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

What the Easter Bunny did...

Here's what the Rabbit brought Sarah - each kid got a half-chocolate egg (the one in cellophane) with small bits of chocolate inside it - Olivia's was white sheep, Alex's was chocolate dinosaurs - Alex and Sarah got chocolate bunnies (Olivia had Easter shaped marshmallows instead as she's not a huge chocolate fan the way the other two are) and then there were small eggs and shapes as well... Unfortunately, there are no marshmallow peeps in England, or the Easter Bunny would probably bring them as well... Still, there's enough chocolate (and other sweets) to last some time...

First of the year

...and at the end... yum.



After some struggle to get the fire going - I think the charcoal was a bit damp perhaps (it was last year's, and had been in the shed all winter) - burgers and veggie kebabs were eaten. And of course, dessert.

Nearly there!

So, our part is largely done (the border on the left will have bark on it, the way the one on the right does, and there's a tiny bit more shingle needed over to the right of the photo where you can't see it) and what remains now is for the council to come out and do the cross-over and kerb (i.e. take the kerb out and pave from the road up to the edge of the drive). In some areas, your builder can do this, but here, only the council is allowed to, even after they give permission. This is partly because they want the money they can charge for doing it, and partly to ensure (I assume) it's done to a particular standard. Anyway. That should happen in the next four weeks some time, and then we'll be able to actually park on it. Hurrah.

Lunchtime Wednesday

This is all the work they can do today - tomorrow, someone will deliver a tonne of gravel, and then they'll be able to come back, spread that out, and finish the edges of the driveway area. And then it will be done. Hoorah!



And then, of course, all we have to wait for is the council to come and knock the curb down and do the footpath crossover - which could be any time in the next 4 weeks or so. After that, we will finally be able to park on it!



In case you were wondering, this is what the honecomb plastic gridding looks like, which will hold the gravel in place - it comes in squares, about a metre square, and clips together.

Wednesday morning, 9am

So, the grabber lorry finally makes it - which is great, but of course it comes about ten past nine, and blocks the road, making us nearly late for Alex's swimming lesson (we really need to leave by 20 past at the latest; didn't get out until 9.30. Sigh. But at least all the rubble is gone!)




Here's where they'd got to by close of business yesterday - today, they should get all the honeycoming laid, the fence finished, etc.

Driveway, Day 3 (more or less)

Day 2 was a bit of a washout as the builder had to leave about halfway through the day due to illness - and then, with him unwell and the other two guys on holiday, nothing really happened until now. This is all dug out and levelled. Plus, you can't really tell, but a fence has been removed and fence posts for the new one (to match the new one on the other side) sunk. Tomorrow, paving and whatnot. And hopefully, the rubble will go.

New Driveway, Day 1

Yesterday, he removed the path and the bit of concrete at the front of the house (behind where the wheelbarrow is). This may not seem like a lot of work,but it was 8 inches deep in places...



At the moment, it's quite a big step up to the front step!



And a lovely big load of hardcore to take away - of course, the driver of the lorry that would take the hardcore away has just been to the door to say that he can't get his lorry down the road because some idiots (my phrasing) have park right on the corners, so he can't turn (it's striped a certain distance from the corner, you aren't supposed to park there, but commuters often do it anyway - it's very annoying and frequently prevents delivery lorries and others from being able to get into our part of the road, which requires a right-angle turn...).

Funky hairstyle

Olivia stayed the night at a friend's house and the friend's mum did her hair. Of course, she wants me to duplicate this now - fat chance!

Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham

In his school play. He had quite a few lines and did very well. It was a comic villain part and he got lots of laughs, especially in one bit where the whole rest of the cast gets to yell "Shut up!" at him. Now if I could just get the songs from the play out of my head - problem is, after having rehearsed them a billion times with the two classes I work in, I know all the words!

Cakes for Japan

No, we're not going to send the actual cakes to Japan - they are only going as far as school, where the pupil leaders are having a cake sale tomorrow to raise money for Japan relief. We baked loads.

There will be more baking mid-week as Alex is off to cub camp on the weekend and they love to have donations of home-made cakes to take with them...

Aerial view of St Lucia

This doesn't really show all the models as well as it might, but the other photo has lots of sofa and cushions in the background and isn't ideal, either:



The basic concept was a model for each section of the project, with a little booklet about that aspect of St Lucian life.

The main problem with Olivia's projects is storing them later, as you might imagine!

Homemade Paper

Among our many bits and pieces of craft stuff, is a paper making kit - we've done it once before, a long time ago, but this time Sarah decided to have a go for herself - I think it will be quite nice paper when it's dry, if a little holey in places...

Here's what the kitchen looked like, mid-process!

New car

Just in case there's anyone I know left who isn't aware we got a new car... Woohoo! I'll spare you the incredibly long and boring saga of spending the best part of the day at CarGiant and driving home through Shepherd's Bush in rush hour. The only upside of that was that Geoff and I had a nice walk along the Grand Union Canal and then a stroll through Kensal Green Cemetery (hence the photo above). If it weren't so far away, I'd be very tempted to go back up there just to explore the cemetery more (it was nearly closing time when we got there).




It's one of those great old cememteries where all the graves and monuments are packed in next to one another, some more tended than others, really interesting and with lots of depth and texture.



This section of the canal is quite nice as well, though a little industrial in parts - but that's canals for you, at least when they go through towns.



And oh yes - here's the car in question!

Hama Nice Day...

Among the other things the kids have been doing to amuse themselves over the holiday was making some Hama bead creations - for those not in the know, these are tiny plastic beads that you set up on a plastic form and then iron to fuse. All three of them have created things - Alex did the panda, the rocket and the A, with a little help from Sarah - Olivia's done the N and the giraffe and the rest are Sarah's, though a few of them were made previously and just mended during the recent session.