Author Archives: HHaricot

i-viking we will go

i’ve been working, but chris and the girls have been busy busy. a visit to nots and tots at one of our not so close HE groups. picked up our suma order from Katy – pleased so see that it is enormous, as it was expensive! Also pleased that chris left in the dried mango slices – yum yum. SB put out that she didn;t finish the science experiment on heat loss as she had to go to the dentist. SB was fine at the dentist, and was oK with the discussion that her front teeth stick out and will need some work when she is older. [aargh to thumb sucking, if i could go back in time i would be there with the dummy] bB wouldn’t open her mouth. she decided she only will when she is f and bigger :roll: for an overwhelmingly confident bean she is remarkably scaredy about these type of out of family/friend things.

in the afternoon, SB did maths, handwriting, piano and violin - she is def motivated at the moment! When i got home they were recreating the heat loss experiment. weirdly paper did best, our socks obviously not v good!! BB and i had lots of stories from library books, and she played chase the A through the book.  SB did some more of our viking brooch craft, and also made a paper kit viking ship i picked up from greece some time ago. SB particularly likes the idea of i-viking as a phrase! She amazed me by saying that she knew how the vikings and normandy tied up, and telling chris about it. it is in SOtW, but i don’t test recall, and make no significance to remembering, and i get a sad thrill about things remembered! We did some french altogether, with SB snuggled on my lap.

I really like an SB snuggle, and I don’t get one so often any more [oK. i still get lots, but i like LOTS] and i had a distinct moment of looking at her and seeing the lovely, charming older girl looking back at me. i cherish every second, because one day this older girl is going to leave home! i am not sure that we do the best that we can all the time, and i know my parenting and ed could be better, but i think we try hard, and love well. Though she is still emotionally up and down, i hope that this gorgeous and sensitive child is being done the best by that we possibly can. ah, i had a real mummy moment!

whilst bB went to bed, it was games time, and SB did some of the horrible histories viking sticker book with me and then chose a multiplication game. we read a bit more of the second roman mysteries book and did a made up story.

odin’s day

we are being reasonably productive at the moment. yesterday the girls had a library morning, making owls and listening to owl stories, and SB has read loads of her library books. she also did some piano and handwriting. She learnt she had got a place at gym – woohoo, and also went to the first swimming of term, she is now at level 7, so v happy.

today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!

BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.

we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.

SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.

SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.

a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.

chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!

Step this way for pirate mania!



IMG_1373, originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

nearly all the piccies are up!

music to love – tchaikovsky 6th symphony

The pathetique. rather lovely all of it. the slow mvts always catch best…

after the excitement…

… comes the eating up of spare party food – never so enjoyable!! though katy’s cheese bread that i missed on the day has been wolfed down!

chris and the girls went shopping for some non party food, and also try out a different library. SB has done maths and handwriting, and we have printed out the first Dolch set of words for her to learn how to spell. Since they are allegedly common words, we thought we could start with those, especially since a lot of them are easy!

both girls have done a lot of playing with shops today, and also castle stuff, and also being puppy dogs. SB has bee doing a lot of french knitting, and made BB a bracelet, and also some painting of kits and bB has made pompom creatures.

When i got home we did some french altogether – BB ‘woofed’ her responses – hmm. We read some viking stories, a section of SoTW and did recorder practice. Bit of playing outside, and a game of SET. BB also did some blowing on the recorder.

i am STILL flickring. i will delete duplicate photos when up i think.

aha my hearties

we had a great weekend chez haricot. friends started arriving from friday. friday was spent busily making our house look habitable [i think we made a creditable effort!] some more baking [the delia chocolate bread pudding was a real treat – i microwaved choc, butter and sugar as have an aversion to bain maries, added the cream to the eggs and then the warmed stuff]

we painted the pirate ship and on the sat chris put it together – we were most proud!

jax and the nic and families arrived on friday and the fun started. we did jobs and drank wine and talked until way too late on the fri! but always nice.

so sat dawned and it was sunny – hooray. we were excited at everyone who attended. we all had a great time, which i think is best shown in pictures. i made the sangria slightly too potent, so had to lemonade it, having had to sit down for a bit after one glass. The kids enjoyed bashing 7 bells against each other using the lagging, clambering all over the pirate ship and general aarghhhing about.

michelle brought a pirate ducky game that they all enjoyed, and the waterpool was then v enjoyed by BB and minx, and the later on by all the bigger girls – they got rather wet!

more drinking and chatting by adults, and total wildness by children, but eventually all kids fell asleep, adults chatted on sofas and went to bed too late.

so today was a rather laid back affair, i was last up, gradually goodbyes and settling down. seems a shame to go back to work tomorrow!

tent selling – Khyam Frontier – sleeps 8

i am thinking of listing our khyam frontier with a reserve of 150 and a BIN of 180 in ebay. if anyone was considering buying one similar, or knows someone and would like to see photos or consider it before i do flog it, please let me know!

This is a great Special Edition tent from Khyam in their ridgi dome range, with their quick erect rapidex pole system. utterly reliable, and we have had it leakproof through dreadful storms. in the original khyam adverts they said they were tested in a wind tunnel, so good for all weather. They have the original 4oz spec material [5000mm hydrostatic head!] rather than the newer 2oz spec. I would agree with their weather worthiness, having camped safely through gales in the UK. They are a high quality good name and this is one of their high end spec tents. The main frame poles are aluminium, the porch poles are powder coated steel and the top poles are fiberglass. They use the rapidex system for quick erection of the main square. [just like the current editions]

its a lovely spacious tent, exceptionally spacious central living area, at max 5.1 x 2.9m. It has a front porch – pictured, which opens up and has 2 extra poles to become an integral sun canopy. The weatherweave outer material also rolls up, and there is a mesh door underneath, which increases ventilation, but protects from flies [and midges in scotland]. It has a back porch as well with a J door, so their can be a good through draft for ventilation when needed. there is a window beside the J door. It is tall, you can stand easily in both the main living area and the inners. The middle is just over 2m high, with very little tail off to the edges.

It has 2 very spacious sleeping areas in addition to the central living area. These are polycotton inners with integral ground sheets. One of them is a 4 berth [which can easily sleep 5], which has a divider that can come down. the other is a 2 berth [though we have slept 4 in it easily! - see inner picture for its 2 person/playroom use]. I need to measure these accurately, but as a rough estimate needing cconfiramtion, i think they have a longest length of 280, and the 2 birth is 175-200 and the 4 birth 200-225 [why i need to measure!] giving the tent a rough groundprint of 7x7m. when i bought the 2 birth sleeping inner, it stated it was for the excelsior range [which is the frontier] rather than classic [which are the lower height tents] but i found it to be tight to the loops at the top. this was resolved with the use of hair bobbles to add more stretch, and has always been used that way without problem [hair bobbles included!]. i can find a photo if required. The inners have internal pockets and integral groundsheets, and the doors have a double system of both material and secondary mosquito net doors, so in hot weather they can keep cool. The inners are poly cotton that khyam semi-proof to prevent dampness from condensation penetrating. they both easily sleep 4.

it has the correct khyam fitted groundsheet. This is of woven polyethylene with taped seams. the tent was bought in 2003 and has been used approx 2ce per year until 2007 inclusive. the tent packs down into one bag with dimensions 135 x 45 x 45.

http://www.khyam.co.uk/technical.asp

we have patched 2 tiny holes on the flysheet with the patch set – caused by embers from another’s fire [always irritating] but is obviously completely watertight. There is plenty of the patch kit and khyam seam sealant.

We are selling because it is too big for us – our family size did not reach expectation. In 2008 we easily fitted a family of 4 in each side. [this is the pictured holiday].

We will miss this tent, but it is an excellent, sturdy, easy to pitch and seemingly impossible to blow down option for comfortable family camping. It is in a ready to go camping condition.

Do you think this would be a bit wordy?

edited to add in 2010
some photos here ( as some of them not v flattering, only flickr friends can see! if you seriously want to buy the tent, drop a comment below! still been to lazy to put on ebay!!): side view, back view, front view, inside, another inside view, in the allegedly 2 bedded room – we have fitted 4 in there easily! half of the fourbedded - two double airbeds without a prob plus suitcase space, my fav tent pic!!

specs from elsewhere:
Fly Sheet: 4oz polyester 185T Hydrostatic head: 5000 mm,
Inner tent: poly cotton Inner tent ground sheet:

1. Reinforced double shock corded pegging points.
2. Reinforced webbing pegging points.
3. Unique removable Rapidex® locking joints on the main pole system aids simple and quick erection.
4. Aluminium main poles provide flexibility, stability and are very light weight.
5. Breathable poly-cotton inner tent fabric with robust stitched in polyethylene groundsheet. 1×4 berth with roll down dividing wall and twin doors and 1×2 berth with single large door.
6. Gusseted ventilation ports control temperature and help to reduce condensation.
7. Fully taped fly sheet seams.
8. Fully taped triangular inner tent suspension loops for greater strength.
9. Solid fibreglass top poles for strength and flexibility.
10. Flame retardent 4oz polyester Weatherweave™5000 fly sheet fabric achieving over 3000 mm hydrostatic head.
11. All Ridgi-dome main poles operate around a central hub and therefore lock permanently into position during use providing greater stability.
12. Fly Sheet: 4oz polyester 185T Hydrostatic head: 5000 mm,Inner tent: poly cotton Inner tent ground sheet:
13. Limiters supplied on each of the four main tri-guys support the tent when necessary, also preventing over tensioning of the guy ropes during erection.
14. Quick Clip Pole (QCP) System – Easy to attach clips allow the pole to be secured faster than by traditional sleeve systems. Reduces weight and pack size but not strength or resilience.

and finally a link on how to put up and take down similar tent [smaller] on you tube

humph

STILL got the brownies timing wrong. overdone this time. sighs and goes to bed.

getting excited!

i like parties, even if they are a bit hard work to organise – and a bit worrying when one essential piece of craft equipment hasn’t arrived yet!

felt lurgified but better, so went to work, and realised i had used up all my energy by lunchtime. luckilly it was a front loaded day, and i rearranged the pm things for next week, came home and snuggled on sofa with girls to read books. SB has a sort of tick box timetable again – she was nagging me! we then had to go through the blog to see what she could tick off for the week. it is simpler than the last one anyway. She had done maths and handwriting in the morning, and lots of reading. we did some recorder together.

then, having perked a bit, we did some baking – shortbread, and i also whizzed up some black cupcakes to decorate. cue mess everywhere. girls played alot with the castle.

so another rest, and i have done a bit more tidying, and plan to do a bit more baking tonight, and a bit more wood polishing [beeswax]

i always feel better when the first baking done!

the girls having bath as the lickings were black, and spread everywhere!! lots of baking to do this eve, as don’t need so much energy to bake as i do to tidy.