Category Archives: General

family weekend

i decided, and chris agreed, that it would be nice to celebrate having family this weekend, so we invited 30+ family members to our house for a party. some of you might have seen the flickr! both sets of parents decided we weren’t going to manage to pull the house in order on our own, so v kindly helped with some tidying. chris’s mum on mon and tues, and my parents from wed.

ooh, that reminds me. SB did manage to stick out the week at musical theatre, and i am v proud of her. she is also proud of herself, so a bit of a result. the video mostly shows her being worried, but about 30% enjoyment too, so thats good. having my mum cheer her on in the audience was good too. she then very happily reprised all the music for us with actions, said she would do it again, but it would be nice to go with a friend another time. we might go for the sports programme elsewhere another time.

anyway, a spruce and tidy to the house and garden, little nanny and my sister and family arrived on the friday. final things done and sat morning it just poured it down! how totally miserable. anyway loads of family arriving, and though i had catered loads, they all brought loads so dining table groaning! we had a fab time. i was sad my dad’s brother, wife, sons and any grandchildren didn’t make it at the last minute, but pretty much full turnout to celebrate the joy of having family.

it also put a big smile on my sisters face, as everyone was lovely to her, complementing her on growing back hair etc etc. she needed a bit of an up! chris and i were a bit bushed at the end, but felt it had all gone really smoothly, and had been great fun for all. we might even do it again in 2 years time! the sun came out in the afternoon, which reallly helped.

sunday and most of the visitors of yesterday were day visitors, and my sister and husband went home on the sunday, leaving us their 2 children. lots of games playing and general fun. my parents and little nanny went home this morning [which seems a long time ago] lots of happy playing by all the children today, a bit of a childrenmoon! makes 4 seem easier than 2!!

musical mondays – blush

the thing with this is that this series got me through redundancy process at work. and hearing this theme still gives me that same sensation of being able to breathe again.

so here it is, battlestar galactica, a theme that i will always be thankful for though i don’t rank it in the music to love pantheon in quite the same way!

someone else had a haircut



someone else had a haircut

Originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious

floods!

chris went to pick SB up from a drama holiday thing she did the first session of [she was less sure than i thought she would be] and also accidentally left the hosepipe filling up the paddling pool…

SB has had fun reading a book about the period table and also about the celts. BB has been entertained by nana and grandad.

Protected: parental angst and picnic dates

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musical mondays – philip glass

i fell in love with philip glass’s music when i went to see the making of the representative of planet 8 at the ENO as a student. it is really difficult to find any traces of that music! i love the rolling harmonies and the repetitions. it is an evolution in his style, and i certainly don’t like it all, but … so i am trying to find in utube clips what i mean. his violin concerto good!

too hot to blog

too hot to think.

i had the tremendous privilege of working in borneo for 2 months when a student, and spent part of that plying my future trade up and down the deepest interior of the rainforest in a motorised canoe from marudi and sibu. perhaps i was more acclimatised, but i feel hotter and sweatier and stickier than then! we have had a torrential downpour, which doesn’t seem to have reduced heat or humidity. there i always stood under the mandy to tip cold water over my head to let me sleep! [you can see i was a honoured visitor to the iban and dayak longhouses, as more commonly all bathing is done in the lovely leech infested rivers!]

anyway, it was too hot to think all day, so we did butterfly half paintings, where you fold to get the mirror image. that took up lots of day! sb also did a paint a fairy kit, and bb lots of paddling pooling. we read about camille and the sunflowers and looked at our fab sunflowers. i did a sunflower picture that we then took a print from.

we did a bit of french about clothes, but its been too hot to think, so we also did harvesting = beans and pots for tea. and i did some weeding after all.

i am now going to collapse infront of a prog about australian wildlife and hope bb goes to sleep soon – she had a siesta unfortunately!

too darn hot!

i know i shouldn’t gripe. but i think my ambient temp is between 18 and 22 degrees. when its colder i wrap up warm, but when its this much hotter… well, i hide in the shade and dip feet in the paddling pool.

but, what i really needed to do was give the garden a good weed. but with it being so hot and airless, and me only just shaking off a migraine, i didn’t think it worth the risk [and it would have been seriously unpleasant]. i could go out in the datk with a torch on i guess, but now feeling lazy!

so, the girls spent a lot of the day in the paddling pool – it did seem like the most sensible thing. though they came in for a 2 hour muzzy fest before i kicked them out again. there seems to be a new interest in muzzy, and they’ve watched 3 days on the trot. since we have series 1 and 2 in german, and 1 in spanish, this is a serious amount of muzzy! i do think my german comprehension has improved mind you!
so i chased them back into the garden and we swung, paddled, picked petals off flowers etc. i took out the airdrying clay – actually i love air drying clay, especially hen you buy it in a sale! as it is cheap, and the girls can fiddle about with it to their hearts content. BB immediately said she wanted to make a coil pot, and set about doing it – she remembered exactly how we did it before easter and got going. sb made a thumb pot. they both then made pizzas. i read some of my book – male sci-fi. you have to roll eyes once in a while, but it is excellent escapism.

helped chris net the raspberries before the birds steal any more, and played games with the girls until we went in to cool off [victorian house good at being cool, partic if we leave cellar door open] and we did some french books and SB did violin practice, but we had to do a bit less, as bb also got her violin out, and was demonstrating her new clock song! they fancied pancakes for tea [they don't often get to choose!] so i did that, and whilst i was getting ready, they both did some maths. BB very proud of how beautifully she can now write a 4. read dinodoors and hairy mcclary to bb, and a roman mystery 2 chptrs for sb. SB also had a chapter of SoTW – islam goes to spain.
bath and bed for both of them. though in the gap between the 2, sb and i played several hands of rummy, and then did a simple electronics kit

forgot to say that i have given BB a pretty short bob as well!

short haired girl



enough photos!

Originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious

little bit of power going straight to the head!

that was me at work today – rofl! no doubt i will be in a bit of trouble!

girls went to chris’s parents [?grandbeans?] and all did some maths. bb can know happily do  4, and was writing 4′s everywhere! SB still on fractions. other than that, alot of playing.

chris has made a start on tidying as next weekend both extended families coming for the day!

i had a long day at work, and should go to bed earlier, but it is too darn hot!