Category Archives: Out and About

[ser]vile Victorians

Posted on November 3, 2010 by HHaricot | 3 comments

we went on a fab home ed group organised trip today to Burghley House for a Victorian servant experience. it was fabulous. Le ciel rouge were also there. We had a blast! the girls all dressed up, and over half of the other children had too. I was partic proud of SB’s costume and BB wore her pinny. We did have to get up at 7.30 – which was a shock to the system!!

First we had an introduction and heard a bit about various different servants, their jobs and what they would earn. then we were shown around the main house [no pics] which was really good. partic loved the kitchens and all the artwork Was very proud of SB, going round, asking questions and showing things to BB, and to BB for being so well behaved A very interesting tour of a very interesting place. We then went to the second bit, which was looking at a variety of items commonly used by servants in the Victorian times. SB and BB keen to pick some up and show around. Z and i did wonder if t41 would have approved of the ‘that’s a good question’ training.

Lunch time and we were all gasping for a cup of tea and food! unfortunately no chairs to sit on! In fact, it was cold stone slabs!! eek! After eating we went to our first afternoon session which was making fab sculptures out of wire. Unfortunately the session was a bit too short, meaning SB didn’t finish, and BB got stressed until i made the correct [after some trial and error on my part!] design xmas tree for her to hang baubles from. i also had a go, a butterfly on a flower. A really excellent session from a v hands on sculptor. Wish it could have had another half an hour.

The final session was also great, doing some servant chores, tho many reproducible at home All the girls started with polishing saddles and shoes, then using lemon juice to clean copper, the bigger girls then wrote letters, and BB did all the rest and dictated a letter to me. The chap leading was v knowledgeable and it was only that we were flagging at the end of the day and requiring cups of tea that made us want the day to end Children also tired, and BB fell asleep in car on way home [ok and me]. BB recovered at home with some old dr who, SB has had brownies and judo and has done a short piano prac [broken cords and trudging, her worst things still, and she doesn't want to change piece - it will be fine!]

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Another Artetc

Posted on November 1, 2010 by HHaricot | 1 comment

We gate-crashed Le Ciel Rouge and Merry’s regular art monday today following a piano prac for SB [i think she is fed up practicing for her exam tho ] and we weren’t too late, even tho i was doing the classic home educators trick of answering so many questions in the car that I realised we had gone the wrong way . Today was focussing on Klee and Matisse, and one of the advantages of being a gatecrasher was that I didn’t have to organise anything, just enjoy

The first bit was tissue paper pictures, which were great. I was surprised to see how similar my girls pics were tho [photos to be added when have finished blogging, then flickring!] As BB did a pyramid, and SB a fab tent in campsite. Children then had a bit of a play and we had the traditional pasta lunch before we did the adapted djeco klee craft kit that my girls have done and found fab in the past. Since we have done this together, I suggested each of them used their imaginations with the colouring and blending to complete them this time. BB did one blend, then declined. She really doesn’t like messy hands

final craft was fimo, in a cut in shapes workshop from merry, slightly matisse inspired, but also using this book

which isn’t one of mine, but is very tempting as it has loads of fab ideas in it. It is hovering around my amazon basket at the moment – but very little is escaping it, having done the finances last week [eek and wail!]. both my girls did a very diff style, BB’s being a far more literal and object referenced approach, and SB really getting the hang of cutting and swapping the pieces a la matisse. The other children did some really fab fimoing too, so we adults felt the need to join in. Mine, far miore like BB, and not really in the right style [oops] but I did enjoy doing it. I *need* all those cutters – lol! [have just spent a happy time filling a basket on craftmerrily, but like the amazon basket...] yes, I know, photos!! I loved hearing all the chitchat between the girls. in partic P, M and SB as one giggly group, adn BB and J having loads of fun together as well. tho BB did have a few minor melts when the fimo didn’t behave I do love that SB thinks about it, and then gets on in whatever plan she has made in her head. She isn’t a less is more girl either

Bade a fond farewell to Merry and Z, and drove SB to her ballet lesson, where she was v proud to be at the front as the step shower BB insisted we went to the park, and it was COLD!! eventually persuaded her back home to the warmth. SB brought back not too much later and we played settlers of catan together whilst BB ‘watched something’ and then BB and I played bohnanza whilst SB read aquila. we watched the second part of the Merlin, and then, bedtime.

This is my last week off work, so had fun today, and plan to fill the week. trying not to feel the anxiety in my shoulders and spreading. ho hum!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, daubing and making, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

relight my fire

Posted on October 27, 2010 by HHaricot | 3 comments

today was latinetc, and i had got a fun science all lined up! we were going to make oxygen – woohoo! and test for it. This completes a creating and testing for 3 gases – CO2, O2, H2 – series [yes, should really go for nitrogen, but it is trickier...] We’ll do it again no doubt in the future, but i emphasised the 3 and their tests today, and talked a fair bit about catalysts, being things that can make reactions go faster. We had hydrogen peroxide – which you can buy from a chemist cheaper than ebay [thankyou for t-bird for this nugget, only after i had purchased from ebay!] which will over time produce oxygen all by itself, faster if heated. But a catalyst will speed things up and make v much more ‘interesting’ . We had as our catalyst manganese dioxide – definitely going to be a winner, liver and kiwi fruit. [could use iron oxide but this doesn't do a lot, and lead oxide does do a lot, but i don't have any]. we put 15 mls of h202 with a bit of the catalyst [less than 1/4 tsp of the manganese dioxide] and a squirt of washing up liquid and some food colouring. it foams! we rated our catalysts in order of manganese oxide > liver > kiwi

The reaction is :
2H2O2(aq) -> 2H2O(l) + O2(g)
This is catalysed by a variety of transititional metal compounds and peroxidase enzymes found in many living things.

i also did an adapted genie in a bottle [as had less h202!] that i had practiced at home, so knew to be way safer!! still pretty dramatic, and we got to test for oxygen with glowing spills v successfully. [ps i had also given them my usual scary safety prep talk, we had safety specs, lab coats and gloves, and the foaming controls this a bit. I think we all enjoyed it [mind you, i did have to remind a most of the older group that safety specs are not so good if on the forehead rather than over the eyes ]

K did latin and french, Z did crafts – halloween and firework pics using oil pastels with a watercolour wash, and Merry did pasta and mastered K’s ecokettle! We are going to do the real science for kids next time, with all the children reading or having read to, chapter 1 of whichever level their parent thinks is ok, and then i am going to work out how we can model atoms in the interim, so we can each make one, and do some discussion around the periodic table and atomic weights as we do it.

SO after a bit of planning of groups, which K will tinker with and show and tinker with G, who wasn’t here today so needs to have an input, Merry went home, K did french and then we grown ups chatted as the children did a bit more craft. then we went geocaching for the elusive ones! and this time – fanfare – Z found it! still not quite where we thought it was going to be. SB led a group of children out of view, and BB got hurt, so was a bit cross with her for breaking cardinal rule of going somewhere that i didn’t know about out of eyesight and nearly earshot as well. . We then persuaded kfish to come to the next cache too, which i think she may have regretted… i had the coords only on iphone, which with classic timing ran out of charge when we most needed it [actually ] so Z rang chris and got coords, i had the gps which i don’t know how to use, and in the end kept marking waypoints and deleting them until they were more or less the coords. it was getting dark and looking a bit hopeless, so we gave up, but K and I spotted an interesting log arrangement, J investigated it, and tada!! a geotat cache! BB way too tired so i had a less than nice moment when little A – bless her – passed on what she had chosen mind you, we had had A in our car as she had had a moment too that she never got to go in other peoples cars. SHe and BB had a fab conversation which didn’t make 100% sense from the front… Though that was better than BB and L when i had those 2, who were on the cheeky end of the spectrum [not dreadfully, more mock outrage rather than actual required!!]

got home to find chris had tidied the front room and wrestled with putting the curtains up. oh i DO like a room with curtains!! we had chips, falling asleep half way through, and the rest of us watching a fab programme about optical illusions. now i plan to watch the apprentice on iplayer.

And yes, it is 2 months since my sister died, and have thought about her on and off all day.

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Posted in art and crafts, BB-PE, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, investigating, language, little languages, music, Out and About, SB-PE, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE, writing

Rabbit Robbed!

Posted on October 25, 2010 by HHaricot | 7 comments

well, ok we weren’t, we did give them away, but we are feeling bunny depleted!

Friday

as You have read, SB worked really hard on thurs so she could have a day of crafting etc on friday. unfortunately my failure to blog on friday has made me forget some of what we did :blush: but i know she did a piano practice and i am sure she did another something home-ed like! But the key thing she wanted to do was a papier mache head [i remember she did clarinet! did it before papier mache so as not to make clarinet sticky!]. She plans to be a headless something on halloween – must find the felt we have to make a very high collar cloak to hide her head [mostly!] anyway, we had balloon, paper and flour water, so the standard amount of mess was created

We then all moved on to baking. SB made a rather fab smoothy with honey, yoghurt and pears – mm mmmm! BB made some choc cookies – also lovely, and I made some choc rice crispie cakes. we even tidied up some of the mess

Chris, meanwhile, was scaring the living daylights out of me by clambering all over the roof to clear moss of places we think are leaking, and try and determine why. one is prob moss leading to spill over from the gutter, but another is uncertain still

Following that we did some more snuggling up together whilst drinking the smoothy, and then some fimo. i started reading SoTW 1, but due to phone call, SB took over and did the hammurabi rules with BB [giggle, BB signif scary!] and then before we knew it tbird and aprillia had arrived – woohoo!!

SO instantly bunny rules and were all out to adore the buns, Aprillia and tbird agreeing how gorgeous flopsy and fudge were, and all v happy so rabbit adoration, tea, more fimo-ing, and then girls made their own pizzas for tea. A fair bit more rampaging around before they were all confined to the bedroom – tho that didn’t mean sleep! we grown ups chatted and then also went to bed.

I was briefly diverted by reading a ‘mummy bloggers’ spat shock. Honestly, i am really not keen on the mummy blogger moniker, a bit eww and saccharine for me. most of the blogs i skimmed thro – linking from a good friend of mine – i found were just full of adverts and reviews or what seems to me very forced play ideas. not really a representation of being a mum or family life! And a quick peek thro the blogs just seemed too catty or too patty at the school gate when not being adverts are us. obviously these are the ‘big names’ in ‘mummy blogging’, are those making a living, which i don’t have a problem with, which are why all reviews and pretense and i am sure there are actually loads of real life blogs out there with the rather sugar coated mummy blogger moniker. But i think i will stick to being a little home ed blog of our days with the nice cosy home ed ring. I get plenty of ideas of reality from them and i will leave the paid blog world alone, well apart from harmony art mom, who i think combines income generation and real life in a very happy mix.

Saturday

we got up, got sarnies ready and were about to go out when rang by a work colleague about my return next week. I won’t say that i am looking forward to it, and have had nightmares last 3 nights, but feel i have been self indulgent taking time off – tho admit i had no real choice – and have to go back. he is a v supportive colleague and never knowingly makes me feel bad! but is a good barometer to measure what i should do against, and go back is right. lots of political changes afoot – never a good thing. i always wonder why we can’t just do the job we are good at – sigh – rather than have to defend and propose in areas that aren’t our forte. oh well! made us late out. I also had a migraine, so essentially quite seriously drugged up

We went to an egyptian festival of ideas event at girton college. we missed the start of the talk, otherwise i would have been a bit more insistant on it, so instead we went in the Lawrence museum, looked at the real mummy and the shabtis and a variety of anglo saxon grave goods. SB did a worksheet with aprillia, but BB had enough more quickly, so we went to the crafting area and she made her own air drying clay shabti and then got stuck into pot decorating. SB joined us with the pot, and then we rejoined tbird and aprillia with going out to the gardens to mark out where the ancient burial site was. SB got to wield a tapemeasure to triangulate to the roman grave, and both girls popped on pics of the grave goods, and then we went to a saxon grave of a man with his head between his legs – oops! the chap doing all the talking was v knowledgeable, v enthusiastic and had a way with children. I liked it . A final return to do some more, and i think aprillia did a shabti whilst the girls both did the skeleton drawing. there was a real life medical skeleton there and the girls drew round each others bodies with chris’s help, and then had to fill in the bones. Both did a fab job. BB was v careful to try and get accuracy, and i was impressed partic with her handbones [as was one of the facilitators - not really believing a 5 year old could show such care] and SB particularly enjoyed extending the brief by adding grave goods, and getting praise for originality made her beam from ear to ear i do love my girls getting stuck into things.

It was lunchtime, and all the girls giggled in the back of tbirds car, and we got slightly rained on. good thing we had lunch. walking past the girton refectory on the way out was a hardship! SB thought she might like to go there someday! [she had better work jolly hard then!]

ANyway, the next bit was the prehistory demonstration, where we met up with some other homeeducators [not organised, but not a surprise either!] chris turned out to be rather skilled at spear throwing [eek!], and BB and SB also had a go. I am not overly sure of the wisdom of teaching BB to throw a spear… SB and i most impressed by the smelters, and I was VERY impressed when i asked her what bronze was made out of that she knew the answer and then deduced the greenish rock in her hand [malachite] must have copper in it to be extracted. Well done that girl! [beaming with pride!]. i wonder how feasible smelting is???? All the girls made some soda bread and had it cooked in an earth oven – v yummy! SB painted a mammoth on the cave painting wall, BB made an excellent coil pot, with then a snake pic and her name on it, and we also chatted to the flint knapper and the skin preparer. All v enjoyable. All the girls had a flake earlier than expected – due to late night the night before i suspect! SO home and immed they had a pretend disco upstairs! The day did fit well with our Story of the World activities tho

We grown ups chatted, got dinner going [i had more tablets and reclined!] then girls joined us to watch the golden compass, which they all enjoyed, after i reassured t-bird that it was the book ‘reimagined’ with less angst, fear and the ending missing… i am afraid i fell asleep tho, as girls insisted on lights out :blush: Dinner and girls into bed we followed a fair bit later as i had had a second wind and enjoyed chatting with t-bird.

Sunday

next day all the girls got up FAR too early! so we parents trailed down with a bit of a yawn, directed them out to adore rabbits [grin] and then had fimo ready! We were waiting for some more friends to drop by to pick up a rabbit to have pancakes [the kids had first breakfast!] they arrived, total rabbit adoration ensued – awwww. pancakes were scoffed, with SB eating a few too many causing her to not eat until nearly bedtime [giggle!] some more playing and then bye bye to all guests and all the big babies they are all now in fab homes and will be v happy, but it certainly was a sad moment!

the girls did some more fimo – SB finishing the sarcophagus decoration, as well as a keyring etc. BB has made a snail, a teddy magnet and a girl with plaited hair. All happy with all makings. i read SoTW 1 [assyrians] and 3[prussia] whilst they did that, and then we gave all the rabbit hutches a through scrubbing and rebedding. the teen hutch is removed, and snowy looked a bit lonely. the little babies tho are bigger, and we added an additional step, so they were hoppiting in and out of hutch, v happy with their new space

the girls and i then all snuggled in front of the fire to watch the v retro voyages of sinbad dvds and have a pasta tea. I am reading sirens of surrentum to SB, toning down a bit the lovidoviness off it, as she isn’t really fond of kissing yet. I do think tho it is nicely written for a just preteen. it will be the last one we read for a while, as the plotline of the next is more challenging :(. she is now reading the magicians nephew as her bedtime book [i expect she will race thro it] as it is her fav one.

It has been a lovely weekend. I have loved having more time with my gorgeous girls, and going back to work a wrench – partic as still on the emotional wobble side. but it is time to go back. mortgages to pay etc etc. Just have to remember to live and enjoy each day whilst we have them.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, music, Out and About, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

Concerts and Continuity

Posted on October 17, 2010 by HHaricot | 1 comment

we went down to my parents for the weekend. They have been much worried about me, and I think they are reassured that all will be OK given some time and a better break! We went for the 25th anniversary concert of an orchestra mum and I were founder members of, and viv joined a bit later. I had a lovely time playing before with them, including the first mvt of beeethovens violin concerto and even after i left, returned for a number of concerts, including
the 10th and the 20th reunion concerts, both with mum and sister. Mum and I [and viv as offer made in July] were asked if we would like to play this time. we said no, tho i sort of wish we had said yes, tho on the other hand the tchaik 1 is total nightmare – and that was the only bt we thought we would be playing, but as it turned out those returners played the whole concert, including mendelsohn violin [ooh] and butterworth banks of green willow [aah]. Anyway, mum, dad and I took SB with us, and enjoyed the whole concert, and SB was really good at not jiffling and looking interested, even tho tchaik 1 on the turgid side! but what reduced us to tears was the dedication of the green willow – a strings heavy piece – to my dear sister vivien. Still SAK as i write this. I think all 3 of us had tears dripping down through the whole piece, beautiful that it is.

Once we had recovered – in the lovely Mendelssohn, we could enjoy the rest of the concert. it was fab meeting people again, some who we had seen recently at viv’s funeral, but some others that i went to music centre, or were taught by. And also one of mum’s school friends there too. After the concert, all old members were invited ‘backstage’ to enjoy some champagne to toast the longevity of the orchestra and hug previous friends and desk partners and too our total shock, mum and i got flowers as founder members!! SB found all this chatting bit quite boring. luckilly i took ds for her .

we got home late to find BB still awake, so i sang her to sleep – aw like doing that and SB went to sleep fairly instantly too.

next day chatting and playing games with my parents. SB caught up her 25 on this weeks ticksheet by doing 2 piano pracs, verbal reasoning and spelling book – good girl!! [actually took her to 28]. Dad set up a measuring and finding game in the garden which they both enjoyed. SB was a bt tierd and fragile with wailing at every knock, and BB had a right roayl strop, so i told her off for being ungrateful and greedy oh well!! lovely lunch from mum.

We then took a too boisterous BB and a slightly droopy SB on a geocache walk with my mum, a lovely walk across fields near where they live. i remember doing this walk loads as a child, and then courting chris I think we went too as a short cut to a nice pub. Rather more hideous memories of it being the cross country route of middle school! Actually the middle school maintain this geocache, and we found it easily, exchanged tat, and put in the daddybean TB. As we walked back, we walked past the scout hut, and the road to it has been named after a friend and neighbour who died suddenly in 50′s – another tearful moment. SO feeling quite a memory lane weekend, and wish that you could sometimes just pop back in time, just to relive and feel the moments, not necessarily to change.

straightforward drive home, and my fav [i think, tho this does change!] overture played on classic fm. i will leave you wth that at end! girls in bed, but not asleep. rabbits all safe, and chrs and i cold, so heating on from 2moro!

part one

part 2

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Posted in language, music, music to love, Out and About, vivien, writing

sunny suffolk weekend

Posted on September 14, 2010 by HHaricot | 5 comments

I had booked last and this week as annual leave back in easter for a trip to france, or as my sister worsened, one to wales or isle or wight, and then as the time drew closer i thought it would be to spend her last days together. but instead it has been for me to grieve, to not put on the work face and not spend my day listening to and trying to sort out others problems, but to concentrate on those closer to home. grieving though is detrimental to my children, well any prolonged bursts are, partic to BB. both my girls look hard at my face frequently to see if there are tell tale signs of grief. I therefore mostly parcel it up to now, when they are in bed, tho it escapes at other points in the day. i tell them grieving is normal and reasonable, but so is laughing and enjoying their company, tho i am finding that difficult. not their company, but listening to them when they screech or bicker, or just over exuberance. i have currently a small supply of tolerance and patience, tho i love and adore them just as much. SB has been v lovely and gentle, she is a blessing really. BB has been wildly herself, over the top in her emotions and spinning like a weathervane in a cyclone. she really doesn’t like me unhappy, and doesn’t know quite what to do. keeping busy is generally what to do! so we have done that.

so we have done looking at the baby rabbits and seeing how they are growing and changing, and getting them used to being stroked. we have done a fair bit of home ed, and a lot more arting and crafting, predominantly with crafts bought from my friend merry at craftmerrily listened to music for the peace of my soul – including a lovely birthday present cd – just what i needed

SB got the results of her grade 3 ballet – she passed, and only a couple of marks off a merit – woohoo!! i have bought the next RAD DVD as think this was the thing that made the difference BB started at gym – and was v excited, and SB moved into the older class and is hoping to be stretched a bit as it is an all or nothing kind of gym,and they are both in recreational classes. SB did entirely mangle her glasses there how does she do it!! think we might have to splurge on flexiframes for her they both had swimming – BB getting her level 5 [i think] certificate, and SB judo – again in the older class, so came home tired.

so we went camping to suffolk. we stayed here a bit surprised with the pitch, as ours totally grass free and a raised bark chipping base to pitch on under trees – actually seemd to be camping in a wood. perfect size for the minnesota, but would have not been so good for anything bigger. also glad to have an underground sheet, as would worry that the chippings may perforate the integral groundsheet of the minnesota. however, once over the initial surprise… i quite liked it. i liked the nearness to the beach and a good reserve to walk about in. and it was an ‘easy’ campsite IYKWIM. certainly it was good for chris and the kids to run about on the beach whilst i cooked tea and had a few moments of quiet contemplation.

one of the things i contemplated was my regret that my sister and i had not been better friends. we loved each other, and that has always been a constant, but we lost touch with communicating the minutiae when i went to uni, and those 7 years, and then my next 8 until the birth of SB we did phone and meet, but not regularly, a kind of long distance love. we knew each was there and living our own happy lives as it were. when we both had children we started to knit our lives back together at bit more closely. we were always chalk and cheese, and our parenting styles mirrored that, but we were gradually working our way out of childhood sib rivalry into adult friendship as well as family love. my sisters diagnosis 2 3/4 years ago accelerated that process dramatically, but one of my regrets, perhaps my largest, is that i didn’t grow up quickly enough to be a friend for my sister for who she was, rather than who i thought she should be soon enough in our lives. i am sorry for failing her there. maybe we managed to make up for it. we certainly both loved each other hard enough, and on my phone i have nearly 600 texts from her in the last year, mostly conveying love and fear. ah, my sister i do love you so.

the first day we went to sutton hoo. really enjoyed it. good little museum with really friendly staff. since not v full, also making sure the girls got to see interesting bits, including the raptor display outside. SB has always had an interest in the saxons, so this was right up her street. lovely walk to the burial mounds – grr to not taking gps as we walked right passed a geocache lovely cafe as well. so we were all happy.

next day we did some beaching – crazy girls body boarding in freezing sea~! i looked for interesting pebbles, and found some amber though chris was reluctant to believe it was poss to find amber. ah, but i come from a long line of east anglians. some things you just know

Don’t forget as well to look out for amber. This is fossilised resin and you can find it all along the beaches in Suffolk. It has a similar specific gravity to coal and because it’s light it floats in the water. The best place to look for it is at the very top of the strand line. It’s a little yellowy coloured stone and looks vaguely translucent.

we then went on a geocaching walk/cycle to dunwich heath. both circles cycled v carefully along the only v v lightly used road, with us walking behind. v pleased with them both. ok, SB always going to be ok, but she was v caring looking after her little sister as well, and BB also v careful. they tended to pull in to side and stop when one of the infrequent cars went past. mostly so car driver not scared picked lots of wild blackberries as went along, and thought of aunty marylyn, now safely back in canada. just in time to have a pit stop at cafe tho lots of wasps, and then found the first part of the geocache easily. we went wrong with the second part, as it is a bit of a high road/low road thing, and we didn’t choose the right one… however, had a great walk and saw some excitement! a bird never before seen in suffolk, and rare anyway, the king eider, and loads of twitchers in high state of excitement!! without their long lenses, we saw a ducklike blob on the water! anyway, we went back to the campsite to drop bikes, and for me to start dinner, whilst they did the alternative low road/high road route and found the cache – phew!

on other things, me ‘n girls played a fair bit of animal crossing in those in between moments, and BB still crowing that i caught her a blue marlin, but haven’t got one myself, well i have now! but i might give her the pleasure for a bit longer!! Merry gave me the idea of suggesting mum give it ago as evening brain switch off, safer than tv for this last difficult year, and once she got into it, viv and her 2 gave it a go, and SB already had it, so i joined in. viv couldn’t keep it up, so em now runs her town rather than her own. but it has been a something we can do together without saying those difficult things we have been thinking, so a good distraction. my nephew ‘in the lead’ he might have 2redboots acquisition fervour…

this blog post has become rather long, and realised i haven’t blogged viven’s farewell. will have to do that next time. no current strength to revisit.

anyway, onto today. we packed up and went to framlingham. v nice and simple english heritage! again nice ppl in shop and nice chats, and both girls were on the adorable side of the spectrum! SB being model HE and reading all the plaques, and BB being smily! in the shop they spent some money from aunty marylyn. BB finally got The Bird [a peregrine falcon - cf our english heritage shop woes in june] and SB their wooden bow and arrows. so i had an archer and falconer displaying in the green as we ate lunch. chuckling older ppl as they watched 2 such happy re-enactors!

we got back to find baby rabs even more hoppity and skippity. hope to get decent photo perhaps tomorrow.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Dance/drama, General, music to love, Out and About, Stringbean's HE, vivien

Catchup Post #1: Uncle Bob 25/2/1928 – 3/1/2010

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Daddybean | 2 comments

RIP Uncle Bob

(This post was priginally started 29/01/10 – ooops)

My Uncle Bob died a few weeks ago (aged 81). But the funeral wasn’t until this week, for various reasons. So me and the girls headed of the wild marshlands of North Kent for the funeral. Didn’t quite manage to leave as early as I wanted , but still there in plenty of time as managed not to get stuck on the M25 or the Dartford bridge.

The most noticeable thing was the lack of a coffin, as Uncle Bob had left his body to medical science, so there was obviously no body to be buried/cremated. This was slightly odd. Though my Dad (Bob’s brother) found it a bit upsetting, because it seems to have been a bit of a tradition in that branch of the family to have the body back to the house before the funeral – for people to pay their respects I guess. It’s seems an important thing for my Dad to have been able to see the body but of course this wasn’t possible.

The funeral service was fine in a funeral service kind of way. Girls were good – but I suppose they have had plenty of practice with 3 funerals in the last 7 months SB made a good fist of singing the hymns. Though the organist did seem to be playing them somewhat on the slow side. And we had an alternative version of the words written by the vicar for the church to the tune of John Browns Body. Though reading the Wikipedia article on it, that seems a fair tradition for the song. Though the girls did wonder why I might be crying a bit at one point

After the service it was back to the house to catch with various bit of thr family. Mostly cousins of one sort or another. A few of my Dad/Bobs cousins were there, my Cousin Marilyn with whom Uncle Bob had lived for the last few years. her 4 kids and various of their kids. Here is most of the kids, bar the youngest baby who was asleep some where (as to why SB had her hand up un front of her face…..):

The generations are a bit out of sync. Aunty Ethel, Marilyn’s Mum was about 15 years older than my Dad, and Marilyn had kids a lot younger than me, and then her eldest son had his first baby at about 18 - so her eldest grandchild is already about 15.

Favourite entertainment seemed to be playing on his stair lift

Headed off home, though I was rather tired and had to stop at the services for a caffeine shot. Girls decided they were hungry and SB had the most enourmous teacake in the world

Goodbye Uncle Robert, though not so well in the last few years, after stroke and things he still had a sparkle in his eye.

2 Comments

Posted in Butterbean, General, Out and About, photos, Stringbean

centreparcs 2010!

Posted on January 23, 2010 by HHaricot | 15 comments

this is the third year that we have gone to centerparcs for a january break with friends. more friends than ever also holidayed this year, so there was a home ed camp feel to it as well! SB in particular loved having lots of different friends to go down rapids and flumes with as well as general messing about in the water!

We shared with jax from ‘making it up’ this year, so got to enjoy lots and lots of lovely cuddles with soa, the gorgeous new baby. She is a total delight, and at that bit where she is smiling and laughing and being coy, as well as cooing and burbling – very cute! surprising us all, BB and small really did a good job of playing together the majority of the time, and big and SB had their usual tempestuous relationship – but this is starting to be far more boom than bust as well [which is relieving for me and Jax on the eardrum front! rofl!!] we adults had our chilled, wine enabled evenings after the hurly burly of camp life! we ate well – due to some pre-prep, thus , i think, enabling kids blood sugars to be better managed, and a more peaceful chalet as a result! big ate everything i cooked -so into my good books ! and small was surprised by liking some of it too!!

we mostly swam – surprisingly enough! we enjoy swimming, we enjoy messing about in water, and therefore we enjoy centreparcs! SB is fish like anyway, and was an intermittent visitor as mostly with friends – as mentioned above! i mostly played with BB, who has great confidence in the water, swimming over and under and really enjoying it. we got some zoggs seals that she had great fun with, as well as the noodles. we just loved it! also, whilst swimming, we adults got to chat with each other, share keeping an eye on littlies so we could go down various of the waterchutes and just chill. I really needed a holiday to chill, so this was ideal! i think i prefer elvedon for the pool rather than sherwood, but not a huge lot in it! i missed the salt hot pool, as the outside pool here not so hot, and had the rapids running off it, which BB permanently tempted to go down! I also missed the gentle ‘indoor river’. This year we did have a new ‘gadget’ a ‘nereus’ plastic bag for popping digital cameras in and using in the pool to a depth of 20m. remarkably successful i think! no leakage and the pics far better than i expected – main prob being the children actually staying where put!!

the playparks were enjoyed too, we had a couple of different sessions there, once predom with the deependers, and another predom with the sotp plus assorted other children brought along! and we did a nice cycle en masse round the complex. This was rather great, picking up a few children on the way – glad that B found her bike again – will not suggest here that she takes after her mother tho… Although i did take crafting stuff, we didn’t actually have anytime to do it, as most days we swam 2ce [morn and eve] and parked in the middle, or we did the cycle. we also had a mini birthday celebration for big and e and a meet at starbucks – so v sociable!

on the social front, the families [12 of them!] were divided into 3 areas, so i guess i saw the most of the ones in ours, and the families that we seemed to share a wavelength with for pool visits! so i missed mostly monsterteeny and manorborns [except for their all day endeavour!] and saw more of the portico, puddles, deependers, sotp, babs, jo, lovelyem and a sprinkle of ali!! me ‘n jax socialised out 2 of the nights, and ‘the boys’ 1 night – though they made the most of it, having a games and beer night and getting in at 4am!!

these poor unsocialised home ed kids! As a promise for the difficult sunday, both girls had agreed to do some home ed ‘work’ whilst away, which we did for 2 of the days! though SB did do recorder every day, and don’t think she will have much trouble with the grade 1 pieces. She also read loads of her new books…

so all in all a fab hol!! i will prob think of bits to add, but off to bed [probably!]

15 Comments

Posted in BB-PE, General, music, Out and About, SB-PE, socialisation

an excursion to london

Posted on January 18, 2010 by HHaricot | 8 comments

on friday, i had booked the day off work thinking that we would be doing a ww2 evacuation day, but it was cancelled. we decided to make the most of it though, and do an overnighter to london! we had a number of possibilities and a definite. the definite was tower of london, as we have a palaces pass currently, and possibles thrown open included the globe theatre, tate modern, museum of london, imperial war museum, something found on a leaflet… and bookshops! bookshops were picked out as the girls each have a lot of book tokens to spend!

so we started at the tower, we were a bit worried, as the day started off v bleakly rainy at our end, but london just dismal rather than overtly wet – so v happy!! SB picked up a ‘thing to do’ so off to the treasury [has it always been called the jewel house?] to do the sheet. SB loves doing sheets, and this one has a sense of humour. we looked for the frog for ages before sb read on and said it was a joke !! BB lost patience before SB had finished, so some dividing and conquering, but think the sheets are good, mostly info and v little writing! SOme serious lagging later and we went to the restaurant for lunch – that set us back a bob or 2! the weather was too cold and wet to picnic out in any kind of fashion unless truly masochistic – and although chris and i alone may have been, the addition of BB warrants gentler treatment! [SB is pretty much game!] After that we went into the Henry VIII armour exhibition and hands on area – which was really good and SB spent a long time looking, and even BB made a fairly impressive coverage. The annoyance for me was the no photography rule. grr! finally, we went for a walk along the ramparts, and really liked all the info and background noises placed along them. i did wonder if there was a leaflet for that actually. We were chased out by warders for it being closing time. so we did only do that one thing!!

mooched back to the travelodge, with BB falling asleep on the tube, a rest, re-invigoration and out for a meal at a nearbye italian where they made a fuss over the girls being lovely – and they were. the travelodge is directly over the circle line, and initially BB insisted on looking out of the window at every rumble, but the game eventually palled…

next day up and to brekkie, when surprised by BB shouting there is k-! and there she was!! on breakfast TV, so we cheered her on defending her educational choices. SB had chosen the globe theatre, and by a slightly devious route we got there. loads of the tube was closed, either whole lines or stations, so we had to do some extra thinking! we decided to get to st pauls and then walk across the millenium bridge. we checked on a map our bearings, and BB made other tourists laugh by saying she now knew where the toilets were – she knows the important signs! [aside - though not the letter p however hard we try, she insists it is an r or a t - although she can recognise those]. we meandered around st pauls garden, had a look at the fireman memorial and ambled our way to the globe, just in time, as it started absolutely chucking it down.

we loved the globe! we started with a look around the top information exhibition. thought it was nicely done, could be read at a number of levels – pics for bb, skim read for sb, bit more for chris and i had we had the chance! then a break in the middle of more display items and then on how built. we then had a 40 min guided tour of the globe, and although abslutely teeming it with rain, the guide was excellent, and so were our children. so much so, that i bought them home ed books in shop at end [well, they are still on a no museum money as spent 4 museums as one at hampton court - currently £1 a museum, but with poss of slight extra if needed, so usually better saved up!] I chose 2, and agreed to SB’s choice off 2 as well. [what a moment of weakness!]
SB’s choices:

my choices [a bb and an sb book]:

[I will not look at cheaper-by-far prices on amazon!!]

and we read them whilst having lunch there, which was good, as SB’s had a printing error, and it was easy enough to exchange! we went back and did the musical uppersection and then the ground floor of the exhibition, discussing printing presses with a demonstrator – SB is fairly happy with discussing printing presses, she has seen quite a few in action as well as having it on the inventors story cd! then we popped next door to the tate modern – the printer recommending the black box, so we went in it. not quite dark enough as lots of ppl held their mobiles out to see [headdesk!!] and then we peaked at a couple of the galleries SB and i had a chat about what she could see, what she liked, if she thought there was an emotion there, and how might the art have been created, but BB becoming tired, so we had a restorative cake before moving to a bookshop.

i am going to gloss over finding the bookshop, suffice it to say that chris and i had different ideas of where to go, i agreed to choose chris’s idea, and we both regretted it, and the girls did a fair bit of extra walking before we ended up at the known fabulous waterstones by picadilly… SB chose nearly all famous 5 books [£40 worth!] and BB was dissuaded from buying all dr who story books – mainly because she can’t read, they have no pics and she doesn’t want them read to her, just turns pages, so we found a variety of doctor who alternatives, and she then picked 2 fairy based books she was also happy with. we had passed a buffet chinese on shaftesbury avenue earlier, so made steps back there, stuffed our faces, staggered back – well, we were going to get a bus at girls request, but by the time had walked to leicester square, decided to tube it! BB sang a v cute and jolly looking for a bus song, complete with looking actions. just made the train, easy journey home and there you go, a lovely 2 days in london!

8 Comments

Posted in Books, Butterbean's HE, General, history, little languages, Out and About, pre reading, Stringbean's HE

Motte and Bailey

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Daddybean | 12 comments

On Friday it was another history presentation session at a local HE group. Theme of Normans and Medieval – so just a few Centuries to choose from

Decided her on the Normans. Originally there was some idea about SB and BB re-enacting the battle of Hastings, which might have been entertaining …. But BB decided she didn’t want to do it. So then SB decided to build a model of a Motte and Bailey castle. Would probably have been better to have had this idea a bit sooner.

Spent much of Tuesday morning looking at Motte and Bailey castles in books and websites . And settled on a model of a small wooden one as might have been built early after the invasion.

So something like this was the idea:

Made a base from two sheets of cardboard PVA-ed together:

Started with a circle, cut out increasingly larger ones, stuck them down to make the base of the mound.

That was mostly it for Tuesday, IIRC the was some music practice and we had swimming lessons. Had meant to do some more afterwards, but it didn’t happen.

No time on Wednesday, so it meant we had to do the rest on Thursday. The plan had been to use paper mache to finish the mound etc. But no time for that to dry. So I suggested using car body filler as that sets quickly.

So we marked out and cut more cardboard to make the land around the Motte and SB stuck it down.

Then I mixed up some filler, and SB applied it. Sticking a few stones in for extra effect.

Had some lunch and then it was dry for painting.

Which was done in time for a break and a snack before Gym class. (we went early as we had to go to the pet shop so SB could by her present for BB

So that just left the castle wall and buildings to do Luckily, soon after us getting home H arrived home as well, so we had a joint effort. H made the building shells for SB to paint and roof.

I got on with making palisade fences etc. (SB had a go, but she dislikes getting hot melt glue on her fingers).

Having a break for dinner and Dr Who in the middle. It was about 10.30 pm when me and SB finished off by painting the palisade fences.

And we had a castle

The kitchen was a disaster zone (cardboard, glue, hay,paint, dinner preps etc.), but the castle was looking cool H managed to make some fairy cakes to take to the group as it was BB’s birthday

On Friday H woke BB up to give her a present of a DS game before she went to work. BB woke up said that you and fell back to sleep for another 20 minutes We tootled off to the HE session. We had a retelling of a couple of Robin Hood tales, The Black Death, SB’s castle, Structure of Feudal Society, and a bit about Stokesay Castle. Which were all very good. SB did a good presentation, about her castle, remembering to say most of the things she had wanted to say. Everyone was very impressed with the model.

When we got home, SB gave BB her present – a dog collar and lead. The collar goes round the waist by the way. B was very pleased (she likes playing being a doggy games) So they went around play doggy games until H came home and BB finally got to have the rest of her presents.

Though we had had given her rather more help than intended because of time factors , she did a lot herself with just a bit of help. Along with history, some model making techniques, there was a good chance to investigate the appropriate use of different adhesives

PVA, a good strong bons, good for larger areas or where you can wait, but not much ‘grab’. UHU type glue – good grab, pretty quick drying. Hot melt, good for where you want things stuck firm quickly. But mind the fingers

It was a fun project, but a bit more time would have been better. I think SB was impressed with how much you can get done when you need to.

Dinner, more Dr Who and Birthday (bought) cake finished off the day.

12 Comments

Posted in art and crafts, history, Out and About, photos, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

Category Archives: Out and About

[ser]vile Victorians

Another Artetc

relight my fire

Rabbit Robbed!

Concerts and Continuity

sunny suffolk weekend

Catchup Post #1: Uncle Bob 25/2/1928 – 3/1/2010

centreparcs 2010!

an excursion to london

Motte and Bailey

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