The Last Post.

I've been terrible at blogging this month, haven't I?

The last two weeks have been a bit busy. Mum is in Australia visiting my brother and new baby leaving me to look after Dad. Hubby was away in Alaska but is back now. And this week I have been to A-Ha concerts and spas and stuff! Will do a separate post about that.

Today we went to Jack's funeral. It was an extremely moving service with a huge attendance of family, friends, neighbours and army cadets who provided the guard of honor and last post. The Johnny Cash (or Nine Inch Nails) song 'Hurt' was sung and played live by Adam who I don't know but assumed maybe Jack's friend from the band that they played in. But I'm not certain. It was an awesome performance, though. There were thought provoking tributes read out about this remarkable young man and the comical stories provided some laughter through all the tears. It seems he spread joy and happiness everywhere he went and made me think about how a person can influence so many in a short lifetime. As he was known to his friends as 'tractor Jack' for his tractor driving abilities, and for his sense of humour, he departed to the song 'Combine Harvester' by The Wurzels!

Half term.

Bit late with this post, but never mind.

Half term started early with an INSET day (staff training day). I love INSET days, especially when they are on days when everyone else is at school. It gives us the opportunity to go places when it is quiet, or even cheaper than during school holidays.

We began the day with pancakes for breakfast! Well, Hubby and I had been watching 'River Cottage' the night before and HFW was urging us to do it. Who are we to argue?

I had saved up a little money from some tutoring that I have been doing recently and so booked a horse riding lesson for Honor and Henry. They LOVED it! I was surprised how much they learned in just one lesson - so I booked another one for a few days later.

In the afternoon we visited The Canterbury Museum which incorporates the Rupert Bear Museum. Even though we had to pay (boo!) the kids spent a lot of time on the interactive activities before asking 'where's the gift shop?'! I've been teaching kids non-verbal reasoning for the past few weeks and got quite excited by some of the activities which were great for developing these skills. For example, there were Viking runes for code work and pattern matching with Roman tiles. My favourite exhibitions, though, were for Bagpuss and Rupert Bear. Lovely.

For an exhilarating end to the day, my Mum treated Honor and I to a trip to the ballet. We saw 'Swan Lake' at a tiny, old theatre in Margate. It was a really old theatre like the one in the film 'Mrs Henderson Presents'. And it was fabulous.

Later in the week we met up with my ol' friend Glenn. He is Hope's godfather and we used to teach together. Glenn made us a lovely lunch of marrow bolognaise (which was great - and made a very good finger food for the baby) and then we headed off to Brockhill Country Park for a nice walk. Well. It was a good job we had Glenn with us because it was not easy getting Hope's pushchair around it.

As we stopped for a long chat, catching up on all our news, the kids got busy - taking their shoes and socks off for a paddle in the stream. It was the end of October!

Hope's face says it all!
Eventually, we made it back to the cafe for a nice cup of tea and a kit-kat.

Then we took Glenn back home. Henry made him sit in the very back of our Zafira with him. These pics show him getting stuck trying to get out again!

I took some of the frozen marrow home with me and had some today with my lunch in a creamy chicken pasta dish. It was lovely. Thanks, Glenn. See you soon.

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.