Petits Haricots

IMG_6739

Originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

In the flickr sidebar!
I loved this photo of SB when I took it, and still do.

we loved and left our first home in leeds and made the great move. I would like to be able to say it was the best decision I have ever made, though that would obviously be an untruth. However, the longer we stay here, the more little rootlets start to tie us into the community and I begin to think of it as home now. not yet as fondly, but home still. Had the job stuff not been such a nightmare i imagine things would seem even better!

i begin to think there may be a slim possibility of staying here. though, the longer I stay, the less likely I am to risk an unforced move [though did spend some of today brushing up cv]

I don’t know, I am just feeling a bit iffy today. tomorrows jaunt is just what i need - and some caffeine - oops had that and chocolate! should have worked. must be severe bean sprain.

That’s why I didn’t do the game with SB - I was racking my mind for why I hadn’t! When we went outside we heard an accordian and the beating of sticks and rushed to the village crossroad. There they were! Will put a short video on utube [or chris can] and then put it on here.

SB has been wanting to see Morris Dancers for ages and was v happy. SHe asked the fool why he had a pigs bladder balloon. Unfortunately he hit her on the head with it, saying he was the fool and danced off.

I was a bit p***ed off by this.

1. she is 6, and had got the courage to ask him, so to be hit has put her off asking anything again for a while.

2. She was upset - I would have been too as there was no warning.

grrrrrrr. I reassured her, and bless her she was still happy to watch, but we stayed out of his way. Miserable old man.

for all of you with google/blogger accounts. I would like to post in your comments box, but it never recognises me, says my password is wrong - no it isn’t!! so I have to reset up the account each time. Aaargh.

so hello to all of you, and I am reading!

am I the only one with this difficulty???

I was working yesterday [and I am today – typing this at work in a lull!! – though the system is logging me doing it as the site is unauthorised]. I came home at lunchtime and had a lovely afternoon with the girls.

We had lunch and then piled outside to play. After games and swinging about etc, we decided to get the Happy maize out. Now I think it’s a really good idea to have something that damping can stick together so you can build something 3 d without glue and other messiness. BUT… did they have to use dyes that would stain?? Seems barmy to me. Especially as SB was wearing her new skirt and all 3 t shirts simultaneously from la redoute [they sent me a 10 voucher and then I bought some more things!]

That brings me onto a whole new rant. I bought a denim coloured floppy hat with wired brim. Looked perfect for me for Kessingland on the site, and indeed in the packet. Except…. It only just fits SB!!!!! It is adult. Would link, but its no longer on their site. SB thought the colour too boring for her – and they now have plenty of sunhats anyway – but I offered it as one we could add things to in her design and she thought this fab. So while they were maizing, I sowed some lace on the crown – as instructed – and it looks v nice. It is planned to be beribboned and belled!!!! [an over the top girl just like her mum!]

SB did some maths – as it involved writing, we just did a page as it was v slow – and she hopped around the garden for about 30 mins to find the best maths place – by the pond – no BB was pond dipping and making a mess! The perhaps on the swing, but it kept swinging about making writing harder! So finally back under the MODHEU where it was shady, and the task done.

BB and I pond dipped – trying v hard to miss the enormous goldfish that BB particularly wanted to catch – rofl! Then played in the sandpit – I was supposed to be eating the dishes she brought me – she warned me it wasn’t tasty though and just pretend. I filled up the pool with water, and BB had more fun bellyflopping in and out of it. Then she gave me a big cuddle and fell asleep. SB was racing around on her bike having invisible races.

Chris, who had been planting the final potatoes, raced up and swooped her up into the bath, where she tried to fall asleep. SB read to me some more magic tree house, and then went outside to bellyflop and slide into the water – which had warmed up a bit.

I had been supposed to make her up some elaborate story to play, but instead she had beans on toast, got some pj’s on, and then it was game time [BB fell asleep straight after bath anyway]. SB chose our scrabble word game which takes ages.

Unfortunately on going upstairs, BB woke up, feeling it must now be morning – sigh! SO SB had Angelina stories and made up ones, and BB then came down with me, and shared my takeout curry [an unusual treat!]. An early night for me.

In the garden we have loads of strawberry flowers - feeling hopeful!

Chris took BB to toddler gym and SB and I did a piano practice. Since we could do it uninterrupted she did really well with concentrating. We then played games - mostly guess who as she has loved that ever since we went to SOTP last summer. I then suggested SOTW or some more of yesterday’s explorer of north america book, but she fancied our DK exciting bits of history book instead [mainly battles!] So we looked at egyptians in it and the first world war. After that she fancied some science experiments.
SO we got out an experiment book on forces, and the first thing was making a weighing device in Newtons. SB looked at it, found the ‘ingredients’ [with my help] and set too making it. We used some weights we had recently got from home ed bring and buy and some scales weights to calibrate. She was rather thrilled by it, and we ended making 1N of oranges weighed out. [no apples!] We mentioned Newton’s great find with dropping apples though. The only hitch was the loop of hysteresis [i think that is right - prob should google!] and the fact that our elastic didn’t go back to exactly what it was before! She has remembered gravity well, so we had a run about the way gravity holds things together. Chris and BB came back to be impressed by our new weighing machine.

SB did some primary maths 2A particularly quickly today. We unfooded, with her having left over Ken Hom, me curry, and when BB returned she had ken hom and chris curry! We thought we had been so productive in the morning, we piled outside to play after lunch. In all the playing we had a quiet down time, when I read some egyptian myths and legends, and SB confessed she had spent the whole time looking at the birds and hadn’t heard a word!! I was interested anyway.

BB played with some Happy Street and silly games with me - mostly sticking her freezing cold feet up my jumper - aargh!! Lots of cycling, swinging, climbing and general whizzing about. Sb read some more magic tree house book.

When SB went to ballet class, BB and I made chocolate cookies. She was rather proud we were making them without Sb as a surprise - and did them very nicely. Obviously our measurements were flexible. i don’t find usbourne recipes overwhelmingly reliable. However, 5 mins after i thought they would be ready they were. SB and BB enjoyed them on her return.

Anyway, tea time!

well, it is only radishes, but it’s the first harvest of sown this year veg [we still have some broccoli and leeks from last year]. They are only grown as a line marker for other seeds - in this case carrots, as the girls, particularly BB walk over bare earth and emergent seedlings.

Under cover

today I potted up most of the cucurbits and about half of the toms. most of those left won’t get potted up - they haven’t made the final cut. I’ll take them to colleagues at work, and if anyone thinks they may survive the journey to legoland I’ll be happy to take them. peppers need potting up soon too, but the aubergines that survived Chris’s neglect don’t yet.

Chris worked hard to finish clearing out the greenhouse, and is going to revamp the staging in time to empty our conservatory before we need to semi dismantle it to fi it.

Fruit bed

still a slight misnomer! this year it still has strawbs and minarette fruits, but also the legumes. The broad beans are doing well. No flowers yet, even though the ones in the fields on the way to work are in full flower. I guess the farmers were more organised than me - it being their livelihood! Something’s nibbling the peas though. not too dreadfully, will keep an eye on them. doesn’t look classical slug though. I also popped in some florence fennel today. Back to fruit, I think I might espalier a bit the minarettes - well, the bits that I should have pruned already! We have lost 3 of the original 8 - 1 never grew, 2 died last summer. Anyway, will maybe get some more, but some side branching like we did for an archway in Leeds sounds a good plan. I did some weeding of strawbs as well.

The girls plot.

they helped me weed a little bit, and the onions are sprouting. of all the sunflowers, only 3 have made it to planting - which is very disappointing! We gave everything a good water though. They also did a bit of encouraging with the other jobs.

wahay! poor old chris had the dentists first thing, but the girls watched tv and gave me a later start than I thought - 9.30. After brekkie of fried eggs and toast as a treat, i suggested to SB that she bring her maths or story of the world to the kitchen table, but she called me to the sofa with a book about the exploration of america. So we read that, looked at the map of various explorers and discussed native americans [and did some more inuit throat singing!].

We went outside and played for a bit, and the SB did some maths - rather easy greater and lesser than in primary maths 2A. She then demonstrated great trapeze artist skills - and was swinging holding on only by her knees, and somersaulting off - weyhey SB. She does always ask if Violet Portico can do these things -I tend to say yes. BB and I were being Bob the Builder, making things with the Bygga set from Ikea.
SB whizzed around the garden on her bike, and BB on her trike. We started to decorate our papier mache pots, and had some lunch, but due to spotting rain, came in and did both in the kitchen.

BB did some playdough whilst SB and I did some sudoko. When she started to join in more, we called it a day! BB and I played boxes, and also SB and I. good game from schooldays!

I did some weeding and gardening whilst the girls played. BB often helps me off and on. Gardening is going to get it’s own blog post i think. We played chase and confetti with the cherry blossom which was fun, and the just lots of being together. BB played in the sand whilst SB did some piano. We had lots of home-ed type free ranging conversations. e of which i swore I would remember to blog, but I have forgotten them!

edited to add - one of them was about debt - credit cards, mortgages and saving for rainy days. our credit card debt is now 1500 - woohoo , and being steadily paid off. so we discussed why i only want the mortgage as a debt, and how much rainy day savings were thought to be a good idea [3-6 months expenditure!] and that we owned 1/4 of the house. She asked sensible questions and got - hopefully - sensible answers.

A bath, chippery tea, britannia and SB reading to me. BB fell asleep at the table - poor love!

wouldn’t want Jax to hibernate us!

So today I know SB did maths as she proudly told me she was doing book 2 - it is primary maths not MPH this time. But I got home to find her rewiring the toaster - well think Chris was - not sure which is more frightening! Anyway we shouldn’t have burnt toast now. She also has done loads of reading - pretty much whatever, whenever.

BB has been ‘a pickle’. But also done some lovely colouring. I try not to take heed of milestones to compare, but BB is def way ahead of SB’s neatness of colouring in at that age. SB would just do 2 scribbles through a whole page. BB very carefully tries to stay within the lines.

Gratifyingly, both could still remember I was a parent of theirs.

We went out in the garden to play and plant. Chris did potatoes [still!!] and I did hoeing and brocolli. Both girls bobbed about helping. The ground is too hard really for them to make good holes though, so got a bit bored.

I found them the papier mache pots they had, so they then enjoyed painting them - pearlescent pink and pearlescent lilac paint from tesco, very girly! SB wants to the put glitter and jewels on when they are dried. Following that they made things with playdough together for a bit whilst i put in the last of the brocolli.

They both finished with cycling races - SB against her Leeds friends, and BB against sundry similar aged children - rofl! SB didn’t always win, but BB did.

SB has decided she does want to learn joined up writing, so we must do more getty and Dubay, and also the piano lessons! Tonights game was rummy, and then Britannia is the Dick whittington story. SB read more than I wanted of Dr Seuss sleep book!

I have planted out a few more mangetout. We will have 2 short rows of peas - yummy!

She can now roll sideways down a slope - she rather enjoyed this at the St Georges day extravaganza. She can nearly peddle her trike - downhill only! And she can bounce on the spacehopper.

we have both been alive all week! I have been working hard though, and even worked my usual wed off. it was also a colleagues leaving do, so rolled home near midnight. I have only just made it to girls bedtimes on other nights. Consequently me grumpy and bad parent [and wife - though chris did kill loads of my seedlings, including the very precious aubergines! - well, some still survive] And chris is worn out and snappy too. So not blogging.

What I think they may have included this week:

monday - CHEF singing and making bowls out of LP’s - cool, but it was la traviata! and a play in the park

tuesday - some general home ed bits and pieces, and I think a local home ed family came round. swimming
Wed - hmmm. I thknk this was cycling day. unfortunately SB also was subjected to chris’s sudden slow down or stop for no apparent reason and came off her bike - storming grazes everyhwere. she was gloved and helmeted, but knees and elbows took a battering.

Thurs - well, babygym was cancelled. some shopping. ballet.

Fri - err general home ed stuff?

Sat - to chris’s parents

Maybe chris might elucidate!

In the evenings, SB has been reading lots of books, we have played with the polyhedron shape makers a bit, we got some small plastic weights from the home ed selling site - thanks - which the girls have played with. SB and I have also played a game or 2 every night - rummy, uno, happy families, mastermind and operation have been the most played.

when chris finds wherever it is ‘the frantic gardener’ has disappeared to, I will do some garden blogging on there!

Anyway, this year, having reflected on the prime cause of failures last year I decided that

1. I wasn’t going to sow more than I could pot up/plant and keep on top of

2. Since we are incapable of weeding the amount our garden needed, we needed a gardener or mulch. Both of those being expensive, we needed a friend with excess cardboard boxes.

3. Must Feed and Water more regularly

SO this is the feedback for number 2. So far the broad beans seem to be growing very happily through the cardboard. They haven’t been particularly munched by anything and they look nice and healthy.

The potatoes have also been planted through cardboard. Considering we haven’t quite finished planting them all - a great oops, but it is earlies - I have no feedback yet. Today I planted out the first brassicas - early purple sprouting - into holes in the cardboard.

I’m not entirely sure if this is sensible/ will work. But last year so many plants choked in weeds, or got planted out way too late or never because I couldn’t face reclearing the ground that this HAS to be at least no worse!

The obvious positives are a bit less weeding - just thorugh the planting holes until what is in there is the biggest and strongest. Also, the cardboard should act as a good mulch in the summer, minimising the watering.

The obvious negatives are the increased places for slugs to hide and other non beneficial creepy crawlies. That it may somehow inhibit growth - possibly airflow?? Not sure.

Anyway, when have chatted up very helpful friend with too many boxes, the squashes and poss sweetcorn will also be planted through. Sweet corn often makes accessory rootlets from stem though,, so my have big planting holes!!

Anyway, we will see!

I fact, I got sunburnt slightly, though had creamed up the girls. As already blogged [the shame of being the last blogger!] we spent a lovely day with English Heritage with Michelle and family at Wrest Park’s St George weekend. At the very end, we bumped into The Deep End as well.

We started with the end of a redcoat display, and then watch some Roman cavalry officers [transported through time!] rather cleverly shoot bows and arrows. The girls enjoyed patting the horses. Moved on to a falconry display. We were going to the Nelson bit, but the girls disappeared into the middle of a puppet show audience so we had lunch and were in the right place to the watch the roman soldiers drill. SB noticed they were speaking a different language, didn’t cross her mind it might be Latin!!

A nice restorative cup of tea, and we wandered to the living history bits, watched some fire jugglers, and then a mediaeval knight dressing and play - well, everyone else watched that. BB was a bit ‘2′ having not had enough sleep the night before, so we looked around all sorts of other bits - particularly liking the musicians - before she fell asleep. Finally we wandered back to the St George ending. BB was convinced it was a ‘dinodoor’ [having just woken up].

We had a slow walk back, stopping for ice cream, race running and tree climbing. A bit more of a look around the living history roman bit as well. The girls wrote their names in Latin and talked to the enactors - SB has really got the hang of just talking and asking questions to adults.

It was a lovely day, good company. We didn’t watch particularly with the girls, as they got very good at squiggling to the very front, looking cutely and smilingly at those near them and then sitting still - it would have been a mean person to send them back, and no-one did! SB particularly enjoyed the St George bit and Chloe being there. Looking at the deep end, it is a shame we missed the nelson bit, but the girls were deeply embedded in the puppet show!

Photo’s to follow as have been manically back flickring to catch up [its been a hectic week!]

well, feels like that here with 6 long days ahead. SO we made the most of playing today.
SB has really been enjoying the Jane and the dragon series on TV, so will prob buy some books for her. She read some felicity wishes today, and assorted early readers.

Chris and SB went for a bike ride on the quieter village roads, learning how to indicate and turn right - she thought it was fab. Chris said she was riding really nicely - all that scootering has given her extra balance. not that her balance on 2 legs is that brill always!

BB and I sowed some runner beans in modules, counted them - in her own fashion, and played outside while they were out. When they came back we had crumpet pizza - yummy.

The whole day was spent outside. the girls wanted to do something messy, so we did papier mache around some plant pots to paint and decorate when dry. They then wanted to get wet, so we got out the old paddling pool [now deflated and puncture! But it was enough to hold a bit of water, and when BB’s cube slide ended it it there was much fun and mayhem for the rest of the afternoon!

As I went in to make dinner [moroccan ish stew!] I cage SB and BB the face paints, so they painted themselves. SB was particularly gorgeous [though the picture will be cropped for general consumption! While it cooked we played spraying with the hosepipe - always a favourite!

Chris planted some of the potatoes - pink fir apple, again wy late, but hopefully will do something. They’re through cardboard boxes, hopefully to keep the weeds down.

A bath - and they really needed it! BB fell asleep nearly instantly, and SB and I played games before bed, SHe is such a sweetheart as she made me a flower display as a present, and hidden in it was some chocolate for me.

Anyway, I have had a lovely break, but don’t imagine I will blog much in the next week!

today has been a good gardening day. I put in some more peas, finally put in the onion sets [way late!] cleaned out some of the greenhouse and started potting up the tomatoes. I was helped [sort of] in these tasks by both girls at various different stages. so some of the onion sets are upside down, and some roots detatched to some extent from peas. however it is all a good learning experience. SB also dug up one of our leeks from the garden - i am proud of the leeks, first time they have been successful. I also sowed the first french beans in modules. Chris put some more of merry’s boxes over unused veg bed. The pear tree - and most of the fruit trees still alive - are covered in flowers. I’m hoping that this year will be a good fruit and veg year. i think the last year we truly did well was when SB was 2!
it has been an outdoor playday - the girls playing hide and seek, races, climbing etc etc and helping me. i have been narrating stories, races etc for them to do whilst gardening and then joining in with hide and seek. SB has read to me several times, and also to BB. I read both girls the cat just so story [prob my favourite one].

We did some painting outside. SB painted a house - putting her ’sign’ in the picture as well. BB mostly painted herself - so an outside bath in order too!!