Crafting and Gardening

Well O has managed to return to work, light duties and short hours at the moment, tiring but seems to be coping. I was worrying that it was too soon, after major surgery and every time he has come in from work I have quizzed him on how it was, how he feels and the same next morning. Luckily he knows it's because I care and worry about him not because I don't trust his ability to do the best for him. He has got a bit fed up with recovering, especially as he is normally very active but the advantage is he has been home a lot more and has been teaching L to play some new board games, mainly guess who and junior monopoly. It is lovely to see all 3 sat round a table playing together and rather impressed with how quickly L has picked up the rules of the more complicated games.

As the weather has warmed up, thought it was about time I finished knitting a cardi I started last year, I put it away at the beginning of December to concentrate on Christmas crafts, then started knitting a blanket, which I am still working on. I've enjoyed knitting this pattern but really dislike picking up all the stitches for the button borders, really do like the patterns where you knit it all in one go.

Now I have been working through my fabric stash but when a friend said she had some fabric for me that she had sorted out, I couldn't say no! One of the fabrics was beautiful floral cotton, so far I have made L a sun hat, some cropped trousers and have cut out some short sleeved pyjamas in it. There is some left, not sure how much, probably enough to make some doll clothes.

The weather has been a lot warmer the last few days, we've had a couple of days of rain but the rest have been sunny. We have enjoyed more than one trip to the park and been planting more seeds, the cucumbers that we planted last week are doing well, these are the ones for the greenhouse. The outdoor variety are still to show any signs of life, the same as the tomatoes, hopefully soon they will poke their little heads up above the soil. We've been up the allotment and cleared the old strawberry patch, they have produced some lovely strawberries over the past few years but the last year they were struggling and have past their best, so time to dig them up, dig some new compost in, ready for some fresh new plants. We have mixture of new plants ready, some we have bought, some from the runners I planted up last year and some we are growing from seed, though at the moment these are tiny little plants, that have only just produced their first true leaves. It will be interesting to see how they all do and if there is a difference in the amount of fruit each plants produce.

I am still reading and thoroughly enjoying Braiding the Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer, I have come across a couple of you tube talks by her, she talks a lot about the honourable harvest in her books but it was great to hear an actually talk about the same subject. The book is very thought provoking, if you have an interest in nature, ecology and the knowledge and believes of the indigenous people, then it is very worth a read. I have discovered she has written one other book called Gathering Moss, it will definitely be one that I will try and get a copy of when I have read this one and a couple of others of the pile I have by bed.

Linking up with Frontier Dreams and Small Things

When I was a child, I had a junior school teacher who, in the warmer months, would take us outside for story time, we would always sit on the small hill that had two weeping willow trees and listen, the one book that stayed with me was Wind in the Willows, there was just some magic about the book and reading it under the willow trees. Always loved the book and loved reading it too my older chidlren

Northern Lights

Our story today from A Year Full of Stories is The Bird Wife an Inuit tale, so as normal we read the story, talked about the illustrations, the loved this picture from the book and decided to try and paint it themselves.

We then spent some time looking at photos and short clips of the northern lights, then used chalk pastels to recreate this.

While researching a bit more about the northern lights, M and I came across this website which contains a simple description on how and why they occur and also 15 stories from different indigenous tribes, which I found very interesting.

Busy Monday

Managed to finish crocheting my bunnies, so have some pretty spring bunting, the girls asked if we could get some daffodils when we did a food shop at the weekend, so added those to a simple early spring display. We have spent a lot of time comparing them to the ones in the garden and why they are flowering quicker. As well as cutting one up to show all the parts of the flower.

Using some left over wool, knitted a daffodil, might make another one, originally thought I would make a spring wreath but don't think I will have time for that this year, have a few sewing projects planned and knitting to finish of.

As well as dissecting a flower, they also spent time drawing a daffodil and talking about the parts they were drawing and the jobs they have.

Enjoyed a game of dominoes

Introduced them to the Princess game, which is great co-operative game, they have to come up with story ideas how to use different objects to reach the princess before nighttime comes and the castle is locked up for the night.

We had lovely sunshine here on Monday even if the wind was bit cold, decided it was perfect for a walk in the woods. We dropped a a new baby present of on route and got to see my friend's granddaughter for the first time, only a few days old and very gorgeous. The children headed straight for the stream and enjoyed paddling in it, L enjoyed splashing but then lost her wellie, ended up standing on one leg, while I went a got it, luckily it had landed at the edge of the stream and caught on some twigs, so it was still fairly dry inside and she can balance well on one leg!

They discovered this tree and spent time telling stories about all the creatures that might live there and the fairies who had built there home there.

You can just about spot the robin in the photo bellow, there was more than one singing away as we walked through the woods, finally spotted this one and we stood and watched him sing and wash his feathers. They also spotted some blackbirds and pigeons, as we were listening to the different songs they asked what a crow sounded like, so when we came home, I searched the RSPB site for them to listen to. The interest in crows comes from the Orchard game we play regularly.

Returning To Normal

Life came to a bit of sudden halt here, O is now home and on the mend but this was after a stay in hospital. He had been fighting of a sore throat for a while and on the 12th came down with stomach cramps, assumed he was getting a stomach bug. The pain was worse the next day, so phoned the doctors and he was seen that evening, this resulted in a trip to A&E, with suspected appendicitis. They kept him in over night, with the plan to operate the next morning. I spent the day in hospital with him, the op was delayed as there were emergencies and he finally went down to theatre at 2pm, I left the hospital with instructions to phone the ward after 3.30 to see how he was doing. Well the phone went at 3.30, had the surgeon saying O is now stable but he is in ICU, his spleen had ruptured, which they had to remove and he had lost over 4 litres of blood. The next few days were spent with hubby and I alternating our time sat with him at hospital, the care he received in ICU was amazing and even the care on the main busy ward was fantastic. We are still waiting for the results but they think his spleen ruptured due to a rare complication of a sore throat virus. I am blessed with some amazing friends, I was in two minds whether to facebook what had happened or wait till he had recovered. I am glad I did, it meant we had some lovely messages of support but also of those saying when they were free and could look after the girls, made life a lot easier, as I knew who I could ask and what day. Luckily he was so fit before this happened, all those hours in the gym has meant he is recovering well and is hoping to return work a lot sooner than the hospital said too but this is because his manager has said he can go back to light duties and will work around he his capable of. All my meal prepping and freezer stocking has been a blessing as none of us have felt like cooking from scratch, plus we weren't all home together for a meal, now need to think about restocking the freezer.

In the midst of all this, I came home one day to spot our snowdrops had flowered and our seedlings had all started growing, probably not at exactly the same time but I noticed them all on the same day, it was the same day that O was moved out of ICU and onto main ward, so a lovely positive sign.

Two weeks without any crafts being done is a long time for me, just not had the head space to concentrate on it, so know things are returning to normal, when you finally decide that the soft, stripey jersey that has been sitting on top of your fabric pile can be made into pyjamas. Ended up adapting leggings and a top pattern to make them, L is very pleased with them and has asked to make a bigger size so she has a pair to grow into. Even hubby says they suit her but as I was cutting the fabric out he thought they would end up looking some dodgy optical illusion but actually once they were made they look pretty good. Now looking at some floral fabric and trying to decide what to make with it. It is so good to have O home, his sisters have missed him loads, he is now trying to see how many games of monopoly he can beat me at!

Gardening and Science

We enjoyed a dry morning in the garden, there was a light frost and the children discovered some ice. They collected up a small pile of ice and then enjoyed trying to stamp on it, laughing as the pieces escaped and sometimes crunched under foot, they are really enjoying exploring the different noises they can make within the natural environment. We planted some seeds, sweetpeas, I told the children I love these flowers and they smell lovely, when their parent collected them later they told them we had planted smelly seeds, did make me giggle. We've also planted some aubergine seeds, this is the first time we have tried to grow these, so will be interesting to see how they do, then lots of onion seeds. For our windowsill garden we've planted some more basil seeds and some salad leaves, was planning to do some spinach seeds but couldn't find them in our seed box, so will need to have a thorough sort through, there are rather a lot of packets in the box!

Little ones were fascinated with the idea of a mini greenhouse aka a part of a plastic bottle, the other part we have used to plant seeds in.

We decided to try another Mel Science kit, this time Seaweed garden, did produce rather effective looking seaweed.

After lunch they enjoyed some painting, followed by lots play with dolls and building lego houses.

Chinese New Year

Our story last week from A Year Full of Stories is from China, just in time to look at Chinese new year celebrations, all the children here love the dragons and stories I have collected to read. Two of our favourites are The Runaway Wok and The Magic Paintbrush, they are beautifully illustrated, enjoyed by a mixed age group and raise lots of different questions, should the wok take from the rich man, or is it still stealing. The Magic Paintbrush, is told in verse, the children love the rhyming and again the story brings about many discussions. I googled pictures of Chinese dragons and the children choose one they wanted to base their paintings on, they added fireworks and people enjoying the celebrations.

Drawing of lanterns and people celebrating.

L found a picture of a winged horse which she decided to copy and then made it into a unicorn

She has also been practising her writing, I hadn't planned to do anything involving learning to read and write until she was at least 6 but she has changed my plans and is desperate to learn to read.

Before Christmas I had to make the hard decision with reference to my work, home education and decided that M needed more help and support with her work especially as she wants to take her exams. So with sadness I decided to cut down the days I am working, so I can concentrate more on her needs, this meant I had to give notice to one of my lovely families. So this was their last week with me, so an emotional time, we will hopefully stay in touch, their leaving present was this beautiful bouquet of flowers, they look and smell divine.

I finally stopped procrastinating and did the buttons on the waistcoat, one practise go and decided it was now or never, very thankful they turned out perfectly and looks lovely on the little one it was made for.

Now time to make something simple, so crocheting some bunnies for spring/Easter bunting. Joining Ginny at  Small Things with Yarn Along

 On the reducing our waste front hubby and I are trying out two different shampoo bars, the one I have smells lovely but I was left with really frizzy hair. Having done some research and read that rinsing with water with some apple cider vinegar in it can help, this seems to of reduced the frizz, fingers crossed it carries on working. Not sure what hubby things of his one, he will probably reserve judgement until he has tried it a few times. Hoping this week to have a couple of dry days so we can get outside and start some planting, space has been cleared for the seed trays int he back porch but not got much further as we had rain most of the week. Which has meant some lovely walks and puddle jumping with the littleones.

Leaving you with a little thought to ponder on