Good hair day

Olivia sporting her trendy new layered cut with side parting and funky fringe (which will get funkier as it gets longer). I think it looks great. Luckily, so does she.

Alex and the Waves

Here's Alex frolicking (sort of) on the beach yesterday.

I have some more videos of various things holiday related, over on you tube - including kite flying at the beach, the kids on the trampoline and other exciting things. Check it out here.

An Daingean

A long day's journey today - we drove out to the Dingle Peninsula, which has some amazing scenery (never as impressive in a photo as in reality, of course). We had a picnic on a rather windy beach, in the dunes. The beach was fabulous, although we had a minor issue with Dave managing to get his car stuck in the sand (luckily, a nice man with a tow rope and a 4x4 just happened along and managed to sort it all out). It was very windy, and not very warm, but a beautiful beach nonetheless and the kids (and Geoff) had a fabulous time and probably would have stayed all day.

After the beach, we went along the Peninsula looking at scenery, going through the Conor Pass (tiny mountain road, not wide enough to pass in many places, winding everywhere, but drop dead gorgeous views). Eventually, we made our way back to Tralee where we got dinner, before heading home...

Lots of pics of beaches and mountains can be seen in the usual place.

This will be our last touristy day here - tomorrow, Cathi and I are have a little shopping morning (including quilt and yarn shops, yippee, and some charity shops) while the guys take the kiddies to the pool. Olivia has the option of coming with us if she likes, we aren't sure yet whether she will come along or be unable to resist the pull of the swimming pool (which has a huge water slide) but otherwise, we are kid-free. Cool. And then, in the afternoon, I will pack (wow, thrills) in preparation for leaving early Sunday morning to catch the ferry back home.

The kids are back to school on Wednesday, so we'll have a few days downtime before getting back into the swing of things (Alex is actually not back until the following week). Still doesn't feel like summer can be nearly over, but I think that's mainly the weather, which has been consistently un-summery.

Bunratty Folk Park

So, today's activity was to take the kids over to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park - there's a castle there (you may have guessed) and lots of historical Irish buildings from different periods of history - I'm not sure if all of them are actual buildings, but certainly some have been moved from other locations (for instance, a cottage which was originally situated where the main runway of Shannon airport is now). It was pretty interesting, in a touristy way, and I think the kids liked it a lot. Apparently they also do medieval banquets and the like - probably a bit naff, I'm sure you can imagine the sort of thing.

As usual, loads of photos...

Tuesday, part two

After lunch, Cathi suggested that we leave whichever of the kids who wanted to stay at her place, and go out and about either by ourselves or with greatly reduced numbers of kids - Sarah decided to come with us, but the others stayed, so it was a lovely (and fairly quiet) afternoon. We went out to Mountshannon and caught a "ferry" (which was really a small motorboat) to Holy Island, which has a round tower and the remains of 5 or so churches on it. It was lovely, very scenic and remote and peaceful.



There is a also a park in Mountshannon with an interesting maze, so we stopped there and messed around the maze a bit. And then, on the drive back to Killaloe, we stopped at Beal Boru - Brian Boru's Fort - all that's there now is a big earthen bowl, as is the case with many hill forts, but it's very pretty...

Lots more photos of the day's adventures are here...

Tuesday, part one

Did lot of stuff today, but I think I will blog it in two parts, partly because it's not all related, but also partly because some of the photos are taking ages to upload and I just want to go to bed...

In the morning, we took the kids down to the playground in Ballina and then to feed the ducks. Cathi ran some errands and made some phone calls, and her girls came with us. A good time was had by all, especially the littles, who played all kinds of fun games involving enacting fairy tales, like the Three Billy Goats Gruff and Goldilocks and The Three Bears (strangely enough, Alex was Goldilocks in that game. Not sure what that says...)

Here are the rest of the duck photos, and the ones from the playground - tune in tomorrow for some more touristy stuff - Holy Island, Mountshannon, Beal Boru...

King John (somebody told me)...

...was not a very nice man. But then, as Geoff rightly points out, none of them were particuarly nice in that family - and of course, "nice" wasn't a quality so much looked for in medieval kings (or queens).

Today's cultural Irish excursion was to Limerick to see King John's Castle and have some lunch. He never lived there, but it was built while he was Lord of Ireland, and so named for him. Late 1100's. The castle is an interesting example of Norman castles (we have lots of those in England, too, but this one is well taken care of, and has nice towers to climb) and has lots of interesting Irish history, which is something we don't get nearly as much of in England - or rather, we might get it, but not from quite the same viewpoint. Though I think it's fairly widely agreed that King John was not a particularly nice person. Anyway. Also lots of nice views across the Shannon from the towers and so on. And then we had a little trip into Limerick town centre to have some lunch and go to Tesco (also something we have in England, but as it was more a wanting-to-eat-dinner excursion and less a viewing-tourist-sites excursion, still worth doing.)

As usual, more photos await you here...

Dolphin videos

Well, we seem to have solved the video problem - twice over! We made YouTube work by temporarily turning off Cathi's firewall AND we tried out the draft video upload feature on blogger - and so, I think we have dolphin videos - hurrah!

Dolphins!

Today's fun activity (and it was!) was going down to the Shannon Estuary to take a boat trip out to watch dolphins. It was totally cool. Here are a few dolphin photos - lots more, and some videos to follow probably tomorrow when I get them all downloaded and uploaded to the appropriate places, but for now, just wanted to share.

edited to say - for some reason I don't seem to be able to get into YouTube from Cathi's house, but here are some more photos of the trip, over on flickr. I'll add some videos when we get home.

The missing Kennedy brother?

This morning we were going to have a little trip up the road to see the Graves of the Leinstermen (some standing stones), but we got about halfway there and saw this. Oh well, we practiced our three-point turning skills instead. Not to mention driving into ditches to avoid a whopping great lorry which was driving on this road (yes, really) - better him than me...

So instead of the stones, we went to a scenic lookout over Lough Derg and then on to a little town called Garrykennedy, where we had a woodland walk, a look at the Lough & harbour and a nice coffee in a pub - or rather, outside the pub.



More photos here, on flickr, of course.

This afternoon the daddies have taken Sarah to the pitch and putt and the mums are staying here with Olivia & the littles (who have been mostly trampolining and watching telly while mummies sewed and stuff). A nice, peaceful afternoon, actually. This evening we may attempt a meal out - we'll see how the moods hold up...

Ballina & Killaloe

So, here we are in Ballina/Killaloe in Ireland. The towns are sort of the same town, but divided by the Shannon, which flows through the middle. Ballina is in Co. Tipperary, while Killaloe is in County Clare, in the way of these things.

We had a little walk into Killaloe (which is a bit bigger, at least in terms of shops and things, not sure about residential neighbourhoods) this morning, to browse around and do a little shopping. Compared to where Cathi lived before, where there wasn't much in walking distance, this is a real treat for her to have everything accessible. I took some photos of the scenic scenery (much of Ireland is scenic) - this photo is of some houses along the bank of the Shannon, on the Killaloe side. More photos from our walk are here, on flickr.

Made it

Well, we are here. And despite staying up very late playing with Aine And Aisling, Alex is up at his normal time, watching telly. I had intended to go back to bed, but by the time I worked out the controls to the telly, etc, I was pretty much awake, so decided to blog and stuff.

We had a bit of a hellish journey over - the traffic getting out of Dublin was insane, and then a missed road and a shortcut created more chaos, but all is ok now, we are here and ready to roll. Not sure what we'll be doing today, but no driving - or at least, only minimal driving. :)

More to report ere long, I'm sure!

Wild Irish Rovers

Well, I was trying to get a picture of our car with the borrowed roof box on top, as a precursor to setting off on holiday (at present, the box is empty; I will fill it tomorrow morning). But frankly, it just doesn't stop raining, so I have given up. I'm sure you can imagine it - a red Vauxhall Astra with a roof box on it. Not hard! Anyway, we are off tomorrow morning quite early to try to avoid the traffic (we will stop for breakfast once we break free of London and it's not such a stupid time) but I'm sure I'll be checking in, and probably posting photos and such from Cathi's - they are very up to date on technology, so I'll be able to do stuff from there. And now that they've moved, they even have broadband - hoorah!

Small holiday to Grandma's

So... we are now back from our visit to Grandma Lucy's house - lots of fun was had, and a variety of photos taken. On the way up, we stopped at Beckonscot Model Village, as we had tickets from the school fair (we've been before, but the kids still enjoy it - it's pretty impressive as model villages go - lots of very creative small scale scenes) and Ryton Organic Gardens - at left is the kids in front of the largest flower pot in the world (apparently), though it doesn't have any flowers in it.

More photos in the flickr album... and a few videos over on YouTube.

A few days away...

After a few quiet (except for the sound of arguing children) days at home, we are off tomorrow for a mini road-trip to see Grandma Lucy. The kids and I are going up in the car tomorrow, making a few stops on the way, weather permitting; Geoff will come up on the train after work. We're back on Sunday, and the girls and I will be having a day out to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham - not that far away from Grandma's - on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. I shall probably even manage (just) to bear with the lack of internet access... Anyway, hopefully there will be lots of photos to share on Sunday, when we return - and then just a few days at home and we're off again - to Ireland that time (where there WILL be internet access, luckily) to see Cathi and Dave. Cool!

Bun disequity

Here's something I've wondered for a while (it doesn't keep me awake at night or anything, I'm not quite that sad) - how come hot dogs come in packs of either 4 (for the fatter ones) or 10 (the skinnier ones) but the buns come in packs of 6? What is that about? And regular sausages (not frankfurters) come in packs of 8, so that doesn't help either. Who decides these things?

Mini masterpieces

Today's masterpieces. These two canvases, which the girls painted with acrylic paints, came with the designs pre-printed on them (not with numbers, like paint by number, but a rough sketch - wait, a sec - here you go). But I still think they've done a wonderful job with them - probably better than I could do - I'm terrible at that sort of thing. Anyway, it kept them busy for an hour or so. Alex made a little styrofoam glider shaped like a bug (he coloured it in), but it's gone missing behind a sofa or something, so no photo of that. The rest of the day was spent alternately making up bizarre games and fighting with one another - yes, I hear you say, typical summer holiday stuff...

Shed, pickles

Meant to blog this yesterday, but forgot! Anyway, our bike shed is now up and has bikes in it - which is great, as it means there is space to move in the old shed. Which is good. Eventually, we will have a second patio at the front of that shed (actually, there's a slab of concrete there now, but we will eventually pave it and add some chairs or a bench and a small table, etc.)

And also, pickles! We picked cucumbers yesterday at Garsons' (as well as red & black currants, apples and various vegetables - lots of baking in my future). And then we came home and picked blackberries in the next road over, for free. Made some summer fruits sorbet last night and am just off now to make a summer pudding for lunch tomorrow (we have a guest). But we decided to make some pickles yesterday - this time, did the cucumbers and the cauliflower separately so I could put dill with the cuke pickles - some how cauliflower pickled with dill didn't really appeal...

Alex's "art"

This is a giant face installation piece which Alex did on the floor of the computer room this afternoon. He got Olivia to help him draw the facial features onto bits of paper, but the concept and execution were his own. Look out all you Picasso-wannabes out there...

One gone, one "perished"

I love the word "perished" - it's a very evocative word. I particularly love it (in principle, that is - in practice, I'd rather they used words like "in really great condition and not needing to be replaced for years") when used by the guy at the garage to describe the rear box of the exhaust system of my car (my description being "it has a hole in it" - which was obvious, from the sound it was making). Perished is like Victorian fishermen at sea or something, not mufflers... But anyway, tomorrow it goes in to be replaced with a new rear box (and the middle part will be replaced, too, as it was "corroded", which is presuambly what happens before it perishes...)

And the one gone is my mother, who the kids and I took to the airport this morning - by now she's no doubt home and probably exhausted, but sorting stuff out and unpacking and watering plants and all that sort of thing partly because she's like me, unable NOT to do that stuff, and partly because 6.30 is just way too early to go to bed. Another hour and a half and she might well crash. Despite my mom leaving it was a very family seeming day, as I had a phone call from Andy (who the kids call Grandpa Andy, as I still consider him my stepdad, even though he isn't technically...) who I hadn't talked to in ages (he only has a cell-phone, which makes international calls more complicated). Great to talk to him, and even had a quick word with my step-brother Robert, who is home in Virginia briefly during a deployment to Iraq (he's in the navy). So there you go.

I'm sure we'll have a bit quieter week this week, without her here (and by quieter, I mean not noise, which will no doubt still be high here, but going out and doing things, which we did a lot of while she was here). Tomorrow we have the huge excitement of taking the car to the shop and going to look for school shoes. We might make a little detour as Krispy Kreme is right across the road from the garage... And Wednesday or Thursday the guys are coming to put up the bike shed (concrete was poured today, hoorah - finally managed to get the concrete lorry down the alleyway). Gosh, my life is just too exciting. We might go down to Garsons and pick corn on the cob (and other stuff) too.

Sunny day = sunprinting

Finally, it's like summer here. Hot and sunny, that is. Took advantage of this to do a little sunprinting - I still have to do some more for my swap, but at least August looks likely to provide some more opportunities for it. The kids each did a piece and I did three, of which one is pictured here, and the other two on my quilting blog. Sarah's friend Kirsty was still here from sleeping (I use the word loosely) over last night, so she and Sarah worked on one together (bottom right); Alex's is the top right, Olivia's the top left. It was a little windy, so we had some incidents with stuffing blowing around, hence the clarity is less good than it might be. Mine here is just random letters (foam shapes); the other two I did were scrunched and salted, two of my favourite effects.

Now, I am catching up with email a little, Olivia and Alex are in the paddling pool and Sarah is watching a DVD and having a little rest before we have some friends over for a barbecue. Soon I'll start doing a little food - some marinated veggies for kebabs, a plum crumble for dessert. Yum.

Oh, and get this - a knock on the door right before lunch and guess what - it's two guys to deliver the shed. Apparently in whatever alternative universe they inhabit, it's Wednesday today. But I did feel sorry for them - they had been stuck for 2.5 hours on the M25, poor things. And they DID deliver the shed, even carried it into the garden instead of leaving it at the back gate. At least it's here - now if only the concrete lorry can get into the back lane (they couldn't on Friday, due to bad parking at the top of the road), we'll be sorted.

South Bank

The "beach" - a small bit of sand and gravel along the banks of the Thames - only visible at low tide. The river itself is pretty yucky, but the beach part is ok. The kids thought it was cool, walking along looking for shells and interesting bits of glass. This is what we did after lunch, after going to the Hayward Gallery to see the Anthony Gormley exhibit (highly recommended). The kids liked most of the exhibit, particularly the fog-filled room and Event Horizon, which is all the figures placed along the London skyline. A few more photos here.

Frogs, snakes and birdies, oh my

Today was definitely a frog day - lost count after a while, but we had fun spotting them lurking amidst the duck weed at the London Wetland Centre. Also saw the usual lots of birds and even a little snake, which was very cool. I knew they had some snakes there - they have created habitats for them - but never seen one in person (in snake?) there. This one was camping out inside a little viewing area for worms (by which I mean, a place you can get a view underground to see what the soil looks like when worms have been digging it up). I took a photo, which is here on Flickr, with lots of other photos, mainly taken by Olivia, but it's not brilliant. Still, you can tell it's a snake!

Shedloads of stuff - literally

Given that it was due to be sunny all day and we had to stay home to wait for the new shed to be delivered (which it wasn't, but that's another story) I decided we should clean out the shed, and make sure everything was dry after all the flooding. Our shed is a bit Tardis-like: a lot more can fit in there than it looks like from the outside. Here's most of it, on the grass in the sun. You can't see all the pots on the side, but trust me, there are quite a few. The washing, of course, wasn't in the shed, either before or after...

And now, we have a tidy shed, relatively free of cobwebs (for about 3 days, I reckon) and a pile of stuff to go to the tip at the weekend (not my job).

I should add that we none of us really minded being at home today (Sarah was at tennis camp anyway) as we had a busy day yesterday - Olivia & my mother & I went shopping in Kingston, including a very civilised lunch outside in the sunshine at a pub along the river and Alex spent the day with his friend Nancy, playing in the morning and at a birthday party for a mutual friend in the afternoon - frankly, we all were happy to have some downtime, it's just annoying when things aren't delivered...

Gingerbread world

Sarah was off to tennis camp today (10-3) and great weather for it, thank goodness - I was afraid it was going to be a repeat of last week. Olivia's chosen activity, after we did some errands and had lunch, was baking biscuits, so we did gingerbread shapes (I think she and Alex used every shape in the box, except I drew the line at the Christmas Tree) - so we have people, animals (dogs, cats, sheep, cows, bunnies, teddies, elephants, ducks), dinosaurs, teapots, hearts, stars, flowers and probably some other stuff I forgot. And instead of mixing icing colours today, I just bought some tubes and let them squeeze. And I insisted they leave some plain, for the grownups, who prefer to have more biscuit than icing...

Gingerbread
350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
2 tsp ginger
125g butter or marg, cubed
175g light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup

Combine flour, soda, ginger; rub in butter. When in small crumbs, stir in sugar. Combine egg & golden syrup in a small bowl; add to dry ingredients and mix to form a (quite stiff) dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until very thin. Cut shapes & bake in a pre-heated oven 170C for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Biscuits will be soft when removed, but crisp when cool.

World's Easiest Cake

Plum (or other fruit) shortcake - highly yummy and I'm serious when I say it's the world's easiest recipe. Here's what you do: beat together 4oz each of ground almonds, self-raising flour, sugar and butter (or marg), plus one egg. Divide the resulting mixture (which will be quite stiff, not pourable, more like a cookie dough than cake batter) in half, and press half of it into the bottom of a cake tin (I use the kind with the removeable bottom) - you need a fairly small tin, I think mine is 6 inches in diameter. Then, place some halved & stoned (but not peeled) plums on top of this, covering the batter - leave a little gap at the edges or it will ooze a lot. Then press the remaining dough on top, to cover. Bake in a moderate oven (gas 4, 190C) for 40-50 minutes. And that's it. Told you it was easy. You can use other fruit - any soft fruit works ok. Plums are our favourite, though.

Camden Town

My mom and Sarah and I took a trip up to Camden Town today, to first do a walk with London Walks, and then to have some lunch and browse around Camden Lock Market. I've never been to the market before and had no idea how extensive it was - it's a very nice market, actually, without a lot of the tat you find at regular markets - more, well, upmarket. There may be some tat as well, but we didn't see much of that. Anyway, we had an interesting walk with our guide and had fun poking around afterwards. A nice day, if somewhat tiring on the feet. More photos here.

Kew visit

We went to Kew Gardens today - us and a ton of other people - no parking anywhere along the road, so we had to pay to park in the carpark. Luckily, we had a free entrance ticket for two adults and the kids are free anyway, so we didn't mind so much having to pay to park. The weather forecast was good for the whole day - sunny, even - which is no doubt why there were so many people out. The gardens didn't really seem crowded, actually - you can get a lot of people in there before it begins to seem busy. And we visited a lot of the less busy parts, at the back along the river, Queen Charlotte's Cottage (not open, but the grounds) and so on.

I let the girls use the camera most of the time, so they took a lot of photos of flowers (some of them very good, I think) - one of the many nice things about a digital camera... You can see those flower photos (and some more of us (above is my mother & the kids, but there is actually one of me with the others!) here, on flickr.

School's...in

Spent most of the day today just hanging around the house (though we did go to the park briefly after lunch, until it started raining) - the kids watched telly & played on the computer while I sewed, then they decided to all play an elaborate game with Alex's teddies - they were the three nursery teachers and the teddies were the children. They went through the entire nursery routine - the hello song, circle time, what's in the box, sound of the week, goodbye song and so on. Did make me laugh as the girls at least have been desperate to finish school for the summer, and here they are playing school - though as my mom pointed out, this time they are in charge...

Adventuresome day

Well, the weather has finally started behaving like it might be summer, so we took our trip to Chessington World of Adventures today. Great day, no rain, very few arguments from the kids and almost no queues, despite the good weather. And of course, we bumped into Lorayne & kids from across the road (not a total surprise, as she and I had both discussed going this week beforehand; still, it's funny to see someone you know in a big place like that). Some videos from the rides below, and more photos in my flickr album. Tomorrow, we will stay more or less at home and rest, I think!


Dodgems


Swings


Carousel


Water Ride

Full steam ahead

Because the weather was predicted to be rain on and off all day, we decided not to do something outdoorsy, like the Wetland Centre, and instead went to Kew Bridge Steam Museum, which I had tickets for, from the silent auction at the summer fair at school. Of course, it didn't rain at all (though I'm sure it would have, had we gone to the Wetland Centre or Kew or some place like that), but that's ok, we had a fun time anyway - the Steam Museum is interesting in a slightly eccentric way, but of course Alex loved it, as there were trains, as well as various steam engines, etc. And there was a model tram exhibition visiting as well, so that was fun for them. My stepdad Andy would have loved it - not the trams so much, but the engines. Anyway, photos were of course taken, and can be seen here...

Less rain, more flowers

Well, I won't say there was no rain today, as that would be a lie, but we had a very nice morning, which included a trip down to Garson's Farm to pick some fruit & veg (and sunflowers, as it happened) and check out their food fair, and farm shop. We picked raspberries, cherries, beetroot, spinach and runner beans (and sunflowers) and got some other fun stuff in the farm shop; dinner and dessert have been largely the produce we acquired there (the exception being the sugar in the meringues I made, which came from Waitrose and the potatoes at dinner, ditto, which I already had in the house - though we did have potatoes from our own garden (grown in tubs!) the other evening for dinner - and will have more in a week or two, when our little potato patch dries out). I feel like I should acquire a goat and a snooty neighbour called Margo. (Though technically, we are a few miles away from Surbiton.)*

Oh, and you can see in this photo (sort of) behind the sunflowers - grass! Yes, the water has receded from our garden. Hoorah.

*For those of you Yanks reading this, it's a reference to a classic British sitcom called The Good Life.

Instant water park!

My goodness, what a day. We had the most torrential downpours this morning - about 4 inches of rain in less than two hours. And consequently, tons of flooding, as the drains just can't cope. Luckily, not in the houses where we are, though the back garden was completely under water. It's going down now, though.

The kids had a short day of school, as today was the last day, so on the way home, we let them muck around in all the water in the park (the park tends to flood anyway, if there's too much rain, but it usually takes a few days' rain to build up, as opposed to an hour or two). Luckily, it was warm, so it wasn't too unpleasant. They had a great time of course. And actually, the adults had some fun, too, especially the two dads who were around.

The top photo is my friends Sophie (whose girls I childmind three days a week) and Lorayne at the entrance to the park - this is the bit that always floods, though usually, we are talking about an inch or two, not a foot or more! - and some of the kids - Katarina, Eliza, Gabriella and Sid. The rest were around somewhere. I took tons of photos, which you can see in my flickr album, and several little videos, which you can see below.

Still no woodpecker photos

But I did manage to get a shot of two green parakeets at the feeder. Ok, maybe they don't really belong here - but they certainly are spectacular. The woodpecker was here again today (or maybe it was yesterday) but as usual, he sensed me thinking about getting the camera out and promptly took off...

Tinkle, tinkle, little sar

Junk food!

A gift from my mother, from the US - lots of treats you can't get here (most seem to involve chocolate and peanut butter, hmm) - you can get regular reese's cups, but not the little ones, which I think have a better ratio of chocolate to peanut butter. Good thing I'm not trying to diet this summer...

Gamma...

is coming tomorrow - I will head out to the airport after the school run to collect her. We love having her visit (this is my mother, not Geoff's, who lives in the Midlands and therefore doesn't need collecting from the airport) but I'm sure between her visit and the summer holidays I'll get a lot less sewing done. Of course, there might be more to blog about on THIS blog as we are more likely to go out and do stuff in the summer and/or when guests are here.

Oh, and the fence is nearly done, but I'll spare you the photo excitement for today...

Subterranean brick wall blues

Here's where we stand this evening. What the photo doesn't show is the hours of work it took Mike to dig out the old posts - there were some serious bits of concrete in there - and what looked like an underground wall along the back fence line, which he had to dig through to make the post hole for the central post. But the new posts are in, and the gate has been rehung (partly). One of the problems with the old fence & gate is that the posts weren't set completely solidly and the gate shifted with the changes in weather, particularly during very rainy seasons (of which we have many, in case you haven't noticed!) so the gate frequently wouldn't shut. Hopefully this will no longer be a problem with the new gate & fence. He's also changed the orientation so the door opens flat against the shed wall. When we get the new bike shed up, this will be important so bikes can be taken in and out more easily. Must order that bike shed soon, now that the fence is done (mostly done).

Fence me in...

Finally, work will be starting on our new back fence (and once the fence is replaced, we can put the bike shed up and stop having an entire garden full of bikes (or a shed so full of bikes you can't move). When I say finally, this is not a reflection on the work ethic of Michael, friend (father of Olivia's friend Nina) and helpful builder type guy, but a reflection on the weather, which has rained so much, there's been no point even thinking about fences. Watch this space - hopefully tomorrow there will be a new fence in place, or at least mostly in place.

Paint-facing

As I was co-opted into painting faces at the Brownies District Sports Night, I thought I'd get warmed up by doing my own kids - and Nancy, who was here at the time. Didn't get a photo of Olivia, who came home a bit later and ended up as a "fotty dog" (i.e. dalmation or "spotty dog" - Alex still isn't very good at some of those s-combinations). The sports night was fun, actually - did about a dozen kids, which is a good number - not too many, but enough to make it worth going.

Sarah wanted a sunset scene with pirate paraphenalia - treasure chest, treasure map - I think it came out well.

Bunch o' flowers

Aren't they lovely? These were a gift from the nursery for my help this year (I went in nearly every week, and did lots of the less glamourous jobs like clearing out the cuboards and organising the dressing up clothes - but as I said to the teacher, while it's nice to work a bit with the children, I want to be helpful and do what actually needs doing, not something she's made up to entertain me.) Anyway, totally unexpected and unnecessary, but lovely. I felt all emotional when Alex brought them over to me (they let him carry them out to me - wasn't that sweet?)

Chocolatey Day

Ice Cream! This is Chocolate Chocolate Chip (Non-Dairy) - yum. Have included the recipe (both dairy and non-dairy versions - not much difference between them).

Jerry's Chocolate (+Dairy Free Alternative Version) from Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream book - non-dairy modification my own. With measurement notes for non-Americans...

2 oz (50g) plain/unsweetened chocolate
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder (sorry, no idea how much that is inweight but it's about 5-6 tbsps - it's not an exact science anyway!)
1 1/2 cups (12 fl oz) milk/soya milk
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar (225g) - if using sweetened soya milk I put in less sugar - if using unsweetened or cow's milk, I use the full amount
1 cup (8 fl oz) heavy or whipping cream (or one small carton/equivalent amount soya, wheat or rice cream alternative)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt the choc in the top of a double boiler over hot, not boiling, water. Gradually whisk in the cocoa and heat, stirring constantly until smooth. (The choc may "seize" or clump together. Don't worry, the milk will dissolve it.) Whisk in the milk, a little at a time, and heat until completely blended. Remove from the heat and let cool.

2. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and vanilla and whisk to blend.

3. Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and blend. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 to 3 hours, depending on yourrefrigerator.

4. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.

notes: this makes about 1 quart US (32 fl oz) - which is too much for my ice-cream freezer, so I freeze it in two batches. If you are freezing in the freezer rather than with a machine, you can skip the second part of step 3 and put the mixture straight into the freezer. Remove the mixture after an hour and whisk again, repeat several times during the freezing process to ensure enough air gets in.

Dulcet tones of the clarinet

There has been a big push recently at school about music & musical instruments; consequently, both girls have expressed an interest in learning to play something. Lessons can be done through (and during) school, but are fairly expensive, so I have struck a bargain with the girls: I will teach them how to read music and the basics of how to play the clarinet (we have my old one still) - if they keep up their interest and practice over the next year, and are still interested at the end of next school year, I will sort out lessons for them for the following year. (If they keep up interest for a year, they'll need a better teacher than me - I'm a bit rusty.) Today is the second day of the enterprise and enthusiasm is still high. Both of them manage to make sounds on the instrument; Sarah has very quickly picked up the basics of reading music (but obviously is very slow as she has to work the notes out each time - still, not bad for a near beginner - they've done very little at school about notes). I think we are going to have a squeaky summer.

Bragging Parent Mode...just for a sec

Forgot to say, the kids came home with their school reports today (once a year, at the end) - all did very well, with the girls acheiving marks well above the expected level for their ages, and remarkably, both had very good comments about how kind and helpful they are at school (we could do with a bit more of that around the house, frankly!). Alex just has comments - they don't do graded assessments in nursery (and shouldn't) - but he seemed to get on very well and is learning stuff, which is good. I more or less knew that, as I help in the nursery every week, so I get to see him in action quite a bit, but it's always interesting to see the reports. My favourite bit was this, from Olivia's: "She can mostly listen to other people and sometimes plays and works co-operatively." That pretty much says it all!

Almost more exciting than the reports was the fact that they got to see which classes they will be in next year, and what teachers they will have.

[Digression to explain the class system in our school. You may wish to skip this paragraph!] Our school is a little complicated because it has a one and a half form entry; in English that means there are one and a half classes worth of children at each year level except nursery, which has two full classes. The Reception Class (which comes after nursery) also has two classes, though they are very small - 21 or so each (out of a max of 30) - this is great for the kids, so the school makes a point of doing it, despite the fact that it's expensive (school money here is allocated largely on a per pupil basis rather than a per teacher required basis - in an ideal world, those things would balance, but they don't always, which is why we have 1.5 forms - which means mixed year classes). As I was saying, after Reception, the classes are mixed - so there is a year one class, a year 1/2 mix, a year 2 class; then a Y3, a Y3/Y4 mix and a Y4; and finally a Y5, a Y5/Y6 mix and a Y6. I grouped them this way because those are the "Key Stages" anyway, which means those years have the same curriculum anyway, so frankly, the fact that some of them are mixed is largely irrelevant. (The curriculum goes in a two year cycle, so in year 1, Key Stage 1 does Romans (whether you are in Y1 or Y2) and in year two KS1 does Tudors - so if you do romans in year 1, you will do Tudors in year 2 and vice versa. It all works out in the end.) And for English and Maths, they just work in ability groups anyway, sometimes mixing students from across the whole key stage ("setting").

[Safe to come back now.]

Anyway. Sarah will be a mixed class of year 5 (her) and year 6 students. The mixing is done by age, so her class has the oldest 1/3 (ish) of the year 5s and the youngest 1/3 of the year 6s. (If you didn't read the above paragraph, it all works just fine, trust me.) She's delighted because her friend Kirsty is in the same class, and they have Mr Rinn for their teacher, who is very cool and everyone likes him. Including me (though to be fair, I like all the teachers my kids have had & many of the ones they haven't - there are a few I don't really know well). And I think it's nice she's going to have a male teacher - there aren't many in primary schools these days, so it's a good experience for them.

Olivia will also be in a mixed class - again, she's one of the oldest. She's in a mixed Y3/Y4 class (she's in Y3 next year). Her teacher is called Ms Crask, and I don't know her well, but like what I've seen. She won't be with all of her friends, but we know that Hannah S will be there and probably Gabriella. But not Eliza & Nina. Won't hurt them all to be separate and she's not particularly bothered, at least not at the moment.

Alex we already knew would be in Fir class - his teacher is called Mrs Goodliffe and seems very nice - Keir has had her for reception and Y1 and really liked her, so that's a good recommendation. It was all very exciting on the playground this afternoon - everyone rushing about trying to see who will be in their class (and who won't). No tears from my kids, luckily - but as it's a fairly straightforward system, done almost completely by age, there isn't much they can do about it.

The Swedish Place

Spent the afternoon today taking a little trip to Ikea to finally get the bookcase I have been planning on for a year or more. Originally, I was going to go tomorrow, but I was a bit achey today so didn't really want to sit and sew, so thought I'd use the time this afternoon for Ikea - Alex enjoys playing in the kids' play area anyway - and tomorrow, when he is in wrap-around (they are having their year-end party tomorrow) I will hopefully do some serious sewing.

So anyway, the bookcase is now fetched and assembled and really is much better than what was in the room before, so I'm glad we did it. Despite measuring the space (and allowing for the skirting boards) we almost didn't get it into the space, because of the angle needed to get it into the corner, the edge of the windowsill and the edge of the skirting board. Now that it's in place, there's several cm gap at either side at the bottom (I knew I'd measured right, dang it) but it was a bit tricky getting it there... (Geoff will at this point compliment me for being the master (mistress?) of understatement.)

I'm pleased to say I didn't come back from Ikea with a lot of extra stuff I didn't need - I got mainly what was on my list (the bookcase, napkins, a sheet, straws, some little paintbrushes so I don't have to keep nicking the kids' ones), plus two things not on my list which should have been (more chalk for the kids, and a new lampshade for the downstairs hallway - this was on my list last time I went, but they were out of the size I wanted, so I didn't get it, but I forgot to put it back on the list), plus a roll of interesting paper (sold as wrapping paper, but it's kind of hand-made looking) and a box of plasters. Unfortunately, the sun umbrella on my list, they didn't seem to have, but I guess I'll live. We do need a bigger one, though. Will have to have a trawl through B&Q or Homebase. We need a couple more patio chairs anyway. Or rather, we need two different ones as we have four that are comfortable and two that aren't.

Such a perfect day...

I was going to make a play on words for the title of this post (something about fairs and weather and friends (our PTA is called The Friends of Green Lane)), but frankly, I'm too tired, having been at school for 8 1/2 hours today working on the fair (we start setting up at 8; the actual fair is 12-3; cleanup usually finishes by about 4.30). However, the good thing is, it went very well. The weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and hot, but not boiling, and not very windy. Whew! And Alex is thrilled because I won a Lego Pirate Ship (OK, Megablocks, not Lego - same difference) on the raffle.

This photo is of the stall I was working on - the kids' tombola (where you pick tickets and if it ends in a 0 or 5 you get a prize). This was a very popular stall today - sold out by about 1.30, which is even sooner than usually (it does often sell out before the end of the fair). But given the number of prizes on the stall, well, it's astonishing how much money some kids have to spend at fairs... (not mine - I dole it out a pound at a time and make them make it last).

Paper Bag Monster

What's that coming over the hill, is it a ... paper bag monster? (It's a song reference, for those of you like my mother who are slightly out of touch with popular culture)

The girls' quilts got handed back to them from Sandown in these potato sacks (this is standard practice at quilt shows, at least here in the UK) and as I have several set aside for mailing purposes, etc, I let the kids keep them - they've had the best time decorating them and cutting holes in. Today Alex was being a monster yet again. Makes me question once more why we really bother to buy toys - seems like boxes, bags and wrapping paper would probably suffice...

Plethora of blogging & birds

So, those of you who visit regularly may have noticed I'm trying to blog more frequently over here, even if it's just short and sweet. Or short but not sweet. I mean, if I can manage to blog more or less daily in my quilt blog, why can't I do it here? [If you are interested in the answer to this, it has to do with the quilting blog being somewhat of a journal for personal reference as well as for the public eye and also to do with me forgetting when I do the same twelve things on a Wednesday that I always do, that not everyone is as used to them as I am, and therefore, some might find them interesting. I could go on, but you'll be pleased to hear I won't at the moment.]

Anyway, I keep TRYING to get a picture of the woodpecker that comes to feed at our nut feeder to post here - he (or she) has been visiting nearly every day in the past few weeks, but I swear that thing can sense the camera - it always takes off just when I get the camera ready. Or else (like this morning) it spent the entire 6-7 minutes it was on the feeder on the far side of the feeder, where you couldn't see it through the camera. Grr. Maybe someday soon. The other morning, we had not only the woodpecker but also some of the green parakeets we sometimes get and to top that off, when I went around to my friend Caroline's house, they had a bird of prey (we think maybe a sparrowhawk but neither Caroline, her DH, nor I have much knowledge of birds of prey) in their garden, eating its catch - from the feathers leftover later, a smaller bird of some sort. And in a suburban garden - how cool is that?