I'm still having trouble loading up pictures and with the internet in general, so haven't blogged much of late. I was going to blog tonight about what we have been up to over half term, but my phone (with the photos on) needs charging up. Plus, it all seems a bit trite in view of a terrible tragedy that happened over the weekend. The lovely young boy who lived next door died in a car crash yesterday. It takes my breath away. His family and friends are in our thoughts and prayers. God bless you, Jack. X

Book week

I think it must nearly be my blogaversary! It is book week again and it was about this time last year that I started my blog. The children went to school today dressed as... can you guess?

Nanny McPhee and Doctor Who. Yes, I suppose these characters are better known for film and tv, but these two fans have read the books. They both read/listen to Doctor Who stories. There are loads of them in the local library. And I recently found 'Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang' in paperback, also at the library which Honor loved. They haven't seen the film yet. Henry wanted a 'David Tennant' hairdo but it was better suited to a 'Matt Smith' coiffeur.

I've enjoyed looking back over this blog to see what we have done over this past year and how much the children have grown. So I think I shall continue it for a while longer.

Hope's progress

Hope is now eighteen months old and learning fast. She is feeding herself well (if you don't mind the mess), linking words to make sentences and is running around. It is challenging finding ways to keep children this young entertained.

Today we got out the tin of stockmar beeswax crayons (very nice, waldorf style crayons) and she enjoyed having a bit of a doodle.

She loves books, too and had me read these ones to her over and over again!

After that I took her to a nearby garden centre, Bybrook Barn at Ashford, where they had lots of entertaining things to see. A pet centre that sells chickens, a duck pond and the Christmas displays were fabulous. Full sized dioramas depicting scenes from traditional fairy stories such as Hansel and Gretal, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood with moving figures. Lovely.

Catch up.

I've been having a few problems lately with blogging. Difficulties loading pictures and the internet connection being temperamental and just not having time for it with everything else going on.

Today is Saturday. I usually give HM a maths lesson on a Saturday morning and we usually end up doing loads of housework and diy jobs, homework, that sort of thing. I fancied a bit of a break from all that this weekend and suggested that we have a day out, courtesy of our National Trust membership. The weather forecast looked good too. We chose Scotney Castle in Tunbridge Wells for a picnic and a walk.

There was a stately home to look around, an old ruin of a castle and beautiful gardens.

This is the ice house - used as a fridge in the old days.
There are guided tours available on the various fungi that can be seen at the moment.
I think we all enjoyed the day out.

These last two photos are from two weeks ago. Henry broke his wrist at school and he had to attend 2 hospital appointments in one day. The first one, in the morning, was at Canterbury hospital - his annual check-up for his lazy eye. He had to have drops put in which dilate his pupils. I had to have this done when I was young and I remember how uncomfortable it feels when you come outside. I offered him my sunglasses to wear.

The bra bank (above) caught my eye among the vast array of recycling bins available. Never seen a bra bank before!

Then we spent the afternoon in the fracture clinic of the William Harvey, Ashford. It was packed and poor Henry was getting a bit worn out by it all. The ladies in the X-Ray room were fantastic though. Some people are very good at getting children to cooperate with what needs to be done.

S'all for now.

Nature's bounty.

Here is tonight's supper. There are a lot of colds going around at the moment. Hubby is suffering from man-flu. I used left-over chicken bones to make our usual flu busting hot n sour soup (with shitake mushrooms) and the kids and I put together little blackberry cheesecakes, made with the blackberries from the hedgerows (just a bit cheaper than you get in the local supermarket or farm shop.)

Plus, we have home-brew plum wine which Hubby made. All very effective in clearing the sinuses, boosting the immune system and soothing aches n pains... unless you drink too much plum wine. Then you are guaranteed a headache in the morning!

The cheesecakes are a combination of a Delia Smith and a CBeebies 'I Can Cook' recipe. As follows:

1. To make the base, we crushed a few ginger and a few digestive biscuits in sandwich bags with a rolling pin and binded the mixture together with melted butter in a saucepan.

2. The biscuit mixture was divided into individual little pudding glasses, flattened with the back of a spoon and left to set.

3. In a mixer we put a tub of Quark cheese, about 3 tablespoons of sugar, few drops of vanilla essence and a squeeze of lemon juice... and whizzed it all up.

4.) This mixture was then spread as the next layer on top of the biscuit mixture.

5.) Then for the blackberry topping. We put about a cereal bowl full of blackberries in a pan with a few spoons of sugar and simmered without any added water. Then we put in 2 teaspoons of arrowroot which had been mixed with a tablespoon of water. This gives the mixture a thicker texture, similar to what you get with shop bought cheesecakes. This mixture was then spread over the top as the final layer.

What about quantities? Well, I don't bother too much with that kind of thing. I have O'Level cookery so I have a feel for what is right (hee, hee). When it came to the sugar, I think we go less than what would be used in a typical recipe as only Henry seems to have a sweet tooth. The rest of us are happy with natural, even sour flavours. I did end up with too much blackberry mixture though. That has been put in a jar in the fridge and I think will be perfect for putting on top of museli or porridge with some yoghurt. Or could even be spread on toast - it is quite jam-like.

I'm going now to watch the last part of 'Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys'. I wonder if he succeeded in his goal to raise the boys' reading age by six months. I do hope so.

He's 'armless!

Poor Henry. He broke his wrist in P.E. yesterday.

I kept him at home today so he could recover a little. He was so tired from the hospital experience, plus there's a bit of maintenance and exercise to monitor in the first 48 hours after this type of injury.

But we did do a little bit of 'work'! Here, Henry is doing a Montessori style spelling activity (no writing required!) He places the objects from the first tray onto his mat and uses the wooden letters from the second tray to spell them out. I don't have a lovely, expensive, authentic Montessori moveable alphabet with tray, so I have a couple of packets of wooden 'creation station' letters (about £2.99 a packet) and I put out the letters needed on an ordinary tray. Maybe 'somebody' might make me a nice compartment box for them (hint, hint!)
Then I gave him some Kumon addition to do. He can still write as he is left handed. I went out into the garden (it was boiling hot!) to do some much needed clearing in the borders. I have some daffodil bulbs I need to plant.
When I went in to check how Henry was getting on with his maths, he really hadn't got very far. So I invited him to come outside. There were quite a few rampant brambles that needed removing but were laden with blackberries. Shame to let them got to waste. Henry was happy to pick them and do lots of practical counting and addition in the process.


Yesterday I was flicking through my 'Delia Smith's Frugal Food' cookery book when a recipe for blackberry cheesecake caught my eye. I discussed the idea of trying out this recipe with Henry. It was clear that we'd need a lot more blackberries, so we went for another country walk and picked 2 good tubs full. I still need some ginger biscuits and curd cheese, so, hopefully we'll finish this task off tomorrow... yum, yum!
And this is Henry playing with his new scalelectrix with little Hope joining in the fun. He was so kind and patient when she kept getting up and walking on the track! Such a lovely brother.

Sunday.

HM has begun training as an altar server, so this morning we went to the busy, morning Mass so she could get in some practise. She is really enjoying it. We also heard from a few of the congregation who managed to attend the vigil with the Pope in Hyde Park yesterday. That was fascinating and it was clear that they got a lot out of the experience.
This afternoon we popped out to a local garden centre so I could buy a few brussel sprout plug plants for the veg patch. I have tried to grow as much stuff as I can from seed but it's all a bit hit and miss. My curly kale is doing very well. I hardly got any tomatoes. Our pumpkins, right now, are tiny... and green. I've tried growing brussels before, but the caterpillars got to them. So we shall see.