Petits Haricots

I hadn’t realised how far behind in the blogging i have got. work yada yada etc . SO this weekend we went to Mundesley camping and had a fab time. the roads on fri were clear, i guess the royal wedding had something to do with that . As an aside, i am def more keen on a royal family than a presidency, and am quite happy with the royal wedding, thought it looked wonderful [when viewed later on iplayer] and if BB had been older we might have gone to hyde park, but its not a big enough deal to stay at home to watch on telly when could go to the beach. Where am I?

Ok we went to the beach, Mundesley near Cromer in Norfolk. I love the Norfolk coast . On the way to the campsite we stopped at a lovely farm shop. Yummy supplies for lunch bought we went to the campsite where le ciel rouge was already there putting up their folding camper. We impressed by the speedy minnesota, but i was upset to find there was a tear [small] in the front window. not sure how or when that happened. ANyway, all up, cups of tea, yummy scrummy lunch and a decision to do a geocaching circular walk involving the beach. Lovely walk and found all the geocaches – hooray! though SB managed to tear out the pants of her leggings on the concrete of the boulder. [only SB!] luckilly she was wearing a short dress as her top… The beach was fab. lovely and sandy, the tide was in, and there were huge waves that the girls [and then the dog] had a fab time skipping and jumping in and getting slightly wet. Too late for an icecream at the beach cafe, but picked one up at the local corner shop before walking the long way back to the tent. BB did v well, as it was 4 miles, and she is not a keen walker. Back to a yummy lentil pasta, chatting and a reasonably warm evening before bed.

Saturday we went to Blickling, we are national trust members and do like to get out and about. National trust membership, i think, is a really good deal as it only takes 3-4 visits a year [depending where you go!] to recoup the cost. Blickling had really good guides in some of the rooms, and happy to take questions from the girls. I ended up doing the speedier version with BB [and also Z,S and P] whilst DH did the slower version with SB – she asks loads of questions and is very keen. Beautiful place and lots to look at. DId love the labours of hercules ceiling, and some of the fireplaces were fab. We then went back and had lunch and started on our geocaching walk around the lake. We found all but 1 and had a great walk in fab weather. Had to yomp the last bit as we were v close to icecream closing time [panic!] so DH, SB W,P,S ran ahead to get there in time, and we ended up skipping fast as BB needed the toilet. Hppily reunited with yummy icecreams to boot we declared the day successful and went back to the campsite for a BBQ.

Sunday was a lazy get up and pancake eating session so we were beaten to the beach by lovelyem and family. We were joined later by Jax and family and all had an absolutely fabulous time on the beach. The girls donned their wetsuits and swam in the pools and splashed in the sea. Also made sandcastles. SB and E spent ages digging the deepest and widest hole they could, helped intermittantly by others. BB mostly pootled in her own game and imagination, but we did get her kite out and had great fun flying that. At the end of the day DH tried to stay in thehole till the sea took it over, but we all got a bit bored with that and forced him to leave! everyone came back to the campsite and we finished with a chippery tea. Fab day of the perfectest fun variety sun, sea, friends, laughter and conviviality.

Bit of a blowy night, and then a slow packing up the next day. We decided to visit the windmill we had been able to see from the campsite and pick up a geocache there. It, and the gift shop and house are all for sale Lovely mill, worth a nose about, and a nice gift shop next door, where the girls both found something to spend their holiday money on. we stopped on the way back at a lovely pub serving delicious food with a big vegan and veggie menu as well as the meat . Cught abit in the post long BH traffic getting home, but did eventually make it and watched dr who before collapsing into bed.

A great holiday, refreshing, with friends and sunshine. What more can a family want

Tuesday the girls tidied their bedroom. It is shockingly tidy. WOW that room is big when you can actually see the floor . Weds was a notlatinetc day.

We met up at le ciel rouge, and I immed got stuck in with doing some music theory. SB is still fired up by her success in the grade 2, so is working on the grade 3 book happily. C is also on the grade 3, but having had a years gap since grade 2 she is doing a bit of getting brain back in gear, so we did cabinstepladders for remembering the keys. Because i didn’t give her quite so much attention, and we had used the wrong time sig stickers prev without noticing, and now had to use the wrong ones after we had noticed, BB had quite a meltdown. Tried to persist calmly, as trying to encourage her to get beyond the its-not-as-it-should-be-so-my-world-is-ending response. [a loud one too] she did get beyond it with encourgement and patience, so i thanked her for that, and praised on keeping going. she did one more tiny segment and i encouraged her to call it a day, having ended on a positive bit. [phew] A came a bit later and did some to, and a fair number of kids then thought it might look a bit interesting. I do love how things become interesting when they are doing it together

Merry took the bigger ones off for poetry, which SB really enjoyed, thankyou [but could you link the poem for me] and the 2 littlest [j and BB] did some spelling/first letter matching with M and then got to have extra snack and started on watercolour pencil drawings of chilli plants with Z. I did try and do a tiny bit of french talking with J and BB, but J is v shy about it, and BB took the mood too, so i didn’t persist. next time will take a story instead. [i like to be occupied too ]

Suddenly it was lunchtime! the deependers had arrived too – hooray, and a short pop by by my husband who must have smelled the pasta . BB and J got to do science first with me – making black powder from an internet recipe. [v carefully done and in pairs only] the big’uns were mostly doing the watercolour drawings or spellings with the manor born M. BB and afish were snuggled in with K listening to both french and latin stories [ i think BB had a partic fab day] I took half of the children through making the powder, and then handed over some owl puke to Z and some charts, and i think all the children got to do this with Z. I finally finished the chemistry and wandered around to see what else going on. I think some french number game and also lots of playing/trampolining.

We then tested how flammable our powders were. TBH I was hoping they would be on the less side, but they were even less, so a bit on the disappointing side. Think the bought charcoal perhaps was a weakness, there are other mixture options, and we used boiled water not stale urine! However, i think we all found it great fun, and something a bit exciting. Perhaps another time we will try again but slightly differently. will add some pics

More playing and winding down as ppl left. A melt by BB that i hadnt saved her owlpuke bones, she did manage to calm down in the end, and then get on playing happily again. SB had a fab day being with her friends. we stayed later than planned, gossiping, drinking tea and listening to happy kids.

One of the problems with Home Ed is that holiday feeling. Quite easy to have it whenever the sun shines and children less persuadable that maths really is the answer However, having had 2 holiday weeks, bank holiday or no, this is the start of return to work [i was at work for part of the day anyway] .

BB for her ‘things’ decided to read some books, with SB I think, do some cello practice, do some getty and dubay handwriting B, and with coaxing do the first section of art de dire. She also did bouncing on the trampoline, imaginative games [including being an optomotrist and gave me the word dood to read. I don't think she meant to write a 'd' at all ] and made some fimo toppers.

SB did some VR and NVR, clarinet practice, a suprisingly difficult piano practice, galore park french and also skoldo french. She also planted up her flower bed – did a pretty good job of it – and helped me make fimo cane toppers too. We also played some more ingenious. We were going to ‘just dance 2′ but she was suddenly v tired.

we have played this nearly non stop. it is the travel version so only 2 player, as thought would be good on an aeroplane. saw first at SOTP. Seriously worth it

We went to an English Heritage event at Wrest Park that we haven’t been to for possibly 3 years? [would have to look back through the blog] the last one was ghastly weather, and nearly empty because of it. This one was scorching. Hard to believe what a heat wave in Easter we are having! The other difference is that it was quite scaled back from 3 years ago. I remember that it had spread out to the lawns in front of the house before. BZents weren’t there either – which particularly disappointed SB. However, there was still plenty to keep us busy and occupied [and v v hot – tho unlike the festival of history site there are lots of trees in the grounds and plenty of shade to retire into for those that wanted it.

We wandered around the roman and mediaeval encampments, and watched the 2 players on gurdy and drum, and then bagpipes and drum. It had said you got to take part, but that meant tambourines, and SB had hoped bagpipe! BB watched the puppet show of st george and the dragon [tho said a bit wierd] whilst SB and i watched the end of romans whilst eating lunch [in the shade] and the start of jousting. we did some meandering. BB was v happy with the opportunity to spend money! and bought a kaleidoscope, heart stone and a mini cannon and was v happy, but did take ages! SB after great consideration, bought a roman wax tablet and a beautiful stylus. She was v happy too . we chatted to ladies on horses about riding sidesaddle, watched some fire breathers and the main st george reenactment, and then the girls did the assault course in the ww2 area [quite well ]

tired and mooched out, we went home after a full and v hot day. Amazon have delivered my trial ingenious [i had an amazon voucher ] an SB and i played it and enjoyed it before watching the rather scary dr who with teatime.

the weather has been delightful, SB has been at holiday orchestra and had great fun there, also staying at the deependers for 2 nights, which she loved, tho says A was very hot as tended to use SB as a pillow – lol! BB has mostly pottered around in imaginative games. I have mostly migrained, and when not migrained, been at work. So actually, the gardening blog looks fairly busy, but here is pretty empty!

However, although the holiday spirit has continued, various non-gardeny things have happened BB has done a fair bit of reading, including reading v ably a level 2 book to me. She is pretty chuffed about this She and I also did a bit of french – a lucie chat book and discussed the weather and various fruits, and read the farm through time book together. All lying on a rug in the shade in the garden. Bliss

When SB returned we did some watercolour paintings of flowers. SB started hers off, decided to just do blobs and add the detail with black felt tip, and has never returned, and BB had multiple strops and disasters as it didn’t come out perfectly and exactly as she saw it in her head. I tried to help, and made matters worse, and in the end left her too it and did some gardening. when i returned she had happily tried out SB’s technique, thought it unsuccessful, but was happy enough. She finally let me show her what i had envisaged [again a mistake to actually envisage something!] and demonstrate it, and so spent a while happily doing that until the colours all went wrong. At which point we decided we had painted enough

Today we did a bit more painting tho – crazy colours with acrylics on the tomato plastic pots. fab and fussless

mmm, lots of watching harry potter, playing sylvanians, making mud pies in the veg patch etc etc BB bought me some lovely tulips, and SB made a lovely dinosaur mosaic pic [and has spent a fair bit of today being a ‘research scientist’ tho i’m not allowed to know what!

What BB was particularly delighted about tho was the arrival of a little cello. She has done lots of practice and is v v happy

Also today, we had some of the spare plants potted up on the drive with a home made sign and honesty box. The proceeds are going to the local library. We did well, as there was 4.80 in the pot – we just asked for donations.we sold 3 tomatoes [sungold], 2 peppers [jalapeno] , 2 pots of 2 cauliflowers [violet queen]. We are in a relatively good spot, where ppl often park to go to the local shops, and the library is volunteer run, so ppl do like to help it out.We are pretty happy with that

I hate them. They colour the way I interact with the world. I have them too often, they disrupt my life and my work. i think my kids will remember me as the mummy who lay on the sofa with a flannel on her head . I HATE them. they are not, however, breast cancer.

So, yesterday, and important day at work, i had a migraine, was in bed unable to move until 2pm, and even then barely functioning despite maximal drugs. And again today, maximal drugs required, tho i managed to get up at 11. [just] i can feel it getting worse again. Actually the screen not so bad if i close left eye when i have had drugs, and brightness reduced, and i mostly touch type. so can do it with eyes closed, whell i think i can! apologise for wrong spellings!. it is sounds and smells more that upset.

i am sure trepanning would work. there is this huge pressure just infront of my left ear, and pain fires forewards into left eye predom from there. my left eye feels at least twice the size of the rigt, and it is stretching and pushing at the socket. all my teeth on the left side hurt. they all fire off little waves of pain , building to horrible peaks. but the eye is worse. if i press over my temporal artery, it can seem slightly better, partic with a cool facecloth. its not just the pain – tho that is horrific and far more incapacitating than labour was – but i am nauseated or actively vomiting. my head on the whole feels like lead, tho the brain is a tiny crystal in it, so if i should be crazy enough to move my head quickly [or cough] the crystal pings around sending sparks of pain in all directions. my speech isn’t right. sometimes it is slurred, sometimes i just can’t find or say the words. they aren’t in my brain – which is now cotton wool, or thick syrup to wade through to the right thought or action.
I can’t walk properly – though that’s the drugs, they seize up my muscles, going up or down stairs i feel 90. far better not to try. especially as i can’t judge distance at all. i have fallen down them before. falling down stars with a migraine is a v exquisite form of torture. i drop things, the table isn’t where i thought, or my hand just decides to let go. I can’t drive [yes i have tried, being so desperate not to take time off work] as i just can’t tell where cars are. the drugs make my jaws ache, i can’t drink or eat. i dont know whether it is drug or migraine any more, but i ge tthe wrong signals for heat, so washing hands etc a pain.

i just want to die. mostly i keep going, i have had migraines that have lasted a week before. usually 4 days, approx every 2 weeks. you have to keep going. mostly the drugs work enough that i pass. but not yesterday, or today. I hate migraines. but they are not breast cancer

It was supposed to be a family gardening day, so BB v helpfully went out and watered the greenhouse by herself. She applied some water fairly liberally to some little seedlings… however, she was helpful and proud that she had been and i was thankful and proud . Opening the greenhouse tho, it was v v sweltering, and neither girl could be enticed to pot up! We let the rabs out [as once i have planted things out on weds, am not certain when we can let them run free before rabbit protection up!] and they mostly flaked in the shade too.

So garden jobs – DH had rotovated land and now put bed 1 in, and has made the frames for 2-4 so will hopefully soon follow. I potted on pretty much everything that needed it, and made some more sowings. which took me to late lunchtime. In the interim, SB started, read and finished ballet shoes, and then did some origami, and BB bounced, played imaginative games with stretchy-man and patiently waited to do a science kit with me.

After lunch we did the science kit. I bought it years ago from ebay, and the seller had been really horrible, so i put it away in a cupboard! However, it is a rocket kit from DK, and despite being a bit fiddly it was rather fab – and worked!! BB did the simplest rocket with SB doing a far more complicated one with a glider. I think BB had hoped that they would actually go into orbit though… A lot of rocket popping ensued however, and much fun . Girls then retired to watch the clangers whilst we got the rabbits in and closed up the greenhouse.

A bath and a treat of tea in front of the telly – watching the latest Harry Potter [as requested by BB, though I don't think she really got it!]

SB got 87 for her grade 2 theory

It was fantastic to get away for a week to stay for a week with my parents, B-I-L and kids in a house with a pool . I so definitely needed it! work on top of me, and also v stressful. Also still feeling a bit outlooped and wobbly with the demise of latinetc. ANd mothers day, my mothers birthday and mine all in the same week, reminding me more of loss than anything else… So, this holiday had a lot of destressing to do!! Luckilly apart from a missed call and a text from work [grr to momentary panic] it achieved that.

We stayed in Mundesley, a rather lovely place in Norfolk. We stayed there in 2003 as well, with Little Nanny, and my sister [heavily pregnant] but no E or BB. So there were a couple of poignant moments thinking of what was and what we have lost. However, my sisters kids look great, E is def blooming again tho M is more difficult, as getting to those male about to go up to big school moments . Not that they don’t have the odd wobble here and there, but they are loved, supported, well fed and needs considered. On arrival all the kids dived into the pool [ok jumped as no diving!] and i think we managed 2 swims for the kids every day, and most adults went in once a day. A fair bit of swimming!! great to have the pool, and both E and BB’s confidence and swimming visibly improved. BB can swim pretty well, but has had wobbles about being out of her depth. I think these are resolved E had wobbles about removing her feet from the floor – also resolved . SB and M swim like fish, and so just had a lot of crazy fun. I had prepared some meals in advance, so the first night was spinach and feta lasagne – absolutely fab and delicious. glad there are 2 more in the freezer .

Sunday we went down to the beach as the weather was good. Crazy SB had a long swim in the sea and some boogie boarding. BB went in a bit, and M froze as no wetsuit. We wrapped them up thoroughly and warmed through before walking down the beach for a cafe lunch. more swimming after and a games evening for grown ups :). Monday we went to Amazonia zoo. I am a bit [ok more than a bit] ambivalent about zoos really, and felt that some of the animal spaces looked quite confined. it is new, and maybe things will improve, and some of the habitats def better than others, and on the whole well planned. think i would have been happier with the less is more thing iyswim. E loved it tho [and the trip was planned for her] SB was uncertain wrt the whole zoo thing too. afterwards more swimming .

Tuesday we went to Felbrigg Hall in the afternoon after a swimming and crafting morning – i think I have neglected to say i took a reasonable amount of easter crafts with me as well. This morning we made ‘faberge eggs’ with fimo. Anyway, we really enjoyed felbrigg, particularly as there was a wonderful lady in the sitting room who discussed anything and everything with SB and E, who asked loads of questions. M overtook quite quickly, and BB was hurried having had a major meltdown that her camera doesn’t take the kind of pics she wants it too. [i think we are going to have to upgrade there] . The whole house was v interesting to look round, and the ppl in the rooms enthusiastic and keen, and SB and E a delight really I am informed that BB perked up with all the stuffed birds tho! Outside we had an icecream and explored the walled garden. I always love walled gardens, and wish I had one, with the number of gardeners required!

Weds Uncle Robert came over for the day, we went down to the beach to play football/sandcastle, and then returned to the house, so the kids swam alot, and had a BBQ in the middle, which went down well. Uncle Robert is Little Nanny’s brother in law [married to Aunty Peggy] and he has got the age where he is ‘doing well’ . Was lovely to see him, and the day was also lovely, tho not quite so sunny as all the prev [obviously as we were doing a BBQ!] games afternoon and crafts as well, so a laid back middle. Thurs we had a trip to Blakeney to see the seals. tiny boat, and glad i had travel pills!! BB had a Major melt due to insufficiency of camera, but we did see loads of seals, and v close too, so was v happy. [iphone pic is poor, will substitute at some point!]

Friday a geocaching day, and we found 5 and set off 2 travelbugs. A beautiful walk over Norfolk fields. Parents went to Blickling [which i would have liked to go to too, so on my another time list]. Finished with icecreams and then a return to swim in the pool and a chippery tea. Bringing us finally to today and the return home. i have to say we had fab weather, i love my family, and do feel that i have had a good break [tho doubt the effect will last through the first email read]. We have had lots of happy moments and lots of laughter.