Just Jo!

We have slobbed stupendously today!
I am extremely chuffed with myself!
DVDs all day and that really is that!
Apart from a bit of a fumble with some Lego….
(The rain put us off cycling to the museum for an art workshop.)

Photo prompt today….
Peg
A small piece of wood, metal or plastic used for holding things together or marking a position. Find one in your space today.

Her Space
As soon as we knew what it was today, Olivia charged outside to set up her shot.

My Space
I was left floundering….
Mini decorative pegs. To decorate things.

Olivia wins this round!

….and a little bit from last night.

Maisy wasn’t that impressed with me cutting up an old duvet cover apparently. She made her feelings crystal clear in fact….

So I gave up on that and had a cuddle with her instead.

This morning we had another late start. There was a free art workshop at the museum today, but I’d already said to Olivia last night that we’d give it a miss. She was very grateful at the point and fully agreed, amidst all the tears of illness and disease.
This morning, she woke up, full of beans, “I’m feeling great! Absolutely fine! Can we go??”
I said no, we’ll go to the one tomorrow. Slightly different, but still art at the museum.
So today has been finishing cutting a 70’s duvet into hundreds of pieces. Then cutting some of those squares into even smaller squares so that Olivia can make a quilt for her teddy. Who’s called Ted. She was only 18 months when she finally got around to naming him, her imagination wasn’t fully developed.
Anyways, the final quilt design has been decided upon. Eventually. But it took much longer than you would believe humanly possible, so no actual sewing of anything has happened yet.
The rest of the afternoon has been spent making cards. We have a grand total of…..6. Yes, 6. About three hours to make six cards. Six. Six cards in three hours. Not exactly the production line we had going at Christmas. I haven’t taken a photo of them yet, so you’ll have to imagine them as being the absolute, very best, most incredible cards you have ever seen in your entire life. And times that by ten, just to make sure.
Or not….

We popped to the shop, after clearing the detritus craft stuff away. We bumped into Natalie, Adam’s girlfriend, whilst there. Oh what an interesting little chat we had….
Eye-opening even….
Me: “Hello!”
Natalie: “Hello!”
M: “How are you?”
(It gets better, trust me.)
N: “Fine, Adam’s gone kick-boxing tonight, hasn’t he?”
M: “Yes, he’s just left, with his split lip.”
N: “That was really bad, wasn’t it?”
M: “Yes, so what actually happened?”
N:……(Well, let’s just say that her version bears absolutely no relation to Adam’s.)
M: “Really? He said…..”
N:….. (A very loyal girlfriend, who is very quick thinking!)
M:…..(Grinning) “I won’t tell him I heard it from you!”
N: “Thanks!”
M: “You could ask him why he lies to his mother though.”
N:(Grinning) “OK!”

I will save the information for a rainy day!

Right….dinner, bath and bed.
I think Olivia’s planning on watching her DVD of Robin Hood while I’m wallowing.

And it will be a mega wallow. I’ve had the radio playing through the ‘puter all day. Every ten minutes we get the Big Brother theme tune, and the latest gossip about the house, who’s going into the house, etc. All speculation at this point. All complete crap nonsense at this point. From this point to eternity in fact. I’ve had enough already. I gave up watching TV because of crap nonsense like that. D’you get the impression I’m not a fan??
Adam’s just come back from kick-boxing, “You watching Big Brother tonight?”
“Take a wild guess!”
Olivia’s whispering in my ear, “Are you going to tell Adam what we know?”
“Shhh!!! Not yet!!”

So it’s CDs only for the next however many months Big Crap Brother is on. And if Yahoo starts flashing up Big Crap Brother headlines at every opportunity, you may not be seeing me for the foreseeable future as I do my best to avoid it.
Now I really must go and put a gag on Olivia. She’s asked Adam if Natalie is coming round tonight.
(Whispering to me) “Mum! She’s coming round!”
(Loudly to Adam) “What time’s she coming round?”
(Whispering to me) “Mum! She’s coming at….”
(Me hissing) “Will you shut up?!”
We still have the pile of fabric on the floor, a gag shouldn’t be that hard….

I am truly shocking myself at the moment!!

Shadow
A dark area created by lack of light. Find a shadow in your space today.

A bit of a tricky one this one, we have no sun today….no sun = no shadows. So we had to find alternative light sources.

Her Space
Olivia made use of the main light in the sitting room to get hers.

My Space
I made use of Olivia holding a torch in the kitchen.

I have no idea how to put the writing on the photos, sorry!

But I’ll get to that in a minute….
Sunday night, after our mega photo prompt catch-up, we snuggled up in bed to watch Pride and Prejudice. We’d bought it a while ago and Olivia has been desperate to watch it. But she had great difficulty in staying awake and had a headache as well, most unlike her.
I persuaded her to go to the loo as soon as it had finished, so she could go straight to bed.
I heard an almighty wailing…..”Muuummm!!!!”
“Whaaat??” (Apologies to Rick for excessive vowel usage…)
“Muuummm!!!!” (And consonants….)
I went down to find her hugging the toilet bowl….
Not good….I’m not very good with sick….
“Um….did you get it in the loo?”
“Yes!”
(Phew!!)
She felt very sorry for herself, lots of tears….so we had a late start in the morning.
Not doing very much at all yesterday as a result. We went on a fabric hunt around the house, so now we have a big pile of it in the front room. Awaiting inspiration to beat us over the head….

She’s still not feeling 100% today, so I cancelled our visit to Di, who’s also had a headache and upset stomach over the weekend….
We had a look at the prompt for today….Treat….
So that let us both off for the entire day.
Well, not much point having a treat, unless you go all out and make the most of it, is there??
So….cue art in the garden and a bit more faffing with fabric….

Treat
A little something to brighten up your day, week or year! Show us a treat in your space today.

My treat today was finally getting around to do the sunflower picture we saw at the Lyme Regis fossil festival. And as Olivia wasn’t feeling herself, I was allowed to join in….just to help out….a bit….not a lot….and I had to follow the rules….her rules….I’m not much good at rules….but as she’s ill….

Olivia’s treat was me cutting up a patchwork printed duvet and pillow cases so that she can sew them back together again to make a cushion cover….or something….

That’s been it today. Apart from Adam going to the walk-in centre at the hospital.
Apparently, at his girlfriend’s sister’s flat the other night, he’d tripped up the stairs and split his lip quite badly. Sounds highly dubious to me…. So of course, I raised an eyebrow, and he then went into great detail explaining what had happened. So of course, I then found it hard to keep a straight face. Which pleased him no end….
(Note to self….must work harder on sympathy for my children….)

Right….got to go….half a duvet still to cut up….dinner to cook….tears to wipe away….Olivia’s going downhill again, curled up on the sofa with teddy. See, sympathy’s already kicking in.

Well, at least we know the tent doesn’t leak….
We cooked outside on our little camping stove, we are extremely good at sausages and baked beans on it now. Our torches work magnificently as well. Which was jolly good, ‘cos it meant we could read. And play about with the torch….

We stayed in the tent for breakfast. It was chucking it down outside, so I sent Olivia out to make me a cuppa back indoors.
Then we came in about 10ish to finish off the photo prompts. So here they are, mostly new, but a few old ones hijacked because I was starting to get bored….

Spiky

Daisy

Corner

Stripy

Pencil

Bug

Glasses

Fence

Clean

Date

Paint

Texture

Egg

Silver

I saw this in close-up. So now Olivia is tidying the rest of the room, so we won’t notice the cobwebs….
It’s funny really, when I put it up, my mum said, “Ooh, that’ll be a dust trap!” Pah! What does she know??
Garland

Sign

Busy

Cook

Tin

Purse

Camera

Scissors

Adhesive

Juice

Spiral

Photo

Butterfly

Tree

Nik-nak

Triangle

Sky

Snack

Chocolate

Tassel

Shoe

Strap

Ribbon

Beads

Cards

Cookie

Path

Polish

Toe

Which belongs to him….

Spoon

This is the second “Reflection”…. actually it’s our third, the first two got done on our Photo Prompt bike ride….
Reflection

All done now!
There’s more info about the photos on Flickr. I couldn’t be bothered to type it all out twice, and I’m having more fun over there at the moment.
But perhaps I’ll not leave it ’til there’s 45 to catch up with next time. I shall set myself a target of doing them as soon as they’re posted for a week. Or not. Maybe not. Probably not. Don’t hold your breath or anything….
Off to go Flickr-ing again….

Sort of lost the alliteration at the end there….

The last of this lot of Saturday morning art club for Olivia. She very proudly showed me her papier mache masterpiece….

There’s a new four week block starting in June. So as soon as we left the art studio we went downstairs to book her in for the next lot. Except she’s going to miss the first week because we’ll be in a tent.
We walked through the Guildhall shopping centre to get to the medieval refectory that was having an open day. We got accosted by a bunch of Morrismen. Or is it Morris Dancers in this age of political correctness? Well, there were women too.

We’ve been to the refectory (part of St Nicholas Priory, more info about the priory here, it’s closed at the moment) before, but have never seen as much as we did today.

Very interesting, lots of history, Medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian. Think that’s all.
Home for Olivia to to a few workbooks, English, maths and science. She wanted to do some guitar practice, but couldn’t find her book.
I caught up with some of the Her Space:My Space photo prompts. I will post them all tomorrow. I’m behind by about 44. 45 today. So it’ll be 46 tomorrow.
Bit rushed today, because we’re camping out in the garden tonight. Whoopee-doo….

Saw this on Prydwen this morning…..

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You’re generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You’ll try almost anything interesting, and you’re constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

No great surprises there then….

And just seen this on Shirl’s and Michelle’s….

You Are From Uranus

You shine with brilliant creativity, and you’re more than a little eccentric. You love everything unusual and shocking. You’re one far-out chick or dude. Anything unconventional excites you - and you have genius potential. Just don’t let your rebel side get the best of you, or else you’ll alienate everyone. Your original thinking and funky attitude is all you need to be you.

….and neglecting my blog.

Wednesday was group day, so all fairly normal there. Apart from the rippling muscles on display, but I digress….
I handed over the cheque for the outdoor activities and had apologies from the absentees on Monday. One of the teenagers asked me to do a henna pattern on her, which I very skillfully managed to delegate to others to take care of.
Well, it was getting late and we had things to do. Like Olivia’s community garden bed. And a bit of shopping, flipflops for me, almond oil for Olivia. Got the oil (will explain later), but no flipflops.
Photos of Olivia’s bed, as in community garden bed, not her actual bed. That would be too awful to contemplate….

Seems a bit overgrown, but she wanted to keep lots of the wild flowers growing there.
Drama as usual, then home to bed.

Yesterday was lazing around the garden. I did, Olivia had work to do, of the educational workbook variety. But at least she got to do it all out in the fresh air. Wearing her new swimsuit. Like you do.

I did do some washing and a bit of tidying up, I also managed to cram some reading into my hectic schedule. Then we took a gentle stroll along the river to meet up with some of Olivia’s guide pack for a swimming session.
Look what we saw….
A river. Fancy that. All wet it was….

We saw a heron too….

Ooh!! Looky!! Sweeeeeeet!!!

So sweet and cute, they nearly made us late for meeting everyone. All three of them, plus two guiders. Lisa and I ran away quickly, dragging R with us round T.K.Maxx. I bought six side plates, a huge great serving plate and a muffin tin.
We had to pick the girls up again at half six….
So all six of us descended on Subway for nourishment. Then wended our weary way home.
Adam came home later, I gleefully showed him my new plates.
“They’re ugly!”
“They’re not!”
“They’re probably the ugliest plates I have ever seen in my life!”
“They’re not”
“They look all old and Victorian. Ugly”
“Bohemian.”
“Ugly!”
“Bohemian!”
“Ugly!”
“Bohemian!”
Methinks he wasn’t too keen on them.
He then proceeded to show me some defensive moves he’s learnt in his new kickboxing thingy on a Wednesday night. He asked me to try strangling him…. so, so tempting!
He then even invited me along.
“You should come. It’s mental. It’s ‘bring a buddy week’ soon. You should come.”
“I’m your buddy am I?!”
“No! But you should come anyway.”

We have spent the whole day today with Di. She was showing Olivia how to make an elderflower face and body cream. It usually takes a few days to make, but Di showed Olivia a cold compress way that is much quicker. We met at the community centre to pinch pick some elderflowers.

After picking enough flowers, we went to Di’s house. Olivia giddy with excitement because she found a fiver on the pavement. Di introduced us to the blackbird chicks nesting in the back garden.

We had lunch, which may possibly have involved tasting some home-made elderflower wine. Di thought it tasted a bit like sake, and as she happened to have a bottle, we did a comparison tasting. Relax, it was only a sip. Enough to say, “Nope, completely different.” Then we had to taste some home-made blackberry and apple wine. Just to compare.
It was all very low alcohol, and very, very nice.
So on with the actual task of making elderflower cream (which is why Olivia needed the almond oil)….
A lesson in photos….
(It contains a tiny amount of beeswax, so not strictly vegan.)

After it had been poured into jars, we had to wait for it to set. Olivia kept herself busy with flower arranging.

We said our goodbyes, Olivia acquiring an old scooter that Tavis had picked up from somewhere else. We walked into town (I walked, she scootered), I got my flipflops…. two pairs!! Olivia was desperate to spend her fiver, so Hawkins Bazaar it was. She got herself a mini bedlam cube. Very, very frustrated with it already.
“Can I take it back and get my money back?”
“No.”
“Why not???”
“Because it’s not back in the box!”
“But they can do that in the shop!”
“No!”
Not a happy bunny.

And before I forget, I saw this on Prydwen yesterday……
Very creepy!

David Blaine - this is great*

This is creepy!

* *

*Think of a letter between A and W. (now scroll down the page)*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *
*Repeat it out loud as you scroll down.

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Keep going ………………………. .*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Don’t stop . . .*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Think of an animal that begins with that letter.*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Repeat it out loud as you scroll down.*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Think of either a man’s/woman’s name that begins with the last
letter in the animals name.*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Almost there……..*

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Now count out the letters in that name on the fingers of the
hand you are not using to scroll down.*
* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Take the hand you counted with and hold it out in front of you at
face level*
* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Look at your palm very closely and notice the lines in your hand*

*
*Do the lines take the form of the first letter in the persons name?

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

*Of course they b****y dont…….*

* *

*Now use your outstretched hand to smack yourself on the head, get a
life, and quit playing stupid e-mail games!

A quick conversation with Olivia on Saturday…
“Mum, I forgot to say that when K was doing my hair, she said Adam was well fit. Should I tell Adam?”
Hmmm….methinks there may be ulterior motives in her willingness to do Olivia’s hair for free….

So for the rest of the catch up….
Because I’ve still been feeling sorry for myself and too tired to blog lately.

Saturday was mostly just pottering about, no art club because the teacher was ill, so it was postponed. Yay! Lie-in!!! Ooh, and hope she feels better soon….
Olivia did some kind of arty thing I’m sure. I really just wafted….
In the evening we headed to the museum for the showing of Night At The Museum. Great fun! We saw some friends from Wednesday group, they thought it as great as we did.
Oh….and I finally received the grant cheque for the activities that I booked up months ago. Which is a bit of a relief, I thought I might have to start getting stroppy….”Well, where’s our money you promised then??!!”

Sunday, we got our tent out for an airing because we’re going on a camping trip in June. First time for both of us. Well, first time proper for me, I went overnight on a school journey once….

Once the tent was up, we both felt confident and strong enough to deal with the grotty long division from the other day. Had to be done in the tent of course. All done now….yeah, think we’ll be sticking with the way we’ve always done it.
Olivia also read through her G-file and we came up with a kit list for our camping trip, that then got typed up on the ‘puter.

One of the wild strawberries has produced fruit, one of which ripened on Sunday, meaning it got eaten within seconds. I sulked, ‘cos it wasn’t me who ate it, but then cheered myself immensely with uploading old photos from my camera’s internal memory. Yes, I am fully aware that for most this is not a vast leap forward into the modern age, but it is for me!!

Monday morning we bought almost all of the camping kit list. We’re all set now!
The afternoon was spent kayaking. The second of the activities I’d booked at Haven Banks. The adults didn’t get a go this time though. And I’m slightly peeved that a couple of people didn’t turn up. There were other children on the waiting list who could have had a go if I’d known they weren’t going to show….
Anyway, photos….

Great time had by all….except for the chaos surrounding the changing rooms at the end. No idea how many school groups, and our lot, were all trying to get changed at the same time….

Got home with all our newly purchased camping goodies, so just had to test them all.
Olivia was in charge of packing the bag with food, making sure we had everything to eat with, cook with and wash up with….
Then I locked the back door, and if she’d forgotten anything, well….that was just tough, wasn’t it?!

She really wanted to sleep in it that night. But I said no, because I knew we’d be having a long day today….

So….today….lovely day….very lovely day….that was made much much shorter (in a good way, I hasten to add!) by Sarah picking us up at 9:30. If she hadn’t, we’d have had to leave the house about three hours earlier. Which in my book, makes it roughly the middle of the night. So huge, huge, huge great thanks to Sarah!!! And Joe and Robyn who happened to be in the van with her.
We were off to Overbecks, a National Trust place down (way down) near Salcombe, Sarah coping admirably with the hairy scary twisty turny steep declines and inclines, and silly drivers who wouldn’t/couldn’t back up.
More photos, a lot, because it was just such a gorgeous day with all round gorgeous views that I couldn’t decide which ones to use and which ones not to use….

We were meeting up with the historical visits group, most of whom come from down that neck of the woods, but Exeter was well represented by us two and Lisa.

We went into the house first for the kids to do a quiz trail and find a ghost in the secret room. Lisa found it first and squealed, giving the location away a bit!
Lunch up in the picnic area, which was ever so conveniently situated high up on a bit of a slope, meaning even more photo ops and plenty of rolling down hills….

After lunch, it was back to the house to finish the quiz trail, Joe tagging along quite happily with Olivia and M. The benefit of that being that I felt guilty only buying icepops for Olivia and myself, so they both got one too. I told M to eat hers quickly before her sisters saw it. Which she did, but then told them later anyway.
Anyways, the four of us then headed back to the gardens for another quiz trail, slurping icepops as we went….

We seemed to pick up a few strays in the gazebo….

And then…. it was down to the beach…. see, told you it was a lovely day….check out the blues!!

It’s been a very lovely day (I may have already mentioned that) and I hope Sarah didn’t get into too much trouble for getting back late.

What I thought was Olivia going to be ill, wasn’t. It was me. She woke up about half past seven, Wednesday morning, banging on my door, “I feel great!!”
“I don’t! Go away!” (Or words to that effect….)
I’d had a grotty tummy on Tuesday at the organic farm, barely making it to the loo in time at one point. Wednesday, I woke up with a splitting headache, hence my dismissal of Olivia. It carried on throughout group…. whoopee doo…. making me feel like a complete fraud sat next to Lou, who must be about 12 months pregnant by now….
And oh joy, it carried on through drama as well….
I woke up with it slightly abated yesterday morning. But by then I had a wonderfully stiff, sore and very painful neck to make up for the slight decrease in head pain….
Decided to give pottery a miss, not being able to face the bike ride. Olivia got on with workbooks, maths, English, science, history, algebra…. and started another maths book. The first one, she had two pages left to do, but the second to last page involved long division. It also involved an introduction to a method that I am total crap at. Well, it would, wouldn’t it?! Olivia really couldn’t grasp it either. It was far too scary and painful for me to talk her through, which is why she started a new book. She also finished painting the bird feeding box and did a water colour painting of a fox in the garden. Not a real fox in our garden, it’s just where she happened to be when being struck by artistic inspiration….
I made a pathetic phonecall to Lisa around about that time, “Can you do me a favour, please? Can you take Olivia to guides, please?”
Lisa, being Lisa, said of course, no problem. I like my friends.
Then Olivia grabbed the camera to take a few photos in the front garden….

Adam had come home at some point while I was trying to sleep off my headache in the afternoon. He hid at the top of the stairs and yelled “BOO!!” when I made a reappearance…. Sometimes, I really hate teenage boys….
He’s very excited about his weekend though, he’s getting another tattoo done (yeah, you can imagine my enthusiasm when he shared that little nugget with me….) and he (with a bunch of friends) is going to Wembley to watch Exeter play on Sunday.

My headache had more or less gone by this morning, but I still had the pain in the neck (see how I’m resisting the urge to mention Olivia in the same sentence??!), meaning I could barely turn my head. The pain sort of reached down to grab my left hand, leaving my fingers numb.
So…. feeling like that…. we set off for the Devon County Show at 8:30.
Yes, I really would have liked to stay at home. In bed. But I’d already bought tickets a few weeks ago. And there’s absolutely no way on earth that I could possibly be persuaded to go the County Show on a Saturday. The crowds, you see. Of people. I don’t like people. Especially in crowds. And there’s a lot of them at the County Show. Lots of them reminding me exactly what it is about crowds that seriously get on my ti…. nerves.

A few examples….
People who take dogs to huge crowd filled places.
People who take unreasonably huge pushchairs to huge crowd filled places.
People who then ram into your flipflop clad heels with unreasonably huge great pushchairs.
People who stop suddenly right in front of you.
People who stop suddenly right in front of you meaning you then have to jump backwards over huge great piles of cow poo.
Or horse poo.
Or any other kind of poo.
Which, believe me, is abundant at a rural county show.
People with umbrellas.
Because it always rains when it’s a County Show weekend.
People who reallyreallyreally have an urge to sell you their pile of crap merchandise.
Even if their crap merchandise is shoe polish, and you’re wearing flipflops.

On the plus side however, it’s DEVON.
There will be cider.
Your daughter has finally learnt not to ask for everything she sees.
It didn’t rain as much as it did last year.
There is a Pimm’s tent.
‘Nough said.

A few photos….

This one has to be big because it made me go “Wow!” more than anything else today….

What? You think that’s it?? We left the house at 8:30, not returning ’til gone 7…. and you think that’s all the photos I took?!
Ohhhh….. there are more…. trust me…. plenty more…. they’re all here.
Feel free to comment or ask questions here…. or on Flickr…. and I’ll fill in any gaps…. I’m too tired to do it now. But my head and neck are fine again.
Oh, but Olivia’s still snotty….

Yesterday is probably best glossed over fairly quickly. Olivia did a few pages of various workbooks, then developed an earache….although it might have been the other way around and I just told her to get on with her work.
I did some washing and hung it out, so of course it then had to pour down.
Sadly, I really cannot remember what else we did…. It’s just soooo long ago….. A few phonecalls…..then Olivia’s earache morphed into the beginnings of a cold….and sore throat. I have no problems with colds and sore throats as long as they keep her quiet…. But they never do…. she just keeps on going…. relentlessly…. determinedly…. bearing an uncanny resemblance to The Terminator….

So today, we got picked up by some friends (in a car! ) to go off for our organic arts trip. The place we did the risk assessment thingy….whenever it was…. It rained. A lot. Fortunately they had spare wellies at the farm….
It was too wet and rainy to even contemplate getting my camera out at first. But then the sun came out halfway round on our self guided walk to the old quarry….
We saw a male and female pheasant that ran ever so quickly behind a big pile of poo. Too quickly to get a pic….

Lovely views all round. The object of the self guided walk was to identify trees and collect leaves. These two photos are bizarre in the contrast between the colours of sky and ‘green’ in each….probably about ten minutes between each photo being taken…. Sorry, getting all arty farty for a second there….

We went back to the barn for lunch. It’s a working farm, so Olivia raced off to get a photo of cows. Didn’t tell her they (or their off-spring) would soon be heading to the abattoir….

We all made our way to the tree henge and Chillies Copse for the afternoon workshops. (There were a lot of cowpats….hence the title of this post!)

The kids had to split into two groups, older and younger. The younger ones went clay digging to make some sculptures based on the tree henge in the field. The older ones went up into Chillies Copse to cut ash trees to make a trellis for the yurt they’re building. But to get to the woodland camp, some had to be blindfolded and led along the path….

We had another introduction, safety talk and general talk about what the kids would be doing.

The older group got divided again. One lot staying behind in the camp to do ‘things’, the other lot heading into the woods to find suitable ash trees for a yurt’s trellis frame….

The chopped up logs then had to be carried back to the camp….

Back at the campsite, it was time for cooking ‘dampers’ (I’m assuming that’s the correct spelling….), hot chocolate and tea….

The ‘dampers’ were really simple….just flour and water mixed to a dough, with whatever you fancy added (today we had raisins), rolled into a sausage shape then wrapped round a ‘green’ stick and cooked over the fire. Oh yes, we will be doing those over our fire pit! We have the fuel drying in the back garden already.
It’s been another great day, the only criticism being that it wasn’t long enough.

We had a lift home, whereupon Olivia was straight out into the garden. Then came in to start painting a bird box…..

Her cold is coming along quite nicely…. she soaked for ages in the bath, then begged for a hot water bottle and a lie-in in the morning…..

I saw this on Prydwen this morning. It made me laugh at first. Then I thought “Ooh yeah!” Then I got quite sad. And felt old. ‘Cos most of it’s true. Except the car bit. Substitute a bike for that. And I don’t drink coke. ‘Cos that’s just yuk and completely foul….

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my lawn.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over
at my car and decide my car needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice that there
is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the
mail box earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the
car.
I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk
mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice
that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and
take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I’m going to be near the
mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as
well pay the bills first.
I take my cheque book off the table, and see that
there is only one cheque left.
My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I
go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of
Coke that I had been drinking.
I’m going to look for my cheques, but first I need
to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally
knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm,
and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to
keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke a vase
of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need
to be watered.
I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover
my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all
morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but
first I’m going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a
container with water and suddenly I spot the TV
remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I
will be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember
that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it
back in the living room where it belongs, but first
I’ll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit
of it spills on the floor.
So, I set the remote back down on the table, get
some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I
was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
the lawn isn’t watered,
the car isn’t washed,
the bills aren’t paid,
there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter,
the flowers don’t have enough water,
there is still only one cheque in my cheque book,
I can’t find the remote,
I can’t find my glasses,
I don’t remember what I did with the car keys,
and my neighbor called to tell me he turned off the
hose that was flooding the driveway.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done
today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy
all day long, and I’m really tired. I realize this is
a serious problem, and I’ll try to get some help for
it, but first I’ll check my e-mail.

And I don’t watch TV….but apart from that…. yeah, I’m getting old.

EDIT 22:07: Just seen this, in amongst some luvverly luvverly prints on Jules’ new blog….

You Are 92% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity. Your next creation could be something very great… Or at least very cool!

Got a lot to live up to now….