Author Archives: HHaricot

well, the election is still looking pretty undecided isn’t it. i hate to be admitting i am hoping for an uneasy pairing with conservatives!

this weekend we had a tidying frenzy start – well, ok, not so much!! but we made the playroom more or less safe for skittles to run around in. cutie rabbit!! we then were invitied to Ams birthday treat, and some comedic moments trying to coordinate that with our weekend guests. Brightkite and friends to the rescue! so we and kirsty and family made it to the bowling alley to meet merry and family for what turned out to be great fun bowling. it is safe to say that most of us were on the hopeless side, and that rails saved the day!! [kirsty is a bolwing dark horse btw!] thanks to the puddles for an unexpected party that was fun all round.

we had an emergency pizza tea [i overcatered!] and then the grown ups nattered untill way late, and the kids stayed up to 1am! [in the bedrooms] and were therefore pretty tired the next day!! some wii-ing, lots of sylvanianing, pretending BB was a pet dog etc etc!

next day i got up late :blush: we had pancake brunch, kids still doing similar games, and then we went geocache walking, and finally dropped off our 2 holiday travel bugs, and picked up a different one! lovely walk tho. camp curry for tea, SB nearly fell asleep mid walk upstairs, and BB, having had a mid eve nap, is currently still awake!

thanks v much for visiting us kirsty and james! was great.

1st of may, little nanny’s birthday. i miss her greatly. i last saw her last year for her birthday, and she died just over a month later. i miss her dreadfully. Her brother reggie missed her too, and somewhat curiously, died on her birthday this last weekend. he had a difficult life, and lots of it will remain a family mystery, but i don’t feel sadness at his passing. I feel great sadness at the loss of that generation, my nanny and her eccentric brothers and sisters – and they were all eccentric, as were their spouses. A huge loss, focused with the loss of little nanny, whom i still miss.

but we continued the plan of a norfolk holiday on the may bank, and shared it with friends. we were so very lucky as the weather was predicted to be awful, and it really wasn’t. though hail wasn’t quite so welcome! most of the rain was at night, the wind was quite blustery – made putting up the tarp more tricky! love our khyam tent tho. so, we had some new camping equipment. the benches and tables set 9/10

the cooking stand also worked well. poss 7/10 as slightly too tall, but only negative.
sat we put up and chatted. lovely to have le ciel rouge team added to camping buddies! very much happy to have! my girls both v keen to try and meet up more regularly. also long term favourites! jax and co, michelle and family, nic, and for a one night only special deal… deependers! [in our guest wing]

sat was mostly chatting, meeting, greeting and just being friendly! [in the sun, so i went and bought suncream, and apparently doomed us all] the kids running around the very safe campsite and playing in the park and feeding goats or buying penny chews! we didn’t stay up too late, as it started to get nippy. i expounded on the importance of tent hats and socks [as modelled beautifully by myself and michelle] so noticed both nic and zoe the next night were more suitably attired

the next day, after a lazy, meandering, chatty start, we went to the RNLI museum as proposed by michelle [who didn't make it and got sunburnt in her car!] myself and BB went round, and found a lot to interest her, and chris and SB, with the other 2 manor borns went round in a bit more depth… a nice pitstop in the lovely cafe and back to the campsite where the deependers had arrived, and with them fab kebabs for tea – yummy!

the next day we went to bewilderwood. it was fab and exceeded expectation. our jolly chappie who welcomed us was a good start, followed by jolly boatman. both girls had lots of things to love and do, and- drumroll – iwent up and over the high bridge, and it wasn’t too bad at all!! SB got to play moss in the play, and very much enjoyed that. she and chris mostly stayed together, and BB and i. the hail was annoying, but we hid in the craft yurt! BB particularly loved the baby zipwire and slides. a great time!

we went wrong on the way past, and went via st faiths, where little nanny was cremated. i shed a few tears, but better by time back at campsite. another laid back evening, and lots of political discussion later.

a late and lazy leave time on tues, wed was migraine city and knocked out, today bb at nanna’s

bringing us to today [sort of] and here i am, awaiting election results

i had a blog award from the frog academy, and a suggestion i do these 10 things!

1. snuggling on the sofa with one or other of my girls – either reading together or watching tv. i just like that snuggly warmth!

2. a warm summers evening after a great day, that moment when you kick back your shoes and think, yep, today is good.

3. may and elderblossom. i love may, it may be my fav month [having 2 bank hols as well helps!]

4. crafting with the girls – i get enjoyment out of that hum of doing things together. i love how SB now praises and then critically assesses what i have done now. telling me not to mind if it isn’t right [like the time i absent mindedly painted the rainbow colours the wrong way round - i knew something didn't look right!]

5. playing board games, with DH, family, friends, SB. that laugh and conversation

6. playing music with a group. either classical or folk. just fun!

7. having got christmas presents and dinner done, and looking at the happy faces of the wider family, and feeling loved and loving.

8. our friend parties – like mine and kirsty’s joint 70th, or j and j’s to come. that feeling of conviviality

9. camping, en famille or with friends. i love camping, free from routine, and loads of time with my family.

10. a hug.

skittles settling in.

SB written a lovely pamphet about romans. i love that even when copying verbatim [tho i suggested she do it in her own words] she manages to have such unique spelling [ah! in her own words!!] and various other home ed type bits. some baking and making! colouring and reading.

BB has also been getting going with her reading, and read several more of the 1+ songbirds books, v pleased with herself. finally! reading getting off the ground. i love that she has a weird mix of how to remember letters, g is golden girl, q is queen and p princess, but she has to hum and haw over which. l is in her name isn’t it, and then she goes through her name and tadas! h is help me, whereas H is my name! and u is an Upside down n, lol lol! also colouring, games and rabbit worship.

I have had quite a bit of an upset tummy and had to take time off work, making me worried about active sickness policies and looking bad etcetc as well as just generally letting the side down.
have bought an oil painting thing that includes the basics for beginners, and some more felt, so think we are stocked craftwise.

the conservatory is grad being rebuilt, not the same charm as the original, nor the fab new design but def strong, sturdy and useable!

I had the honour of going to the cremation service of the beautiful little boy of two dear friends. much loved, much wanted and a devastatingly sad end to what should have been a joyful time. my heart and thoughts, as well as countless others, remain with them.

SB really, really happy with the arrival of her first officially her pet [rather than family] a 9 week old black self mini lop doe. she has been reading about rabbits non stop, and our plan to increase our home education achieved has been derailed into a total rabbit fest!!

let us think about habitats shall we. you are a spanish conquistador and bring back a new animal back to the royal court of spain. the keeper of the animal house now has to keep it alive. how does he work out what it likes to live in/ eat? often no record of habitat was brought back. imagine you are now voyaging with charles darwin. his attention to habitat to detail sprung him towards his great idea of evolution and adaption. imagine we are abducted by aliens, what would you hope your recreated habitat might have?
so here is an unknown species, antistons, brought back to you by intrepid explorers…

so after a bit of imagination and flights of fancy i give them the tools to design choice chambers for the antistons and work out what they might like. the younger group – for this is latinetc – listen carefully, answer sensibly and question logically, and they then set to to make great choice chambers. we have wet lint vs sand, shaded vs light, shiny silver floor vs shiny gold and some more or less repeats. we discuss a fair test, and how we need big enough numbers to think that the result may reflect ‘the real picture’ rather than an oddball response, so we put 10 antistons into each of our choice chambers. we learn that antistons appear to prefer dark, moist or shiny gold. [the last a surprise, but may be related to a couple of antistons being caught in cellotape unfortunately. so we learn to be more careful with cellotape in choice chambers…

then it is break, music theory, french and latin all happen [some at the same time as younger science] then the older kids have a go they just have to be more imaginative, wilder with their ideas and more complicated. what we learn in addition is that too much choice cause confusion and unclear results… and we also learn that moist lint and moist sand and are equally appealing, so it was the dampness rather than texture.

lovely lunch, rather fab veggie jelly, some playing in the garden and a clarinet lesson for SB. waved goodbye to the manor borns first – and we had been lucky enough for them to stay the night before, which was great company, and i shared my birthday champagne with michelle. the girls all had a great time, and seemed to love mario olympics on the wii, i kinda think that is why c would like to stay again some time!!

after everyone left, we decided to to some more felting. BB needlefelted most of a ladybird before the obligatory stab wound, and i finished it off. SB felted with ziplock bag a lovely flower picture semi inspired by van gogh. she had wanted to oil paint, but although we have oil paints, i have no idea how to use them, and she was put off by the thoughts that i might google it! i actually resent all that time ‘doing art’ at school, and i realise i have been left with no idea how to actually paint anything, use watercolours, oils, pastels or anything but poster paint! but SB on a bit of a roll, so at least now i know we need some linseed oil, paint thinner etc.

more playing and BB drew loads and loads of pictures of rabbits, and wrote her first real word unprompted by spelling [well apart from her name] it was ‘caf’ a quick check, and it became cat!

thankyou latinetceras for coming to mine. all antistons released again into the wild, and revealed to be woodlice!

having decided after reading a rather well written book by an nlp practitioner i thought i might try and at least take some of the good mental health ideas into real life! so again on sunday i made sure that we had space and time to enjoy quiet family time. it does mean that HE and excitement is perhaps slower, but we will catch up on that!

so again, under our new tarp in the garden we did some crafting. SB fancied felting, so found our old supplies from a kessingland way back! sb did some more needle felting, whilst bb did some ziplock bag felting. both spent a long time doing it, whilst i read books to them and helped. lovely and companionable!! we have dotted the mushroom spawned logs around the garden, and wish them the best! General messing about and playing. SB has finished singapore 3b and on 4a, not sure if i mentioned that before! face painted both of the girls.

we have decided – prob v foolishly – to have one more attempt at bunny ownership…

yesterday had some stressful at work moments, but it was lovely to escape and drive in the sun to a flying visit to the puddles, and give a number of the family a big hug. whilst i was at work, SB had her last day of holiday orchestra and the concert. as usual she enjoyed the experience. must see when it is over summer before barracudas, or maybe even pgl, as we have a discount thingy…

today was fabulously sunny, and i had planned to go out cycling or a nice long walk and geocache. however, i think i am allergic to icelandic volcano dust, and have extreme allergic rhinitis and cold symptoms, and have sneezed so hard that my chest now in permanent pain!! so i thought the better of it. As i blog, i am listening to a birthday present – thankyou!

fabulous!

anyway, got up, messed around with girls. SB read her aquila magazine, and did the puzzles and sudoko, and we spent a while estimating the amount of urine one may pass over a life time… BB read another book!!

she was so proud of this achievement, that she declared she was so good at reading that she can now do it with her eyes shut. lol!! having got a pet dragon from her magazine [toxic] she spent a lot of the day playing with that! SB did a fair bit of music theory as well.

we went out into the garden, and chris put up our other camping acquisition – a tarp. we liked it muchly!! i thought we should try some ‘proper’ painting, and took out watercolours and paper. we all had a go fiddling about with it until we got some interesting results we were pleased with. SB got the hang of colour washing and letting colours blend. BB used the watercolour pencils happily, and i did some messing about! we spent a LOT of time messing about with the paints, and it was just nice to be in the sun together with no pressures. We have finished the second book of story of the world [finally!] so will start the next one, but then after that go back to the first again. I read to BB some book people first science/fact books [ ‘Wonderwise Collection’, 20 Books, Retail Price £119.80 (Wonderwise)], and felt they were too oversimplified really, but she enjoyed them. since they were from book ppl, not too expensive, and one day will donate to local library.

since we have cut down some trees and pruned others in the garden, i bought some mushroom dowels from thompson and morgan. unfortunately our logs aren’t actually quite the right wood or size, but never mind, have done it now! drilling, filing waxing and currently soaking. hoping to get some mushrooms!!

finished with dr who and then bedtime stories.