An allotment of our very own!

Number 65 on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days was to "obtain an allotment plot and visit regularly as required". We applied for an allotment in our first year of home educating, 2 years ago, and this week - after being told there would be no chance of getting a plot this year - we have been offered one!

After a bit of drama about padlocks, we finally got into the plot on Friday night and it's really big. On the pic here Cameron is standing about half way/two thirds of the way down.



It has been badly neglected and so is going to require a lot of hard work but we are still super excited about it.
It has a shed already which is fantastic and we found some fruit bushes in between the weeds at the sides of the plot. We also spotted a big wooden box-style double compost bin which will be very handy.



Cameron was initially unimpressed but has since become a convert and wants to spend all his time up at the allotment discovering, blowing dandelion wishes, stamping out paths, catching bugs (plenty for him to go at!) and more. Across the path there is a plot with many chickens who are very sociable and Cameron likes that he can talk and talk about his obsessions and ideas and they will follow him and pay attention so very loyally!

It's hard not to be overwhelmed with the amount of work there is to do but I think we are going to have a lot of fun up at the "lottie" this Summer!

A good news update

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last posted. The week has gone so fast and so many things have changed.
Cameron has been working very hard on some Camix trading cards, categorising them according to how rare they are, colouring them, scanning and printing them, shopping for supplies including little clear bags to package them in.

We popped into our favourite charity shop a few days ago and bought a huge case of knex for hardly any money. It's all in great condition and even has a motor thing with it to make spinning designs.



Cameron has really taken to it. Here he is with the "mind extractor" (imagine it coming towards you and spinning!).



Also this week Cameron has chosen to spend quite a lot of his time being a dog - his dog name is Spikey. This has meant a lot of playing fetch, panting and drinking water out of a bowl.



I dread to think how that would be interpreted by the local authorities if they were to see it!



We are having a brand spanking new shower fitted as I type which will make a big difference to us, we are very much looking forward to trying that out as our last one was a cold dribble so we have been relying on baths. This way we get to do our bit to conserve more water.



There were cherries at the market this week so we made cherry clafouti from Mays edition of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

And the most exciting news of all... we have been offered an allotment!!!! After giving up all hope of getting one this year, we finally got one - hurrah! I'm very excited about this so there will be much more to come soon.

Lemon Curd

On Saturday we made lemon curd from scratch. It's something I hadn't really considered making before, I had thought that it would be really complicated and would require a preserving pan and thermometers and other paraphernalia I don't have yet but it was surprisingly easy. We used the recipe from Festivals Family & Food.
Cameron particularly enjoyed squeezing the lemons



It worked out more expensive than buying lemon curd in the shops, however the ingredients in the homemade variety are few and simple in comparison to the nasties in the processed kind. And the taste... the taste is amazingly zingy and delicious! Well worth the little amount of effort. The recipe made enough to fill two medium sized jars.

A Great Day & Super Power Milkshakes

We had one of those perfect unplanned home ed days today. We got up early and watched the rain whilst eating breakfast, did some woodwork stuff on the living room floor, popped out to the library in a short spell of sunshine but got soaked halfway there by heavy rain and hail stones! We chose some more Enid Blyton books at the library as we are really enjoying the Secret Seven series, collected some school library service books on WW2 that Cameron had ordered, got soaked on the way home as we took the long way to look at what films are showing at the cinema. We came home and had Cameron's favourite (at the moment) lunch of cream cheese and salad sesame bagels and homemade yoghurt, read to each other a bit, I did some cleaning while Cameron made some life sized (sudden interest in using a ruler and accuracy lately) cardboard super heroes for his Camix shop that he set up in the living room last week. Cameron made up a recipe for super power milkshakes which turned out to be delicious. He then played outside for a while and after a great tea (we are absolutely loving the recipes from this book) we had hot milk with honey and cinnamon and finished our latest Secret Seven adventure story cuddled up on the sofa.
We couldn't have wished for the day to have gone better.

Doves for Whitsun

101 Things #10 - Make a Dove Mobile for Whitsun

I have loved this idea since seeing it for the first time in the All Year Round book and I thought it would be a great idea to try for my all year round ring. It was an unexpectedly nice change to work with paper and card but it was also the most challenging thing I've tried to photograph so far (please excuse the cobwebs!).

The doves sway and spin in the breeze.


Not much else to say, I'm very happy with this one!

Finding the positives

We are somewhat lacking in harmony at home right now but I don't want this place to become my moaning blog so I've been looking for positives to share.

An unusual combination of bread gingerbread man shapes, iced in the style of Super Baby Tom

Good morning!

This is the smiley face that came into my room and woke me this morning

I was treated to four chapters of a Secret Seven book. It's rare for Cameron to read to me these days so I cherished every moment.

A fun activity late this morning - Cameron has been obsessed with making ice lately and today he had a go at bashing it and chiseling it with some tools in the garden whilst waiting for his homemade old fashioned rice pudding to bake in the oven.

The Time is Now

I hadn't realised just how inwardly my thoughts had been until we visited the park on Sunday morning. I was tired and grumpy after just getting over yet another dose of the lurgy flu bug and was swinging Cameron round on the round-a-bout when I looked up and around me, took a huge deep breath. The trees were luscious, full and flowering, the grass was dotted with daisies and dandelions, there was a family playing cricket in the distance - as I exhaled I was almost in shock to discover that Spring is in full force and I'VE BEEN MISSING IT!

We have had a pretty turbulent ride so far this year but this wake up call was just what I needed to get back on track. I have so many plans, things I want to achieve, things I want to share with Cameron, things I want to do for myself.

Yesterday morning we headed out to the woods to reconnect with nature and find our place in the order of things again - it was delightful. Flowers and leaves, so many things to point out that were just buds last time we cared to notice.

Beautiful bluebells and the white wild garlic flowers making a patchwork carpet of colour on the woodland floor.

Just breathing the fresh dewy air and hearing the quiet away from the hustle and bustle of town and traffic.

Mr & Mrs Featherstone (our favourite duck family) had 8 new ducklings to show off which was lovely to see. Cameron fed them some bread and loved listening to the little "cheep-cheep" noises they were making.

We picked wild garlic and later on made pesto and wild garlic butter (from scratch - guess who ended up doing most of the jar shaking?!).

The soundtrack to our activities was the Beach Boys Greatest Hits which I bought for Cameron after remembering that it was my favourite album the Summer I was 9. I remember playing it over and over again on my Walkman until I wore the cassette out, and I still remember most of the words!

RIP Tubey :o(

Cameron's pet hamster died sometime in the night last night. We found him this morning when we went to clean him out. It is very sad news at a particularly unfortunate time and Cameron has understandably taken the news very hard.

Goodbye Tubey, you will be missed.

Bank Holiday Weekend

This weekend we spent quite a lot of time at the Waterways festival.

The canal boats were all decorated to a theme (movies, this year) and we had fun walking along the tow path and working out which movie each of the boats were supposed to be. Cameron's favourite was the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Cameron had a go on the bouncy castle

Braved a swing ride (he isn't really into rides so this was pretty brave)

We saw birds of prey in a tent, bought fresh doughnuts, watched a couple of brass bands perform, looked at all the stalls and the farmers market.

Cameron did something he has never felt able to do before in his life - he had his face painted! This was a really big deal for him and once he had managed it he couldn't keep the smile off his face, except for when he was roaring!

On the Sunday evening we went back for the annual illuminated boat cruise where a number of boats are lit up and they travel along the canal from one end of the town to another. We hadn't realised just how many people turn out to watch and were amazed to find hundreds of people along the tow paths and on the bridges.
The boats set off quite late, by which time we were freezing, and we didn't get home til around 11pm - very late for Cameron. He made me take a picture of every boat but a lot of the pics didn't come out very well as people kept walking in front of us - grrr.

This one was the Towering Inferno. A great idea until it tried to sail under a low wooden bridge!

Dusting off the sewing machine

It's been a really long time since I did any machine sewing. My machine and I had a disagreement over tension in January and I'd been putting off sorting it out. This evening I thought I'd have a go. We had picked out some cheap fabric at the beginning of the year because I wanted to have a try at making some Summer shorts for Cameron.

"How hard could it be?" I said to myself. Ha! Harder than I thought, that's for sure!

I never did manage to make a pair of shorts but I did make these snazzy light weight pyjama bottoms instead.

They are far from perfect but an good first try at clothes making considering that I didn't use a pattern. They have a draw string waist because I didn't want to faff around with elastic.

Cameron likes them and wore them to bed tonight but wouldn't pose for a picture with his face in! I think the days where Mama-made stuff is considered cool are numbered :o(