I got my hair cut today.  My appointment was supposed to be last week, but when I got there the place was crowded.  I had never seen so many people at my hairdressers!  I sat down to wait, confident that 'I had something to do'.

I got out my pen and notebook to jot down ideas for my blog.  Actually I can do endless things with a notebook and a pen(cil).  I like lists and can happily while away many minutes on various lists from the practical 'things I need to do today' list to the dreaming ' things I'd like to do before I die'.

On an aside, I made a list of '50 things to do before I die' when I was about 32 but only got to number 22.  Oops.  When I found the list a few months ago I was pleased to discover I had actually managed to accomplish 8 of those things - not bad.

Back to the hairdressers; after a few brief sentences my pen ran out.  It ran out.  My pens almost never run out.  I'm one of those people who buys pens in 50's.  I have a couple of 'posh' pens which do run out and I can get refills, but other pens I have in every room of the house and usually at least 2 in any bag.  They tend to get lost before they run out.  My pen ran out - argh!

For a good 15 minutes I people-watched - which I do like to do, but that day I wasn't in the mood.  Besides anything else I was the only person in there who actually looked like they needed a haircut!  I got so stressed I went to my stylist and asked him howlate he thought he was running and would he prefer me to come another day.  He is always booked up 6 weeks in advance - my first appointment with him I had to book over 2 months in advance!  I wasn't hopeful.

He, on the other hand, was delighted and couldn't quite believe I'd give up my slot.  He booked me for today, his day off.  So now I'm feeling grateful/guilty!  (When I got there today I discovered he'd booked a few other appointments for today so not too much guilt!)

Today I had the salon to myself (well, almost) and was done in less than an hour.  No time to even look for my pen..... 

Do you always take something with you 'to do'?

One of the great thing about driving through the countryside last week was the amazing autumn colours.  It put me very much in mind of when I drove to Poland with my Dad, and he reminded me of it too.  Yes, I drove all the way to Poland with my Dad.  (Compared to the huge distance people drive in Canada and the States, it isn't actually all that far.)  I was going there to teach English in a Bible School and it was about this time of year that we went.

Germany was the prettiest country we travelled through - mind you we were travelling in the dark by the time we were driving through Poland, so I guess that isn't quite fair.

The colours were fabulous, so rich and vibrant. 

It wasn't that long after the Berlin Wall had come down and we wondered for a while whether we would notice when we got into what used to be East Germany.  We noticed.  All of a sudden, after all the beauty, we rounded a corner and saw a large concrete town - all grey.  It was hideous in comparison with the autumn colours and the wonderful little traditional German villages we had travelled through.

I have been planning to get out and take some autumn photos for the last few weeks, waiting for the perfect moment, I suppose.  Well, the other day it was very windy and all of a sudden many leaves are gone.  I've taken one photo of our road, mainly as a contrast to the spring photo I took. 

Autumn

Spring

 One more garden photo to share.  Remember my new Acer? When I was repotting it the other day I found we had a special visitor..

The 'stick' is a critter.  I don't know what exactly, but a critter it is.  Very well camouflaged - the boys were most impressed!

For all we are told that inflation is very low, it seems to me (and my mother) that food costs are steadily rising.  I understand the problem is that inflation is based on a number of products including electronics, not just food and fuel. 

We're all aware that new technology comes in expensive and then drops in price and it seems to me that this skews inflation figures quite a lot.  For people like my parents, inflation is running high.  They never buy the latest faddy electronics, or most of the other things in the 'inflation' list, they do buy food and their bills have gone up and up.

I began to notice some weeks ago the little tricks that the supermarkets were getting up to, to try to make it less noticeable that food prices are rising.  For instance, my supermarket always sold their cooked meat in packets of 6 slices - 2 for £3.  Now there are only 5 slices in the identical looking pack (except for the 5) and same price.

I bought a new packet of straws.  Check this out...

they are all about an inch shorter than before!  Imagine how much money that must have saved the manufacturers - same price as before, or slightly dearer maybe.

Then I heard that there has been some research into this, I think by mySupermarket, which proves that I'm quite right!

After I wrote the above I went to photograph the straws and picked up our local newspaper.  It had a letter in it complaining that Weetabix have got smaller.  The writer was sure because some time ago they bought a special tin to keep them in.  They used to be a snug fit and now they are both shorter and narrower.

Have you noticed any 'creative' methods of hiding the truth of rising prices?  

We have just come back from a couple of days break near Birmingham.  Dh was going away and I thought we'd travel with him and then go off on an adventure of our own.  I had used Mapquest for directions and had about 10 sheets of printed out directions.

You know what?  I discovered that using a MAP is a whole lot easier than trying to follow those directions.  Are you shocked?  We don't have a disembodied voice in our car telling us where to turn left so I have been sucked into thinking that getting directions from the internet is a 'good idea'.  No, it isn't!  Buy a road atlas and use that.  It even has the added bonus of, if you end up in a traffic jam you can find another way to go!  We didn't get stuck at all, not least because we were probably one of the few people in the country using a MAP and therefore not congregating on the same roads used by every computing devices' instructions.

Okay, so I did have to stop a few times to figure out where to go next, but that was easier than trying to figure out whether we'd gone 1.4 miles or 1.5 miles (our milometer doesn't do 0.1).  And, on top of that we had two of the quickest answers to prayer I have ever had - asking the Lord for help and with 1 minute receiving an answer not once but twice.  I was surprised and I think the Lord was laughing with me about it!  When I was obliged to use Mapquest directions I was very glad that LJ is now so good at reading that he could keep me on the right road!

We stayed 2 nights at a hotel so that we could take it easy and enjoy a whole day at the chocolate factory - plus we were looking forward to the adventure of staying in a hotel and having a HUGE cooked breakfast for 2 mornings!

We found Cadbury World down more back alleys than I care to remember (I doubt most local people even know the way we went!) and then relaxed into chocolate delight.  Our arrival was greeted with a large packet of Buttons and a Curly Wurly each.  We then went through into the history of chocolate.  We had been reading up about chocolate so we already knew the basics.  The trail took us on to the Cadbury family who were God-fearing Quakers.  Being Quakers they were considered non-conformist and were not allowed to attend university (and so enter a 'profession') and as pacifists also could not contemplate a military career. This left them very little choice but to enter the world of trade. After choclate began to gain in popularity they moved their factory out of the large city and started a whole development of buildings and homes which is still known as Bournville.  As Christians they were very unhappy with the conditions many factory workers faced and they determined to do things very differently.  Every home had a garden, workers were encouraged to take time off and get involved in sport and so on.  To me, it is no great surprise that with Godly men at the helm the company flourished as it did.

We were able to visit part of the factory.  The smell of chocolate was quite amazing and a little overpowering.  I can well believe that people working there all the time loose their taste for chocolate.Here we were given MORE chocolate just in case we'd run out????  We did eat 2 of the Curlywurlys between the 3 of us, but that's all. 

We were able to write with liquid chocolate and then 'play with' liquid chocolate on a huge marble slab.

There was a ride through a 'bean world'...

and an area to play various games

including getting your silhouette made in chocolate (only on the computer though- sadly!)

Then came a highlight..... we went for a short walk (through the rain) into another area where it was explained how Dairy Milk chocolate was first made and were given little tubs of liquid chocolate.  It was so delicious.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.  Yes, it deserves 3 yummys.

We had a great time.  It was fun, tasty and even educational.

We decided to pop into the nearest supermarket on the way back to the hotel and buy sandwiches for tea - remember we'd had the huge breakfast and a snack and chocolate.. - and what did we find?

Well, we had to buy one each because we see them so rarely!  "Icing on the cake,"  I believe it is called!

I am glad I got my new plants into the ground a few weeks ago.  We have had some more decent weather, but the nights have been quite cold and tonight the temperature is set to fall below 0°C.  The plants are mostly growing well and a little frost at this stage shouldn't bother them.

The boys have had a project over the summer where they have planted and looked after some lettuce and carrots.They have grown very well and I've harvested plenty of lettuce.  I think we planted the carrots a little too closely together so we've had some tiny ones, but as we've picked and therefore thinned they have grown larger. These were some of the first we picked - yummy! 

As the autumn has developed we've had a lot of visitors to our garden, especially spiders who have been spinning webs everywhere.

We also spotted this lovely butterfly a few days ago. 

Has anyone else begun their Christmas shopping?

I have to admit that I am one of those people who buys their cards and wrapping paper in the January sales most years, so in that regard I started months ago!

A few weeks back I saw some pyjamas I thought my boys would love.  I thought I'd just make a mental note and come back and get them closer to Christmas - always like to have new pjs at Christmas.  Then I remembered last year's fiasco when I saw a toy we wanted and didn't buy it straight away.  We ended up getting it in March this year.  I bought the pyjamas.

Since then I have been buying little bits and pieces.  It does spread the cost a bit and helps me not to get too stressed out.  We don't over celebrate Christmas but we do celebrate and I really like thinking about what would make someone else happy without spending a fortune.  Some people are so easy - like my parents who are almost always delighted with whatever we buy for them, even it is something 'boring' - probably because it is something they actually need.  Others are much harder, because for me, it has to pass the 'useful and wanted' test.  I can't tell you how many times I've read recently in the press or on blogs that 'we need to stop buying rubbish for each other at Christmas'.  I never have done!  I guess a lot of rubbish is sold, but it isn't me buying it!

Besides all that there are some people I don't see very often for whom I like to buy a small treat - like my brother and sister-in-law in Canada.  If I can avoid posting these items it makes life easier cheaper so I will also admit to having wrapped several gifts already and having passed them on!  

We went to the wedding last weekend.  It was lovely.  I haven't posted about before now because I didn't take photos (remembered the camera though!) and have been waiting for someone to send me some so I could include at least one photo!

I had found a top to go with the suit.  Yeah!   But I had also realised with a feeling of total dread that I did not have a pair of shoes to wear.  Really.  Shoes are worse than clothes.  Awkward feet.  Only comfortable in flat shoes.  Groan.  I bought a pair of cheap flat black shoes - can't go wrong, I thought.  Hah!  They are okay (ish), but they rubbed.  Dumb of me.  I can't wear shoes that are cheap.  Never ever have been able to.  Anyway, it got me through the evening.  (Changed shoes as soon as I got back to the car!)

Back to the wedding.....

They had a lovely little service and read their vows to each other again.  As H's sister lives in this country, we even got one of the bridesmaids there too!  It was wonderful to be able to join in and I think it was nice for H to get to wear her dress twice.  Not too many of us able to boast that!

A beautiful cake (well, two; got to have chocolate and fruit) was made as well as bunting with their names on.  It was all in the same colour theme as in Canada and their engagement.  So special!  We had bubbles to blow too from these cute little containers.  Confetti seems to have had its day as it is now considered environmentally unfriendly. (Though a friend of mine, who I hadn't seen in ages and looked fabulous, had slipped some in a card and was hoping to get some in a suitcase too - he he he!)  I remember finding confetti for weeks after we got married!

Congratulations H&E!

I managed to get back into my garden the other day.  We've had a lot of dull weather and I guess I am a 'fair weather' gardener - I like to garden when the sun is shining!

I had another patch of day lillies to remove - this time by myself.  It took ages, but they are gone and I've popped these plants in for now.  Not too sure what I want to plant there, just knew it desperately needed to be tidied up!  As I worked I had plenty of time to think about roots...

I had 2 main trails of thought.  The first ('pro-root') was about being rooted securely in the Lord.  The days are evil  (Eph 5:16) and I think that unless we are secure in our love for Him and His love for us, it would be all too easy to be uprooted.  Life has a habit of buffeting us and I know several folk who have abandoned their faith because they had few roots.  Reading the Bible, prayer, gathering together with other who love Jesus; these things are essential to have good strong roots.

My other trail was 'anti-root'!  Have you ever asked the Lord to help you in a certain area, thought you'd won a victory and then fallen flat on your face again?  I certainly have.  I do not deny that the Lord had helped me, but sometimes our sin and our hurt roots go very deep within our lives.  I believe the Lord can help us once for all with all kinds of things, but other times we come back time and again to deal with issues.  These roots go deep and sometimes they are hidden away.  (I have no doubt I will get at least a couple of day lillies next year; the roots were everywhere!)  Sometimes past sins invade places we never thought they would.  How glad I am that the Lord helps us every day, and when we surrender to Him He works away at those bad roots, exposing them and helping us to cut them off.

I also finished my winter planting: in all the tubs and hanging baskets too.- This one is outside my kitchen - has to be pretty for when I'm working at the sink! 

I found some old bulbs in the shed so planted several tubs just with bulbs.  As I have no idea what they are I could have crocus, daffodil and tulip in the same pot!  Should be colouful at the least!

One of our dear friends gave us this lovely 'pot' a while ago and I love to have it brimming with flowers.

The geraniums hadn't finished flowering so I took them in and put them in a vase.  The need to get my new flowers established before the first frosts won over keeping the old plants as long as possible!

And today I've been and bought another acer, the Japanese maple.  I think they are so pretty but they are rather expensive.  A couple of years ago I bought 4 for £5 (about $8).  They were tiny, but I figured it was a better deal than one for £5 which was the other possibility.  I have managed to keep two of them alive and they've grown very well this year.  I thought I might get a bargain as it's not really the time to be buying acers, they are deciduous and not too pretty already so I got one for about £4.  The bonus is that it was reduced from £16 and is already nearly the size of my other two.  (So, could I sell them for £16 each?  That would be a good profit!)  It's also a 'red' one, where my other two are both green.  Just hope I can keep it alive until next year!

(I wonder if I'm getting into this gardening thing........)

We have maintained some better weather over the last week or so and we've had some stunning mornings.  I love bright mornings when there is a chill in the air - out in one sunless corner of the garden I could see my breath the other day - slightly too chilly!  I find it much easier to smile in the sunshine!

I decided it was time to buy my winter flowering plants and replant my tubs and hanging baskets.  The one outside my kitchen window is still very pretty, although I have had to remove 3 plants which were past it.

All my other geraniums are still doing well too so I decided to start with a bigger project.  At the front of the house we have 2 circles of earth surrounded by a lot of gravel.  At some stage in the history of the house someone had had a great love affair with gravel.  The back was 'gravel heaven' when we arrived.  'Low maintenance' I believe it is called.  Yuck!  It was a nightmare with 2 little boys.  I like green and trees so we dealt with that as soon as we could.  Removing tons of gravel is hard work and frighteningly expensive (we'd budgeted for the back in with the price of the house) so the front remains predominantly gravel.  The 'circles' are just a 6 inch 'fence' filled with soil, so start digging and you hit gravel very quickly. 

Since we arrived we've tried various plants with varying degrees of success.  The circles seem to attract an inordinate amount of snails and there is a very dirty neighbourhood cat that thinks they are its personal litter trays.  (Sigh!)

We had tried day lillies for the last couple of years which did look very pretty but now looked like this:

A few weeks ago we had removed all the lillies from the other circle and I decided these needed to go too.  I phoned my dad to borrow his 'peasant hoe'.  I don't know if that is the 'proper' name but it's what we call it.  It was given to my folks by a lovely lady in France who said the 'peasants' in France use it a lot.

It's a great tool - the hoe cutting through tough roots and the pick great in the gravel.

My dad decided to come help me.  (I was very glad because he is a fantastic gardner and I would have struggled to get all those roots out by myself!)

It took a while but the end result was this:

We buried a lot of tulip bulbs as we went so we should have a beautiful display of red, white and yellow in the spring.  A great improvement, I think you'll agree.  Next, the baskets and tubs......

A few days ago LJ was in the garden picking strawberries with Grandad.  To my dad's surprise LJ didn't eat the strawberry he picked, rather he dug a little hole and planted it.  He wanted to grow some more strawberries, he said and the seeds were on the fruit, so if he buried them and they'd grow.

It was a great piece of logic, but strawberries do not grow well from seed unless the berry is very ripe and.... (I don't know, I'm not really a gardner!)

It was a wonderful opportunity to teach and learn about propagation.  Here are some photos or the process. 

Finding a suitable runner.  --Planted!  The strawberry was dug up, washed and eaten by PJ.  He wasn't going to waste a yummy strawberry for any future hope!

Last Thursday my parents took the boys for a day out.  I know this may seem hard to believe but the weather this summer combined with the various health problems they've encountered recently has meant there has not been one single opportunity to go out for months.  I was 'surplus to requirements' (ie. told in no uncertain terms that 'We don't want you to come, Mummy!' - they do like their bit of independence with grandma and grandad) so I decided to go on a very necessary clothes shopping expedition.

I had won a ticket for 4 to go to Knowsley Safari Park (yes, that's another competition I've won in the last year!) so off they went.  They had a great day and saw many exciting animals.----

I went clothes shopping.  Now, if you are a 'girlie girl' who thinks that clothes shopping is a slice of heaven you should probably skip the rest of this post.  I am a total disgrace to all shoe, bag and clothes loving women! 

My wardrobe is essentially practical, especially since I had children!  In my defence, I grew up in a country where many folk only had 3 outfits in their entire wardrobe at most and the thought of a cupboard full of clothes I will rarely wear still makes me feel very uneasy.  I am also only really comfortable in cotton or similar fabrics (African influence again) and find nylon and many synthetic materials uncomfortable and they make me sweat (sorry, 'glow' - apparently horses sweat, men perspire and ladies glow!) 

However, we are going to my niece's British wedding celebration soon (they actually marry in Canada) and I really don't have anything suitable to wear.  I also wanted to get the boys new shirts and trousers for the event and then I'll save them for Christmas.

I usually enjoy getting the boys new clothes and do my best to buy ahead so I get everything very cheaply.  This day was stressful, however.  I couldn't find ANY smart/casual trousers - it was school uniform or jeans.  On top of that it was only in the fifth shop I scoured that I found a shirt in any colour other than dark grey or black.  Yes, really!  I am talking about a 5 and 7 year old.  I think they should be wearing yellow and red, orange and bright blue and green.  Okay, maybe my African background is sneaking in again there, but when we live in such a dull country, surely we should do all we can to brighten things up?  Not dress in the same colours as the weather.  Argh! 

So, I at last found blue shirts for the boys, complete with blue ties. Yeah!  (A few days later I caved in and bought smart black jeans to go with as there seems to be no hope of getting anything else in time!)

So, now I only had me to shop for.  I had checked out the women's section of each of these stores and one or two others besides when I decided that I had had enough and would give up and go home.  One of my favourite stores did have some nice things, but I really needed both a blouse and skirt, or a dress and that wasn't coming in at under £60 ($100).  Don't have that kind of money!  In despair I popped into a charity shop.  To my delight I found a blouse and a skirt for about £6. 

Oh, don't get excited - they don't match, though they are both from one of my favourite stores.  I thought, as they were so cheap, that I could find something in my wardrobe that would match and tah dah - new outfit.

Sadly, I got home to find that the blouse which is very pretty and a sort of peach flowers and cream colour actually doesn't go with my smart dark green trousers, or with navy blue, or even with black really.  It kind of goes with a creamy beige skirt I have, but it's the wrong material and it doesn't work together.  Same with the skirt.  I have a few tops that would do, if they were the 'right' material.  Sigh.  I hate clothes shopping.  You see, I can tell if something looks bad, but I'm not too good at thinking creatively to make it look good - do you know what I mean?

I hope you are feeling my pain!

I mentioned to a friend at church that I was struggling (she always looks gorgeous!) and she said, 'Well if we were the same size I could loan you something, but you're only a size....!' and she mentioned a size 2 sizes smaller than me!  Funny how we perceive others.  Turns out we are the same size and she's lent me a rather gorgeous linen skirt and jacket and a matching blouse in turquoise blue.  Bright and cheerful, but not 'in-your-face'.  The only slight problem is that the top is a bit too low and I can't figure out a way of making it 'decent' so I may yet have to head back to the shops to find a suitable vest top.

Next time I'm  going on the safari trip and they can go shop!

Over the last couple of weeks it's become clear that autumn is here.  Fruit is ripening.  We cut these blackberries from our overgrown hedge a few weeks ago.

Most blackberries look like this now!

The leaves on some trees are beginning to change colour and even fall off.  The nights have also become much colder.

This is the sky.  Yeeesssss?!  That's what you are thinking isn't it?  Most people including pictures of the sky have something in the sky, like clouds or birds.  (This is a rather pretty photo my mum took by accident when she borrowed my camera when they took the boys out - see next post - I've got photos of the car dashboard, the floor - you get the idea!) 

My point is that it is a photo of the sky over Lancashire and it's been a rare sight in the last few years.  A cloudless, blue sky.  Beautiful!

We've had several lovely days.  'They' were right in the forecast for once.  (I suppose it has to happen sometimes, just by the law of averages!)  The nights have been too cold for the days to get blazing hot, but they've been blissfully warm, cheerful days.

Here we sometimes have what flyers call 'gin-clear' days in the autumn.  These are days that are perfect for flying and ballooning too. (Can you spot the balloon just above the trees in the middle?  My camera was not co-operating and by the time it was, the balloon had all but disappeared!)

Look at the sunset we had this week too..... --

We took our regular walk to the local woods.  We found a few changes, not least 3 huge piles of dead pond lillies. I suppose there were too many in the pond and someone had removed them.  Do you think they look vaguely like something from a science fiction film - tentacles crawling across the ground  {shiver!}?PJ trying to reach a living lilly to see what it feels like. 

We visited the ducks and there were no new flying visitors this time.  In spite of the fact that there is a large 'Please do not feed the ducks' sign, people clearly do and as we approached we were mobbed.  LJ said to the ducks, 'Say cheese', then paused and revised his command, 'Say bread!'  I had to smile!  He then looked down and said, 'Oh look, it's Count Ducku!'  (Star Wars joke - Count Dooku)  I love the way he's beginning to 'get' words and how to play with them.

The boys also had a great time trying to 'climb Mount Everest' - guess I haven't quite managed to convey how high it is!

I was also pleased to see how much more 'at home' the boys are in the wood. 

Good days.  Thank you Lord for sunshine!

  We have officially 'gone back to school'.  Around here the return date has varied from last Wednesday to tomorrow, Tuesday.  We 'started' on Thursday on one of the most miserable days of the year!

  The temperature here has plummeted in the last week.  We've gone from mildly summer weather to COLD and miserable, wet and windy.  Down in the south of the UK they'd had a little return to summer over the last few weeks, sadly we hadn't, but now we've given up hope of a return to anything remotely decent and put away summer attire.  I had to laugh on Friday when I was out because everyone I spoke to kept on saying, 'Well, we're supposed to have some nice weather next week.'  It was like a mantra that no-one felt ready to abondon hope of sunshine just yet and perhaps if we all said it often enough then we really might get some decent weather again!  To be fair, the forecast is pretty good, but then it comes from the same people who told us we would have a 'barbeque summer'.  Yeah, right!

  Anyway. back to our first day.  I was SO glad we were at home.  It threw it down at 'off to school time' and then during all the break times and lunch time and then just as school finished for the day the heavens opened again with yet another deluge.  Poor kids, poor parents, poor teachers.  What a dreadful start to a new year for them.  And here we were, safe and warm at home, not the slightest bedraggled, wet, or stinky (do you remember how classrooms smell on a wet day?) 

  We calmly went through our maths and reading, our social studies and our technology - wow, that sounds good... if I tell you what we actually did and don't call it fancy names it sounds far more normal. 

  We were delighted to get our new Lego club magazine and entered the competition within a few seconds of getting it (maybe that will make a difference!)  It provided some good reading and inspiration for 'technology'.  I had bought some odds bits of lego on ebay and gave them to them as a 'back-to-school' gift.  They were both really pleased and LJ set out to make some new designs.  I like to have some 'proper sets' but I think that just odd bits provide more incentive to be creative - mind you, I've just spent nearly an hour on the Lego site, carefully choosing more individual 'odd' bricks to give them at Christmas, so maybe not quite so 'odd bits' as all that.  The boys are really enjoying Star Wars at the moment so their designs are heavily influenced by that. 

-

  Our maths was started with a read aloud (in bed) followed by discussing and finding 2D and 3D shapes and naming them around the house.

  Our social studies was an author study - a read aloud (simple version) of Enid Blyton's life as we are reading her 'Secret Seven' stories at the moment, interspersed with other things like Mr Men and occasionally a 'Thomas' book (for PJ) and Star Wars books.  I know more about Star Wars than I ever wanted to - believe me!

  They also both read to me and we officially finished the 'reading quest' we've been doing for the library this summer.

  It was a very gentle and completely unstressful return to school.  Long may it last!

A few weeks ago a 'veteran homeschooler' advertised that she had rather a lot of books to pass on.  As you'll know I am a bookaholic so off we went.  After picking up several great books I decided to take a little detour and have 'an educational visit' too.  (It's hard to resist isn't it?)

We visited Helmshore Mills Textile Museum which combines 2 textile mills.  We were able to:

Trace how cloth production, first wool, then cotton, become Lancashire’s main export throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

Follow a journey to discover how raw wool and cotton were transformed into yarn ready to be woven into cloth.

I found it all quite fascinating, not least because I know some of my ancestors worked in the mills around Preston.  They worked very hard!  In the cotton mill there were so many machines to look after all at once.  This particular mill was recycling cotton products, way before recycling was the 'in thing'!  I can't remember all we were told about the process but we were given the cotton at one stage and asked to try and pull it apart. It was the easiest thing, a little like pulling cotton wool apart.  Then we were asked to twist the strand and amazingly it became almost impossible to pull apart.Untwisted (thick) and twisted (thinner) strand of cotton.    

At one point in the process the women had to lift a very heavy cylinder that was at least 1m long.  They placed their hands at either end to lift it from the first machine and lay it ready for the next.  A man came along an realised how difficult this must be so he designed a special device to carry the heavy cylinders for them, through the ceiling space above all the machines.  The only problem was that he forgot that the women were not as tall as him and not a one of them could lift the cylinders high enough to reach the carrier.  It's still there today - unused.  Oops!

In the wool section we were able to see and feel the huge waterwheel powering the fulling stocks as they thumped the wet woollen mass.  It was very noisy.  The wool story goes right back to Roman times.  They used urine to break down the lanolin so the wool could be used for a variety of purposes.  This method was used for hundreds of years.  The guide showed us a large urn that was used to collect urine from the chamber pots of the local homes for a small fee.  Imagine being able to sell your urine!  He told us that the urine collected from Methodists homes was considered superior because it had no alcohol in it!  In fact alcohol content makes no difference.  Happily nowadays they use other methods to process the wool.

The guide's comments about the Methodists reminded me that we were in 'Temperance country'.

There is now only one 'Temperance bar' left in the UK.  Fitzpatrick's accredited Temperance Bar in Rawtenstall has been making soft drinks for the people of Rossendale and the Lancashire regions for 118 years now.    The history of it makes very interesting reading.  I've taken this (and edited it) from the Fitzpatrick's site....   

The temperance movement started in the textile districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 19th century, and later swept across the whole of Britain, with the aim of combating alcoholism.

Alcohol was one of the greatest problems facing Victorian Britain, due to untaxed, cheap ale and gins that was driving the population into drunkenness.

It was a Methodist cheese-maker in Preston, Lancashire, who set about establishing a society under which a pledge was taken never to drink alcohol. The society quickly grew and expanded beyond churches and became part of the everyday life for the sober British. The temperance bar became the social outlet of the society where they would enjoy sarsaparilla and ginger beer. By the 1880’s, temperance bars graced every high street in the north of England.

Sadly, fifty years after the movement began, enthusiasm faded for the temperance movement on this side of the Atlantic, following the end of prohibition in the United States. The falling interest, along with a wave of imported, sugary drinks hitting our shores, resulted in the steep decline of the number of temperance bars.

I was pleased to find this in the 'gift shop':

Mr Fitzpatrick's Temperance Drinks Sarsaparilla Cordial!

This is one of those drinks I've heard about and read about but never tasted and I was so curious I had to buy a bottle to try.  Sadly, I don't really like it.  It's a little like Dandelion and Burdock but not as sweet.  My mum tells me her grandparents used to love it and she had it at their home when she was a child - so at least 65 years ago.

Last week we went to Eureka!  in Halifax.  It calls itself 'The National Children's Museum' and says that 'Everything at Eureka! has been designed to inspire children to find out about themselves and the world around them through 100s of hands-on exhibits.'

There we met up with some home ed friends.  Eureka is a convenient meeting place about halfway between our homes.

The weather was not great and Eureka was packed.  We queued outside for nearly half an hour but happily it wasn't raining at that stage.  I noticed when we got to the head of the queue that they have an umbrella stand full of umbrellas that can be borrowed while you queue.  I've not seen that before but it's a very sensible idea for the UK!

It poured with rain on the way home and the fog came down reducing visibility to about 100 metres.  I don't like driving in conditions like that.  Happily it didn't last long.

The museum has some great exhibits, many of which can be interacted with.  There is a large 'body zone' where you can weigh yourself, measure your height, see how far you can stride or stretch up.  You can see if you can smell freesias (I didn't realise some people couldn't smell them!) and try to guess what you are touching.

There was a huge 'house' with loads to play with and observe, not least a see-through toilet.  (A must for all boys and probably most girls too!)  There was also a shop, a bank, a Post Office and a garage all with things to touch and try.

One of the highlights was watching our children get on together so well, especially considering it's nearly a year since we last met up.

A fun day!

The circus.  It's a strange thing that I've spent many years reading about the circus, especially when I was a child, but I've never actually been to a circus or at least, I hadn't until very recently.

I saw a competition in the local paper for a family ticket to the circus (a people only circus) and thought I'd enter.  Well, we won, so off we went.   In years gone by the boys have seen the tents and asked to go but the price (£40 [$70] for 4) had really put me off.

A bright red and yellow tent greeted us.  It wasn't very big, maybe seating 150 or so and inside was, frankly, a bit smelly!

Then the show began....  Some of the acts were very good and some of them were .... not.  There were performers from all over the world.  An American couple did an excellent trapeze act.  -

Two men from China did a strong man act and juggled with a heavy clay pot. 

A man from Berlin had an act with a diabolo and chose a fantastic piece of music for his backing track.. 'Hevenu Shalom Alechem', a traditional Jewish song.

A couple of girls from Eastern Europe (I think) showed themselves to be excellent gymnasts.

I spent the first part of their act checking the 'safety man' was doing his job properly!

Now, if someone had shown me how to climb a rope like this lady did, I might have stood some chance of success!

Some of the acts were like a rather bad talent show and the accoustics of the place were dreadful i.e. I could hardly hear what the ringmaster was saying most of the time!

I don't envy the performers their job.  It must be hard work being on the road all the time and whilst performing might give them a buzz and 'seeing the world' might hold an attraction, I'm not convinced that emptying the toilets (buckets) and setting up and taking down all the equipment can be much fun.

All in all I am glad we went but am thankful we didn't pay to go.  I'm glad too that the boys have decided, "We're NEVER going to the circus again, mummy!"

I found this fun 'tell all' on my friend Pam's blog.  Do join in if you want to!

Age: Well now, all I'll admit to is having passed 40.  

Bed Size: Queen, I think!  I know we have a king-size duvet - didn't fancy being cold when he pulled the covers off me!

Chore You Hate: Hoovering - can't stand the noise

Dogs or Cats: Neither.  I like both, but we have no room for a pet and the neighbouhood is well crowded with animals already.

Essential Start Your Day Item: Shreddies and Alpen 

Favourite Colour: Don't have one - like all colours

Gold or Silver: Gold

Height: 5'4  1.63m

Instruments You've Played: Piano, guitar

Job Title: Stay At Home Mom, formerly I was a teacher.

Kid(s): 2 sons age 5 and 7 

Loud or Quiet: I prefer quiet but mostly I get loud.

Married? How long: Yes, ten years.

Nicknames: Mum, Mummy, Sally Sue 

Overnight Hospital Stay: When I had my children

Pet Peeve: Sometimes I think I'm getting to be a 'grumpy old woman'!  But now I'm thinking.... I don't think there is one thing that annoys me above others, and most things are only annoying if I'm having a bad day.

Quote From A Movie: I know a few but I'm not sure if any have any great significance to me.. maybe 'Resistance is futile'

Right or Left Handed: Right

Siblings: One older brother

Time You Wake Up: When I wake up at them moment, we're still on summer break

Underwear: Yes

Vegetable you Hate: Not sure I hate any, though broad beans are not a favourite

Ways You Run Late: By forgetting that my boys take forever to get ready to leave the house

X-Rays You've Had: Dental, chest (I worked in Poland and one student was diagnosed with TB, so we all had to have x-rays)

Yummy Food You Make: Caramel shortbread

Zoo Favourite: Elephants

-

Did you get any suprises?

Thank you for your comments!

Now, our elderly friend who invents these special anniversary gifts, does not google.  She has her own list of which anniversary is which and I know that she and google do not see eye to eye!  (She is in her eighties and I'm not sure she has even heard of google.)

We have just celebrated our 10th anniversary, which is designated tin apparently.  Copper on her list is for the ninth.  She tells me she has already begun work on next year's gift.  Shall I google it or not?  What are the chances the list I find will agree with hers??!

Last week we finally returned  to a vague semblance of summer and had  a few sunny days (well, ish - gasp!).

My brother and sister-in-law were over visiting from Canada and we decided to go out for the day to Camelot, a place they always took their now grown-up children.  Although it is quite local we had never been before, not least becasue it doesn't have the best reputation locally.

We had a great day!  The weather did help, but the boys really enjoyed themselves too.  Camelot is a theme park based loosely around medieval times, with jousting and King Arthur and Merlin.  The ride names all reflected that, but were, of course, just theme park rides.  First we went on the log flume.  My brother got wetter than anyone else we saw in the half hour wait we had! (Giggle - what little sister can resist laughing at her big brother?)

The boys were too short for any of the wild rides (thank goodness!), but there were plenty suitable for them. Here they are in the green balloon:

It took me 3 attempts to get them in the frame as my digital camera seems to be very slow!

The highlight of the day was the jousting.  Wow!  It wasn't a cheap day out, but the jousting was worth it!  We went early and sat right in the centre front of the gallery.  The jester 'warmed up' the crowd, telling us about Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival, Gawaine and Mordred and giving us the appropriate words to yell every time they appeared - 'Yeah!, Boo!' a Mexican wave and so on.  Then the 4 horses thundered into the arena.  Spectacular!  Here they are being introduced:

 Sir Lancelot was in the blue.

Gawaine in the red.  Mordred, needless to say, was in black.  Booo!!!!

Lancelot with his lance, having tried to knock Mordred off his horse.

The choreography was very impressive, and not obvious to my boys who were jiggling up and down in great excitement.  The horses passed each other 3 times and then then men fought until one was defeated.  They fought with shield and swords, axes, even flaming torches - very effective, but very careful too.

The jester and his men also entertained the crowd with musical 'instruments' and fire. 

Here the jester is twirling a fiery baton - we were close enough to see the fuel flying off the ends as he twirled it around.

And finally, of course, Sir Lancelot was given control of the king's armies and won the day. King Arthur was still being played by the same man as my nieces and nephew had enjoyed all those years ago (about 10 years).

It was excellent.  They had even got the characters so well cast - Lancelot and Percival, youthful, blond and blue-eyed.  (I cracked up laughing at the teenage girl  exiting next to me squealing "I've got a photo of Lancelot on my phone!  SIGH!")  The other two did look mean - dark hair and beards - older and 'rougher', though at the end when we went to meet the horses the meanest broke into a smile and it totally transformed his face!

Superb!

It's our anniversary and once again our dear friend had a special gift for us.  You can read about about copper anniversary here.

So, can you guess which anniversary we just celebrated?

The bow was this colour:

There were several little parcels to open, but this one came first:

It is a fisherman's cottage and has my husband's name over the front door.  See the scripture?  Here's what came next:

"Look what I caught!"

There were lots of other goodies.....

My husband is originally from Yorkshire and those biscuits look fabulous!

Oh, this is definitely a good one.  I love chocolate.

So here is a photo of all the goodies (well, almost - I think the mints have already been opened).

Oh, yes there was a £10 note in the £10 tin.

So, have you guessed?  I look forward to your answers in my comments!

A verse of Scripture that I particularly like is from Habakkuk 3:17-19

"Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength."

Talk about a dreadful set of circumstances!  In those days, such disasters would have spelled no hope, and yet Habakkuk is determined to be joyful, knowing that the Lord, who is Sovereign, is his strength. Don't you think that is wonderful? 

None of us are good at rejoicing in the bad.  Most of us have a problem with the sovereignity of God when bad things happen.  Mostly we choose to whine and grumble! 

I remember hearing a sermon telling me that if I was a Christian I should be happy all the time.  I don't agree!  But I should be joyful in God.  When the crops fail (we lose our income), or someone we love gets ill or dies we aren't going to be 'happy'.  Well, I'm not!  But in these things we can experience God's love and grace in our lives in a way that is impossible in the good times.

In reflecting on how Christians might deal with grief, I've realised that over the years Godly people have blessed me with outstanding examples of how to be joyful in the midst of the worst.  People who've let God's love shine through them powerfully.  Bad things happen to everyone.  We have hope and so can radiate God's peace in the midst of trials.  I pray I may be able to to always show God's love and grace and manage to rejoice in the Lord too.   

Yesterday Dad went back to the University/hospital for his new implant to be switched on. 

Praise the Lord, he can hear again!   I didn't like to ask how many implants have failed before they are switched on.  There is such a thing as too much knowledge!

He says I sound like Minnie Mouse at the moment, but the system will be extensively tweaked over the next 6 weeks or so, until he and they are happy with what he is hearing. 

I don't know how much further they are with their research, but last time on asking how his brain was adapting to hearing through an implant the professor said that they have no idea!  The Lord made our brains in an amazing way.

Today Mum had got her results back from her biopsy.  She got the all clear.   The consultant gave her all her notes to read, complete with photos etc., so she is sure she has been told the whole truth.  The consultant further said that there was not even a hint of malignancy and that it is extremely unlikely that the problem will recur.  I think that deserves a 'Praise the Lord!'

Interestingly as a by-product of all this my mum's back has been much better.  She has had a great deal of pain in her back and has been on very strong painkillers with no hope of improvement.  Since this episode started about 7 weeks ago she's hardly had to take a painkiller!  When her back deteriorated she was asked if she had any gynae problems but of course said no as at that stage she didn't, so we're thinking there was some correlation.  Many of us will know the back ache that comes with monthly cycles....  She had had some kind of injection in her spine some 6 weeks before this episode, so that may have also eventually 'kicked in'.  Anyway, whatever has happened, the Lord has done a great thing for her back too.

In the meantime she has been to the eye clinic where they have confirmed that she has a cataract - a very pretty one, apparently (!) - and that they will operate on it fairly soon.  Again there is a small risk associated with the op. but usually there are huge benefits to having it done.  So now we move on to the next round of hospital visits!!

Thank you so much for praying!

Not too long ago I read a very enthusiastic post about a book by Francine Rivers.  I decided that I would see if our local library had any of her books.  To my delight they had and I immediately ordered one.

It was called 'A Voice in the Wind'.  The story is based in First century Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem.  I must admit I found it quite difficult to get into, but once I got there, I was riveted.  As I got to the last eighth of the book, I began to think that there weren't many pages left to bring all the threads together.  As I turned more pages it became clear that the threads were NOT coming together and then there was a disaster in the story.  I was almost frantic! How could she end the book like that??

Then I turned the page and realised that there was a sequel - oh, thank goodness!  In fact it was part of a trilogy, called 'The Mark of the Lion'!  Then I realised that it was entirely possible that my library would not have the other 2 books - agh!  Yes, I really was that 'in to' the story.

Happily I have been able to get both books through my local library though the third came all the way from Exeter to Lancashire???  Why would Lancs libraries buy  only 2 of a trilogy and then put them in different libraries?

The second book is 'An Echo in the Darkness' and the third 'As sure as the Dawn'.  These books have made quite an impact on me.  The third book especially is full of Scripture, interwoven into the story, which makes the story powerful and have long lasting consequences.  I found myself behaving differently because of what I was reading - faith in action was changing my faith and (hopefully) making me more like Christ.

In summary, I would heartily recommend this trilogy - just choose a time when you can read without distraction!! (Yep, once the boys were in bed and then I had to make myself put it down so I'd be fit to look after them the next day!!)

My dad and I took the boys to a transport festival last weekend.  The main pull for the boys was that there was to be a fair there.  Due to the dreadful weather we've had the last two summers the travelling fair has cancelled their local visits for the last 3 years and the boys have been desperate to go on some rides.  It was rather disappointing as there was only one ride and LJ was even a bit big for it.  However they cheered up when we found a stall selling candy floss, as that was something else they had heard about but never tasted.  I know it's pure sugar with colouring but some things do have to be tasted at least once!!

Although we were quite local we decided to use the free park and ride so that we got to travel on a 'vintage' bus - read old and smelly!  Well, not that old actually, I remember buses being just like that! (No quips about my age thanks!!)  They were double deckers so the boys finally got a ride on the upstairs which they thought was amazing.  They were busily planning a 4-decker bus and then one so high you could reach the sky!

Whilst old vehicles are interesting-ish, I can't say they are really quite my thing... but we did have a look for a little while.

This tractor was quite something - must have been very punishing on the rear!

There was a VERY loud organ playing - PJ wouldn't take his hands off his ears even for a photo opportunity!

I know it was very loud because, unbelievably, my dad could hear it!  He is classified as profoundly deaf - you can't get any deafer, yet he knew there was music playing.  I'm not sure if he was picking up the vibrations through his feet or something, but he got the rhythm bang on.  I kept having to explain that he's deaf - people were actually very patient about it.

The boys were also able to paint and decorate a picture of a vintage vehicle.

They had drawn outlines onto pieces of wood which made them really solid, but a bit heavy to attach to the door I usually use for 'works of art'!  They are propped up on a window sill at the moment.

A couple of weeks ago we took a walk to our local wood again.  We were excited to see what had changed in the 8 weeks or so since we'd last been.

As we walked in I caught sight of the pond and noticed a lot of leaves on the surface.  I thought that some kids must have been in breaking down the trees and dumping the branches into the water.  What a surprise when we got closer!

There had been no sign of these beautiful lillies when we had visited in the winter and early spring.  We had no idea there were huge patches of lillies lying dormant under the water.

The air was full of white 'fluff'. 

I have no idea what it is, but it had turned the surface of the other water area white almost as though it was frozen, although I've not really managed to capture that!

We had a new visitor:

Our other main finding was that there was a lot more greenery, especially in the undergrowth.  There were actually fewer flowers, and certainly fewer colours but this cow parsely was a beauty.

After I'd taken these few photos the batteries in the camera ran out. 

Note to self:  Take extra batteries with you where ever you go!!

Thank you again for all those who are praying.

It's an interesting thing to see how life changes when there are those among you who are ill.  I guess it helps us to remember what is really important.

Dad is still in the 'healing up' stage, though it looks to me as though his wound is all but better now.  He is due to go for 'switch on' next week sometime.  It is more obvious now that he is deaf as he is unable to control his tone and volume.  On the plus side, it seems to me that he is better able to lip read than I remember him being last time!

Mum has had her biopsy done and had a couple of polyps removed.  The surgeon told her that there was nothing 'ominous', though we are still waiting for the full biopsy report. 

In the midst of all this, I also had some tests done.  Bit long and complicated... but the upshot is that the doctor looked at me in total disbelief and told me I am disgustingly healthy!!  Sadly, I don't feel 'disgustingly healthy'!  What he actually meant was that all the tests he had done had come back good or very good.  It was the first time I'd had my cholesterol done and it came in at only 3.3.  His mouth actually dropped open on that score (below 5 is considered excellent) and asked twice if I was sure I wasn't on medication to get such a result, especially as I don't do enough exercise.  No!  (He had my medical history on the screen in front of him.)  And, yes, I do eat butter and red meat and probably a load of other things I'm not 'supposed' to eat, but I also crave fruit and veg and eat a LOT of it every day.  Oh, and I get to go back to the doctor in 6 weeks time to see 'how I'm getting on'.

Anyway, it made me think about our perception of things.  How much of illness is down to stress or what goes on in my head?  I have always considered myself to be fat.  I cannot remember a time when that wasn't true.  Even when I lost a ridiculous amount of weight in Africa after months of sickness and then being caught up in a civil war (so, not because I was dieting), and to my family looked painfully thin, I still had a 'tummy' and thought I could lose more weight without looking too bad.  Perception - funny thing.  I was NOT fat then, or during the majority of my childhood.  I did have a slight mobility problem, like LJ has and I now think that was where my wrong thinking came from.

Now, I am actually officially 'overweight'.  My BMI (body mass index) is too high and I need to do something about it.  I want to do something, but though the spirit is willing, the flesh is (very) weak!  I think I would improve my overall health if I got a bit of weight off and maybe I'd then feel 'disgustingly healthy'!!

How important it is to see ourselves as we ought.  I could have saved myself years of stress about my weight if only I could have seen myself properly.  I remember that song from some years back that went something along the lines of, 'Whose report will you believe?  We shall believe the report of the Lord!'  The Bible teaches us to think on these things - the true, the pure, the lovely, the honest, the things that are excellent or praiseworthy  (Phil 4:4-9)  Does this change my perspective?  Oh yes!

Thank you to those praying.  And I hope my American friends are enjoying Independence Day!

Dad has had his operation and is home.  As I thought, the research people were quite excited at the prospect of getting their hands on an implant that had been in use for several years and had now failed.  The technology is still new enough for them to be learning a great deal from things like this!  I'm not sure what they will be able to learn though as the surgeon had to yank some of it out, it being so embedded in scar tissue (his words).  Maybe that was what the problem was - too much scar tissue?  The surgeon said that the Professor who did Dad's surgery originally had done 'something different' and 'it threw me!'  Dad was delighted with the honesty of that remark.  Ah, and there's a surgeon who has not been able to let his handwriting deteriorate as it is the only way he can communicate with his many deaf patients!

They took an x-ray to check the implant is in the right place and have sent him home to recover and heal.  His wound this time is really small - maybe 3 or 4 inches.  Last time it was massive - cutting maybe 12 inches (or more and 22 stitches in his ear) and then peeling the whole section back onto his cheek to access the inner ear.  Now, they almost do 'keyhole surgery' through a small incision about where your glasses sit.

It will be anything up to 6 weeks before they turn it on, depending on how it heals.  Dad is a bit grotty after the aneasthetic, but otherwise is good.  He's talking well, which fools you into thinking he can hear. 

Deafness.  It's not something I'd like to experience. 

Appreciate your continued prayers - thanks!

Since we got back from Canada, life has not been easy.  Three of the five people closest to me are ill or needing surgery, or both!

My mum has a gynae problem which has suddenly appeared and is in the process of having tests.  Of course, the fear is that it is cancer and we have already walked that path with Mum before, she being a breast cancer survivor of 18 years.  The not knowing is very hard.  She goes into hospital for a biopsy (under general aneasthetic) a week Thursday.

Dh is not well and is struggling to get through it.

My Dad is profoundly deaf.  We don't know why, but some years ago his hearing began to fail, quite dramatically. At the time he was overseeing a the building and running of a hospital in a very remote part of Congo.  The doctor there, a wonderful, Godly man firmly believed that God would do a miracle and that his hearing would be restored in his left ear, which was the worst.  In 1996, I think, my folks came back to the UK to see if anything could be done and eventually through a series of amazing events it was agreed that he could have pioneering surgery and have a cochlear implant.  The dear doctor in Congo had no idea such a thing was even remotely possible, but the literature about it was headlined, "The miracle cure"!  The specialists then told my dad that they would operate on the worst ear, just in case it didn't work, as then he'd still have the 'good' ear.

The surgery was very succesful and we greatly rejoiced.  It seemed that he'd had almost the best result they'd ever had from the surgery!  Now, it is a much more common thing and even has NHS funding, but then it was very new.  Unfortunately over the last few months his implant has slowly started to 'die' and his hearing has once again deteriorated badly.  Happily they have agreed to give him a new implant and this time there is no problem with funding.  He goes tomorrow for the surgery and should be home Friday all being well.  He will be completely deaf for 2 weeks and then they will switch the new implant on and we will see the results.  He is quite excited as the technology has moved on in leaps and bounds and now he should be able to hear music again!

Please will you pray for us all?  It would be greatly appreciated!  So much could go wrong, yet I believe we serve a God who still heals today and I am doing my best to trust Him, whatever outcome He gives us. 

A trip to Canada... how would I sum it up?

The short version is, 'Wow! It was great!  So much space!'

The longer version is quite a bit longer and includes comment on the friendly people - almost exclusively polite and helpful, and the many great ideas which we as a country could definitely learn from.

I have had so many questions answered, many of them questions I didn't even know I had, like 'What is it like to be in a country with as much space as Africa, but where everyone speaks English and there's not poverty at every turn?' 

I have a deep sense of satisfaction that 'now I know'.  I've been to DQ, I've driven on highways with no-one else there, I've seen the Rockies, I've seen several towns and know what they look like, I've been to Sears and on and on.

Has it been educational?  Massively!  Especially for me!  Living immersed in another culture is great.

One of the best things about Dh joining us a little into the holiday was that I had the opportunity to find out what the boys had already learnt from our trip.

It was a fascinating exercise.  There was I presuming that much was completely lost on them, and far from being a fantastically rich learning experience we were just trolling along as usual, when Dh arrived.

Even on the short journey from the airport I was stunned to realise how much had been taken in and learnt.  We don't need to have a test, there it was all being regurgitated, even things I hadn't even made a point of including the children in - like rules of the road and so on.  Dh heard about 4-way stops and traffic light backgrounds - yellow here and black in the UK.  He learnt about driving on the right and flashing lights that warn you the lights are about to change colour and all that was just for starters!

It was a great reminder that home ed really works.

I learnt things about me too.  Perhaps things I already knew but had forgotten in the hurly-burly of life.  Things that I'm struggling to put into words, but I know I don't want to forget. 

I am so thankful to the Lord for the way He made it all possible and the many ways in which He poured out His blessings upon us when we were there.

I am finally almost getting to the end of my meanderings about Canada.  Thank you for the kind comments from a few about how interesting (and educational!!) they have been.  I'm hoping that in years to come my boys will be able to look back and get a vivid picture of their visit.

PJ had his 5th birthday while we were in Canada.  We had a busy day, that included going to the cinema to see the film 'Up'.  I've never been to see a 3D movie before and it really did jump off the screen.  I'm struggling to express my feelings about the film.  It was very good, some very moving moments (yes, I cried), some very funny and quite an interesting underlying theme.  We are looking forward to seeing it again, but understand that it doesn't come to the UK until October! (Something to do with getting it translated into German for the EU launch??)

We decided to do something very different for his cake and bought an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen.

Just in case you are wondering, I bought the '5' sparklers here in the UK and carried them over with me.

Inside the cake has a layer of vanilla ice cream, then a layer of brownie, followed by a thin layer of solid chocolate and then chocolate ice cream.  It was scrummy!

We ate out a fair few times, including McDonalds (and yes, it does taste almost exactly the same [sadly, in my opinion]) and KFC (the chicken is the same but the 'sides' are quite different - the coleslaw was almost flourescent green!), Wendy's (square burgers), Dairy Queen (ice-cream), A & W (all the burgers were named for a family member, like baby, uncle etc.), Dennys and we tasted the delights of a 'gourmet burger' in Red Robin.  Red Robin was incredibly busy and was serving everyone from babies to the very elderly, even one chap pulling his oxygen bottle behind him.  I'm not sure if I've ever seen such a cross-section of the public in one eating place before.

We also had a lot of barbeques.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 At the bottom of the valley in which Kamloops sits are the train lines.  These trains rumble across the whole of Canada, carrying all sorts of goods from one place to the next.  They are huge! 

This is a snow plough engine.  For those of you who have ever watched Thomas you'll know he hates his snow plough, but that is maybe 3 feet high.  This one must be at least 10 feet high - that's a heavy duty snow plough!  I guess it is really needed in the winter.

This was the best photo I got of a train - kept forgetting I wanted one!  The longest train I counted had 147 trucks.  (No, you don't want to get stuck at a crossing when one of those is going past!)  Many of those trucks had 2 huge containers on each.  There were 3 engines - one at the front, one and the rear and one in the middle.  I understand that it takes over 2 miles to stop a train that large and heavy.

These spiral tunnels made a lot more sense too - climbing the Rockies must have been nearly impossible without them.

We found a delightful book called Bear on the Train which if you are studying Canada and have under 10 year olds is a must read. 

The bear gets on a grain train in the autumn and makes the train his home until the spring the next year.  He travels throught the spiral tunnels and over the prairies, right across Canada and back again.  Where he gets off looks the image of Kamloops!

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The water park was another source of delight to us.  It is a free attraction in the park down by the river in Kamloops.

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There were water cannons and all kinds of different features shooting out water.  The last time we went there I rather enjoyed running under the shower, fully dressed, just to get covered in the spray which within a few minutes had dried leaving me feeling condsiderably cooler. Great fun!

Something that I hadn't got used to was the way the temperature went up during the day.  The mornings were relatively cool, but from midday the temperature just soared and then stayed high until late at night.  We'd get up at maybe 12°C at 8a.m., by midday it would 20°C, at 9 p.m. it was still 28°C!!

Hat Creek Ranch is one of the few remaining posts on the old Gold Rush Road, the Cariboo Wagon Road.  I tried hard to imagine the folk pouring through the little place, all desperate to make their fortune in gold.

This is Hat Creek.  I love little rivers like that, so pretty in the sunlight.

Hat Creek House was established in 1861 by a former Hudson's Bay Company trader called Donald McLean.  He married a First Nations lady, by all accounts, against her will.  They had 14 children several of whom became notorious criminals after their father was killed in a First Nations uprising.  Our guide took great pleasure telling us all the gory details, even showing us the bargaining notes they wrote when they ended up cornered in a cabin.  Their mother was a well-loved lady and lived to be 102!

When they married they were given a gift of a set of china, which had to be shipped all the way from England.

Look at it!  I am amazed it ever got there in the first place and also amazed that so much of it is still there today!!  Can you imagine having to pack fragile china to travel by sea and then over bad roads for hundres of miles?  No bubble wrap or polystyrene chips in those days.  I wondered if it had been packed in straw, but not so.  It came in barrels of molasses.  Isn't THAT clever?  Molasses is so slow moving that it could easily absorb shocks.  By the time it arrived it had cost more than the whole property they owned.

We were shown around the Roadhouse which was added to on several occasions as demand grew for accomodation on the long journeys.  It reminded me of buildings I'd stayed in in Africa.  The kitchen would have been a very busy place and I was highly amused to hear our guide talk at length about the OLD irons they used, which were solid metal warmed on the stove.  My mother was using almost exactly the same kind of iron until she retired from missionary work in Congo about 12 years ago!! 

She then commented on this light bulb.

It has been on for over 70 years.  Yes, you did read that correctly!  Now, that is a light bulb made to last!!  They quickly discovered that as long as it was left on it would last and last.  Apparently there is one somewhere in the USA which has last quite a bit longer than that! (okay, admit you were a tad worried when you saw I was posting a photo of a light bulb...!)

The stagecoach in front of the Roadhouse. 

We then took a ride on the stage coach on a reasonably smooth road.  My word but it was bumpy!  We jolted over every pebble.  It also seemed VERY slow yet when I looked the horses were moving at quite a speed. 

No wonder it took so long to get anywhere!

Here are some photos of the various plants and animals we came across...

It was still spring when we arrived, but I took this a few days before we left right at the end of May - amazing to me that the daffodils were still in flower!

This tree at the back of the house became a firm favourite with the boys, who played endless games in and around it.

Deer-eaten trees.  I had wondered why so many trees seemed to have been cut in a strange fashion.  They haven't!  In winter the deer come and eat as much of the foliage as they can reach.

Various wild flowers in the garden and beyond.I love cornflowers.

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A bunch of wild flowers picked for Auntie B.

One day we went to the Animal Park.  The inhabitants were somewhat different to those you find in similar places in the UK.  It was set in a semi-wild location and there were plenty of genuinely wild creatures running around between the cages.

Here is a bald eagle.  They rescue them and try to get them to a stage where they can be released back into the wild.  One had only one wing, so I guess he won't be going anywhere soon.

There were 2 grizzly bears who are very old.

We also saw cougar, wolves, porcupine, raccoon, coyote, moose, bison and black bear.  The wolves got howling at one stage - quite something to listen to!

Up in the Rockies there were many chipmunks running around.

We also saw mountain goats, hares and ground squirrels, who were doing their best to make the most of the few warm enough days for them to come out and collect food. 

One afternoon the men (and boys) went fishing.

They were very excited to catch a trout and I was delighted with the science lesson that resulted!  (Another moment in time when I realised how little I really know about a subject!)

Canada is known as a 'young country' and it certainly has nothing like the long and complicated history the UK has.  However, as a home its history is very long. 

In Canada the people groups who were there before the Europeans came are referred to as the 'First Nations'.  It is, of course, a logical name, though it took a few tries to get it into my head being more familiar with the 'Native American Indians' of the USA.

Space and lots of it!

That is definitely a great way of describing Canada.  For those who live in the major cities it may not seem so true, but one of the best things for me was the space.  Space to breathe!

I collected some information on how big Canada is and how many live there whilst there, but if you want a comparison to the UK this site is quite helpful.

British Columbia alone is about 4 times the size of Great Britain and yet only has a population of about 4.5 million.  Great Britain has a population of about 61 million.  (No wonder I feel claustrophobic!!)

Overall Canada, being the 2nd largest country in the world, is 38 times the size of the UK (and I think that excludes the freshwater areas, which in themselves are totally massive.)  The population is about 33 million - oh yes, still only about half of the UK population.

In the UK there are about 250 people per square kilometre - anyone else feeling unable to breathe??  In Canada there are 3.5 people per square kilometre.

Canada also spreads across many time zones, so when it is noon on the west coast, it's already 5.30pm on the east coast.  It takes about 5½ hours to fly from one side of the country to the other.  The distance comparisons are odd too.  You can drive for hours at the speed limit on nearly straight roads with cruise control engaged (don't think that really took off in this country!!).  The highways are quite often almost devoid of traffic once away from the cities.  Up in the Rockies we drove for 5 and 10 minutes at a time without seeing a single other vehicle and yes, we were on a main road!

The majority of the population live in the south of the country, mostly almost within touching distance of the USA.  The north of the country is not very hospitable and the population thins out to almost zero the further north you travel.

Back to Kamloops geography.  It's semi-arid, but does very well because of the rivers that flow through it.  Kamloops got its name from the fact that it is where the North and South Thompson rivers join.

When you look down on the river at this point there is a definite line in the water where the two rivers meet.

My brother and sister-in-law live up on the side of a hill.  It's quite a steep climb and high enough for your ears to 'pop' on the way up! 

This is the view down the valley from almost the top of their hill.  There's only one way up and down the hill to their place.  This is part of the view on the way down.

Now is it just me or can anyone else imagine faces carved in those rocks?

Not far out of town is Kamloops lake, and this is as green as the surroundings get!

Oh dear, I have more to say about toilets....

I should have waited before I posted my first comments on Canadian washrooms as at that stage I had not encountered a 'Mountain toilet'.  Really there should be dramatic music as you read the words 'mountain toilet', as that is how people say the words!

On our Rockies trip we visited said toilets.  I suppose I just hadn't thought about it before - well, you don't do you? - but remote mountains are not the best places for running water and electricity and so on.  So, the toilets are of the 'long drop' variety - a pit dug in the ground with some reinforcing at the top and a toilet seat on top.  These were very common in Congo where we were and were often very primitive - no seat and no loo roll for starters, anyway, back to Canada... I just wasn't expecting a long drop and once I'd got my head around that I still went out and looked for water to wash my hands.  Duh!  If there's no running water, there's no running water for anything!  Actually they do really well with those loos and there was ample amounts of toilet paper and plenty of sanitizer on the wall to 'wash' with. 

On the second day when we were travelling through the snow the toilets were also blissfully smell-less - too cold!  The roof was green which made for a very strange light. 

You need to do an experiment where you look at your face under green light.  You'll find you've never looked so ill!

On to some random things...

I was interested to note that clothing sizes are different.  It's something I was aware of for the States, but I didn't want to assume that Canada was the same.  So dress sizes are smaller than the UK - if I'm a 12 here, I'm a 10 there, however I wear size 5 shoes here but had to try on 7 or 7½ there.  How odd!  So Canadians have a smaller dress size, but are quite happy to have bigger feet!?

The eggs were startlingly white and so small. We usually have brown eggs here, though I hear we too used to have white eggs, but there was a vote and brown eggs were more popular so hens that laid white eggs were slowly phased out.

One thing I missed was fizzy water and squash - cordial that is, not pumpkin.  I don't consume huge amounts of squash, but I do like it on a hot day.  (We had plenty of those! )  Trying to find an alternative was not easy.  There was a choice of water, which I do drink a lot, or a powdered drink, like Kool-Aid or Tang.

Or there are frozen drinks....

which you add water to.  The lemonade is delicious, as is the raspberry and apple, and the lime is pretty good.  The boys loved the apple!

All drinks cartons are recycled.  For several of the containers you pay a fee when you buy them and then when you take them to be recycled you get your money back.  It's quite an incentive to collect and return your empties.  I do remember returning glass pop bottles here for a 10p refund when I was younger.  In Kamloops the children will often come around the houses to collect empties for charity, or school events.  Whilst I was there one school made over $1000 (about £500) by doing this, I think in just one weekend! 

Talking of Kool-Aid reminds me that when I got back here I showed some friends Kool-Aid packets and they said, 'Isn't that the stuff you can dye your hair with?' (!!) I know you can dye wool with it and looking at the colours I would think it would do the trick on hair too.  That was something else I really noticed whilst away - colours in food.  Here in the UK there are very few bright colours in food these days.  It's become a real no-no and is strongly linked to hyperactivity. (Though as there are still plenty of hyperactive kids around maybe it isn't all about bright food colourings?  Hmmmm.)  I did struggle to eat brightly coloured things but, you know what, I came to no harm by doing so!!

It never ceases to amaze me how different one language can be.  Here in the UK we have many different accents and even we Brits have problems understanding each other at times.  I am originally from Manchester but I remember going on a mission to another part of Manchester once and finding that I had NO idea what was being talked about.

Of course most Canadians speak English.  (That sentence originally read, 'Of course Canadians speak English', but that ignores the % who speak French and hate the fact that any Canadians speak anything else and vice versa from the radical English speakers!)  Almost everything there is in both languages - which for me was interesting as I speak reasonable French, but wow, it takes up a lot of space on cereal boxes and other food containers!

Anyway, I digress....  We do speak the same language but there are numerous differences.  There are the usual ones like UK chips being Canadian french fries, and crisps being chips.  Then we move on to a buggy being a cart (think golf) and (wonderfully!) a lollipop is a sucker.  PJ loved that idea and spent the next few weeks asking 'Can I have a sucker?' in a great Canadian drawl!  When PJ fell headlong in a store and I asked for help the poor lady looked at me very strangely when I told her that he had been on the way to the toilet and that's where he was, but he had a big bang on his forehead and she needed to see it when he reappeared!  Seriously, you would have thought she didn't know what a toilet was!  I tried hard to remember to say 'washroom', but that wasn't easy.

The boys picked up the accent frighteningly quickly, especially considering that their Uncle and Aunt sound as British as I do and that's who we mainly were with.  Although they do use the local expressions, such as 'That dawg don't hunt!!' - meaning 'that's an idea or plan that will never succeed.'  Many of the local expressions were hunting related and I'm sorry I didn't jot more down - fascinating!

I was amused at myself (and slightly worried) when we were in an ice-cream parlour (oh yes! yum, yum) and I overheard someone talking and was confused by their accent.  It took a few seconds too long for me to realise she was another Brit!  I must have given her a very strange look.

Now I'm home I've downloaded my own photos onto the computer and can finish up a few more of my posts.  I'd been borrowing my Sil's photos whilst away as my camera and her computer did not want to 'make friends'!

In Canada they drive on the right (not correct - opposite of left!!) side of the road.  UK - left side.  Having been in Africa I am not unused to driving on the other side of the road, but it does take a bit of getting used to.

They have some different ( and some great!) road rules including being able to turn right through a red light as long as the road is clear - which is definitely freaky, but saves time!  Roundabouts are called 'turning circles' and there is only one in the whole of Kamloops.  Actually I hardly saw any anywhere, even in Vancouver.  They seem to generate confusion.  If you give way to the right (as we do here) you can drive straight on to a roundabout, but then have to stop to let everyone else on at each entrance - brings back confused memories of driving in Belgium!  Roundabouts are replaced with 4-way stops.  Once I got the hang of these they are actually a very good means of keeping traffic flowing.  The basic idea is that you have to stop, but then whoever got there first leaves first and so on.  Works well - as long as you are paying attention when you arrive!!

They also have bigger, wider roads amd much larger parking spaces.  I wondered where the 'parent and child' spaces were, but actually they aren't necessary most of the time because the spaces are huge!  Mind you, most of the vehicles in Kamloops are huge too.

Here's something that LJ noticed first.

The traffic lights all have a yellow surround, black in the UK.  (Oh, and notice the Franch influence in the road name.)  Here's something I liked...

When on a larger road there are 'Prepare to stop' signs.  If the lights are flashing as they are here, the lights are either already on red or will be by the time you reach them.  This eradicates the need for swift breaking because a light suddenly changes.  I guess it is most useful in the winter when the road is slippy.

One brilliant law is the School zone law.  For a certain marked distance near a school there is a speed limit of 30km (about 20 mph) between the hours of 8am - 5pm, school days only.  It is strictly observed and strictly monitored especially in September when the schools go back after the long summer break. (School there is finishing already for the summer.)  SO simple and must save lives every year.

Recently another law came into place.  It is called Grant's law.  Some time ago a man named Grant was killed trying to stop someone driving off without paying for the fuel they had just put in the car. (In answer to the 'Why did he try to stop him? - he would have had his pay docked to the amount lost...)  After much campaigning a law was passed which only allows you to fill up after you've paid.  If you got a card it's really easy and with cash you go in to pay and they allow only $x amount of fuel to flow.  Wouldn't that stop a few problems in our country??

Petrol is about half the price it is here, which when thinking about the huge vehicles and distances travelled is probably a good thing!

Here's another thing - it is almost impossible to drive without insurance as the way you buy a car includes buying insurance. (Another major British problem solved!)  I will add that there is only one place to buy insurance in BC which does mean it is rather more expensive...

When you buy your first car you are also given a number plate for life.  You sell the car; you take your plate with you.  So, no having to memorise a new number plate either! This, added to the fact that there are no MOT's, means that the boasting we have here about 'I have a xyz registered car' doesn't exist.  It also improves the second hand market no end!

What I hadn't expected, though in retrospect makes perfect sense, is that each part of Canada has their own license plate (so, yes if you move from one part to another you do surrender your number plate).  They are quite different as the next few photos will show:

Beautiful British Columbia.

Alberta - Wild Rose Country.  They only have plates on the backs of their cars - only one chance for the cops to catch them!

This one was a long way from home!  Ontario - Yours to Discover

Saskatchewan - Land of Living Skies

And this is a special one which has been bought to support the Winter Olympics which will be held next year in Vancouver:

 The Best Place on Earth - British Columbia

Just a 'quickie' to say that we are safely home again in the UK.

The journey went well and no, I didn't have to buy a new suitcase in spite of the 70 or so books I bought!  ( I know, that's a lot of books even for me, but what a fantastic opportunity to buy books, many for only pennies!)  I did leave several of PJ's clothes behind because he's grown out of them!  We ended up not even overweight - which I found hard to believe frankly!

PJ got over tired and has been sick a few times, (twice on the plane, poor lamb) but hopefully after another good sleep tonight he'll be fine.  He's not ill, just a bit 'blah'.

I've not finished my commentary on Canada so you'll get a few more of my comments on that over the next little while....

Gotta go - NEED sleep!

Recently we began a unit study about Canada.

Before we started I scoured the library catalogue for books about Canada.  I wasn't too impressed with the selection!  Even after ordering one of every title available we still ended up with fewer than 20 books - and that is from my whole county!  Methinks Canada is not anywhere in the National Curriculum!

As soon as we began our project I realised how little I knew about Canada.  I have half memories of many things, but it has been like starting almost entirely from scratch.  Having said that, I just found an old Canadian song 'Dip, Dip and Swing' which I vividly remember being taught as part of a 'learn songs from many cultures' class. 

My, but Canada is HUGE!  Yes, I know we all know that, but it's enormous!  England is soooo tiny in comparison.  We are looking forward to our learning!

It was dentist time the other day so off we went in the drizzle.  The boys are getting much better at walking places but I left a bit of extra time, just in case.  We were 10 minutes early but then we sat and waited and waited and waited.  This was very unusual!  In the end I went to ask if there was a problem, but no, she was just running late - yah, VERY late!

There is a very nice kitchen toy there and the boys actually like going to the dentist because it is so much fun to play with!  Yes, one of them even thanked Jesus for getting to go to the dentist!

Eventually in we went.  The dentist is a lovely lady from Ireland who is really good with the boys and pleased because they are motivated to keep their teeth clean.  She said they should both have a sticker for being so good.

Out we went and chose Goofy stickers:

LJ looked and said 'Super Patient!  Well, we were, waiting all that time!!'  The look on the receptionist's face was priceless!

My friend Pam, over at Mom's Mutterings threw out a challenge for any of us to join in this tag.  As I've not done one in ages I thought I'd have a go...

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8 things I look forward to:

1. Heaven

2. Spending time with my family

3. Take-out night (I don't have to cook!)

4. Springtime

5. Holidays

6. A good book

7. Pen and paper letters and cards

8. Cuddles with my boys

8 things I did this week:

1. Researched and placed a big order with Rainbow.  I can hardly wait to get my goodies!

2. Learnt more about veganism

3. Discovered that my boys didn't know what happened to paper when it gets wet.  (It was a CD cover from the library.  Very educational, but I'm not looking forward to the apology bit at the library!)

4. Took the boys to a play area called Cheeky Monkeys as they had both finished their phonics box for the year.  (They can't wait to start the next one so we have!)

5. Bought myself some new underwear

6. Bought us all mp3 players - we've not had one before

7. Begun to figure out how to use an mp3 player (!!!)

8. Sorted out and given away a load of toys and dressing up clothes that were cluttering the boys room.

8 things I wish I could do:

1. Play the piano properly

2. Have a cleaner

3. Go around the world and visit my far-flung friends

4. Take Dh and boys to Congo and to the boarding school I went to

5. Get a hair appointment (with my own hairdresser) before I go away - he's booked up weeks and weeks in advance!

6. Have ceiling to floor bookshelves in at least one room

7. Have a dedicated school room

8. Learn to fly

8 shows I watch (or radio programmes I listen to):

1. PM (Radio 4)

2. NCIS

3. CSI

4. More or less (Radio 4) 

5. The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency

6. Lewis (not as good as Morse, but still great!)

7. Heroes

8. Friday night comedy on Radio 4

Now, I'm supposed to tag 8 people, but I'll just let you join in if you want to!

Here are some more spring photos.  I'm trying a different way to post the photos so... we'll see.

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The leaves on this tree are almost pink.  Very pretty, but we thought it was a bit autumnal.

Down and up......

And to finish, some very pretty bluebells:

I can not remember a time when I have so looked forward to the Spring.  I've always liked Spring, but never before have I felt such an anticipation of flowers appearing and blossom blossoming.

Whilst our road is unremarkable in terms of trees and gardens as we turn out to go towards town the sight is truly beautiful!

With great foresight someone planted a good variety of trees down the road which are stunning both now, in Spring, and also in the autumn.

We have the spectacular pink blossom and greens of every shade - the icy green to quite deep green.  Then there are the red leaves and yellowy-brown flowers on another tree.

So far this is my only photo as since the leaves have come enough to be photographed, I've not had a chance to get out with the camera!

This road is quite a contrast to the avenues in Congo, where I used to live.  There, many avenues were planted with a single type of tree.  I have to say that avenues of purple jacaranda, yellow acacia or brilliant red flamboyant were completely stunning! 

It does happen here too.  As we drove through our local city this week I noticed whole roads there with pink blossom on the trees either side.  Very pretty.

On balance.... if I can't have Congo, I like my road, pictured above, best!

For Easter we decided that we would buy the boys a Play Doh Magic Swirl Ice Cream Shoppe.

  They had wanted one ever since a visit to a toy shop way back in October.  I foolishly didn't buy it there and then for Christmas and by the time I wanted to get it there were none left.  They were available on ebay for stupid prices which I was NOT going to pay!

Then it started to be advertised on tv.  Wow, it looked so wonderful!

The reality is far different, sadly.  These are some of our best efforts.  We could not emulate even one of the pictures on the box.

LJ said, 'I'm a bit disappointed........  But I am glad we've got it!'  (I think my 'be thankful with what you've got' had kicked in there!)

I was disappointed too!  Still, it was a great opportunity to talk about advertising and how it is often misleading.  I hope it was a lesson well learned, though I have no doubt we'll be visiting that idea again and again!

If they go floor to ceiling, with bunnies around the bottom...

then there are too many Easter eggs...

I guess we'll not have to buy any chocolate for a long time! 

We only bought the 'healthy' fruit eggs at the top of the pile as we knew there are several folk at church who love to give the boys a present and we didn't want an excess. (!!)  Instead we bought them a new longed for toy.

But more of that in another post.

'How Great Thou Art' by Stuart K Hine is one of my favourite hymns.

I find the words very powerful and moving.  I've sung it in a variety of places, but maybe my favourite was once when I walking in the woods in Poland all by myself and I came out onto a beautiful mountainside.  I stood and sang as loudly as I could - a bit 'The sound of music'-esque and I don't think any one heard me...

This Good Friday, 'And when I think that God , His son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in! That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.'

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

(Chorus:)
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

(Chorus)

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:

(Chorus)

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

We finally managed to get back into our wood the other day.  The weather had been drier and I figured we could go without getting overly muddy.

On our way we noticed that this tree was in 3 different stages of growth all at once.

 Buds

Just opening leaves and .... leaves.

We also spotted the new growth on the brambles - bright green leaves amongst the dark.

We were very impressed to find so many flowers have bloomed in the last few weeks.  Several areas of the wood were just carpeted with yellow lesser celandine.  PJ loved the idea that the wood could have a carpet!

We discovered that someone had put in new 'steps' for easier access to a part of the wood.

Our berries, which we had found last visit, had indeed turned bright red.  Aren't they beautiful?

We were disappointed that the old nests we had found had not been 'done up' and there were no birds in them. However, there was a newcomer on the pond:

possibly a Greylag goose, though they are found in Scotland mainly, so it would be a bit lost to be here.

We then walked in a more open area and found:

dozens of daisies.  PJ loves these and picks a few for me at every opportunity!

possibly a common dog violet - unbelievably I can't find this in my book!primroses

and cowslips.

We have been reading Aesop's Fables over the last few weeks.  We have really enjoyed the version we've been reading which gave some background into the fables as well as the fables themselves.

Today we read 'The frogs who wanted a king'.  The frogs foolishly decided that they were badly done to because everyone else had a king but they didn't.  (Sounds a bit like the Israelites in 1Samuel 8 doesn't it?)  After they asked Zeus for a king, a heron arrived whose favourite food was .... yep, frogs.  The moral:  Be content with what you have.

I was really pleased with this story because I have been trying to instill an attitude of gratitude in my boys.  We so need to be thankful for what we have!  I think, especially in these days, taking the time to be thankful for what God has already given us, lifts us above the anxiety of worrying about what we don't have.

If you are reading this you either have a computer or access to one.  That alone is something worth being grateful for.  For many years I worked amongst those who would still percieve a computer to be something magical!  The Bible teaches us in several places to have a grateful heart, to be satisfied with what we have. 

1Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances..."

Colossians 4:2 "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."

Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  What an amazing promise!

It's not easy but remembering all the good God has done for us changes our hearts and helps us to see things as He sees them.  I sometimes stop myself asking why I don't have, for instance, a bigger house, by asking myself why I have got warmth, more than enough food and clothing, peace and security when so many around the world do not.  I have so much to be thankful for!

The clocks changed early on Sunday morning and judging by the numbers who get to church late, it's a good thing they don't change on a Monday when everyone is trying to get to work!  They call it British Summer Time (BST) instead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and we certainly had the beautiful sunshine as a promise of summer time!

We had our usual few who arrived an hour into the service and then looked puzzled because the singing never started!  One new family had arrived half an hour 'early' and just thought it odd that the car park was already so full so went to play in the park for half an hour so they wouldn't be awkwardly waiting for the service to begin!  Poor folk - they were quite embarrased!

Then our elder told us that when he woke up at 8 a.m. he thought he'd better get the clocks changed.  As he did he realised that it was really 9 a.m. and he'd better get his wife up and get ready for church quickly. 

She was fast asleep and he woke her in a bit of a panic, 'Hurry, it's after 9!' 

As she crawled out of bed he said, 'I've just changed the clocks and....'  His wife burst out laughing and said,'I already changed them all last night!'               He, he, he!

I was listening to a radio comedy show the other evening and they commented that a new list of real, but ridiculous, travel complaints has been published.  I found several of them hugely funny, so I thought I'd share..... (you can find more here, but they aren't all as polite as these)

"I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

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"The beach was too sandy."

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"We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."

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"I was bitten by a mosquito.  No-one said they could bite."

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My two favourites follow....

"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea.  The children were startled!"

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"It took us 9 hours to fly home from Jamaica to England.  

It only took the Americans 3 hours to get home!"

Today we went for a wander.  I wanted to get to the library and needed to buy bananas, but I also wanted to visit a local museum and walk through the small wood where we have been taking our (infrequent) nature walks.

As we left the house the heavens opened and it poured.  The rain didn't last long, but that knocked on the head any idea of walking in the wood without wellies as it simply gets too wet underfoot.....

By the time we'd finished at the library the rain had stopped enough for us to still go to the little museum.

It is housed in an amazing timber-framed Tudor building, which used to be a school.  It houses collections and displays relating to the archaeological, economic and social history of the borough.  Currently there is also a display of secondary school art, which for the most part was of a very high standard.  I rather liked the flowers made with tissue paper which I think we could have a go at..... Hmmm...

We were excited to discover pottery fragments taken from a local Roman site.  We've been studying the Romans, but I hadn't realised there was any evidence of them having lived locally.

Whilst we were there we got chatting to an older lady and inevitably the question arose of which school the boys attend.  You could almost see the light coming on as I said we homeschooled.  She had been wondering at the difference between her grandchildren (aged 6 & 8) and my boys (aged 4 & 6).  She said, 'I was amazed to hear your boys talking to you as they did.  My grandsons never talk like that.  They are only interested in their Nintendos. Mind you, their mum never talks to them like you do to your boys.  You are obviously doing the right thing.  Well done!'

I was delighted with the compliment, whilst saddened by her obvious regret.  When I told my husband he wanted to know what amazing things the boys had said to raise such a fulsome compliment.  I have no idea!  We were just talking as we always do.  I guess what comes as natural to us simply is not! 

It did encourage me and I hope it will encourage you too.  We live with our children and often struggle to see beyond the challenges of every day life.  Here an unknown woman caught a glimpse and saw something very different and positive.

As we walked home later we went through the grounds of a church.  The purple crocuses were beautiful.

As we walked I realised that I'd never talked with the boys about graveyards... so we did.  We found the grave of one of our elderly friends who died recently, the ground was still disturbed. 

The sun was shining by now and I thought this quite pretty.

We carried on our way home and to the boys delight we came across an ice-cream van.  Oh yes, they operate all year round here!  So we enjoyed an ice-cream together and got home all sticky!

I've started meeting regularly with a group of mainly autonomous home schoolers.  Actually they would call themselves enablers or something similar rather than schoolers!

I'm quite enjoying it because at last I'm getting to talk about some of the hows of home school with other local home schoolers.

I went on a very steep learning curve about 18 months ago as we started home school.  I read avidly, various opinions and methods; and then I reached a bit of a plateau.  I guess I needed time to assimilate what I'd been reading and time to try a few things out.  I never stopped learning (do we ever?) but now I'm thinking again about bigger issues than just my family and how we are doing things.

It's nice to talk about books we, as adults, are reading to help us.  I was interested to find my friend is currently reading the 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman.  That made for an interesting discussion! 

Interesting to see which 'texts' and CD Roms these autonomous learners are actually using!  So much for my idea that autonomous educators shunned all textbooks, well at least when the children are younger.  Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons did NOT get a good review this week in our group! 

I was fascinated to find that we are all doing the same research.  Isn't that called 'reinventing the wheel'?  There is obviously still a great need in this country to have well thought through resources available to all home schoolers.  I guess they are there, it's just finding them that is the problem.  That is definitely one advantage to being involved in various online groups.

The idea that if you have structure in your learning you are not autonomous was roundly squashed.  If your child has asked for structure then you are following a child-led approach and therefore ARE autonomous!

You know what - I think I'm sticking with saying we have an eclectic approach, rather than having to explain all the whys and wherefores!!

I will also admit that because I'm a teacher by profession it is wonderful to be able to reassure a worried mum that their 4½year old daughter who is already writing and asking mum for complicated spellings is doing just fine!  (She was genuinely relieved!)  She was worried that because she was not spelling phonetically but with letter names, she was failing her child!  The fact is that her dd already knows both fluently and no longer needs her mum to spell phonetically.  I've taught 9 year olds incapable of that!

Clearly autonomy does work, though I still don't think it would work for everyone.  It certainly gives me food for thought!

We've been enjoying a little bit of spring this week.  We've enjoyed lovely weather, with plenty of sunshine too.  We've been able to play in the garden, and the grass is dry enough to be cut tomorrow!

It seems to have set everything growing.  The daffodils have opened in force.  There are so beautiful!

We went to the park on Wednesday, mainly to play, but also to enjoy these:

I didn't realise how the sunshine caught this photo at the time, but I think it is amazing!

The promise of better weather and longer days, the beauty of nature as is springs into life with joyful bursts of colour...  I do enjoy this time of year!

If you've read my blog for more than a short while you'll be aware of my passion for books.  I've recently finished a post all about libraries for the UK blog which you can read here.  It seems that several Christian homeschoolers in this country are unwilling to use a library at all because of what is on offer there.  I have tried to encourage people to get involved in our local libraries because our voice DOES count. 

The early reading section of my library has tripled in size since I started ordering books from all over the county because there were so few suitable books for my boys.  They now also stock early reading non-fiction titles, after I 'advised' them that they didn't seem to stock any.  I know there have been other forces involved, but I have made a difference.  Several of the staff greet me out on the street now and when I left my cloth bag behind, they knew it was mine!  Do you think I'm a regular visitor?

I have also been VERY interested to find that older titles are being republished.  Books by Enid Blyton, that were considered politically incorrect, suddenly seem to be all the vogue.  (I wonder if they've been edited at all?) In several stores I've visited recently there have been shelffuls (is that a word?) of Enid Blyton.  I've also noticed promotional 'ends' of 'Classics', which do indeed contain what I call classics; ie. not Harry Potter, which can hardly be called a classic, even though it frequently is! Proper children's (and adult too) classics, like Heidi and Tom Sawyer, Swallows and Amazons and so on.  Obviously there IS demand for proper books and not just trash, as we are led to believe.  Hmmmm! 

I found this "Interview the Kids" questionnaire at Mom's Mutterings. 

I thought it would be fun to see what my boys had to say.  I'm not sure what I expect for most of them, so read on......  My comments are in italics.

1. What is something your mum always says to you?

LJ (6): Say Please and thank you

PJ (4): Hmm, yes

2. What makes your mum happy?

LJ: Cuddles

PJ: Kisses (He gives me a kiss and I smile)  See!

A few days ago I was sent a link to a photo gallery 'that I might be interested in'.  I clicked through and was instantly on a trip down memory lane to the boarding school I attended in Africa.

One of the first photos was a boy with a monkey.  It took my breath away - he was one of my best friends as a child.  Sadly, he died aged 24 from an asthma attack.  I still miss him.

The school opened in 1925 to give an education to the children of missionaries.  Some of the photos in the gallery were very old - maybe from the war years (WW2 that is) as there were propaganda posters supporting 'the allies' on the walls.  The clothes were telling too - pith helmets and full swimming suits for the boys.

I looked through several hundred photos - some from just after I left - so many things I'd only half remembered.  Morning singing, where we learnt whole hymns off by heart, marching to class, evening prayers, story time, the huge maps... 

It was a good school, but not perfect by a long shot.  We heard or read the Bible at least 5 times a day - I learnt hundreds of verses over the years I was there.  It truly was a Christian school.

The structure of the days was good too - at some stage someone did a fantastic job of setting the time-table.

I have been back - twice actually, and much is still the same, even now, so many years on.  I remember being forcefully struck by the familiar smells!

When I first went the terms were 18 weeks long - yep, 18 weeks - just over 4 months.  I truly could hardly remember what my parents looked like at the end of my first term.  That is NOT a good memory.  It was much easier for us when they were reduced to 12 weeks.

Travelling to school was an adventure.  After a crucial bridge was blown up during a time of unrest, it took us 4 days to get to the school.  Yep, days - 4 of them, mainly spent in a lorry of some description, as cars couldn't cope with the condition of the roads.  We had a good time on journeys - sang a lot, told stories and camped under the stars too.

Even writing this I find myself quite overwhelmed with memories.  I am very glad that in these days now I am able to home educate my children.

I have joined in the 'Read your Bible in a year challenge' on the Home School Lounge.  I am following this plan at the One Year Bible Blog and have subscribed in my google reader for the daily readings.  It is so easy and with instant links to all kinds of information, a different way of reading the Bible! 

I've followed various plans sucessfully before, but haven't read right through recently so am really enjoying this. 

Whilst there are many challenging passages in the Bible, there is also much to bring comfort and reassurance.

Some of the detail recorded is incredible!  If you aren't sure that God is interested in the small things, read the Bible!  Gen 49:33 even records that Jacob had been sitting up to bless his boys and then 'he drew his feet up into the bed...'

I also love the fact that the Lord says, 'I have chosen Bezalel ... and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge, in all kinds of crafts - to make artistic designs... to cut and set stones... to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.' Ex 31:2-5  So often we only think of pastors as being chosen by God and filled with the Spirit of God to do things.  But here was an ordinary man with an extraordinary artistic gift and he gets great mention in the Bible.  We too, are chosen for our task.

There is a familiarity of the Scriptures that is very comforting for people in difficult circumstances.  In the Psalms there are many in dire situations, but the authors hold on to God and He sees them through.  The Bible certainly does not teach us that there are no hard times, but it reassures us again and again that we serve a mighty God!

We have just had our annual 'inspection'.  In our case a lady from the Local Authority comes to visit us to see if we are actually homeshooling or just allowing the children to 'bunk off' school.

We are actually homeschooling!  D'uh!

Our 'inspector' is a lovely lady who thoroughly approves of home education and understands that all children learn differently and at different speeds.

On our dining table I had laid out various art and craft things we'd done, the maths and phonics curricula we are following and a pile of educational CD Roms the boys use.  I also showed her our 'read alouds' and had the joy of explaining a tiny bit about Charlotte Mason.  She knew about the CM school in the Lake District but had no idea what CM was about.

I keep a quite extensive record book, and you know what?  She didn't even look at it!

She was surprised by two things.  First, we had asked the library to print out a list of all the books LJ had had out during the last 12 months.  As you can imagine it was several pages of A4 long.  Her mouth actually dropped open!  Secondly, we prepared a 'slideshow' of about 100 school related photos to show her on the computer.  They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I guess the show was quite eloquent.

She went away a happy lady and I await the formal report of the visit.

I got a record player for Christmas.  Yes, really!

Now, before you start worrying that you've gone into a 1970's time warp, or, even worse, you have rushed to your dictionary to discover what a record player is (!!), this is a record player with a difference.

It plays records, but it also links to your computer, and transfers all your precious records into files which can be put onto your mp3 player or equivalent.  I must admit, that whilst some of my readers may have no memory of record players, they would perhaps better understand the instructions that came with it than I!  I have read all of it twice and some of it many more times than that, and frankly, it may as well be in Japanese for all the help I am getting from it.

It's taken me several weeks just to get the thing open and working on a 'I can play my records' basis, not least because I didn't know there was a plastic cover on the needle which had to be removed (blush!).  My father, who was there when I discovered my error, very graciously did not make any fun of me on that one! 

My records were also in the attic and, you know what, they are really heavy!!  I just brought a few down to get started, and it has been amazing to listen to one of them in particular.  It is simply piano music, with the obligatory 'scratches' that only come on records.  The pianist was a man called Jack Ward, who I believe was blind, but played beautifully.  He plays a compilation of Christian songs, and as I listened I was suprised to realise I still knew which one was coming next.  I can't have heard it in at least 15 years if not more!

Now.. I wonder how to plug it into my computer?....... hmmmm.

We've started reading Enid Blyton's Nature Lovers Book.  It is a delightful book and British so I don't feel as though I'm constantly having to say, 'well, it isn't quite like that here....'

The book starts with Nature walks for the whole year starting in January.  There are 2 walks a month.  We are a little behind as we've not had the book long.  I was as surprised as the boys, to find that in the first 'walk', there are quite so many flowers that bloom in January.  I knew about the obvious ones, like the pansies in my hanging basket, and the winter heather.  Oh, and snowdrops, but there are many more. 

So off we went on our walks - 2 so far.  We've not been anything like as succesful as the children in the story but we have found a daisy growing in an old tree stump.  I suppose the stump was offering it sufficient shelter and warmth to enable the growth.

Today we also found a yellow flower - not sure what it is!

The wood that we have been walking in is very small and seems to have many evergreens.  We liked the look of this bush with the berries.  We are wondering if they will all turn red?  Aren't the spotty leaves great?

We've found plenty of buds on trees and daffodils sprouting up too.

LJ was pleased to find this feather.

We noticed the old bird's nests and wondered if they would soon be being repaired.

One of the biggest problems with this is that I know so little!  I've no idea about the names of most of the plants or even the trees.  I don't even really know the difference between the ducks and other water birds!  In my defence I wasn't brought up in the UK and that does account for some of it!  I guess I'm going to be learning as much as the boys!

Whilst much of the rest of the UK has been struggling to cope with snow we've had hardly any!  We are actually feeling slightly badly done to!

It has been COLD though - far colder than the last few years and we've got the fuel bills to prove it.

Here are some of our 'cold' photos.

This is the basket that hangs outside my kitchen window with snow.  A few days later I was very impressed to find this icicle:

Here is the tiny bit of snow we had one morning.

And here is the snow 'mountain' the boys made!  There wasn't enough to do anything more.  They were pleased that it lasted until the next day!

We enjoyed a walk in the winter sunshine the other day.  The ponds were mostly frozen, but the ducks were splashing in the warmer areas.  We watched them fly down, skid across the ice and into the water.  They were having a great time!  One landed too hard and went straight through the ice.  It's expression was quite comical!  It paddled and kicked for all it was worth and eventually the ice in front of began to break and it was able to join the other ducks.

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Back in November my husband read me a letter from the local paper.  It was a long moan about a tv programme (Strictly Come Dancing - if you care!!) which we don't watch, but ended with the words, 'you know I REALLY ought to get out more!!'

I'd been thinking the same thing.  For quite different reasons than the letter writer, but I do need to leave my home sometimes!  We do go out, but I've been thinking I should get my boys out more often, beyond the garden gate that is.

I do feel that as a nation we have become 'over-busy'.  Some parents schedule their children's lives to a mind-boggling extent.  Clubs almost every night of the week, and frenetic noise and bustle all the time.  I like peace and quiet and I think it is good for all of us to be able to be quiet.  I do know people who are unable to be quiet and stay home and I think that is sad.  Children need time to be able to play imaginatively and just 'chill'.

You can see how good I am at making excuses to stay home!

Still, we have started to go out on more walks.  I like having a purpose in mind when I go out.  I'm not very good at wandering for the sake of fresh air.  So we walk to the post office or to post a letter, or even go and buy a sweet each.  We've had some lovely sunny days this winter and those walks have been lovely, mostly I seem to attract rain though. 

I am aiming to blog about our walks and now I've told you I've got an added incentive!

Today we finished our sea pictures.  We took our time deciding which things should go on which backgrounds and noticed that lighter things 'disappeared' on lighter backgrounds. 

Eventually we decided and began glueing.  We made one picture 3-D by sticking down the edges and pushing up the middle.  (In real life it looks very effective!)

Our 'different' backgrounds all worked out well too:

And here they all are displayed on a door:

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Can you see the crab crawling through the seaweed?

Being a not very 'arty person' I'm quite pleased with the results.

Following on from our visit to the Sea Life Centre (and because we were given an art and craft book all about the sea!) we have been busily working on various sea scapes. 

We have made an aquarium out of a shoe box.  We painted the inside and covered the out side with tissue paper.  We hung our fish from the top of the box.  (That was hard and apart from yanking the needle through, was left to me.)

We made a mobile with tissue paper fronds for the water and seaweed.  The book suggested shredded plastic bags, but in this 'new eco-friendly world' we're in, plastic bags are so frowned upon it is quite difficult to find one!!  Besides which tissue paper is recycleable...

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Then we decided to make pictures.  We tried various methods of making the background.  We used ready made paint - lots of, stippled the paint, used water colours too. 

One of my favourite things to do with the boys has been making pictures with tissue paper.  You paint the paper with water and then 'stick on' pieces of tissue paper.  Then you paint over the top with water and leave to dry.  We've done this on several occasions with various combinations of shapes - (circles are fantastic but a pain to cut out in the first place!) and colours.  When it is all dry, peel off the tissue paper and ta-da! really interesting picture.  It is so easy with little ones and very effective.

This time we were aiming at 'the sea' and then 'the sea with seaweed'....

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It didn't work quite as well as we'd hoped but at least we get to try all these things!

Crepe paper, ruffled ribbon yarn (another one that needed a lot of help from me) and corrugated card were 3 other backgrounds we choose to try.

So much for the background!

On to the fish, seaweed, corals, and divers.  We painted, coloured with felt tips and 'true to life' pencils which are a combination of 3 colours in one (and were a Christmas gift), and used oil pastels.  That was also new for the boys and they really enjoyed the smudging the colour bit.  We discussed which looked the best and decided that whole blocks of solid colour (especially felt tips) don't always look great.

Here are some of the things we used:

and here are some of the results:

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Now we just need to put them all together.  Will post again with the final outcome!

Some time ago I came across a project, called Mini Pots of Care, a Marie Curie Cancer Care activity, in the local newspaper. It said that "Mini Pots of Care is a fun and creative way for children (aged 3 to 11 years) to learn all about science and nature whilst making a positive difference to the lives of people with cancer".  I thought it would be a good experience for the boys and was more than happy to support the charity involved.

The basic idea is that they send you pots and daffodil bulbs to grow through the winter and into the spring and then you make a small donation to the charity.

I sent off for the pack and some months ago the boys planted their bulbs.  They had compost in'slices' which was something I'd not seen before.  When watered it grew at a great rate, absorbing about a litre (2 pints) of water in a few seconds - amazing to watch!  I could have played all day!

Today I remembered to take some photos of the bulbs and they are doing very well.

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Over the next few weeks they are going to decorate pot covers for the plants and then give them to some close friends and family asking for a small donation for the charity.  They've really enjoyed the project so far and I'd highly recommend it or something similar.  There is more information here.

One of the reasons I have been quiet on my blog of late is because I was desperately trying to get a cross stitch picture for my dad finished before Christmas!

I love cross stitch!  I learnt to cross-stitch when I was quite young and my mum still has a little pouch I made when I was about 8.

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I took it up again in my early 20's when a friend of mine wanted 'something different' for a wedding present.  I even made my own design!

I've made quite a few things since - some my own design, mostly from patterns.  My collection of threads has grown and grown and still I pick up a new design and have at least 3 colours to buy!

Last year I made over 30 mini Christmas decorations for people in church.  I was stitching Christmas trees in July.

This year I've had 2 major projects.  The first was for a friend.  I stitched a birth month flower for each of her 7 children and sewed them on to one side of a linen bag. 

Then I sewed some wild flowers for the other side to represent the children the family fosters.

My latest project was for my dad.  I get a bit obsessive when I'm stitching and can spend ages telling myself, 'I'll just finish this row, then I'll stop', or 'I'll just finish this colour then I'll stop' or 'I'll just finish/start this thread then.....'  You get the idea!

I didn't intend to finish it for Christmas, but then I suddenly thought I might so I ended up staying up 'til nearly midnight night after night and finally got it done mid-December.  But then I needed to get it framed.  Getting it done 'professionally' was out of the question; not least because time was so short and the cost completely prohibitive!  I decided I would have to try myself and enlisted some help from an excellent artist in the church.

He was brilliant and got everything sorted for me.  The only thing I was slightly disappointed about was that he really did it all and I didn't learn as much as I'd hoped!  That said, he did a fantastic job and my Dad was thrilled to bits!

Here it is:

We had an outing a couple af weeks ago to the local Sea Life Centre. 

We had a great time, not least because it wasn't busy and when we got to the play area, the boys almost had it all to themselves.  Yippee!

They enjoyed the 'touch pool' and were able to hold sea urchins and sharks eggs and look a crab in the eyes.  They weren't quite brave enough to hold one though they were shown how to do it without getting hurt.  The sharks eggs were empty I think, but there was a special shark 'incubator' where you could see the sharks growing inside the eggs - quite something!

We saw rays and octopus, fish of all kinds and were amused by one who seemed quite off its head swimming round and round in circles as fast as it could.  There are some amazing coloured fish in the sea!  A large eel came out of his hiding place so we could estimate how long he was (about a metre and a half) after we waited about 20 minutes to see him.  The piranha looked so unremarkable it's hard to believe their fearsome reputation.

As usual I forgot the camera so the only photos I have are of the information we brought back with us.

Does he look scary?  The ones we saw didn't look scary at all!

We really enjoyed filling in the 'fun sheets' the next day.

I have been tagged by loobylou1971 

1.  Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Mainly wrapping paper, sometimes use gift bags for awkward shapes.

4.  When do you take your tree down?  When we get tired of it - usually just after New Year's Day.

5.  Do you like egg nog?  Never tried it but really don't fancy it.

10.  Christmas cards.  Mail or e-mail?  Both.

12.  Favourite Christmas movie?  A Christmas Carol

17.  Favourite Christmas song?  Away in a manger

19.  Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?  no

20.  Angel or star on the top of your tree?  star

23.  Favourite ornament, theme or colour?  green, red and gold

24.  Favourite Christmas dinner?  Chicken dinner with all the trimmings and Christmas Pudding with cream for dessert.

25.  Favourite decorations?  hand made ones

26.   What do you want for Christmas this year?   A special memory for my children to treasure

Anyone wishing to join in consider yourself tagged!

All I want for Christmas is my two-front teeth!!

 LJ has lost both his front teeth.  What a cute smile!

If you can't remember the words, they are available here.

We've been working slowly, slowly on our tree.

As you know I have a great interest in Congo, so I thought I'd pass this along....

Subject: 22nd November : Day of Prayer and Fasting for Congo
Dear Friends,
 
The crisis in Eastern Congo has been graphically shown in TV images and web reports in recent days. Like some of you who know people in the region, we in Congo Church Association have been receiving regular updates from church leaders and friends. Their urgent plea has been for prayer for resolution of the conflict and peace, and provision for the needs of the vast numbers of displaced people.

The Congo Church Association and CMS UK are calling upon Christians in UK and further afield to join together in a Day of Prayer and Fasting for Congo on Saturday 22nd November. Let us join together in prayer for peace and for a resolution to the complex issues surrounding the conflict, as well as for the physical and spiritual needs of all those affected. In addition to the crisis in the Goma region, let's also remember two areas of rebel activity in Congo which have not hit the news: the Dungu area in the north where the Lord's Resistance Army has attacked villages and abducted adults and children in recent weeks, and also Gety/Aveba/Nyankunde region close to Bunia where a new militia group emerged in late September and displaced many people from their homes.

Please invite your friends and churches to participate in this Day of Prayer and Fasting for Congo on Saturday 22nd November and make this prayer initiative widely known.

Prayer resources will be available on the CMS and CCA web sites by 17th November.

www.cms-uk.org and www.congochurchassn.org.uk/prayer.pdf
Thank you!
Every blessing.
Judy Rous
Stephen Burgess
Chair - Congo Church Association
Mid Africa Manager - CMS

Prayer for peace in DR Congo
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways .then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land . 2 Chron 7:14

You'll see from my previous post that Remembrance Day is very special to me.  I posted about it on Sunday which is when the nation remembers, because on Novemeber 11th, 2000 the day took on another meaning for our family.

It was the day my twins, Hannah and Rebekah were born.  They had died in a cord accident at 20 weeks and I gave birth to them on 11/11.

The weeks coming up to 11/11 are very hard.  They are filled with poignant, vivid memories, like going to a fireworks display and that being the last time I felt the girls move.

The fact that so many buy and wear a poppy before 11/11 is great.  Yet for me, it is a constant, in your face, reminder that my babies died.  Everywhere I look, I am reminded.  From the average person on the street to every television presenter.  I guess it must be similar for those who lost someone at Christmas or Easter.

There's a lot more to tell.  How God has blessed us through it all is quite amazing - the hospital staff, the tangible presence of God with us, but the heartache!  I did not laugh for a long time afterwards.  It was a massive struggle and some days it still is. 

I'm just glad that my girls are safe with Jesus.  Heaven is all the sweeter for them being there.

This is one of the best days on the British calendar.  A day of remembrance for those who have fought to protect our nation.  A day to remember the sacrifice of the (mainly) men and their families.

Both of my grandfathers fought in WWI.  My maternal grandfather saw things he could never talk about and his hair turned white overnight.  By WWII his eyesight was too poor to be in the army so he became an air raid warden and worked in central Manchester which was a major target for the German bombers.  The other men liked to be on his shift because no bombs ever dropped on his shift, or when he travelled for work either. 

My paternal grandfather was injured in WWI and so was not even considered for WWII, but he worked in vital manufacturing for the war effort.  He was in 'Dad's army', and was on duty regularly.

One of my uncles also fought in WWII, though he got ill and spent quite some time recouperating on a beach in West Africa.  He wrote to his mother to say, 'I can't say where I am, but there are plenty of bananas!'

My dad was one of the children who were evacuated to the comparative safety of the countryside, but he didn't stay long because his mum missed him too much and he was so upset he didn't eat properly for several weeks.  He became so weak he couldn't walk to the school he was supposed to attend with his sister.

I lived in an African country where war, sadly, is almost the norm.  Check out the news today and no doubt you'll hear about the Democratic Republic of Congo.  I didn't live in the region where the current conflict is, but I have seen first hand the devastation of the ongoing wars in that region.  I am filled with a heartfelt gratitude to God that I live in a relatively secure and peaceful land now.  I am glad that people stood up against Hitler's tyranny in WWII.  I am glad the British forces are still deployed in countries where there is tyranny today.  I hear the news, especially about Congo and I weep for those folk.  How would I cope in those circumstances? 

I've long had a great interest in the 'Great Wars'.  I've visited the battle sites, the grave yards and Auschwitz too.  I've pondered the horror.

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Do we need to remember?  Oh, YES!  I wear my poppy with pride.

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I love the poetry of this day and here are parts of some of my favourites:

There's nothing to report

One minute we was laughin', me an' Ted,

The next, he lay beside me grinnin' - dead.

'There's nothing to report,' the papers said.

May Herschel Clarke

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is forever England...

Rupert Brooke (died 23/4/1915 on the way to Gallipoli)

In Flanders fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place.....

John McCrae (died 28/1/1918)

For the fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children

England mourns for her dead across the sea...

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them....

Laurence Binyon (Sept 1914)

LJ has been taking some photos.

I've found it interesting to see just what he photographs.  His brother is his favourite subject...We've had some toys...

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The computer screen is another favourite - this, one of the maths games we have.

Then there are the 'round the house shots'...

 Yes, he really did photograph the toilet.. right after we had the new one put in, after they managed to smash the cistern on the old one...

Would you 'capture' a door handle?

Looking down the stairs to the front door.

This is a sticker to go on his phonics chart.

And finally, the cat we met when we went apple picking.

Please can someone tell me which 'heading' this goes under in my records?  Is it art!???

It's Bonfire Night here in the UK.  A time when we remember a man named Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up the houses of parliament and King James I as he made a speech there in 1604.

What a crazy thing to celebrate!  I think now, the reason behind it is mostly forgotten and people just enjoy an excuse to let off fireworks and have a party around a roaring bonfire.

Last year we joined in the big celebration in our local park.  The bonfire was enormous and really belted out some heat.  There was a small funfare and the boys loved going on the 'teacup' ride.  Then we had to wait and wait, because some of the silly element in the crowd decided to go right up to the fireworks and health and safety wouldn't allow the fireworks to start until they were moved on...  When the fireworks eventually came they were spectacular, accompanied by music,  and we did enjoy them.  Getting out of the park and back to the car was not so much fun and we ended up with two rather tired and tearful boys. 

Still, we had gone and I was proud of myself!  Why?

Fireworks are very expensive and I think that it is a dreadful waste of money spending a fortune on something that goes bang and sends showers of sparks into the night air for a few seconds.  Think how many could be fed with what has gone up in smoke today! 

I also don't like big noises (hate the hoover!) and fireworks make really loud bangs! 

But more than that, unexpected fireworks scare me.  Not just because of the noise, but because of the associations.  I've mentioned before that I lived in Africa and lived through several very tense times when conflicts raged.  I remember rather too well one particular night when the city I was in 'fell apart' spectacularly.  We were in town buying cloth to make new dresses and skirts when it started.  I got locked in a shop and could see a swirling mass of angry people racing down the road towards us.  I was terrified.  To this day I am not entirely sure how I got out, but I think I had angel protectors standing by me to help me through.  That night the sound of gunfire filled the air.  We climbed a small hill to look down into the town.  The air was full of tracer fire, which has a look of fireworks about it.  Nothing fun about that.

The next few days were very frightening.  We watched young men go down into the town in the morning, only to be pushed back later on a cart, dead.  The gunfire got closer, and at times we were confined to our houses.  Some of our missionary colleagues lost everything, their homes completely trashed, even the pipes yanked off the walls.  Eventually we had to leave the country for a time.  

Now, if I hear unexpected fireworks, my mind tells me RUN!  HIDE!  I don't drive after dark if I can help it, because I have to concentrate very hard to not be freaked out by firework explosions!

This year Dh is working so we can't go to the big show.  I'm not sorry, though I don't want to pass on my dislike to my boys.  Instead we've had a little get together with my parents at home with some sparklers, which the boys have not had before and have loved.

I find this time of year quite difficult.  The early part of autumn is fine, and I love the beautiful colours that God has blessed us with, but now, late autumn, wow, it's hard!

I keep reading on other blogs about how people LOVE this time of year and I've tried really hard to love it too, but I don't!

There are many reasons why I find it such a struggle, including a dislike of Halloween, fireworks night, the change from 'British summer time' to 'Greenwich meantime', which makes it so dark so early...  I've been putting off blogging because I don't want to moan!!

I am going write/blog some of 'my story' in the next couple of weeks and if you manage to plough through it you'll understand better just why this time of year is so hard!

Don't get me wrong, we are having many good days.  Nothing extraordinary, just going about the daily learning, making progress with the plans I have for the boys' school work.  The Lord remains faithful however we feel.  I am so glad He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child.

Jean Van Dyke

Recently I picked up a magazine I don't usually read and flicked through it.  There was an article on stay-at-home vs go-to-work mums which had gathered quite a lot of its information from Mumsnet, which is apparently the UK's leading social networking site for parents.  As I remember filling in a questionaire about staying at home I was quite interested to see what they had deduced from it all.

Not a lot that we don't already know, unsuprisingly.  However I was fascinated to find that research for uSwitch had found that couples need an income of at least £32,000 ($56,000) before one of them can afford to stay at home. (Nov. issue of Eve magazine)  Money was given as a main reason for so many mothers needing to go to work.

Yes, you did read the title correctly.  This week we discovered that there are hinged lamp posts!  Normal lamp posts on the street and just big cylinders of ?steel and we have watched someone in a 'cherry-picker' cleaning and checking the lights.

Now, I knew on starting this adventure of homeschooling that I would learn a lot of things, but I didn't anticipate some of the unusual things I would get to learn.  One really good thing about having the children with me and wanting to make learning opportunites whenever I can, is that I get to satisfy my curiosity too.  Yeah!

Once a month we take the train to join one of the homeschool groups we attend.  The train ride is all part of the excitement, not least because we are huge Thomas the tank engine fans!  This week when we arrived at the station I spotted someone working off down the platform and saw to my amazement that ¾ of a lamp-post was laying on the ground. Then the man gave it a push and up it went, back to normal!

Off we went to investigate.  The man was an electrician with British Rail and cleaning and checking over the lights on stations is one of his 'in-between' jobs when they aren't installing new equipment somewhere.  They used to have to climb ladders to clean and check the lights, but being on a ladder when a train goes through the station at great speed creating high winds was rather dangerous.  To solve the problem they made hinged lamp posts.  He was using some special tools, including some kind of hydrolic spring to help with the weight of the post and special keys to access the hinge.  So, no need to panic thinking if you lean on one of those posts it will fall over!

We watched him unhinge, knock over, check all the wires and bulbs, then clean the glass, and push back up; explaining it all very well for my boys to understand.

It was sooo clever, and the electrician was really friendly, if a little bemused!  Not used to anyone being so fascinated with all that he was doing!

I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me, especially as I had thought of carrying it that day.  Maybe I'll remember next time, but then the station will just be 'boring' won't it?  Isn't that one of those laws?!

Since I heard the news of Chrissy's (Mamasmurf) death earlier this week I've been doing a lot of thinking...

I've been thinking about the smile there was on Jesus face as He welcomed Chrissy home, with a 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'.  I've been thinking about how she would have walked and sat and realised that indeed the pain was all gone, not because of drugs, but because she finds herself 100% whole, and with the One she has loved for many years.

I've been thinking about Rob and the pain he must feel at the loss of his wife, and Deiniol who has lost his mum, and I've cried for them more than once.

I've been remembering how I met them all a few months ago and how Chrissy made me smile  and think as she always did on her blog.  I loved to read her posts, sometimes they were funny and quirky, sometimes thoughtful, but ever reflecting her love for the Lord and her family.

She was one of those rare people who always found something about the (sometimes really awful) British weather to be thankful for and she reminded me to be thankful too. 

I am richer for knowing her, and so glad I did.  Please do pray for her family with me.  How they need to know the comfort of a loving Father and have that peace that passes all understanding!

We've just had some of the most lovely weather of the year and we've been thoroughly enjoying it!  The boys have spent loads of time in the garden and day after day I've been able to hang out all my washing and get it dry.  It's been warm, about 18ºC (64°F) most days but beautifully sunny.  Wonderful!

We were able to go apple picking in a friend's garden as part of our project on apples. 

I thought it would be fun to decorate our office/school room door with a large apple tree and associated art work. 

We were able to get started on Friday with a painting session outdoors.  (Art is not my strong point and it was good job I was on the phone to a friend who told me how to make brown from the colours I had!)  It was really still and I wanted to get the tree trunk, branches and leaves done, as well as a boy 'climbing' a ladder.  We got most of it painted before there was a sudden gust of wind and everything went flying!  The 'branches' have some most realistic dirt embeded in the paint!

We brought it all in to the kitchen to dry:

Glad Dh was out until it was dry enough to put elsewhere!

Now I need more HELP.  What do I do about the head to make it look good?  I can colour the hands pink, but a big pink blodge for a head won't look so good I'm thinking....

As I mentioned a few entries ago I've been guest blogging for the UK blog.  In my search to find things to say, I've been looking at some new or different resources.

There is no doubt that there is a plethora of educational material available.  The hard thing is finding exactly what you want!  Not too much out there is written from a Christian perspective and some things are certainly NOT wholesome.  A quick look at the television schedule of 'educational' programmes for older children confirms that in a second!  Whilst I don't mind teaching maths without a Christian bias, I don't want the theory of evolution endlessly thrust down my children's throats.  (That said we use Math-u-See which is written by a Christian!)  Many of us who home educate in the UK have had to rely quite heavily on items from the States.  This is not inherently a bad thing, though there are big differences between our countries (!!), but I have been really thrilled to come across some British curriculum which is not only Christian, but also very good.  You can read more about it here. 

'There, but for the grace of God, go I.'

Recently we, as an extended family, have been very saddened to hear of an old friend going to court and subsequently to jail.  It all started as a minor misjudgement, but once that line had been stepped over it got easier to make the same mistake, eventually ending up in fraud on quite a scale.  There is a good part of the story because one day, about a year ago, the Lord spoke to him very clearly and challenged him about what he was doing, and how he was living a lie.  He repented and then got down to the task of preparing all the necessary paperwork to take to the police.  This he did and wrote letters to everyone he had harmed explaining that he realised he was wrong and he was going to the police to confess.  I think the police were probably rather suprised!

A few weeks ago it came to court and he was sent to prison for 6 years.  In the meantime he had done his best to recover the money, and I understand that once that bit has been to court (don't understand the system) almost, if not all the money lost will be returned to the rightful owners. 

We were shocked at first, because he is someone we all would have trusted, but there my title comes in.  There, but for the grace of God, go I.  Okay, I couldn't commit that particular crime (would never have the opportunity), but it is so easy to do little things that are wrong and to make mistakes, that could have serious consequences.  How we need to be vigilant that we stand right before God, asking Him to keep us from evil, and be being ever thankful that by His grace we are where we are.

Our friend still has to pay the consequences for his crime, but he stands as innocent before the Lord.  He is a sinner saved by grace, just as I am.

We've just had a beautiful weekend.  It's been warm and sunny and our lawn even got dry enough to mow!

On Saturday we celebrated the birthday of a dear older friend from church.  It was her 86th birthday and our boys had loads of fun planning a little 'party' for her.  It was all the more fun because we don't have a another family birthday until February and they felt that was a VERY long time away.

We had to get out our (not quite appropriate!) bright lime green 'Happy Birthday' plastic table cover and find a matching paper napkin.  So glad I had one left!  We blew up lots of balloons and put up the new banner I'd bought to use next year for the boys as I'm sure I can't use the Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine banners again!  The new banner has each letter decorated with ballons and is very cheerful.  It wasn't until after the meal that I noticed it read:

Oops!

We had a lovely chicken dinner and cake for dessert.  My boys really wanted chocolate cake but I knew our friend would prefer a plainer cake so we decided to make individual cakes - some plain (with a hint of lemon) and some chocolate.  We were inspired by this:

Of course we had to have a trial run the week before (yum!) and I'm glad we did because we discovered that we had the wrong kind of bun tins!  After asking around we had several donations of tins with strighter sides so we could emulate the photo above.

This is where baking lessons with Grandma are so great!  And I'm sure that the theory, the test and evaluation (yummy, but not so good to look at) and then the new hypothesis, test and evaluation (still yummy, but great to look at too!) was most scientific too.  We had a heart and teddy shaped mould too, so we made the heart for our guest and decorated it with suger flowers and one candle.  (Had a fun discussion on why we wouldn't be using 86 candles!)

Our guest was thrilled to bits, especially when she realised that LJ had done most of the work on the cakes.  We sent some home with her too.  I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of all the cakes but here's one of the few we have left.

Hope you are now feeling hungry!

The sun came out this morning!  Yeah!  I rushed out to get the washing on the line (we're TRYING not to use the dryer and save some money!) and I noticed that the spiders had been very busy since the torrential downpour yesterday.

So, that was an easy start to the school day - out to check out the bugs!  Sadly the ground is still much to wet to stay out and draw, but we did take some photos. (And I changed PJ when we got in, he is a mud magnet!)

Here are our spiders and webs:

 We watched some flies on the wall, trying to warm up in the sunshine.

And we watched to wasps go to the Alysum flowers for food.

We found a crane fly by the broom.

LJ was really fascinated by the patterns the rain had made on one of their toys.

And best of all, my washing got dry!  Yeah!

There has been nothing subtle about the arrival of autumn here this year.  One day it was summer, albeit a rather dismal summer, but we were managing to wear our t-shirts and shorts/skirts, and the next... BRRRRRR!  It was really cold.

They have now said 'officially' that August was very wet.  Oh, we hadn't noticed - not MUCH!  And we only got half the 'normal' sunshine hours.  Yep, summer was a washout again, and despite the long range forecast of above average temperatures and hours of sunshine until November, it has done nothing but pour with rain for about a week!!  I guess someone forgot to tell the weather what they were forecasting.  Hmmm.

At times like this I want to curl in a ball with a book in front of a fire and do nothing else.  Now that would be okay if it was the Christmas holidays, but it's only September!  Arghh.  I am determined not to put the heating on just yet, but I have got the winter duvet out, after 2 nights of shivering!

On a more cheerful note, the leaves are also turning and the 'main' road we have to drive down is beautiful, both now and in the spring, as someone very thoughtful chose many different types of trees to line the road with, making each few hundred yards a real treat.

By the way, in defense of doing a not very good job of blogging at the moment, I am guest blogging on the UK blog here.

I don't wear a lot of jewellry.  I never have, but when I had children I was worried that the boys would get hurt or things would get broken, so I wore it even less.

Some years ago I did start to wear a ring.  I was working in Poland, teaching English to Bible School students.  At the time there were precious few Bible study books in Polish, so it was thought a good idea to learn English.  One mature student, Ania, became a good friend and she was horrified that I wore no jewellry.  She persuaded me to buy and wear a long fairly simple silver chain and then when they graduated and I left too, they clubbed together to buy me a little gold ring with a tiny diamond.  I've worn it ever since.  It reminds me to pray for them all.

My next ring was my engagement ring.  It's a family ring and belonged to my Great Aunt Ethel.  I met Dh when we were both at Bible School and had not a penny between us.  What a blessing to have a beautiful ring in the family graciously passed on to me by a distant cousin.

My wedding ring is also a family ring and very special.  It belonged to my maternal grandma.  Dh's ring, in comparison, was the best we could buy and it dug in with its 'sharp' edges until it got a little worn!

Last time I went to the hairdresses my hairdresser commented on my newest ring. 'Isn't it lovely!' 

I think he almost wished he hadn't said anything!  You see it has 5 stones in it - birth stones of my 5 children.  He knows, as most of you will be aware, that I have 2 boys.  My other children live in heaven with Jesus.  Hannah, Rebekah and Baby S.  A friend's brother designed and made it for me in the States and I love it.  I quite like to have the chance to talk about my other children and I like to be able to encourage others who've lost children too. 

My ring is a lovely, simple way to have an ongoing reminder of all my children.

What about your rings?  Do they tell a story?  I think most do and I'd love to hear yours!

We just got back form the Christian homeschool conference at Cefn Lea in Mid-Wales.  It was held over the weekend and is probably the biggest Christian homeschool event in the year, or even 2 years, because that is how often it is held. 

It was great to put a few faces to names, and to meet others who are following this 'different path'.  There were some great seminars too, though I'm not sure I learnt much new, just had information and ideas reinforced.

We met some lovely people, including a Mennonite family from Wisconsin who had come over to support those who were selling the 'Rod & Staff' curriculum.  Lovely people, and a group I'd not had first-hand contact with before.  It was interesting to meet folk from a very different spiritual heritage than my own.

The setting of the conference was beautiful and the weather was fairly kind to us, so the boys and Dh were able to go on a walk up a big hill and play for hours, while I got on with the very important looking at books and resources!!

I think I am finally almost sorted for the beginning of our year, though there are many things that we have not stopped doing all over the summer, so it is more of a continuation than a 'start'.  It is useful to put a name to a 'year' though for those who only use the school system as that is how it makes sense to them.  So, we are starting Reception (pre-K) and Year 2 (Grade 1), officially on Monday!