Dereham, Bird’s Eye View 1966



Dereham, Bird’s Eye View 1966, originally uploaded by suewhite.

sometimes flickr can take you to unusual places. my nan is living here and was then. i can see her house

christmas is coming

how did i start off ahead and then end up behind?? i just don’t understand?
anyway, this week the girls and chris went to his parents yesterday, did some HE stuff, baking and generally having fun. today they went to a christmas party at city2 and really enjoyed that. we mad some sweeties altogether when i got home, and we have all decorated boxes for them to go in [which i am desperately hoping will be dried tomorrow morning!
on the house front we now have the roof insulated and have bought some door curtains, so must get them up, as our elec and gas bills are creeping up!
tomorrow to little nanny’s house to drop presents off [if dry!] as she is off to aunty M for xmas

hearting

today i took my first and second anatomy classes ever! and no-one managed to accidentally dissect off their own fingers either. no fainting, and i think they all did well. we did have some ground rules – if you stopped wanting to do it, stop doing it and tell me. if you want me to do it and show you, tell me, and when you’ve ‘found something’ let me tell you what it is. so we found lots of things. I just managed without gloves as there was only enough for kids by going ‘in role’ and that way i could also block out the smell of the abbatoir! not that i have ever been in one, but still… since the majority of the kids were veggies like me i think we all have a pat on the back. but they did all seem to v much enjoy it, and they found everything. we only had one leaver, and that was after everything found, and i think the smell was becoming a bit much. hopefully no nightmares… the littlies did other stuff as well with listening to hearts etc, and i must listen to one of them again, as well as getting the biguns to do it. this is a rather fab website with various sounds on it, as is this one, and i will revise before next week!.

Michelle kindly took all the pictures this time, as my hands were somewhat too mucky for the camera – though actually they didn’t make much mess at all [to my surprise]. hopefully i will get a juicy big email of them, or something!! ANyway, the piece de resistance came at the end, as one had a lung attached and most people had a go at inflating it with a straw. [ady mr health and safety prob wouldn't think this such a good idea, but they each had their own straw!] anyway, c and SB inflated one side fully to everyone’s delight. i def did not want a go – yuk!

we cleared it all away and opened windows and doors, and maybe i should have taken a scented candle, but the smell did dissipate, and thanks katy for hosting something that wasn’t particularly pleasant! the biguns did latin – sb said it was chapter 4, and v happy with that, and the littlies did french – bb even stayed in the french, which made life easier for me.

J had made a fab cake to celebrate gina’s birthday, so we sang to her and enjoyed the cake! some playing and we came home to find the loft insulators leaving – hoping to cut down on a few bills. must put up the curtains for doors as well.

SB had a brownies party and then received her judo certificate. I have to say the judo cert is fab. i must photo and flickr. it is a work of art [and free]. i am still migrainous, but settling, so back to work tomorrow, so i must do some stuff for work [hence early blog, as a distraction!]

A post with some HE in it!

it looks like it has been a while :blush: . luckilly, some HE has been going on!! SB has done a fair bit of maths, piano practice and handwriting, and a bit of spelling and music theory. she has read her new usborne books on samurai and aztecs and crusaders. She as also read hundreds [ok i exaggerate] of library books, done a lizard picture for sketch tuesday.
on Sat SB had her judo party, and really enjoyed the disco, and we have some fab photos at some point to flikr [well behind on helmsley though] and she has had a swimming lesson today and an HE playdate yesterday.
BB has carried on with loads of letter writing, some maths – she is considering how adding works at the moment. i really must remember her phraseology! she is deciding whether it makes sense anyway. but what if i add 2 things? will it still be 6?? [after 5 plus 1]. and also poisson rouging, jigsawing and crafting – an angel at library crafts, and painting all the animal picture frames she got as a birthday present. she wants to do recordering and music theory too now. there is no holding her!
we have as a family read some french books and had some french conversations – bb suspiciously asking – are you doing that in french again :roll: [ :lol: ] mind you, she has chosen to watch 2 videos in german – heidi and some crazy fairy story one.
As a family we have put up and decorated 2 christmas trees and got out the nativity scene. BB insisted the baby had to go in it as it might cry. i have been to a rather excellent planning meeting for the wednesdqay stuff, and chris is off to a planning meeting tomorrow. so, amidst the excitement of violin case buying, other stuff has happened!!

musical mondays – christmas edition 1!! gaudete

first by the mediaeval baebes [once i had got over their name i like lots of their renditions]. i think this might be a bit slow mind you, and i don’t like the change in rhythm. but the diction is clear!
not quite my thing at all! steeleye span!!
honestly!! where is the version i would like!! you would have thought it would be easy.
hmm, still not right. i had no idea i was so fussy.
not so sure about the weird dynamics, but the closest so far. and i def like the accompanying instrumentation at the beginning, though it gets overdone [imho].
just as I was going to give up the search, here we are. thank goodness! not perfect :wink: but i think i just like *my* version on cd!! they are here as well, with a slightly altered version. yeah, this is more like it isn’t it!

SB’s chocolate marzipan hearts

sift 100g of flour and 25g cocoa powder into a bowl. add 75g chilled butter cut into chunks. then stir butter into mixture so coated weith flout, and rub until breadcrumby. stir in 50g of caster sugar. add 1 egg yolk [ie not the white] and stir mixture into dough, put into ball shape, wrap in cling film and pop into fridge for 30 mins.

sprinkle icing sugar sugar onto rolling board and roll out 100g marzipan until 3mm thick. cut out with a small heart cutter. redo – will need 12.

heat oven to 200C [400F or gas mark 6]

sprinkle flour onto rolling board and pin and roll out chocolatey dough until 3mm thick. use a bigger cutter to cut out 24 hearts.

use a paper towel to wipe oil over a baking tray [or use a magic thingy] and put half the choc hearts on the baking tray. put a marzipan heart on each one and put a second chocolate heart on top. press the edges of the biscuit together, bake biscuits for 10 mins.

sift icing sugar over them and then sprinkle some cocoa powder. leave on a wire rack to cool.

as dictated by SB from the usborn children’s book of baking

IMG_3914 IMG_3926

My New Violin Case

thanks sis

thanks sis

I think it ticks all the boxes my sister wanted, including making me cry.

it has been refered to as ‘a pimped up maestro’ :lol:

violin case decisions!

still humming and hawing over this one, or this one [it is being bought for me]

actually, i have read a few violin forums, and I might be decadent and get this one.

Both the maestro and elipe do well, and the maestro is a bit heavier, but i don’t travel with violin in hand much any more…

rievaulx abbey in the snow



IMG_4095, originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

Post camp Day

is always a bit of a psychological low really!
ANyway, the girls were structured by me, and did a fair bit of HE whilst chris got the tree – SB did maths, spelling, handwriting, music theory and piano practice and read a bit about columbus and about about mediaeval food. BB did some maths and before the code, and then loads of letter writing. we read about megs eggs in french alltogether, and also a daughters of eve story
We were all a bit fractious but the girls tree is up and decorated, and the big one has a lights problem, so we grownups are a bit fed up with christmas lights. i did my first opitec order, and may never do one again, their website being so awful. i have been looking at violin cases for xmas pressie as well.
oh, and i have made some tablet. we all watched the first harry potter, now sb says she is ready for it, and she really enjoyed it.