Winter Adventures

We have started this Winter with lots of days out enjoying the beautiful countryside we get to call home.  My husband was off work for 12 days over the Christmas and New Year period which gave us lots of time to have some great days out.

We got the canoes out for a trip around a local lake.  I love canoeing, especially as a family, but we don't manage it that often as the only day we can all go is on a Sunday.  I very often need the time on this day to get myself ready for the week ahead or do those jobs that there is not the time for during the week.  It was a grey day in the main with welcome odd sightings of the sun and enough wind to get the little sail out for the journey back to the car.  We were the only boats out and about, apart from the steamers taking folks out for trips around the lake.

Our friends who live in Scotland were down for a few days just before Christmas, we managed to spend the day with them and another family on a walk alongside a different lake.  We were so lucky that that it was another dry day with patches of sunshine.

Whenever we are at home for Christmas we go for a walk on Christmas Day.  We have kedgeree for breakfast which is really filling, we take snacks with us, there is no need for a picnic.  This walk is very near to where we live, the hills in these pictures are the view from my house.  The small amount of water in the middle photo is a reservoir that was built to supply water to Manchester about 100 miles away, it flooded the valley covering a small village, when we have a really dry summer and the water level drops you can see remnants of walls and buildings.  The water travels underground in a pipeline which is feat of engineering you can read more about it here.

My mountain bike was dusted off and taken out the garage for a rare outing.  I am not a massive fan of mountain biking I prefer to ride on roads.  My husband and Cameron go mountain biking regularly and love it when Alice and I join them.  We weren't riding together though as Alice and I opted for the wide open forest tracks whilst Husband and Cameron were on a purpose built mountain biking route that had no appeal for us!

Alice enjoyed our dusk walk on the Winter Solstice so much that she asked if we could do it again only this time staying out until it was properly dark.  We headed out at about 2 o'clock when most folks were heading back to their cars.  It was a wild and windy day with good views from vantage points, we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset and the thinest sliver of a newish moon.  It is something we are going to do again whilst the evenings are still dark fairly early.

We had plans to go for a big walk with friends on New Years Eve.  They challenged us to take them somewhere new, to them, so we opted for a ridge that my husband drives past on this way to work every day.  It was a glorious day, big wide blue skies with the odd fluffy cloud, once we got up on the ridge we could see for miles and had a 360° view.  We saw one other walker in the six hours we were out walking.  We covered 13km/8 miles mostly off paths and through some very wet boggy places in parts.  As we walked down off the ridge the sun dropped down behind the hills and it got very cold indeed.  We followed our walk with an evening meal at our house, seeing in the New Year with a glass of champagne and some inspired dancing and singing to Auld Lang Syne!

We haven't been on quite so many adventures since then but I have realised that at this time of year if you don't plan to go out you will never do it, you have probably worked that out already.  If we were to wait for the weather to be fair then we would definitely never leave the house.  We are planning on having a day out a week doing something, whatever the weather, throughout the Winter.  We have the clothing and equipment to cope with cold, wet days  and I have heard it quoted often there is no such thing as bad weather only the unsuitable or wrong clothing we don't have any excuses.  So Winter here we come!

Have you had any fun adventures yet this Winter?

A Year of Memories

As we take our first tentative steps into a new year, a new decade, spread out before us ready to be filled up with memories and wondering where it will take us, the year behind us is already filled with memories some of which are easy to recall, key events or fun times, the special moments.  Harder to recall are the ordinary moments, the conversations, the subtle changes in the children, those memories are still there stored in my memory bank but as one building an overall picture of the year.  It would be impossible to remember it all, our heads would be over flowing like the magic porridge pot.

I came back to blogging in August this year after a three year break which made me realise how few photos I took.  There were several months when I had no photos at all hence my collection of nine photos rather than twelve.

We started 2019 in the Bahamas the last few hours of an amazing month with friends who live there.  The airport on their island is so unlike those of the big cities so many of us are used to.  It was a small building with many staff doing multiple jobs.  We were able to hang out with our friends until twenty minutes before take off when we had to go through a very basic security check and show our passports.  We waited in a small waiting room much like you would find in your local train station before walking across the tarmac to our plane.  We could see our bags on a trolley behind a wire fence waiting to be pulled across the tarmac to the plane.  They had been passed out a big opening in the building to the waiting trolley.  So different from the end of our journey in the vast and bustling terminal of London Heathrow.

At Easter, in April we went on a big canoe trip around some of the lakes which make up my part of the world.  We had plans to do four, one on each of the days of the long weekend that makes up the Easter weekend here.  We set off early on the Friday but our car had different ideas and broke down on the motorway, lucky for us it was about 7am so the breakdown rescue service we pay for was not busy at that point.  We couldn't get the car sorted so it was towed to a garage where we left it, we managed to get ourselves sorted with transport but the lake for that day had to be shelved and we headed for our campsite for that evening.  We still managed to canoe on three lakes, Conistonwater, Windermere and Ullswater in the most gorgeous weather, we had sunshine and big blue skies every day.   We clocked up about 50km of paddling.

June is the month of the Summer Solstice and our annual home ed camp.  It was the tenth time this camp has run and the eighth time we had been.  This year I was heavily involved in the organisation which was tiring but rewarding, we had over thirty families camping this year and so many things going on from yoga to wand making, from knitting and nattering to swimming in the sea.  We held a beautiful ceremony in a glade in the woods followed by afternoon tea.  It is the highlight of our year and hope it continues to run for many years to come.

In early July I took the children off for our annual camping trip together, this is usually to somewhere that ties in with what they have been learning over the previous year.  This year we went to Shropshire, not an area of my country that I know that well.  We were there to visit a historical working farm and the many museums that focus on the Industrial Revolution.  It was a lovely few days away.

August was a month of being outside doing many hours of conservation and learning in nature.  We did bracken bashing, weeding, wildlife friendly gardening, butterfly and dragonfly counting, wild flower and grass identification and meadow plant transects all through our local wildlife trust an amazing conservation charity.

September saw Alice and me head off to Wales for a wonderful restoring micro adventure. In October we had a great week as a family biking, canoeing and walking in Scotland.  Followed by November when Alice and I explored the walking trails at a local forest park whilst Cameron was off on the mountain biking trails with a friend.  We particularly loved the poetry trail with posts such as the one above dotted along the path.

Finally December which started with our beautiful, annual Advent Spiral, and was everything I wanted it to be including a wonderful, calm and quiet time in the weeks leading up to the Christmas break.

It has been a full and busy year, not in an overwhelming way.  I can tell that the children are older we are able to do more in our weeks and months as they are able to help me to make all these special moments happen.

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that has visited here this year.  It has been lovely to be welcomed back in the world of blogging as if I have never been away.  The connections I have made to both old and new to me blogs and followers and the lovely comments I have received have been wonderful and so supportive. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

So what about this year?  In 2020 I want to continue to stay true to what I believe in and to look after my family to the best of my abilities.

What would you like 2020 to be for you?

Postcards from Scotland

We have been spending time with friends this week, exploring the area where they live on bikes, in canoes and on foot.  We have been busy and slow at the same time, taking our time to get the day going each morning, making loose plans, going where the day takes us, exploring the places we were travelling through with lots of pauses.  Soaking up the peace and quiet, the beauty of nature and the wonderful company.

We have seen cranongs (not with buildings on) amazing man made islands in the middle of lochs, shipwrecks looking sad and abandoned but somehow beautiful at the same time, islands perfect for exploring, abandoned tunnels from railways long since dismantled but great for singing in, amazing lichen hanging from trees a beautiful adornment, shingle beaches with a treasure trove of stones for filling our pockets with, wonderful colours as nature gives us its glorious displays, blue skies, grey skies and every other colour in between.

Slow Living.....

It is always lovely to look back and reflect on what you have done over the previous weeks or months, taking stock, observing changes and celebrating achievements.  Even better if you can join together and see what others have been doing too in their part of the world, blogging is a wonderful way of making the world a smaller place.  Christine over a Slow Living Essentials hosts a monthly link up of reflections here are mine for April....

...nourish as we enter fully into Spring in my part of the world it is a time of warming up and a green haze blooming.  It is a gradual awakening and this had also bought a change each week to our veg bag.  Slowly the root vegetables of the last months have been replaced with new veg which is so exciting!  We have been enjoying spring greens, asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and salad leaves.  Each week when I get a list of what will be in my bag, I sit down with my recipe books and plan a menu, each week there is something new to cook with.  Much as I love the root vegetables of the autumn and winter I am always ready for the change that spring brings.

...prepare the greening of our hedgerows has meant that we have been out doing a wee spot of foraging.  We have been picking the beautifully pale hawthorn leaves for our salads, nettle for cups of tea and wild garlic to make into pesto using this recipe I have frozen most of what we made as it was a huge quantity.  I last made this two years ago and we are just finishing up that batch!

...reduce after fourteen years of continual use, including over four years of nappies, our washing machine died this month.  My husband opened the machine up to establish whether or not it could be repaired, sadly it was beyond that it was completely worn out.  Rather than send the whole machine to the tip, my husband strip it down completely making piles of bits, some for recycling, some for reusing, some which had to go to the tip.  The drum we are keeping to make into a fire pit.

...green out of necessity I make nearly all the toiletries and cleaning products we use in our house.  Although I was forced down this road I would not go back to buying them even if they were ok for my skin.  This month I made another batch of deodorant.  I can't find a record of making this last year but I know I did, two years ago I made some in May.  I think this batch probably lasts for a year as I know I don't make it that often!  The quantity I make fills two old deodorant sticks that I kept and keep refilling.

...grow apart from both my children having massive growth spurts lately our garden is also blooming too.  We have sown and chitted potatoes, the latter of which will need planting out in the next week or so.  We have also sown many seeds all of which are now wee seedlings sitting happily in their seed trays and pots on the staging in the polytunnel.  It is always interesting that seeds sown on the same day grow at completely different rates.  As well as the seeds I have also started some onion sets off in trays, we have such a short growing season where I live that this gives them the head start they need to grow to a decent size, otherwise I end up with a crop of onions the size of golf balls!

The seedlings are being kept insulated by some horticultural fleece as an over blanket and some leftover carpet underlay underneath them. We had some carpets laid a month or so ago and the carpet layers left us the off cuts. One piece is a perfect fit for our staging. Despite having a polytunnel the temperatures in there still drop really low most nights this extra insulation is an attempt to keep the temperature slightly more constant and it seems to work as most seeds do germinate.

...create I have been doing huge amounts of sewing this month for the many birthdays of children of friends and my family.   I have rustled up an owl storysack, a wee gnome, two rainbow balls, a play cape and a couple of pairs of slouchy/pyjama type trousers.  I created a Mother Earth for our seasonal table.  My knitting needles have been a little quieter this month, I have finished the body of a cardigan for myself and now need to work on the sleeves, I have blocked and sewn up a cardigan for my eldest which now needs a hood adding and I have cast on a new project and knitted a few rows.

...discover with all the sewing I have been doing I have reading a lot about different techniques and words used in the world of sewing.  I am totally self taught and rarely use patterns but I am making use of one to make something for my youngest.  The pattern directions are a bit scant for me so I have been looking lots up to try and make sense of what I need to do!

...enhance I have been doing lots of different things with my local Explorer Scout unit this month including a trip to the theatre with some of them, it has been a very long time since I visited a theatre.  We are entering a busy period for our unit so I have lots of preparation to do for the coming months.

...enjoy the warmer weather has meant that we have dusted off, literally it is kept in the garage and was covered in sawdust, our canoe and taken it out on several trips.  I love going out canoeing on day trips and overnight or longer journeys.  The weather was beautiful on both occasions although the wind made sailing, we have a small sail for our canoe, rather hairy at the end of one of the days.

Water

Welcome to the September 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Staying Safe
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared stories and tips about protecting our families. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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My husband and I met through our love of the outdoors, we were both working at the same place, an outdoor activity centre introducing young people and sometimes adults to climbing, canoeing and the like.  We have both ceased to work in outdoor centres but continue to do these activities ourselves, particularly canoeing and we owned two kayaks when our eldest was born.  We both felt that we really wanted to continue to walk, camp, climb and canoe with our children at a level that was suited to them, to introduce them to the activities and enable them, if they wanted to, to become proficient at them themselves.

We took each of our children canoeing for their first time at a really young age, around a year.  We chose a local lake as it is still water, in a canoe both chosen to remove the chance of tipping over.  A canoe is a very stable boat (unless you are in very turbulent waters) and it also provides plenty of room for any kit you might need and all of us!  The children wore lifejackets which are designed to float the wearer on their back should they fall in.  Since their introduction we have taken them on many trips, to local lakes and rivers.  We have also completed several expeditions, carrying all our equipment and food in the boat, including the Caledonian Canal.

You might be reading this and thinking we are mad taking children out so young on water.  Water is inherently dangerous but only if you don't assess the risks and manage them as far as you can.  If a child falls out of a canoe, in still waters, in a lifejacket then the worse thing that could happen to them is they get wet.  My children have both learnt to swim this summer but both of them have always been very confident in the water.  They are not frightened of it.  I believe this is because we have shown them that it is possible to be around water even when you cannot swim, enjoy it and stay safe.

I remember running a canoeing activity at a weekend summer camp for young people, my eldest was about three at the time and spent the whole day on a jetty, playing wearing his lifejacket.  I stayed on the bank (it was a very small lake) supervising him and the activity.  Several adults who I encountered watched him and wondered who he belonged to, they were worried that he was close to the water, when I asked them what they were worried about I was informed that he might fall in.  Yes indeed he might and he will get wet, but he will not come to any harm as he is wearing a lifejacket.  Sadly they felt I was irresponsible to allow him to play in that way, he didn't fall in all weekend he felt safe, I trusted him and I had assessed the risks hence the lifejacket.

As our children grow older we will continue to canoe together as a family.  Now that they are both swimming we have bought them Bouyancy Aids and taken them swimming in a lake so they could test them out.  We hope to take them on what we call moving water, a river with a current that you can see, and the sea.  We may introduce them to kayaks too if they want to.  All this we will continue to do at a pace they are comfortable with to keep them safe and enjoying what they are doing.

We are lucky that as we have skills in canoeing ourselves we can take our children out but if you haven't then find someone who has.  Canoeing is not a risky activity unless you do not take sensible precautions and consider your risks before setting out.  It is fun, honest!
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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated by afternoon September 10 with all the carnival links.)

• Stranger Danger — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares her approach to the topic of "strangers" and why she prefers to avoid that word, instead opting to help her 4-year-old understand what sorts of contact with adults is appropriate and whom to seek help from should she ever need it.
• We are the FDA — Justine at The Lone Home Ranger makes the case that when it comes to food and drugs, parents are necessarily both their kids' best proponent of healthy eating and defense against unsafe products.
• You Can't Baby Proof Mother Nature — Nicole Lauren at Mama Mermaid shares how she tackles the challenges of safety when teaching her toddler about the outdoors.
• Bike Safety With Kids — Christy at Eco Journey In the Burbs shares her tips for safe cycling with children in a guest post at Natural Parents Network.
• Spidey Sense — Maud at Awfully Chipper used a playground visit gone awry to teach her children about trusting their instincts.
• Water — sustainablemum explains how she has used her love of canoeing to enable her children to be confident around water
• Safety without baby proofing — Hannabert at Hannahandhorn talks about teaching safety rather than babyproofing.
• Coming of Age: The Safety Net of Secure Attatchment — Gentle Mama Moon reflects on her own experiences of entering young adulthood and in particular the risks that many young women/girls take as turbulent hormones coincide with insecurities and for some, loneliness — a deep longing for connection.
• Mistakes You Might Be Makings With Car Seats — Car seats are complex, and Brittany at The Pistachio Project shares ways we might be using them improperly.
• Could your child strangle on your window blinds? — One U.S. child a month strangles to death on a window blind cord — and it's not always the obvious cords that are the danger. Lauren at Hobo Mama sends a strong message to get rid of corded blinds, and take steps to keep your children safe.
• Tips to Help Parents Quit Smoking (and Stay Quit) — Creating a safe, smoke-free home not only gives children a healthier childhood, it also helps them make healthier choices later in life, too. Dionna at Code Name: Mama (an ex-smoker herself) offers tips to parents struggling to quit smoking, and she'll be happy to be a source of support for anyone who needs it.
• Gradually Expanding Range — Becca at The Earthling's Handbook explains how she is increasing the area in which her child can walk alone, a little bit at a time.
• Safety Sense and Self Confidence — Do you hover? Are you overprotective? Erica at ChildOrganics discusses trusting your child's safety sense and how this helps your child develop self-confidence.
• Staying Safe With Food Allergies and Intolerances — Kellie at Our Mindful Life is sharing how she taught her son about staying safe when it came to his food allergies.
• Don't Touch That Baby! — Crunchy Con Mom offers her 3 best tips for preventing unwanted touching of your baby.
• Playground Wrangling: Handling Two Toddlers Heading in Opposite Directions — Megan at the Boho Mama shares her experience with keeping two busy toddlers safe on the playground (AKA, the Zone of Death) while also keeping her sanity.
• Letting Go of "No" and Taking Chances — Mommy at Playing for Peace tries to accept the bumps, bruises and tears that come from letting her active and curious one-year-old explore the world and take chances.
• Preventing Choking in Babies and Toddlers with Older Siblings — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now gives tips on preventing choking in babies and toddlers along with Montessori-inspired tips for preventing choking in babies and toddlers who have older siblings working with small objects.
• Keeping Our Children Safe: A Community and National Priority — September has many days and weeks dedicated to issues of safety; however, none stir the emotions as does Patriot Day which honors those slain the terrorist attacks. Along with honoring the victims, safety officals want parents to be ready in the event of another disaster whether caused by terrorists or nature. Here are their top tips from Mary at Mary-andering Creatively.
• A Complete Family: Merging Pets and Offspring — Ana at Panda & Ananaso shares the ground rules that she laid out for herself, her big brown dog, and later her baby to ensure a happy, safe, and complete family.
• Be Brave — Shannon at Pineapples & Artichokes talks about helping her kids learn to be brave so that they can stay safe, even when she's not around.
• Catchy Phrasing — Momma Jorje just shares one quick tip for helping kids learn about safety. She assures there are examples provided.
• Know Your Kid — Alisha at Cinnamon&Sassfras refutes the idea that children are unpredictable.
• Surprising car seat myths — Choosing a car seat is a big, important decision with lots of variables. But there are some ways to simplify it and make sure you have made the safest choice for your family. Megan at Mama Seeds shares how, plus some surprising myths that changed her approach to car seats completely!
• I Never Tell My Kids To Be Careful — Kim is Raising Babes, Naturally, by staying present and avoiding the phrase "be careful!"

Gems

The last two weeks have been wonderful and busy.  We have packed in so much and finally returned home, I had thought about going away later this month but I think it would be best if we didn't for everyone's sanity.

We discovered lots of wonderful new music at the festival we attended over the bank holiday weekend.  We were really looking forward to seeing one of our favourite bands play, Afro Celt Sound System, they did not disappoint.  The children managed to stay awake for the whole set and loved hearing live versions of the tracks that they dance around the living room to, it was a great start to the weekend.

I spent an evening laughing out loud to the bizarre and funny, Colvin Quarmby who played beautiful music with haunting lyrics with mad chatter in between.  We were introduced to new musicians such as Tim O'Brien, Barnstar! playing their UK debut and  the wonderful Be Good Tanyas.  We listened to old favourites such as Heidi Talbot, Luke Jackson and Capercaillie.

Alongside all the music was dancing, ceilidhs, workshops and more.  The children made lanterns in a workshop and on the last evening joined hundreds of others, at dusk, for a parade headed up by a wonderful drumming and percussion band Sambassadors of Groove.

We were not sure if we wanted to attend this festival again as we were disappointed last year but after this year I think this will be a permanent fixture on our calendar.  It is the one time of the year when I do what I want, I love live music and stay up late and listen to it all, my husband takes the children to bed!

We sandwiched the festival between a few days of visiting friends who live nearby this meant we were away for a week.  We arrived home late on a Tuesday and had two days to sort out the camping stuff, which thankfully was dry, do a mountain of shopping, get clothes washed and more kit out before heading away again.  Thankfully I did not have any cooking to do in preparation this time, before heading to the music festival I precooked all our lunches and suppers!

This time we headed to Northumberland with a group of eighteen teenagers and three other adults for a summer camp.  We stayed in a delightful village, Ford from which we headed out to activities.  We had two groups completing their D of E expedition at Silver and Gold level which I was assessing.  We had a third group who did an overnight expedition, a days canoeing on the Rivet Tweed and a day climbing on a local crag.  We finished the camp with an extended lunch on Bamburgh beach a beautiful long sandy and mostly empty beach.

It is always a pleasure to be in the company of these teenagers, this is the fifth summer camp we have helped out with and we love doing it.  It is immensely hard work but such fun, which is why we do it.  Our children always come with us and have great fun spending time with some older children.  On the last evening after we had eaten we were sat round a campfire celebrating the achievements of the camp with the owls hooting around us and the sky black and full of stars it was a fitting end.

I spent a great deal of time driving around whilst on camp to meet the d of e groups I was assessing.  I listened to the radio on these journeys and it was a real treat to listen to an entire programme without any interruptions.  One in particular is worthy of a listen, Frys English Delight a very interesting look at the evolution of our quirky and bizarre spelling.

I have returned home now and we are mostly unpacked.  I have a mountain of laundry and it is raining.... I have a garden bursting with veg, yum yum.  I have two happy children who have played together all day and who have been asking if we can stay at home for a while and do you know I think we will, as much as I love to go away, home is good for me and no pictures again I was too busy having a good time!

Gratitudes

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...sunshine.

...green shoots in the polytunnel the first of the year.

...catching up with old friends who came to stay.

...two wonderful days out with friends in our canoe.

...sharing meals with friends two of which I did not have to cook.

...finding some dry wood to keep our fire going during the extended cold nights we are still having.

...sharing wonderful books with my children.

...finishing two knitting projects.

...time for sewing.

...my parents travelling up to stay with us.

Weekending

This week has been one of busyness and spending lots of time outside enjoying the sunshine.  We started the week with our usual trip into the local town for shopping and a visit to the library.  I had an extra child with me as we were looking after a friends little boy for the day.  The children spent the afternoon strewing  playing with toys all over the house!

On Tuesday we had a wonderful afternoon with friends doing some origami.  We had fun making paper planes and fish.  After clearing up some of us sat and chatted and laughed a lot.  It was a perfect afternoon and just what I needed.

Wednesday we had a day mostly at home.  Our Wednesday friends are away on a long holiday at the moment, we are missing them and looking forward to their return.  We baked some bread, made flapjacks, did two loads of washing, completed puzzles, did some colouring, drawing and read books together.  In the afternoon we went to the garden centre to buy seeds and seed potatoes.

The next day dawned sunny again and we all headed out for a walk around a local lake.  It was a wonderful day in beautiful surroundings.

Friday we met up with a local home ed group at the swimming pool for a swim, after which we headed out of town back to the lake we visited the day before.  We all walked up to the top of a small hill and had a play in the top.

Over the weekend we had a day at home on Saturday.  I did some pruning in the garden, walked up the village, made some pasties, planned next week and chilled out with the children.  On Sunday we met some friends for our first canoe trip of the year.  It was slightly cooler than the rest of the week but it was dry.  We stopped for lots of breaks and made hot drinks with the Kelly Kettle.  It was a great end to the week.

Gratitudes

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...being able to help out a friend for the day.

...the warmth, joy and healing power of my friends this week when I really needed them.

...a beautiful day out with my family, a walk in the sun.

...a fun afternoon out with some new home edding friends.

...a really productive day at home.

...a first canoe trip this year.

...a spring in my step, it really does feel like spring is coming now.  I have started to plan our weeks more now and am finding that I have more time to spend with the children.

...one of our wood sheds already full of wood seasoning for next winter.

Weekending

I am a few days late with the weekly round up, I had a very full weekend and had no brain space to write it.

We started the week with our usual trip into town for shopping and a library visit.  I found a book on knitting stitches to give some inspiration for a project that I would like to put together in the future.  I have really enjoyed doing do much knitting recently as I make Christmas presents.  I don't want to get to Christmas and have no knitting.  So I am thinking about post Christmas present knitting, a project for myself of my own design.

We spent time with out home edding friends on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Catching up after time away, visiting a new house for the first time, eating lunches together,  drinking tea whilst the children played.  They had, as they always do, a great time.  It doesn't matter what time we arrive they never want to leave!

On Friday I spent the morning writing a shopping list and cooking tea and most of the afternoon shopping!  Many months ago a good friend of mine had asked if I would cook for a weekend camp to celebrate 10 years of Explorer Scouts in our area and I agreed.  The numbers were approximate at that stage but ended up being about forty five.  I had to provide a supper meal (hot drink and cake) on Friday, all meals on Saturday and up to lunch on Sunday.  The shopping filled the boot of my car and my boot is very big!  After emptying the food out the car into the kitchen of the village hall we were using I travelled up the road to our friends where we were sleeping for the weekend, most others were camping in the grounds of the hall.  After sorting out tea I headed back to the hall to meet everyone and get myself organised.

Saturday was a very long day, up at six at the hall for half past breakfast ready for seven.  I provided cereal, tea, coffee and hot chocolate and bacon roll or vegetarian sausage roll.  I also had to put out ingredients for everyone to make sandwiches and bits to make up a packed lunch.  By ten we had cleared and washed up and had a break before starting on tea, shepherds pie.  I had someone helping without which I would never have got everything done.  We peeled 12 and a half kilos of potatoes and made up a large pan of sauce with mince, veg and herbs, it took nearly hour to put together the six large pies sauce at the base with mashed potato on top.  I also made a vegetarian version.  I also put together a vegetable soup as a starter.

They were having a party in the evening so I put together party food late in the afternoon ready for the evening.  Some of this was provided by the young people themselves some from the shopping I had done.  I made mini pizzas using english muffins cut in half, cooked sausage rolls, made dips, cut up bits to dip and emptied crisps into bowls.  By the end of the cooked meal, there was plenty of food phew I was starting to feel tired.  I cleared up with help and got the party food out before heading up the road to our friends house for a much needed bath.

Up early again on Sunday for a slightly later breakfast, cereal and toast.  Lunch was to be all the leftovers from the previous day plus more soup which I needed to make.  We had to be out of the hall just after lunch so it was all hands on deck to clear and wash up and clean the hall.  By the time I got home I was exhausted and missing my children.  I had hardly seen them all weekend.  They had been out canoeing and driving a power boat on the Saturday with their dad and a friend and headed home after breakfast on Sunday.  It was an interesting experience not one that I would want to do regularly but good fun!

We have been mainly........

busy this week, making the most of the warmer weather as we were not convinced it was going to last, and it has been positively autumnal this summer for us.

We started the week with our usual visit to the local town for food shopping and a visit to the library to get some new books.  We found a cool book Wild Child by Jeanne Willis, I think I have read this at least five times every day this week, she loves it.  We spent the afternoon looming at our library books and drawing pictures.

The next day we joined our friends for our regular play date.  My eldest was not sure of he wanted to go this week.  He had not had so much fun last week as there were different children there.  He needed to knowm if they would be there again before he decided.  He needs time to get to know new people and prefers to do this one on one rather than in a group.  He struggled to join in last week.  I established that they were not going to be there so we headed down.  He had a great play for the afternoon, running around, playing with lego and building a den.  My youngest spent most of the day on their trampoline, she is getting quite competent.  Despite getting home late we contact our friends who were meeting the next day to plan a day out.  We have so few warm sunny days we wanted to make plans rather than leaving until mid morning and not ending up doing much.

We opted for a day out to a local Buddhist Temple and Retreat Centre it was a beautiful place, really serene and peaceful.  The children spent a long time in the temple sitting still and looking around, it was a really calming place.  We had a lovely long picnic on their beach, whilst the children played in the sand and shallow waters.  It was a long but wonderful day.

On Thursday we took our canoe out for a day paddle on a local lake.  We took dinner and tea which we cooked on our Kelly Kettle.  I was really tired by the end of the day, but I do love days out like this, being outdoors recharges my batteries.  My eldest is never keen at the thought but when we are out always tells me he is having a great time, so it is usually worth that extra hassle.

The next day we were joined for dinner by our friends from the south.  Like me they have to eat a particular diet and are unable to eat gluten, together with my long list of foods I cannot eat it makes for intersting meals.  I enjoy cooking and managed to put together a meal for eight without using any.  I served up (all homemade) coleslaw, rice salad with dill and peas, a green leaf salad from the garden, onion bhajis and deep fried cheddar balls.  The children were off playing together for pretty much the whole time. It was lovely to see and hear the girls so well together, they are still young but seem to be finding each others company enjoyable now which is wonderful to observe.  It meant the adults had a catch up which was great as what with one thing and another we have not been able to meet up much of late.

Continuuing the busy theme we spent a large proportion of the weekend on a canoe trip.  This time we took the kit to camp out under a bivi sheet.  The children had a whale of a time, it was lovely to have the time to just sit and watch what they were doing, running around in the water, in the trees, looking at things, asking questions or just sitting and being.  It is important to slow down sometimes and live simply.  Camping is a great opportunity to do this, I am looking forward to our many camping trips we have planned over the next few weeks.

Bivi

We set off yesterday afternoon for another adventure with our canoe.  This time we packed up stuff to stay out the night so we needed more food.  After all the cooking I did on Friday (dinner and tea) I was struggling to come up with a meal that we could take to cook in the evening and in the end decided to leave it until the morning, I was cooked out.  I got up in the morning and looked in the fridge, broad beans, a small amount of ricotta and feta left over from another meal where jumping at me to go together.  I cooked some potatoes, chucked in the broad beans at the end mashed them together with the cheeses and some chopped mint added some rice flour to bind it all a bit, hey presto small patties.  I sorted out some lunch, wraps and salad (left overs from day before), snacks and breakfast fruity porridge and we were ready for the off.

We went to another lake a bit further from us, we arrived in time for lunch which we ate before packing the canoe and setting off.  The wind was fairly strong and heading down the lake, the direction we ultimately wanted to travel we decided to head up the lake against the wind for a bit of an explore first.  When we turned to head in the other direction the wind changed to (that was to become a bit of theme for the rest of the day).  We stopped at a small beach for a drink and a snack, we boiled water with the Kelly Kettle, the children had great fun playing in a stream, building a dam and redirecting the flow.

We headed on down the lake pass the beach we were planning to camp on to a wonderful little island.  Those of you familiar with Swallow and Amazons may recognise this part of the island, from chapter four of the book.  The picture is titled feeling their way in.  

The island was really busy so we just had a shorter explore before heading back up the lake.  

As we were heading down towards the island we were having to paddle hard against the wind we were looking forward to a speedy sail back up the lake. No, the wind had other ideas, it had dropped and changed direction.  We managed to get a bit of assistance as it was vaguely in the right direction. My eldest asked the question on the way back, why is the island there?  We told him it was due to the ice age.  He immediately realised that it was harder rock that the glacier could not wear away.  We have talked about the ice age before when out and about and watched a few DVDs on the subject. The island is a roche moutonnée.

We made it to the beach and started to get a big pile of sticks together to cook tea.  

 
We had used the kelly kettle to reheat tea when out canoeing earlier in the week, this time we had food that needed cooking. We ended up eating in stages, first we cooked and my husband and children ate meat burgers with tabbouleh, we had started cooking potatoes first and left them sitting in hot water which were cooking very slowly they went back on the heat until eventually they were ready to eat.  Then we cooked the patties I had made in the morning.  It was a bit slow but all very tasty and we had not had to bring any fuel with us.

The children had great fun during all this time running here and there, in the lake, in the woods nearby and playing in a stream that flowed down one side of the beach.  They created channels and pool and dams.  We boiled some water for a cup of tea after eating, I took the Kelly kettle off the heat  once it had boiled and felt my hand get hot but thought nothing of it.  Within a minute I realised I had burned it so put my hand in the stream.  I spent most of the next hour with it in the stream, whilst assisting with the hydrology engineering with my children, it hurt a lot.  It was great to listen to them talking about the effect of their engineering on the flow of the stream geography in the field, bit of theme going here no prior planning of course!

My husband built the bivi with a tarp and the canoe and used the embers from the Kelly kettle to build a fire. 

 We sat by the fire until it was dark and went to bed.  I was woken at 5am as my youngest had migrated, she had managed to get past her brother to her daddy!  It was very windy, as I went back to sleep I hoped it would calm down as we would have fun getting back to the car against it.

By 8am the wind had dropped and the sun come out.

My husband was up and had the fire going for a brew.

What more could you ask for?  We had our porridge, packed up and headed back to the car.  We were once again paddling against the wind.   A wonderful twenty four hours.

Sun

We have been out for the day again today enjoying the wonderful warm weather.  I had resigned myself at the beginning of the week to a cool summer.  It seems this week that we are getting some heat, so we are making the most of it.

We took the canoe out again on a local lake.  We packed lunch and tea this time.  There was a light breeze so we managed some sailing although we were sailing into the wind which is a bit slower.  We were heading down the lake in the hope that we would be able to sail back up, but guess what, when we turned to come back the wind turned too!  Not for long though, the lake is surrounded by hills and the wind changes at various parts of the lake so eventually it was behind us.

There were a few clouds in the sky and my eldest spent some time looking at them and seeing the most amazing shapes in them such as a map of North America, a fish spine and a tree to name but a few.

We cooked tea on a shingle beach using the kelly kettle, actually we reheated it as I had already cooked it that morning.  We were the only boat on the lake as we returned to the car.

When we arrived home there was the most beautiful sunset, a perfect mackerel sky, as I was taking this picture my youngest said Smile Clouds!

We have been mainly.......

having fun with friends and family this week.

We started the week with our usual trip into the local town.  After the busyness of last week, we set off earlier and managed to avoid it.  We found a fantastic book about spiders, The Diary of a Spider a fun story about how spiders live.

On Tuesday we joined our friends for our regular play date.  The children all rescued a baby blue tit which had been caught by a cat and cared for it.  It was interesting to watch them working out what to do with it, what they needed to keep it safe it kept them busy for a long time until they could set it free.  They also decided to put on a show on the trampoline with jumps, songs, a short play and joke telling it was great.

We stayed at home the next day and kept ourselves busy reading books, playing with Lego, painting, knitting, baking bread and observing Lammas. We cooked a meal in the evening based on the few bits of produce that we have in the garden at the moment, it's a lean year this year.  After supper I headed off to a meeting with friends to plan a programme of activities for a local Explorer Scout group it was the first time my youngest had gone to sleep without me, she managed just fine with daddy for company.

We joined friends the next day at a local pick your own farm.  We managed to pick a pound of strawberries there were not many as it is the end of the season, and three pounds of raspberries, I have given up trying to grow strawberries they will not ripen in my garden and I really ought to get some raspberries canes for my garden.  Having picked our fruit we drove up the road to a play park where we had a picnic and a play.  It was really quite warm for a change, although you needed a jumper when the sun went in.  I made most of the fruit into jam when we got home, some of the raspberries got eaten with cream for supper.

On Friday we visited our friends to the south, it has been a long time since we were able to spend time together and it was great to catch up with them again.  We joined them for lunch after which we walked to a local park so that the children could all run off their energy.  I seemed to be doing a lot of that as they had me whizzing them around on a heavy roundabout!  We returned to their house for a drink with  scones and jam before heading home it was a lovely day.

Over the weekend we enjoyed an adventure with our canoe and sail on a local lake on Saturday.  It started off sunny with light winds and ended with wild weather heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightening.  We had the lake to ourselves at that point, not surprisingly.  Whilst cooking tea that evening my children decided to raid my utensil draw.  My youngest had a colander on her head and a funnel as a trumpet, my eldest had two measuring cups and a whisk as a drum set.  They were marching up and down, making music.  They soon had many items on the table which they were tapping with the whisk they realised that the size of the item had a bearing on the sound it made, it was lovely to listen to their conversation of discovey.

We stayed at home on Sunday drawing, reading books, playing Lego and watching DVDs a quiet end to the week.