library book on fossil fuels which has created fab little boxes with lots of pictures of maps with coal mines around the world and text about alternative energies :). So we’ve managed a low packaging impact Easter on the chocolate front at least :).

Swimming was good – the last lesson of the term for Scarlett and Davies so mostly fun with inflatables and games in the pool for them while I managed my best ever 53 lengths in an hour :). I did get most cross with the gaggles of people who hang out at either end of the pool in the lane swimming area chatting though – THERE IS THE WHOLE OF THE REST OF THE POOL FOR THAT, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO USE THE 4 FOOT RESERVED FOR PEOPLE ACTUALLY SERIOUS ABOUT SWIMMING!!!! – I need to decide whether I will not bother swimming for the next 2 weeks which only gives me one session before my Swimathon of whether I’ll make a special journey to the pool in the meantime and in which case whether that will be with or without children?

Back home (with aching knees) I chopped firewood, gathered eggs, cooked the kids tea and was about to sit down when Ady arrived home so I hung out in the kitchen chatting to him instead. I spoke to Julie on the phone and the kids watched a Simpsons video Ady had got them from a charity shop. I managed to execute a system restore on the old laptop that Ady uses to beat a nasty virus it had picked up (although it is still doing a very long scan now and I suspect it is not totally fixed), had baths, didn’t like the prawn pasta Ady had cooked (but had already expected not to like so it didn’t surprise either of us), watched Richard Hammond’s Invisible World and taped Masterchef Australia.

I’m working in the morning so really need to go to bed and try and catch up that last elusive ten minutes…

We were supposed to be on a Dinosaur Walk this afternoon in Hastings but it had been postponed due to the weather leaving us with a free day. We are still 40 minutes behind the rest of the UK thanks to our 10 minute daily increments to catch up to the whole BST thing so found ourselves at nearly midday having not long breakfasted and watched most of Back to the Future III pondering what to do with our day.

After some discussion we decided to head into Worthing to continue Ady’s Second Hand Shoes Quest without him. I told Davies and Scarlett they could have £1 each to spend however they chose but gave them some guidance on spending it wisely and checking in with themselves that nothing they might later find for sale would trump what they had in their hand before making purchases. There are about 12 charity shops in the town centre so I put 2 hours parking on the car and we set off. It rained fairly solidly for the duration but we had a nice couple of hours. I got a couple of new tops, Davies got a couple of new tops and Scarlett got about six new tops (when I say new I mean new to us obviously) which she is in need of as her wardrobe consists of things she has grown out of, things she now considers too pink to wear and things that are too stained with nail varnish / paint / Scarlett’s potions to wear out in public – that child has the biggest selection of ‘alright for just playing in’ clothes ever. But no shoes for Ady 🙁

Scarlett found a soft toy eagle in one of the shops and debated spending her pound on it – it was in as new condition but she struggled with spending the whole pound in one go and even asked the woman at the counter twice how much she wanted for it :). I love her confidence in going up to the counter and chatting to the volunteers in charity shops, infact both the kids are great at this and completed all their own transactions today. We only got one ‘no school today?’ question with a very nice ‘Good for you!’ response to the Home Ed answer 🙂 Clearly no one would have been able to level any issue at my super brave, confident children working out how much money they’d have left or socialising / talking to people anyway :). Scarlett also found some random thing for sale and when I couldn’t give her an answer as to what it was she took it to the counter and asked and had several of the staff pondering over it trying to give her a reply :).

The eagle was eventually haggled for when the shop manager came out to check what Scarlett’s dilemma was and she got it for 50p, hence spending half and saving half – Davies brought his whole pound home :). We also ventured into a cheap shop as Scarlett really needed pjs – all of hers are aged 5-6years ones that Davies finally grew out of. Kids pjs don’t seem to come up in charity shops so I resorted to buying new – she found two sets of two pairs for £6 each – so 4 pairs for £12 which I thought was not too bad. We also found various tops they both liked for £2 each and I ended up with a huge bag of tops, pjs and socks for £20.

Employing both children at different times to distract the other I also bagged an X box game for Davies and a plaster mould sea life kit for Scarlett that they’d respectively spotted but had been outside their budget to give as Easter gifts.

Scarlett was then reminded of the really cool old fashioned sweetshop we use and so we decided to call into that parade of shops, which also has 3 charity shops on the way home. Charity shops merely netted a further 2 tops for Davies and 1 for Scarlett rather than any shoes for Ady but we had a very nice 15 minutes with the sweet shop owner selecting sweeties to bring home.

Not getting home until nearly 4pm we decided to go for late lunch / early tea /try and make sense of the whole clocks leaping about malarky with a HUGE meal for the kids. They watched the end of Back to the Future III and ate lots, I did laundry processing and chicken worrying and a chunk of book reading (still enjoying it J 🙂 ) and then we lit the fire and snuggled up to read some Humphrey (enjoying the latest Humphrey book – Holidays according to Humphrey, has C got it yet Mich?).

Ady came home, the kids went to bed with the intention of having them asleep within two hours (they went to bed at 7.15pm which is ridiculously early even when it wasn’t 6.15pm 48 hours ago but S was asleep by 10pm and D by 11pm which is pretty good going anyway even without the hour so it worked on some level). I cooked toad in the hole and adhered rather too closely to the Keith FFloyd style of cooking so probably need to go to bed soon as I’ll only be half an hour behind the rest of you come the morning…

We’d rather foolishly based our weekend plans around the weather forecast. Our original plan had been allotment with friends on Saturday afternoon, Sunday all day in the garden. We amended that when the weather forecast for today was dire and arranged to go to my parents for lunch instead. What actually happened was yesterday afternoon was no good prompting a last minute cancellation of allotment plans and today was fine until at least 430pm so we could have done allotmenting or gardening after all but we were at my parents instead.

I have a very clever bedside clock which works on radio waves or black magic or something and magically knows what time it is all by itself, however I never quite believe it does and so am always thrown by the spring forward / fall back clock changing-ness and whether it has indeed really changed. This meant that when I was woken at 830am by Ady and the kids being noisy I couldn’t decide it if was really 830am as in 24 hours ago it would have only been 730am or if it was actually 930am now in which case I should probably get up. I decided to risk believing in the clock and went back to sleep for another hour, eventually descending at 945am which turned out to indeed be 945am rather than 845am or even 1045am. I do like to live life on the edge ;). I have since decided a whole hour all at once is far too much to deal with and will be allowing ten minute increments over the next 6 days instead to alllow my internal body clock to adjust at a friendlier pace. Not sure what work will make of this on Wedneday when I will only be 40 minutes into this system mind you…

This morning was quite laid back with the kids watching Back to the Future that they’d started watching last night but had to turn off in favour of Earth Hour, which I know wasn’t dictating turning the TV off but I felt as many electrical things as possible should be ubplugged including TVs and laptops. We also took it in turns to shove a hen off some eggs as she is going broody and getting very cross with us for preventing her answering her calling to motherhood ;).

We then went over to my parents for lunch, taking some quiche and lemon meringue pie with us to share. My Dad and I had a very interesting and heated debate about politics, racism, law and order and more. I adore my Dad and am very like him on many levels, infact that was one of our conclusions from the debate, but he does frustrate me for not having passions or deeply held convictions. Whilst he could concede that many things were wrong or not okay there is nothing he would take up a banner and march for or protest against and whilst I don’t consider myself someone who craves campaigning in any way I certainly do hold many firmly held convictions that I would fight for if the need arose.

Scarlett, who is not used to such levels of debate didn’t really enjoy being around it which was a shame as it was all very amicable and ‘gentlemanly’ but she isn’t really used to conflict at all. A stark contrast to what I was very used to as the norm when I was her age living with my parents…

We all talked about Mum and Dad’s upcoming trip to China which they set off for in 2 weeks and are looking forward to a lot. I think they’ll have a fabulous time :). Other topics for the afternoon including beekeeping and having watched Countryfile we discussed HD (Mum and Dad have it so we observed the difference between BBC HD Countryfile and BBC1 Countryfile – quite a big difference as it turns out), free range dairy farming and the harshness of the winter this year.

Having had a really nice afternoon we came home at 7pm (which I am calling 1810). We’d already decided against roast dinner tonight as lunch at my parents is always HUGE and prohibits any sort of early dinner on the same day. Ady cooked steak and chips for the kids who were watching Back to the Future II which led to all sorts of ‘if I travelled into the future and watched myself I would keep that memory and then look for myself in the future’ type conversations which made all of our heads hurt 😆

Davies and Scarlett were late (but not as late as the clock said) to bed, we were very late (but not as late as the clock said) with our dinner. And now it’s bedtime.

I worked this morning. I spent the first hour putting up a Chatterbooks display – I’d booked the public display space and have created a display using some photographs taken during the sessions and some artwork created during the sessions by the children. I did an hour on the Enquiry Desk (most of which I spent writing up a report of the Chatterbooks sessions) and an hour on the counter.

Davies had YACs this morning and they were at Michelham Priory for the morning learning about weaving and getting their heads round warp and weft. They had an expert guest who showed them how to make linen and talked about various material and weaving type stuff, then they all made pom-poms. Davies made one and brought home a half made one to show me how it was done. Meanwhile Ady and Scarlett spent some time sitting in on the YACs session – Scarlett will probably join when she is 8 which will delight Ady as I suspect he is itching to be a parent helper and that will free him up to do so rather than having to look after Scarlett on the YACs sessions when I am working :). They all three had a look round Michelham Priory before coming home.

I beat them home and arrived just as the beautiful sunny morning turned into an afternoon filled with bursts of heavy rain showers and glorious sunshine. Which put paid to our plans to spend the afternoon at the allotment with Caz & Bid. We had a proper plan including Bid and all the kids doing some food foraging, Caz and I spreading compost and all of us cooking sausages over an open fire and the adults having a well earned bottle of beer as the sun went down.

But no.

So a real genuine rain check taken on those plans I had a cup of tea and some toast and waited for the others to arrive home.

They did and Davies showed me how to make a pom-pom, they all had lunch and then we decided to do a charity shop trawl as Ady needs some new work shoes and has been convinced that charity shops / second hand is the way forward :). We all did well (me: two tops and a scarf, Davies a WALL:E toy, a new top, Edward Scissorhands and the box set of Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3 on video, Scarlett: a soft toy, new top and Lassie ornament) except Ady who didn’t find any shoes so the search continues…

We came home and the kids had tea followed by a bath. Scarlett and I did some baking to use up the egg glut we have from a regular 3-6 eggs a day from the bantams. Two big quiches and a very large lemon meringue pie from scratch (with sweet and savoury pastries) later we don’t have an egg glut any more :). A fair few years ago I started writing recipes in an old blue notebook which is now about half-full with handwritten, ingredient splattered recipes. I’ve always had this sentimental notion that one day one of my children might want it and that it might mean something to them but kept it to myself for fear of being laughed at. Scarlett was looking through it tonight as I looked at the lemon meringue pie recipe and said to me ‘this is special. I like that it has stains from baking in it’. I told her that one say she could have it and she looked all delighted and thrilled 🙂 Oh the joy of raising similarly sentimental offspring 🙂 😉

In the middle of all this we remembered Earth Hour. Our original, post-rain plan had been to attend the walk from Brighton Pier by wind up torch. The Pier is one of the places that turns off it’s lights for the hour. If I’d not got so caught up with my baking I may well have remembered this and cajoled everyone else into it but the rain was still lashing at the windows and Davies and Scarlett were already pj’d up so we settled for turning all the lights out, the TV off and reading by candlelight and fireglow instead which felt suitably inkeeping with the ethos.

I’d got a new Humphrey book from work so we read an hours worth of that before Davies and Scarlett went off to bed and I resumed dinner for Ady and I.

I got sucked in to a Johnny Cash film that Ady was watching and thanks to quite a lot of wine am already feeling like the leaping forward of an hour has already happened.

A much needed ‘day off’ today. I’ve missed Davies and Scarlett lots having not seemed to have actually spent much time exclusively with them this week. Davies had a bad dream in the night so I woke up with him in bed beside me anyway and Scarlett came and joined us so we had a lovely half an hour all cuddled up together chatting and planning the day.

Scarlett wanted to go to the beach and Davies wanted to go to Fishbourne Roman Villa but we settled on a day mostly at home with a brief foray out for supplies in the middle.

We had breakfast and Scarlett watched an animal programme (on CBBC I think) about various animals including cabybaras which she fed on her Keeper for the Day at Drusillas. I know it was only 18 months ago but I am really pleased she still has such clear memories of that day, it gives me hope she will remember it forever, despite me not recalling much of being six. It also makes me happy to think so many other fab days the children have had will stay with them and all the amazing memories we are building for them of their childhood will remain treasured by them :).

Davies found a stash of old sketch books and pads from a year or two ago so we looked at them for a while and marvelled both at how they have both come on and how good they were already at such a young age :).

I needed to get some photos printed off I’d taken of Chatterbooks sessions for a display I’m doing tomorrow at the library of the sessions so I wanted to go to Tescos (boo hiss) to print those off on their machine. I also needed a new swimsuit as I’d chucked mine in the bin at the pool on Tuesday when I realised just how rotted from the chlorine it was. So we went over to Tesco, got swimsuit for me, photos printed off, some tea for the kids for later and several of the dvds they had for £3 each including Lassie for Scarlett, Monster House for Davies which he has been wanting on dvd ever since we saw it as a filmeducation screening in Reading about 4 years ago.

Both the kids need new season shoes – Scarlett has boots but she also has incredibly stinky feet thanks to a refusal to wear socks and non-leather shoes and Davies has DMs but nothing more lightweight so we also visited Brantano for a very lengthy shoe purchasing session. Davies got some Ben 10 trainers which replace the Ben 10 trainers we bought when we were at Shell Island last year and he got his only shoes wet in the rising tide for a tenner and he wore til they fell apart earlier this month. Scarlett got some crocs style sketchers with plenty of ventilation which she agreed to aslong as we removed all the girlie jibbitz of butterflies and jewels – she has a real anti-pink and sparkly thing going on just now, LelliKellies would be like torturing her 😆

We also called into Boots and I bought a home perm. My hair has grown really long again since hacking it off last winter and I am at the bored with it point again. I’ve been plaiting it when wet for the last week or so and wearing it wiggly with lots of compliments so decided to make it more permanent with a perm. I had lots of perms in the 80s like pretty much everyone else but have never attempted to DIY before, but the worst that could happen was I’d hate it and could then jistufy cutting it short again…

Home for popcorn and dvd watching – Monster House, then Lassie while I put all the rollers and paper in to my hair, added perm lotion, sat with my head in a plastic bag and then added the neutraliser and de-rollered it, all much to great interest from D&S. It stinks of perm lotion depsite a thorough washing out and a washing and conditioning later in the evening and is a bit on the dry side but I know my hair doesn’t take perms terribly well even when properly done so I suspect it will drop out after a few weeks. All that aside though I like it, it’s given it some texture and will stop me from getting bored with it for a few more weeks at least. And it was a good chemistry lesson for Davies and Scarlett 😆

Lassie finished and me newly poodle-esque Scarlett and I iced the cupcakes from Wednesday and made some snickerdoodles as she’d really wanted to do baking today. Davies was geomagging. Inbetween I dealt with laundry (we’ve had April-esque sunshine and showers here today so I’ve brought in nearly dry stuff to air and hung out more stuff), dealt with chickens – one of the hens thinks she might go broody, I am here to tell her she won’t! – and chopped up firewood.

I got the kids tea ready, baked all the batches of snickerdoodles, lit a fire and finally Ady came home. The kids and I finished Firework makers daughter and agreed we would like to see the theatre production locally in the summer then they went to bed. I had a very long bath while Ady sorted dinner and we watched taped Masterchef Australia slightly the worse for wear of wine as I was quite fixated on bay leaves…

Really must go to bed as I’m taking my curlyhead to work tomorrow morning.