June 2008

i adore this early vocal music. i love the harmonies, i love the modulations, and the gentleness and soaring qualities. did you get that i love it? here is the miserere - i had allegri’s earlier for a comparison! [which i love more. somethings are better known because they are better!] with leeds festival chorus, i had the marvelous opportunity of singing spem in alium in rippon cathedral - rather magical! A fantastic bit of elizabethan music. lets not forget vaughn williams fantasia either. anyway, have a wander round the tallis on utube!

i am not sure exactly what! but i know on thurs there was a bit of ‘normals’

fri they went to a fab session at one of the not very local groups all about dyeing. they made their own natural dye with paprika to take with them [i have no idea if it worked] and whilst there did some tie dyeing, which they enjoyed.

mon, picking up SB’s glasses - which look great on her, except she looks older…  she notices a difference in vision. i cam home and we used some photochromic paper to make pictures - which was great fun, and she made a raindetector kit -like the einos but with a different badge. again it totally failed to work. has anyone had the burglar, rain or any of the ones with piezo electrics work? tempted to write to makers and complain. she made the circuits all by herself perfectly.

we played games, BB loving memory pairs at the mo. SB fed some of my endagered animals in the reserve - i am losing money hand over fist!!

we were all a bit out of sorts to start with - prob something to do with the nightly merry go rounds for sleeping thats been happening recently. so SB and i read some brainwaves how nearly everything was invented, and BB played. SB then made a family invitation card - over and over again! BB and i played and then watched some how things work altogether.

some magic school bus later and we were all outside topping up bird feeders and playing on swings and slides. we put up the paddling pool [yet another one] and some splashing fun - girls decided the water cold enough to wear wetsuits - rofl! watcheda prog about earth, read a bit more, and that was about it i think. manic week ahead. deep breath!

chris is wondering how to shape this one. i thought he had…

i think, on the whole, that i am going to pretend there was no other day than that which started at 4 - it would be much better remembered that way!

we went to a fab party, which started as a kids party, and then since the host and hostess are in a molly group, ended with v lovely live music. there were crafts to do, people to chat to, and kids to play with, lovely food and lovely company and lovely weather. in fact all lovely. yep that is what i will remember about today!

she is 87 now, and i guess that visits can be bittersweet. i remember the vibrant active nanny of my youth, and see the proud and determined to be self sufficient nan of the present, who TBH, i just want to kidnap and bring home to live. she can manage, that is for sure, but she is lonely, her friends have died, and she lives in a house of the past. even i half expect to hear my grandad whistle as he goes down the passageway. she has lived there ever since homes for heroes after ww2. they were the first tenants into that new council development, and she will be the last of that group to leave. but i am sure she would actually enjoy what time we have left alltogether more if she actually lived close to me, my mum or aunt. please, when i get to ‘that age’ if my children or grandchildren suggest i move closer, i should pack up my memories and go for it. every time i see her, she seems to be preparing more to leave. she is gradually getting rid of lots of her ‘unneccesary belongings’ to ’save us the trouble’.

and i feel guilty [something i am v good at!] for not going more often, and not prioritising her. because when i am there, i can see how much good it does her, how she loves to see the children. it is knackering for me, because i drive, prepare lunch, make teas, wash up, cook, do odd jobs, listen and talk with her as she is desperate for all that conversation and interaction, but also chivvy children, get them to be on best, and also interact, and not point out she repeats, forgets, and always calls SB by my name and often BB by niece and my nephew by my cousins name. and all this solitariness isn’t activating brain, so games [and she was a real sharp games player] take a bit of starting if they are new [so we took hisss rather than castle keep].

but i love her desperately, and always hate to leave. and the girls were good, loving and adorable. can you kidnap grandparents?

such a naff rendition!! but..

i think the girls spent the WHOLE day doing a card or note each for chloe!! l actually wonder what the post office will make of the lovingly decorated envelope…

i got home to some ebay parcels - well, SB said science was the way to go, so i have been bidding on the cheapy ones - as an aside i rofl when things are priced with the plus postage making them more than rrp? do you really think i’ll bid? [this is private sellers]. anyway, so bargains about. they were both excited by the cosmic rocket. yet another way to play with bicarb and vinegar! we had fun and were a tad inept at the mixing - used nearly a whole bottle of vinegar where can we buy catering quantities of vinegar and bicarb??

it has been v windy here today. from the weather forecast, i hadn’t thought we would be included, but we were! particularly in the morning. no trees down [cross fingers!]

so, what have we done? well, when i got up, BB was engrossed in a castle game - she really has got a lovely imagination for playing games and gets totally sucked into them. SB was doing animal crossing on her ds. luckilly she has spelled all letters correctly this time! so i went on ‘puter to be shocked by the news that a good friend lost her sister last night. many hugs Jax. i don’t have any wise words of comfort, but i am thinking of you, and if you can think of anyway i can help…

girls were both desperate to do one of the experiments out of the horrible science explosion kit. BB wanted the volcano, and SB the snot!! so both were duly done. the volcano is - of course - our vinegar and bicarb type approach, but bB v satisfied. the snot was prob polymer science [i do wish these kits would include some 'real' science explanation - equations, what we actually made - if only for me! so, google being our friend, i think we are talking non-newtonian fluids again! here are some possible instructions for prob similar [unfortunately the glue in the pack just said glue!! so not sure what kind it actually was] . on googling, think we would enjoy having a go at the bouncing balls next!

[ooh, on a different note - it was the instructions that reminded me - look here Michelle for stalactite experiment]

where were we, oh yes, we were making snot. we enjoyed it greatly. not entirely sure exaclty what we made! SB gave it a squidge about for a bit, and then declared herself done. so we read a bit about polymers from here, and reminded ourselves on what atoms where, so what molecules were, and got to poymers. we thought a bit about polymers we have about.

Both girls joined me for a bit of french, and we did la maison [again!]. some lunch, and an interminable time to get dressed and clean teeth possibly because i was outside hoeing the veg bed and planting the last of the cucurbits in that time! then i rousted them all outside saying it was a nice day, so we should be out. we failed to fly kites in the garden - too much turbulence from trees i guess. Sb settled on doing a stamping craft. bb raced about on her like-a-bike, paddled and played in the sandpit. we topped up the birdfeeders [they get through SO MUCH!]

girls played nicely for a bit, so i pruned the bay tree, and we made some herb bundles to hang in the utility room [where no doubt the spiders will make huge webs!] we harvested and ate strawberries, i rousted BB around a lot, and SB felt hot, so went inside to do webkinz, education city and webland. we got a tp swing cheaply from ebay and cannibalised it so that ours can be pegged into the ground and not wobble around as much. hung a swing off the climbing frame at a v low height so bb ecstatic. sb pleased that she can swing wildly on new set up!

i made curry whilst sb ds-ed and bb watched pingu and 64 zoo lane. think thats about it.

we had a lovely walk today with the manor born as our monthly nature walk. SB had been strongly encouraged to try walking with some weightbearing yesterday, and on seeing chloe really got stuck into it! arriving after a small rainshower meant that the birds were plentiful - we even saw 3 woodpeckers this time. we did a far more ambling walk than normal to accommodate SB and so went into the formal gardens.

both girls fell asleep on the way home - unsurprising as bb tried to get us all up at 4.30. we had a realxed evening with house on the prairie and dinotopia. sb did some katanimo . earlier in the day bb surprised me by counting the sheep in french [7] so although a bit poxy i imagine by most peoples standards, our regular reading of v easy french books may at least be planting a seed [that can grow into a tall tree in due course!]

we got a science kit from ebay - totally ancient electronic one, that has one but missing [bound to find it is the key thing!] but we may have a good look at it tomorrow, or do some of the horrible science explosive experiments, you never know!

i am going to give it a smith to see if it is good to eat. m-n probs and f/th’s!

i have had a storming headache, but trying to ignore! i did get up a bit later though in the hopes that it would have gone - unfortunately not! BB had already done some craft - painting and joining together a wooden train - and SB a maths experiment - how to walk through paper [i cut the piece so it folds out into a v large rectangle you can walk through [i'll pop a piccie on flickr!]

When I got downstairs, BB was happily poisson rouging and starfalling and SB did some ds-ing - 7 wonders of the world. We then did some french together before she did some education city. SB also read a bit about christopher columbus. BB and i read a library book together.

lunch and then we did some baking - cupcakes - sb ds-ed some more and I flickred. Whilst SB was at rainbows BB and i played some games and then watched magic school bus. SB returned and we played a flower fairies game together. she has some paper cut outs, and i found my summer flower fairies book from childhood, which she was really happy to receive.

out in the garden to pick strawberries and generally mess about before dinner. at which point i was grumpy with headache, and retired a bit! SB and i have nearly finished reading theatre shoes, which i have thoroughly enjoyed.

and i always have to think hard about which has the R. many centuries apart, but i love them both

john taverner and Sir John tavener

SB had dressings clinic, and now just heel to heal, as it were [sigh!] the foot is starting to peel in a big way - i guess with all that sweating in a plaster cast. she is not impressed. SHe is supposed to start to walk on it, or at least stand, but isn’t. chris’s parents came round to look after BB whilst they chris and SB at hospital and shopping. led to BB having a cake for lunch mind you, apparently SB had cake for breakfast :roll:

from the hospital shop, chris picked up a fantastic book of DK maths experiments. we could almost be the portico!! i thought it looked fab, and they have bought some ‘ingredients’ for some of the experiments, so lets see what fun can be had! [SB and BB both particularly like anything labelled experiment at the mo]
when i got home apparently crafts were on the agenda, so after much wailing and gnashing of teeth by BB, who didn’t like any crafts on offer, we made dreamcatchers. she used hers as a frisbee, and was in the end v happy!! SB also did crafts, and then read some of the rainbow fairy book she bought today. i weeded the potato bed.

we had lots of hugs snuggles and general attack mummy exuberantly play - going for the tactile approach to happiness! then when BB off to bed, SB and I had an hour of games and then I did her bedtime. It all seemed v normal

today in retrospect is not quite the same. anyway, we had a chilled and lovely day. we did reading stories together and cuddling, and had another science kit to try out. this was the burglar alarm half of the science kit. SB really enjoyed putting it all together and making the circuit - it was quite cool! unfortunately it didn’t work!! she said she still enjoyed doing it though. BB did some air drying clay, and made a head - also rather cool, as she fixed wiggly eyes into it. BB does seem to have a keen artistic streak really. As well as cuddle, swing them etc etc, i also did a fair amount of gardening. would blog, but SB calling for a cuddle.

had a busy week and a v long day yesterday - my excuse! oh, and really need to be sorting holiday snaps.

today was a bit manic making SB’s scarecrow costume with us all sewing on patches and then manically getting out! SB was sitting on the rainbows float - the theme for our rural village’s fete was … farming! Anyway it was a good turnout, a load of stalls for village groups, all with tombola or raffle, and cakes for sale! there were a couple of extortionately priced kiddie rides too. the girls both got a ride on each. I think SB was happy to be on the float this year, though she said it was hot.
BB has not been in frame today, she has been v waily, so we left earlier than we might have done. she fell asleep on the way back. SB and i read the stories in barefoot book buddhist tales, looked at bits about tudors and did some piano practice before bb woke up. we then replenished the bird feeders [tht takes some time!] and the girls played whilst i planted out sweetcorn. SB really is a lovely older sister to have.
i think that about finishes today. execrable band in one of the pubs playing

Monday, other than hospital not much seemed to happen. spent ages on the phone getting a hosp appt. for that day as they had given us one for next week. Then phoned various people to tell them SB wouldn’t be attending her various classes because of her foot. hospital appt ended up not being until afternoon, which was good as it meant Helen could make it as well. I think SB finished off some hama beading she’d started off about 5 times.
My parents came round in the morning as they were going to look after BB when we went into hospital. Chatted, girls played games, read etc. with them.

I took SB into hospital, consultant happy with her progress, should be no need for skin graft on the heel, healing up nicely. Removed the back slab. Heel injury still painful but getting there. she is now able to place her front part of foot on the ground. Can’t think what else we did when we got back home.

Tuesday we went off for a HE group event on Romans at a local museum. Almost didn’t go, I felt like staying home, but SB keen to go so I made the effort. Interestingly, rather than taking longer as might be expected, we got out quicker than normal with SB partly out of action. In 35 minutes they were dressed, washed, hair brushed etc., we’d also gone over the road and bought stuff from the bakers for lunch and got them in the car ready to go. Obviously should not leave SB to get herself sorted. She said it’s because she and BB go and play….
First session was good, it was done by a chap who does talks etc. with kids about Romans.

He was dressed in a Centurions outfit, was mostly about life as a roman soldier, their clothing/armour, their weapons etc.

The local Roman legions’ standard.

How they used the different javelins.

Sb was a hopping Legionnaire

some others formed a Testudo and we all threw stones at them (well foam balls….)

Demonstrated the Scorpion.

Demonstrated the various bits of personal kit they would have carried. He was a bit coy about saying what the big T shaped nails were for (crucifixion) - i reckon it’s those gory bits that kids like best - SB wasn’t fazed by it hen I told her - BB would probably want to try it out on someone… (it’s already come up before, and it’s a pretty fundamental bit of Christianity)
Had a pleasant lunch outside in the sun. followed by a session making roman pots using coil or thumb/pinching as the romans might have done. Enjoyed by the kids but would have been better I think if we had a bit more time and could have looked at the sorts of pots the Romans made/used.

We then had a litle look at the musuem, particularly the Roman bits and the fossil bits. tried on a roman helmet and did some rubbings.

Afterwards I considered going to find WH Smiths so SB could spend her voucher, but decided I didn’t want to push her around in the big buggy whilst dragging a tired and grumpy BB with us. So went straight back to car and came home, Where we all flopped for a bit, do to warm car, being generally tired - it’s hard work for us all i think taking SB out in her current state. Did manage to play some chess and Uno with SB and look at some books with BB.

Finished up the day watching a bit more of Sound of Music with SB, finished just before the bit here the fighting starts, which is apparently her favorite bit

good news on mon, and SB has the plaster cast off. this should help wound heal more quickly as not so hot and sweaty, negative is that it is far more easy to bash - so a mixed blessing really!

tues the girls and chris went to a roman event and enjoyed it greatly. sb was apparently a good hopping legionary! and both girls enjoyed clay pot making

today we had a far to early false start ith SB waking at 5. eventually got her to sleep again, and we had a second wake at 9. we all had a snuggle and a read downstairs - dinodoors with BB, history of london with SB. we read a french story, and did some numbers in latin. the girls have got the latest RSPB mgazines and read those. BB wrote on hers too. she is v keen on the idea of forming letters - usually AOUC.

both girls were v keen to do something crafty though, and BB had decided that this should be with some left over glass paint from suncatchers, so we spent a lovely morning decorating jam jars, and were all very happy with our results. the girls shared and got on well [which was a bit of a relief!] and we chatted and enjoyed.

after lunch, SB and BB did quite a bit of playing together, both with the castle stuff, and playing vet, with lots of giggling and laughing. i enjoyed listening and watching, and in boredom clicked often on H2Opia on facebook! - didn’t want to disturb! WOuld have liked to go out and weed, but knew my mvt would signal bickering. when it started slipping, SB and I went off and did some piano practice, and BB watched something. SB’s piano coming on nicely, she has got the notation fixed in her head now, allowing some really good sight reading.

i was surprised by chris’s parents arriving [though he wasn't!] and i was still in pj’s, so a quick change and chatting before SB off to rainbows. she took chris with her, as didn’t want to be left, and BB and i played dinodoors, building houses for them [and they knocked them down] and reading. bB really into rhyming at the moment, in pretty much ever sentence she is trying out rhymes, Both girls are execrably making up jokes! violin practice[short and seated] when SB returned, nd then more castle and vet games until tea and bed.

BTW, there were many good moments on holiday. it was v hard work though. i realised i wasn’t projecting enough joy though when SB sobbed for ages over me not being happy. i am making a concerted effort to be happy. when we came back we watched child of our time, and i was v sad for eve, and the loss of her mother. [we also watched a waking the dead about bosnia/serbia - neither of these programmes being a particularly good choice]