Sunday stuff

Popped into Kingston today with Sarah to grab a few bits and pieces (we needed a new shower curtain for one thing) - plus, Cath Kidston was having a BIG SALE. Here's Sarah looking at bags in Cath Kidston - she didn't want me to take her photo, so I promised to only do it from the back... She did buy a bag in the end - not this one - a bigger, stripey one, which she can use as a school bag. She loves the bags at CK (as I do), but the normal prices are rather dear for her...

Personally, I love the changing rooms upstairs at CK, with their quilted patchwork curtains and the retro wallpaper - and see how I've cleverly left just the smallest bit of me in the photo?

Another thing Sarah bought was a curling iron - she was practicing on Olivia tonight. Ringlets ahoy!

Sheep in the High Street

It's quite common in the UK to see people with their dogs on a lead in the high street - sheep, on the other hand, are a bit less common.... But it was the Malden Fortnight this weekend and New Malden was full of various stalls for local businesses, etc, and this chap had brought his sheep along to show as well. He was collecting for a charity, can't remember which one - nothing to do with sheep...

Snail

It rained earlier today, which brought out all the snails, as usual. There were half a dozen or so crawling up my garden fence. Not quite sure what the attraction is, but at least it means they were doing something other than eating my plants...

American Food!

In honour of the fourth of July - it's American biscuits (biscuits over here being what we call cookies). Although to be truthful, it has less to do with July 4th and more to do with the fact that they are quick and simple to make and go nicely with soup, which was what dinner was. So simple to make that I had Olivia and her friend Nina make them while I dictated - I was making the soup at the time...

...and here they are, having eaten and waiting for it to be time to go off to Guides.

Sunday snippets

Flute practice (for some reason, Blogger didn't want to upload the video, so it's over here on YouTube instead).

Some sort of grand car game, complete with either a giant killer frog or a very clever hiding place:

Mini golf in the park:

Thai red pork curry with green beans and hearts of palm.

Saturday evening

Olivia makes a salad, after having helped with the main part of dinner (in the oven when this photo taken)...

spinach and potato pastries.

Meanwhile, Alex is working on his Roman Villa...

365 Project...or not

Last year, at the beginning of July, I started doing the 365 Project - the idea being to post a photo every day, helping you document your life, refine your photography skills, take time to look around a little more, or whatever. It was a fun experiment, but I found that there were some days - weeks even - when it simply felt like a task. Or, I'd take loads of great photos one day and then nothing for weeks... I'm going to see out my year (6 days to go) but not going to carry it on. I am, however, going to post more random (in the sense of not necessarily related to anything other than being a picture I took for whatever reason) photos on this blog. When I see something interesting, I am going to post it. Haven't yet decided if I will do a "Wordless Wednesday" like some bloggers do (seems unlikely, as I should think I'll want to talk about whatever I post - I'm not so good at Wordless) or simply try to do at least one post a week which just has a photo or two in it. Probably the latter.

This photo above is actually one which appeared already in the 365 project, but it's recent, and I like it - and it's the kind of thing I mean when I say I'm going to blog something random - this isn't a photo of the kids or a house improvement or somewhere we went (well, it is, but not in a scenic view sort of way). I am always telling myself I should blog more on this blog, but I don't want it to be forced or artificial - but a sort of "photo(s) of the week" slot would be a fun addition...

New summer dress

She really should wear dresses more often...

Roman shield

Homework assignment (topic is Romans at the moment, you might have guessed). We've also been building a (paper model of a) Roman Villa - but we're waiting until it's done to show it - perhaps as a slide show, as a photo is being taken after every step, just about!

Woodpeckers

Spotted today in the garden - thanks to Geoff for spotting them and Sarah for the photo - a pair of lesser spotted woodpeckers, digging for bugs (I assume) in the raised border on our patio. We often get woodpeckers at our feeder and I've very occasionally seen the other kind (green) on the ground in the garden, but I've never seen them in the border before!

Barcelona

Recently, Sarah went on a school trip to Barcelona (lucky thing) - here are some highlights.

One day they did a glass-bottom boat tour - in and out of caves.

They visited a theme park and rode roller coasters (this one looks brilliant, I admit).

They visited the Parque Guell

and had a look at the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (many of her other photos show it covered in scaffolding, of course).

There was ice cream in a variety of flavours and colours

and a nice pool at the hotel.

Here's the beach at Tossa de Mar, where they were staying...

Favourite tree

Practicing updating my blog from my phone, because it's about time I worked out how to do that...

Rural Life Centre

A glorious sunny day today, so I insisted that the kids and I go somewhere outside - Sarah had already made plans with some friends, so she didn't come along, but the other two and I headed off to, after some debate, the Rural Life Centre in Tilford, outside Farnham. It's sweet and although it may sometimes get busy - particularly on weekends when there are events, I should think - the two times we've been there, there have only been a handful of other people around, which is great for being able to really look at stuff in depth and play around.

The place is a collection of old buildings from various periods, along with more farm implements, ploughs, tools, etc than you've ever seen before in your life. But it's quite interesting and definitely geared towards families - Alex did a little kid's trail where you have to find specific objects in various buildings - and there are activities set up throughout.

Old signs abound...

You can try your hand at pumping water...

There were a few very young sheep to see, as well.

...you could help make a rag rug... and much more.

Driveway done!

Cooked breakfast

Not something I do very often - but we saw these amazing gorgeous mushrooms at Garson's farm shop yesterday and couldn't resist...

Later, there was strawberry tart...

PGL

Olivia was away last week (not this one past, but the one before) at PGL, a residential camp, for her school trip. At some point, they will give us an official CD of the trip with pictures taken by grownups on it, but we did get the film developed from her disposable cameras, and there are some nice shots on it (also, some which are quite blurry or have a hand partially obscuring the lens!).

Anyway. Here she is about to do something - not sure what, but she's all harnessed up and helmeted up ready to go. Zip wire, perhaps.

This looks like the end of the zipwire to me. Whee!

Fencing, obviously.

This one I love - this was on the coach before they even left school, I think. The mustaches are great, though, aren't they!

Another model maker in the family...

It's a TFI - tiny flying insect - a spy fly, in fact.

Alex's assignment was to design a spy gadget, then build a model of it. Can he choose something easy like a jetpack (cereal boxes & kitchen roll tubes, covered in foil)? No, he picks a robot fly with microphone, camera and laster gun mounted on it. Sigh.

With a little help, it's come out pretty well, though, don't you think?

How to keep a small boy entertained on a Sunday morning

The shape of things to come...

When we went to the garden centre to get some spring plants for out pots, the kids saw a display of strawberry plants, and wanted to try to grow some. So we planted three small plants, and lo and behold, they are actually fruiting - this is the first one to ripen and it's nowhere near eating, but it's certainly a good sign!

Olivia's world

Another model for a school project - if a model can be made to go with a project, Olivia will make one. This started out as a balloon, and metamorphosed into a globe - honestly, no idea where she gets the patience to do this sort of thing from - I'm much more of an instant gratification kind of artist...

Royal Wedding Street Party

An advantage of living in a cul-de-sac is that you are more likely to be able to get permission for a street party. Here they are in the morning (about 10.30), setting up...



And later, post lunch, during the fun trivia quiz that one of the guys put together. I'm afraid Team North did not win. Oh well. It was a good time - the weather co-operated beautifully (if this keeps up, I'll begin to think I no longer live in England) and there were arts & crafts for the kids, sack races, cake competition, music, a telly outside (so as not to miss any wedding coverage which might be happening) and loads of food and drink for all, among other things. The last, hardiest folk went inside well after 8pm (I left not longer after 8 - it was getting very chilly). What a nice idea. There is already talk of doing it again next year for the Diamond Jubilee...

Dinosaur invasion