Author Archives: HHaricot

giggle to being so far behind! here we are in a new year, so much has happened, and having to rewind a long way! so these are some of the things we have done…

we made, crafted, cooked presents
spicy nuts for brother in law, choc brazils for dad, chocolate for nephew [all by and from the girls] decorated plates, tiles etc, and all wrapped and ready

we had a festive wodensmeet with some crafting and carolling
we crafted and practiced ‘at base camp’ and then went to an elder care centre to sing and play carols there, which we enjoyed, and got the feeling that the people there also enjoyed. we have been invited back in the summer! Zoe at le ciel rouge has better pics, as she was wandering about with camera, whilst i was trying to honky tonk my way sight reading thro requests on the keyboard

on the way home we stopped off at the garden centre and had fun deciding which pots and what to put in them for the 2 nannys’ christmas presents . we then made them up at home.

we went to the fishes for christmas crafts
and spent a lovely day with a vast array of craft options. did love the pony beads and wire things, so much so that adding to my 12 days of christmas craft page. we never got to do the carolling, but did do a dinosaur french game! [today sb told me she prefered maths to french, because maths doesn't have changing verb endings ] also made some excellent marzipan fruit, had a go at ikea style fimo with melted pony beads. this doesnt work btw, because the pony beads need such a high temp to melt that the fimo starts to burn… but the idea was good

Other lovely things

I went out with close colleagues at work and we had a fab indian meal together . my weekend at work a nightmare of business, but reminded me that the job makes me humble and proud at the same time. should moan less about it! I had friday and monday off before christmas, so could play board games, craft, bake etc with my girls. this i think will all come in the next blog post, as i am tired and going to bed now

i know, i know! i have spent too much time having a life, and not enough screen time!! But before I catch up, i just wanted to write something about how lovely it is to have an oral history of the family. SB isn’t very well, i think she has a mix of tonsillitis and too late to bed last nightitis so we had a prolonged snuggle in bed to get her comfy, and we were doing that discussing random topics, and she was worrying about cloning humans and clone wars, so in my reassurance i thought that tho it could be possible, it would be unlikely in mine or her lifetime, so she was worrying for her grandaughter so i said i was unlikely to meet her grandaughter so she should think of nice things about me to tell her [it was a distraction honest, not a fish for compliments ] and so she happily told me of what she would say and pictures to show [only the nice ones mummy] and then what she remembered of the relatives of mine – grandad herbert and nanny stagles – who she had never met [my great grandparents] and their stories. and snuggling her, telling stories of little nanny and the elephant, nanny sylvia and the broken wrists as a child etc, it struck me how precious our family memories are, that they aren’t written down anywhere, despite it being possible, and the sharing of the stories keeps the threads of family alive. just cuddling and talking, of pasts and futures. absolutely wonderful hour thankyou SB

we are a house that elebrates christmas. we celebrate family, drawing together, being thankful for the family in blood and the family in friendship that we have, and making the most of the time together. That is the plan anyway. Part of this is decorating the house. first we tidy, sort out old toys and clothes to freecycle, give to friends with smaller children and to charity shops. [this part we are not so good at ] the next is to have a tree in the 2 living rooms. a large one with the tv, and a smaller one on sb’s desk in the home ed room. We have struggled this year with the smaller one, as it has taken to falling over! 3 times now, so hidden bricks supporting it! anyway, all trees are done now. have the nativity to put out, and the girls will decorate the staircase when my mum comes. I love christmas

I am woefully behind in blogging! life has just been tooo too busy at work to have any time at home but the essentials – playing and loving my girls so internettage has been disrupted! I can’t remember all the things that went on, though think pottery happened that week. we did start our love film fest, courtesy of an amazon deal.

anyway, weds was wodensmeet . v few of us due to change of date and other things, but zoe and I had a plan and the day was spent crafting various things, the kids chatting, and finished with making yummy smelling xmas puds.

so here are some matryoshka and parcel felt baubles

some matryoshka and other fimo baubles

some watercolour and some acrylic winter paintings

then some hammering on tins with nails these had water and sand frozen inside.

finally finishing with xmas pud. just me and zoe, since girls playing a game. lovely day

hard to know where to start. fab location, fab friends, fab food and fab time the fab four indeed

this year in escape to…coalbrookedale . great hostel, nearest thing to melrose without a 9 hour journey! hostel had ensuite for most rooms [reducing risk of camp gut rot which has happened surprisingly few times, but antibac is our friend ] a big games room with tv that the kids loved and a smaller ‘teachers room’ which was the only place with any signal, a few comfy chairs and our cake stash home for the families with little babies. other adults moved from teachers room to the next door dining room freely. also had a big kitchen which connected through larger servery to dining room and a separate potwash room. this realy worked as the communal cooking was fun, communal and many hands made light work, and not separated off like the prev year at castleton. the dining room could have done with being a bit bigger, as could teachers room, but, you know I think as close as perfect and also some ground floor access bedrooms for some friends of ours, for which this was very useful.

52 attendees, of which 3 effectively babe in arms from 14 families stayed, and we had 2 families visit us whilst there. SO lots of friends most that I have known now since BB was born from our ‘imaginary’ online home ed friends, who over the years, no small thanks to muddle puddle camps. A great group of friends and kids. I enjoyed [in random order] chatting and eating cake, chatting and crafting, chatting and cooking/chopping, chatting and playing games, making music – carols, our ‘mini orchestra, and most definately our quartet and trio for the talent show. the quartet was SB, E and em on recorders and me on electric keyboard [yes, piano better but not so transportable!] playing gluck and the trio SB on clarinet, BB on cello and me on keyboard playing hark the herald. I am particularly greatful for my friends [including kids in this] for going and sitting back down when it became clear BB had meant us to play carols in the talent show and not the mini orch, thus muddling everything else up without any problems. thankyou

on crafting… DH has started to knit thankyou for the very patient jsotp and merry, and anyone else . also parent1 appears to be a secretly fab crafter. enjoyed felting and sewing myself. wouldlike to learn to crochet still… next time!

christmas – carols – lovely our mini orch gets better each year, and i will do some more carols simples parts based on that website at somepoint so we have lots more to choose from and include a piano part! talent show – v v funny . loved all the comedy the kids put in, the great musicality of so many of them, and the sheer exuberance and fun of the mass gangnam style I love all our kids Play – well done, you did perhaps need to know the plot, but to condense midsummers nights dream is no mean feat – thankyou Big. christmas dinner courtesy of the male chain gang and katy. the blokes and kids did a great job of the vegetarian option, and katy of coordinating the whole shebang with huge aplomb [including lemon meringue pie in the slow cookers!] Last but not least, the secret santas. looking round at a room full of people where loads of effort had been made to personalise and create great secret santas, and everyone really happy . as a family we were v v happy that all the recipients of our secret santas were happy. the 3 games [BB's idea, she made fox and geese with wooden board, SB made 13 mens morris with embroidered board, and I made quarto with a fabric board - see below] were all played with and the recipients happy, and I believe DH’s spicy and sweet roasted nuts and chickpeas are v tasty . BB was utterly and more utterly ecstatic with hers – she says the best secret santa ever of an adapted fleece hoody and pants into a dino outfit, and also a frog. SHe couldn’t be parted from either until unfortunately the frog lost an eye. this was a disaster of immense sadness, but hopefully [having found eye] we can fix at home. the rest of us also v happy.

DH escaped the hostel 2ce, first time to walk to ironbridge – i was a bit too migrainy so stayed behind with SB and did crafty things. the second time i had planned to go, but there was dillying and dallying, so i needed to be chopping in the kitchen, so dh took 3 girls to assorted crystal, gift and twee shoppage he really really enjoyed that Both girls had a great time. SB had hennaed her hair before we went, and it looked beautiful. SHe definately had some teen moments of being to small/too big which i think she made harder than required and difficult to settle, but overall had a great time. we have now talked coping strategies again… BB had a fab time with her buds J and X playihg spies and walkie talkie hide and seek etc, and let josie join them – even better so a great foursome.

hmm, written a lot and yet haven’t captured the essence of the security, comfort and family feel of this camp with great friends thankyou all, and Babs for organising.

I so loved making this, that i am going to post it on the blog, even though ‘against form’ . the person I gave it too immediately guessed it was from me, recognising the stitches [apparently]. Not only did I love making it, but was very happy with the end result .

It is a limited edition personalised version of Quarto. [and my daughters say we need one too!]

today was lighting up day where we live, and our house hosts some of the lighting so always exciting. SInce we live rurally and no megabucks, the lights are plugged into our sockets! we used to have to buy the xmas tree too, but now the lights committee buy that so we belted out xmas carols eating mince pies, including bb being happy to go with other kids to sing away in a manger. SB was helping the guides hand out the words. It was pretty chilly! father christmas handed out sweets – always a success!

was a bit hard for me tho, as as evening began I had some huge muscle spasm thing going on [i presume] which has only settled down as day ended. not been doing anything crazy, so not sure what would set it off, but couldn’t do a good singing breath.

earlier in the day, the girls and I took an idea from Zoes blog to make christmas cards. we used watercolours and then biro and SB and I got stuck in straight away, but BB had a bit of crisis before deciding how and what she wanted to do. Due to the aforementioned pain I possibly wasn;t as calm and helpful as i could have been, but we spent a lovely couple of hours coming out with these

I know,I should have chosen 1 or 2 of them, but i love them all

even earlier in the day, DH and BB took alfie to MIL’s for a weeks holiday in a toasty warm house! warm baths and 2 lights aside, alfie is still not partic active, tho will eat after his bath, so maybe such a toastie house will make him forget all bout hibernating! I hennaed SB’s hair – something i haven’t really done to myself since SB v young, brought back a smell of my youth! so her hair is lovely and glossy with red tones to it

finally, end of week summary – BBhas left gym, she should find it fun, but doesn’t really, so no more! SB nd BB had last arts award, not clear why it isn’t running to me, sure there is a good reason? shame really, as have had a lot of exposure to differnt techniques. SB finished her animation, and BB did a lovely linocut. thurs SB had a spymasters session with guides, which she really enjoyed. SHe has done a pretty good bookwork week too all things considered.

minor panic that we haven;t bought xmas pressies etc yet – eek! oh well

the last ‘proper’ wodensmeet of this year.

WE had an early start as went to the ice rink [yes. again!] for 9am. we were the only people on the rink and i went on this time, but mostly ice-stood girls liked having the freedom of all that space. SB and BB love ice skating really, and wish closer to a rink for a regular skate. The deependers joined us, having got stuck in traffic, so more fun :).

we went on to zoes and were the last to arrive everyone was zentangling baubles, so the girls got going too. we grown ups giggled and chatted in festive mood whilst they did this, and then split into science and poetry.

poetry was comparing 2 poems where you had a right and wrong choice [i think] and then drawing something of an illustration. SB threw hers away as she didn’t like it. BB drew a dragon attackign a castle

science was a bit of a leap, and we discussed with the kids and grownups before organising, as it involved them pricking their fingers to get a drop of blood. i brought along some local anaesthetic gel, the blood kits [bought, sterile including sterile pricker, sterets etc] for blood group testing, and then we also made a blood film, fixing with isopropranolol and staining with eosin and haemotoxylin as i didn’t have methylene blue. all but 2 did do it, and they were v excited to see their blood groups, and even more so to look at their own blood under a microscope. for the H and S out there, everything sterile, done properly and disposed of safely .

after that my phone battery died, and i hope to ‘borrow’ someone elses flickr pics when she puts them up . I think we ended up microscoping on a high . we certainly managed to stain well and see both red and white blood cells. talked about the things in blood and how they worked, and also talked about blood groups and transfusion. Perhaps we had some erroneous results due to technique? but still .

we had lunch and then after lunch SB and E did lots of recorder together – sounding v good, and SB had a clarinet prac with EM – thankyou – as still ‘between teachers’ merry had brought christmassy material and the girls all made baubles or a christmas hat. BB designed her bauble base on the xmas decs I have bought from the happy potters, friends of ours.

finally ending with a singsong of xmas carols and a practice on the bells. Lovely day, thankyou

Em popped back to ours so SB and E could play the gluck with me accompanying, and Em the middle section. it sounded beautiful [tho i made a number of mistakes!] and we might play at christmas camp caberet

or baking and skating

thursday had multisports and fri was wild place i think for the girls, putting woodchips down.

sat started as a nice family weekend, doing different things in the same room, bit of maths for SB, reading for BB and lego, some work and finishing secret santa for me , BB has been also playing a lot of creationary that she got for her birthday. SB and I did some sweet making fr xmas, BB made shortbread for camp all lovely and convivial. Sb finally gave bb her present of reindeer headband – bb v happy

After lunch we went to see madagascar 3 at the cinema, which we all really enjoyed, and thought a brilliant end to the series finished the eve watching masterchef on the iplayer and an early night

sunday was a good music practice day, with sb doing piano and clarinet and bb cello. i sorted out a bit nmore of the xmas music as well. we went out in the pm to ice skate at a garden centre and met G and E there we had a fab time, G and I drinkig coffee and chatting, and DH and the kids skating around. was a lovely day, and they were v happy to have friends there as well. had a hot choc and cake to warm up afterwards as well

we wandered into the fish section and bought some high fin platys and a bristlenose plec for the near-empty tank. though when we got home, we found that our 2 remaining platys had had a single baby, so maybe that tank wont remain too empty! watched merlin and then bedtime. A lovely relaxing weekend

monday the girls had a bookwork day, and both fairly industrious, and tues less so but they did get to go skating again this time with a different set of friends. both my girls wish we were candaian as our candain family live v near west edmonton mall, and they would love to be able to iceskate so often. . watched david Attenborough reviewing the last 60 years one night and alvin and the chipmunk the squeakwel the next night [argh!]

well, that was lots to cover really! BB and small were up early in the morning on roblox, Big and SB really struggled to get up at all! i think all our friends joining us also had a difficult day to be up and out too, so a later start and plenty of tea and coffee needed . we also gave Alfie a warm bath and he now has 2 warm lights, as we think he is trying to hibernate, as not eating and not moving. [he is still alive tho! and we did get him to do a bit of walking around and nibbled a tomato after the warm bath. will repeat most of the week]

being the sitting resident, I had my first variation on a theme, and I had chose the Moghul emperors. Before Kids, in what seems like a different life, i went to india on a ‘golden triangle’ self made journey on trains, and saw Taj Mahal and Fatepur Sikri, the red fort at Delhi etc and it was a perfect way to learn about SHah Jehan. Unfortunately, I couldn’t affor to whisk away us all today, so instead tried to infect everyone with my enthusiasm for that piece of history. not sure if successful, but hopefully they all retained something from that . Anyway, my first variation was using glass paints on tiles to recreate a marble tile that could have conceivably been used in the taj mahal we discussed symmetry, the lack of pictorial representation of people or animals, the use of jewel colours, tesselating and simpcity vs complexity. then set off. SOme followed the brief and pictures i had found, some used their own interpretations, and some were unique . All were done with care, attention and discussion of the source. I enjoyed it

Whilst I was doing that, Zoe was in the kitchen making gingerbread men and swedish apple cake for St Martin’s day – as the food component, nd also related to the 30 years war. both tasted utterly, utterly delicious.

K was with me in the conservatory, and making zen gardens from salt and glass pebbles and tealights, and talking about space and gardens in Japan. SInce these gardens are so transitory, I only managed to catch 2 before all puffled up!

After that Jax discussed Japan and the closing off to foreigners – something she is interested in in history too, and provided a map of japan

I have to say, BB did a lot of flying of her new remote control helicopter!!

After lunch, zoes st martins candles didn’t freeze, so we will do that next time Katy talked about the Manchu – we all fancied the hobbies of jumping on a camel from behind, or archery on ice! I did the second variation on taj mahal tiles, this time using star cutters and fimo on our white tiles. Think these also went well. Most kids liked the glow in the dark best tho!

so my family’s 2 different styles here.

overall a lovely day with friends and some crafting and learning, and lots of laughing and giggling . we finished the day with birthday cd of flying monsters, and then BB fell asleep whilst SB at Judo, and then some playing of birthday creationary by BB whilst SB watched masterchef the professionals

oh, and loved this pic of zoes