second wave of chaos

The other car arrived late last night, so I unloaded it today and did two or three more loads of washing. I put the tent up in the garden and it doesn't seem to have rained since. Should really bring in the inner tent or it might blow away.
Still pretty exhausted, but calmer. It turned out I had PMT yesterday- just to add another layer of stress to the proceedings. I am that sort of tired today tht I can't be bothered to be stresssed about anything. I spent quite a lot of time trying to top up my mobile phone, which has miraculously come back to life. I hadn't used it since January, when they started charging for the bolt-on I didn't know I had, and became disgruntled that it was seeming a bit expensive. No-one around me seemed to be of any help with this (I live with 3 other adults, all avid mobile users). I finally took matters in hand when I felt the need to communicate and found my land line was still disconnected, despite the bill having been paid ten days ago, or so I have been told. Now the land line is on, but I am having interesting text conversations without it going through that BT thing where it converts it to voice (wierd), but having to text out from the land phone, so people dont know who it is. This has taken up most of my (limited) brain power today.
Am gradually getting the house back to normal. Have put a few more bits in the living room, but need some assistance with piano, etc.
I just finished my crochet hat that I started when camping.
The kids did all sorts of playing today, and a bit of creative stuff making dolly clothes, and an attempt at knitting. All without any input from me, except with the dolly clothes, but this was most unwelcome, so I stayed out of it. Fugs decided to customise his vest and by tea time it was a very small fringed garment, well more of a necklace, really! Hope he doesn't do this to all his clothes. He did find out his vest was much colder that before, LOL!
Just contemplating bigger tents as Elaine has spotted this one in NETTO with 3 bedrooms and a middle bit for £60, which looks pretty good, and Brendan saw some in the Argos sale. Will we go camping again? well, it was quite fun and the kids loved it. Allie has caught a cold, unlike him, but we wouldn't have to be martrs and sta in the rain, but then if we were further from home there would't be much choice. I fancy going somewhere nicer, The campsite we went to wasnt ideal: the toilets were at the far end of the next field, which played havoc with Fugs especially and the facilities were very minimal if you were in a tent- just a tap! And it would be nice to be somewhere nice, I mean I know we are spoilt here, really, but somewhere a bit more remote would be good. And seaside?

this was in the toilets:
"any person failing to pay 50p for a shower will be banned from the site.
Spot checks will be regularly carried out"

at the campsite 

Camping in South Yorkshire

It was the West Yorkshire Home Educators Camp and we were about half a mile beyond the boundary of West Yorkshire. It was my first camping experience with children and, all in all it was good, although we were not ideally equipped for all eventuallities and everything the elements threw at us over the week. But I think we did quite well, considering I had not bought anything especially for this camp, but got by with a mottly collection of old and borrowed stuff. Basically: the tent was not big enough, and although we fitted our overflow into Elaine's more than adequately sized tent, we still had four of us to what is basically a bedroom which you can't stand up in, and consequently spent a lot of time sharing the porch and middle room of Elaine's tent, especially during the inclement weather. Fortunately, she didn't seem to mind too much and always had the kettle on, too.
Friday we arrived sometime during the afternoon, with most of the stuff in Brendan's car, which was to follow shortly. As this included all the food etc, I begun to get anxious when he did not arrive and finally texted him at the house with a request for fish and chips. There was no reply, but he did arrive some time later with the goods as requested.
Saturday was lovely and warm, so after quite a cold night in the tent I sat in the sunshine surounded with loads of coloured wool, scoubies, plastic, tape etc, which was being knitted, crocheted, woven, wound onto sticks and knotted by all who wandered by. This merged into a relaxed barbeque.
Sunday we went for a walk up to see the windmills. The girls cycled back past the resevoir with Elaine and her dog. Later in rained and Tech had a Barbie in her enourmous tent with about 22 people!
On Monday we visited the National Coal Mining Museum, which took practically all day.
Tuesday- I stayed at the campsite and Gill arrived with her girls and gazebo. I lit the barbie and did some sosmix.
Wednesday- we went for a picnic at a river and woods. We had another great barbie in Gill's gazebo, and a bit of a bonfire in a fire bucket.
Thursday: this morning the gazebo blew away and everything got wet. We packed up and left. We knew it was going to rain but we stayed anyway. Crazy.
The second wave of chaos has just arrived and I think I'll go to bed.

Protect Tara

Protect Tara
I just saw this on Tech's blog and felt I needed to pass it on. It is about the imminent plans to build a motorway through the ancient sacred site of Tara in Ireland, within 1km of the Hill of Tara.

lidl pidl

We got back from camping at about 1 o'clock and it has been quite a challenging day. (Will no doubt dig out my camera later and say more about the camping trip.) This morning we were packing up tents in the rain. I called at LIDL on the way back to get special offer air beds- see, I haven't been completely put off camping. (By the way, the knitting yarn advertised at LIDL looks like crochet cotton to me.) I was still soaking wet. Got back. Changed, and Fugs. Had some tea, (thanks, Maeve), and coffee (what I really needed)and proceeded to try and sort out the chaos of the house, by moving some furniture back into the living room. I could go on about the camel-coloured sofa, and the SCRATCH on my new floor, but I haven't really got the energy right now. It's ok now, anyway, although I am now still in the office, due to the cable connection and the lego-traps everywhere else: boy, did they play with stuff when they got back. They were pretty tired and tetchy a lot but I seemed to remain fairly calmish.
Amongst the chaos Jem designed a website on paper and I helped her turn it into a blog, which I thought was the easiest thing to do with it.
Elaine turned up with Jem's bike and I invited them in for a play as I thought it would alleviate the fighting a bit. I didn't realise how tired and hungry I was until I started shaking while I was serving up omlette for the kids, so I thought I'd better have some too. I hope I didn't shout too much about the new airbeds being unpacked and taken upstairs. I was just a bit on the edge.
I got them all in bed by 8.30, which is much earlier than they have been going to bed all week. And I got the fifth load of washing on before they were in bed. I am in anticipation of the second wave of choas brought by the second, bigger carload of stuff, which consists mainly of: tent (wet); airbeds (wet); toys (wet); more washing; pots which need washing up; my guitar (hopefully not wet) and some other sundry camping items which I can't remember, and hopefully not the 4 bags of rubbish.

we're going camping!

Erm, I dont remember actually saying I was going camping ; ) but we are now. See ya there!

wooden knickers

I've just inadvertantly bought myself some wooden knickers - yes! I didn't realise that Modal was made from from wood fibre.

I must just point out that I have not felt bullied into going camping, and that I would only go if if I wanted to. In fact, it was really nice of people to make me feel wanted ; ) I especially liked the song! I was only finding it difficult to think about it as I was really focussed on trying to get the floor finished. Now it is done, which has freed up my mind.

For those of you who didn't see it this was on one of the lists (which I wasn't a member of, but someone forwarded it to me!):
Rosie Rosie won't you come camping too
We need your strumming to
huh um along to
It won't be the same without you
Who'll show us how to Scoubydo?
But we'll be reet
Sat round your feet
If you join us a camping too

Jem had fun with the grahics tablet 

Tree hugging

Went tree-hugging with the Buttons in Hardcastle Craggs today. It was nice to meet them: the children ran off happily as if they had always know each other! Saw some more sculptures, wood ants and bracket fungus. It was raining at first, but brightened up later on. It was a bit of a slog but we got all of the way round this time, taking in most of the sculptures. I think Jayne got more than she had bargained for as I decided to take the buggy again, and she had to drag it round the difficult bits, with the help of her two lovely friends, who were each carrying a small twin. I had to carry Allie some of the way, as he tired himself out walking on the straight paths and then didn't want to walk or go in the buggy. It was quite tiring, and I was glad that I had some leftover curry to re-heat for tea. The children saved up all their bad behavior for when we got back and I was trying to rest/relax- they just jumped all over the place and me, and shoved cushions down the back of my shirt while I was trying to read my emails.
It turns out lots of people have been trying to persuade me to go camping this next week, which I had said I would, but it has come round so quickly! I kind of imagined it in some hazy distant future and now I have about two days to get my head around it and organise stuff. My main concern is about sleeping, as I find this difficult enough in my own bed, and always wake up stiff. I am being a total wimp about this, I know, but I just can't get get my head around it just now. I just want my house back. The floor is not finished, but just needs final coat, which I could do tonight. I really want to get that stove going now its turned a bit cold!

"we have the right to remain silent"

O dear, it's that time of night again

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100%

Punctuation: 80%

Spelling: 60%

Vocabulary: 60%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

out of the chaos...

Will our lives ever be the same again? I had surrendered to the chaos of living without the living room, but I had to get the hoover out to the kitchen floor when a pile of rice crispies was followed by half a packet of sunflower seeds. Brendan spent some of his birthday doing more floor sanding with a new orbital sander he got on a successful mission to B&Q yesterday, where he also got floor wax, a new swing seat, and, elswhere, got the bits to fix Jem's new bike, kindly given to us by E & J.
Allie is here playing ith some of the playmobil characters that Brendan got when he visited his old Uni friends in Sheff. I have thusfar resited all playmobil, apart from pirates for the ELC pirate ship (which has horrible pirates). This partly stems from long ago when I worked at a toy library and the Playmobil ambulance kept coming back with less and less of the bits as no-one could find or even remember what the bits were. Also, the Steiner philosophy that toys that are more simple help to develop the imagination more, and should be made from natural materials. Well, they are fairly simple, I suppose, but still plastic, and there is an ambulance! O well, my attempts at restricting their toys to what I consider suitable are always being undermined! And we already have too much stuff! Still, it was nice of them to think of us, and they have really enjoyed playing with them. (She hastily adds, remembering that he also showed his friends my blog!)
At least we had managed to make a birthday cake. And then I took Jem and Fugs on a foraging mission for barbeque and bonfire stuff. Amazing what you can get in the off-licence, which is about the only shop open late on Sunday afternoon. So, after a slightly stressful bit of organising, we managed to have a reallly nice barbeque, followed by birthday cake and then made a firepit in the middle of the garden. (This was part of B's birthday present: although he dug it himself, I got the stones!) We sat out until it started getting dark , and rained, although we stayed dry under the parasol.

Sports day/ end of term party

Here are some pics of the end of term party and sports day at the Montessori School. The three legged race was quite comical with Fugs and Ben making a brave attempt to stay in sinc. Jem led a rendition of "like the lazy coco-coconut tree", with the rest of her class, and did a composition on the recorder with two friends.
She said her music teacher spolied it (she introduced and accompanied their performances) and for the first time Jem said she was embarrased. I know what she meant about the teacher. Jem is looking forward to leaving but is probably going to "work out her notice" in the autumn. So she will leave just before her 8th birthday. Fug's last day is on Wednesday; all his Montessori friends are going to school in September, but he has said all along he wants to be home educated.

happy birthday Brendan...

You are a Pomegranate...unconventional, unique, and
just a little bit tart...you know how to make a
lasting impression and often do so with your
zest for life...

And this is me!

You are a Lemon...tart, tangy, but with a lot of
zest...you are the kind of person to add a
little zing to the mix of people you
encounter...


What Kind of Fruit Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

...a lemon indeed!

dusk moment

After Allie had fallen asleep I walked over to the window as something had caught me eye. That something was the lights on the hills, which are always there, but they had a watery quality, which reminded me of being by the sea. Some serious weather was blowing in and I stood by the open window, unaccustomed to the welcome cool breeze. A bat circled past, and the moon showed its face for a moment from behind the darkening clouds.

I'm so happy

... because we've finally got our wood burning stove- hurray! I was so excited about the new chimney going on! I watched for ages. I spent the rest of the day trying to decide what to put onto the sanded floorboards (currently covered in old carpet). To stain or not to stain? and what colour? and what sort of stain? I finally sought out some words of wisdom from my dad, wood guru. He said don't use coloured varnish: stain, then varnish as this gives you more control. Amazingly no-one in any shops seemed to have the first clue about the products they were selling. So, anyway, I decided I might as well give the walls a lick of paint while I'm at it, so had a quick go tonight with two useless rollers, until Maeve came back from her web design course and showed me her new website.
Other highlights of the day include going to Lidl where the fruit and veg was FREE, so I piled as much as I could get into the trolley, (which I normally do anyway!) and ended up with 3 boxes of veg plus a box of schooly stuff like notebooks and folders, etc, and a whole boot full of food - I can't get it in the cupboards. We will have to have a party. By the time I had got the shopping out of the car and got the tea on there were multicoloured car-shaped post-it notes all over the car windows.
I still have my really comfy painting dungarees on, which I haven't worn since I was pregnant, but I think I should wear them more often! I could go on painting and/or blogging, but I have to get up in the morning for another busy day ahead: end of term/school leaving party.

We went to school in the woods

Just had to put some more pics of yesterday's trip to the craggs up.
See previous entry for more about the sculpture trail.

Sculpture trail: accessible art?

Yesterday was our first opportunity to go to the sculpture trail at Hardcastle Craggs, Hebden Bridge, as we were busy all weekend and spent all day Monday recovering. We were up quite early, so I thought it wouldn't be too hot. I threw a picnic together and bundled everyone into the car, along with a towel and swimming gear. I did phone up to see how much of the trail we could get round with a pushchair as itis a while since I've been to the Craggs. I was assured that I could do the whole route, even though I was alone with three children, and no, I wouldn't get three quarters of the way round and have to turn back... after all, the place would be heaving with helpful dogwalkers and anyway there were plenty of paths leading back up to the main track. So...yes I did get stuck three quarters of the way round and, yes there were quite a few dog-walkers, one of whom did help me on a particularly steppy steep bit. Everyone else just looked at me with some sort of expression which could have meant any number of things, such as: "you won't get far with that buggy, ha ha", "what does that stupid woman thing she is doing in dog walking territory?", or "Why aren't those children at school, anyway?". So I did find I path that led back up to the main track, "up" being the operative word here: it was more a series of shallow steps, interspersed with steeper steps. Still, I managed: I carried Allie up to the top and went back for the buggy.
I don't think I could have managed the first part without the buggy, as it was over a mile and he fell asleep, and the children were stopping all the time, looking at sculptures, so it took over an hour. We were adopted by an old man from near Skipton, who obviously needed someone to share the expreience with, but that was OK as he managed to blag a map off some returning walkers and gave it to me when we went our seperate ways at the mill. I decided not to go beyond Gibson mill, although there were more sculptures there, as they were beginning to get hungry and we needed to press on to the picnic place, where we could eat, rest and paddle in the water and cool off. They enjoyed this, but also really enjoyed the sclptures, which I though were particularly good this year. Some of my favouites were: "No Parking", double yellow lines painted onto grassy wheel hubs; "Return of the Earth Mummy", a giant recycled plastic goddess;"Morph", a web; "The cycle of life" an installation including bicycle wheels woven with plastic; and "Gyre (rise and fall)", a plywood spiral, which Jem said reminded her of an Escher, as you could walk up and up without going up.
The trail is on for another 3 weeks and I thouroughly recommend it to anyone near enough to go. The art is accessible, in the sense that it is not too difficult to understand, if not accessible with a buggy, except the first half, which is on the main, metalled track. I was quite inspired, but then I always like to see art in a wonderful setting, and it doesn't get much more wonderful than Hardcastle Craggs.

non-stop party weekend

After my lovely peaceful Friday evening I ended up having a totally hectic weekend. I had hired a floor sander as the living room was already out of action and quite dusty after having the fireplace knocked out in preparation for the new stove. I didn't know it was going to be the hottest weekend of the year. But I knew there were loads of parties to go to so plenty of opportunity to get everyone out of the house so the floor could be done. I assumed that a weekend was plenty of time to do one room and B said he was up for it...
I ended up taking birthday girl, Jem's friend, down to ballet on Saturday morning, plus the boys, so as to get them out of the way. In fact I seemed to spend the entire day running children up and down the hill, as after lunch (and putting washing on, and totally clearing the room of larger furniture, piano, sofa, etc, and pulling the carpet up), I had to take them to a children's play, as part of the birthday treat. I had not been looking forward to this, but it turned out to be quite good: a rendition of Goldilocks in song, mime, and dance. So I then dropped them off at the party and went home to see how the floor was getting on. Not great: carpet grippers were still being lifted. (In fact not a lot seemed to be happening to the floor that I was not actually doing myself whilst organising all 3 kids with parties, meals, presents, clothes, etc.) So, after putting the washing out and more in, I helped with the bashing in of nails, etc for an hour or so, while Allie slept in the car, and put more washing out. I then returned to the party, which was, unfortunately, just about over, Although people had already started arriving for the evening party, which was for birthday girl's mum, also birthday girl! So, I stayed for the inter-party lull, which merged into the evening, and the children ended up staying with me until nearly midnight, as no-one (eg daddy, who came later) offered with any real conviction to take them home and put them to bed.
So at 11.30 this morning, I had a bit of a G&T head, which doesn't hurt, but makes things a little slower than usual, I phoned up to find out when the first of today's parties was on. Now! O, well, a little early I would have said, but off we went to a party for 2 year old twins. (Must also say happy birthday to B of The Woodland Path). This also seemed to go on for a very long time, and was full of people I didn't know, and who, if I talked to for any length, ineveitibly had to menton about HE, which sometimes results in a bit of a silence, as if people just don't know what to say. This made me long to be surounded by friends who HE. I don't seem to have seen many HE people lately as there has been a lot of camping and I don't think I can manage camping at the moment with my 3, although I do quite like camping and have done quite a bit in the past.
There was a bouncy castle at this party (I didn't go to the other one as it was a swimming party, which is impossible with 3 non-swimming children- must get this swim-right class sorted out), and boating on the mill pond and lots of quite posh people, and I got to look round the neighbour's garden, which was fantastic, and walked through the other neighbour's barn conversion, which was equally fantastic. I found myself in a conversation with her, agreeing that yes, I too would have to do a self-build if I ever moved house (!?*!) Not that far-fetched, perhaps, as I did grow up in a house that my dad built. But, perhaps, it is a long way from the reality of my situation, in which trying to get the man to do any DIY at all is an upwards struggle, and I can't do it *all* myself!
Which brings me back to the floor sanding fiasco... Well, all the sanding sheets have been used up, but after the many hours that I left the house this weekend, I had to try hard to hide my disappointment that it wasn't finished. I can see, well, some progress and a half dismantled strimmer (total distraction!). He says he will finish it tomorrow. I feel awful for *making* him do it, especially as it was so hot. But he did seem to want to do it in preference to going to some children's parties. So, how many more personalised appliqued bags will I have to make to pay for another day's worth of sander?

sense of wellbeing

We went for a lovely walk this evening. It was just me and the children. It had got warmer and we had had tea up the garden, and everyone was just pottering about and I manged to round them up and put shoes on.. Where are we going? how long for?... I don't know, just a walk... We just crossed the lane and wandered up and found some bilberries, which we had to eat as no-one wanted to go back and get a container. When we got back Allie headed off up the lane and we all followed. He edged around the corner of the gate and onto the footpath that runs along the top of a field. We heard some interesting birdsong: doves and something that Fugs said sounded like someone farting (!) When we got to the field we saw three large rabbits in the next field down, so Allie headed down towards them saying "babbits". Two of them hid, but the biggest one remained, still, and sitting up like a hare and didn't move away. We couldn't get into that field so we stopped there in the corner for a bit, talking to the horse in the field to the side. It was one of the horses that lives across from us. Jem also found an amazing stripy spider on the wall. Fugs asked me what the lichen on the wall was and Allie kept touching it and calling it stars. The fields look really lovely at the moment with all the foxgloves. The big fallen tree is still alive and has grown some leaves. Jem saw a lovely big tree that she said would make a good tree house. We pottered back slowly, not really wanting to go inside. We sat on the wall while Allie played with some puddles on the lane. The sun was still shining but with long, hazy shadows. It all made me wonder how I could ever want to leave this place as it is a little piece of paradise. On the way back I had an incredible sense of wellbeing. I must remember to go for a walk more often. It has been peaceful all evening.

fire and water, continued

Where was I? O yes, Tuesday, I had gone out to escape the soot and dust horror, in the driving rain, and was returning back via a scenic route, avoiding the rushhour/roadworks gridlock, when the car broke down. It was 6 o'clock and we hadn't eaten since our half-hearted attempt at lunch on the wet patio. I called at the nearest house and phoned the rescue service. They came in half an hour and then spent another half hour trying to fix it. He then towed the car home. It was some sort of electrical thing, but a bit of a mystery to all concerned. It was fine yesterday, on two separate journeys, but today it started flickering on and off again and kept stalling. Strange. I still made it to the supermarket and back with all the shopping, although I didn't dare stop on the way back, and was quite stressed at the thought of breaking down again. The radio won't work now and I can't remember the code.
Anyway, we continued to be harrased by British Gas until last night, when they seem to have finally accepted the payment. It turns out that the sort-code details had been entered wrongly when paying the bill by internet. Also there had been some confusion (for the last 4 years) as the name of our house was two seperate words on one account, and all one word on another, although there is no other house with the same name in this country, probably the world. Argh! (Why doesn't somebody tell someone, somewhere, that computers cannot do the job of people as they make even the stupidest mistakes that have ridiculous knock-on effects). I don't even want to go there as to why the bank details were wrong. Especially as today I got a letter from the bank saying that my mortgage payment had been sent back. I had entered the sort-code details wrong- woops. I tried to pay it again but I couldn't log in as, although I had finally remembered my password, I could not answer the security question: what is your favourite meal or restuarant? what? I can't answer that! I dont remember even giving an answer to this question. I hate all this. The amount of stress generated by just trying to live just makes me want to run away to Tierra del Fuego! New Zealand seems suddenly appealing, as does Ireland, and Cananda.
So, what I can't work out is, with all this going on, fire and water, confused energy systems, mixed-up communications, what is the world trying to tell me?

Fire and water

Feeling somewhat frazzled after the whirlwind events of the last two days, compared with the realtively boring weekend, which mainly consisted of staying in as Jem was feeling a bit poorly. Although we were visited by some friends and relations. We managed to get out of the house on Sunday an walk down to have another look at the Quentin blake exhibition with the Ilkley cousins, who kindly brought rather nice cast off clothing for Jem. I also cleaned out and moved the fish, in anticipation of the choas that was to follow...
Monday we got the new dishwasher-horray! and it works! We also got visted by the man from the gas board threatening the cut off the gas (boo!). I said good job we are getting a new soild fuel stove then-ha ha! It was totally their fault as they has sent back the payment twice. I hate British gas. I hate those adverts that say wave goodbye to our engineers. They dont have engineers- they're contracted out to cowboys and won't come back and fix dodgy workmanship.
Anyway, I must have found all that pretty tiring as I was in bed by 9 o'clock, but was awoken at 10.30pm to move the stuff out of the room ready for the fireplace work. I shouldn't have got up as I wasn't in any fit state and managed to get into a horrible row and went back to bed after not moving anything except a couple of sticklebricks. By 8.30am, when I came down for my porridge, it was mostly done. The workmen arrived at 11am and took out the gas fire and knocked out an inglenook fireplace. It was madness to stay in as things were getting covered in dark grey dust, especially the soles of the children's feet, but it was all very interesting for them. We ate out lunch on the patio in the light drizzle to avoid eating soot, and retired to the office for a bit (btw, that is a room in the house that should be called the study or something, but we're not posh enough to have a study...drawing room, perhaps?). I finally snapped and decided to go shopping for a new skirt for Jem for her friend's party and because she hasnt really got a skirt and I thought it would be nice if she did. This bit went very well, as we went straight to New Look and found exactly the right kind of skirt in the sale. Then Allie did a poo, and I remembered what it was like to go shopping with young children.
so he's woken up, now, so I'l have to finish off tomorrow.

LIVE 8 � The Long Walk to Justice

LIVE 8 � The Long Walk to Justice: "Every single day, 30,000 children die, needlessly, of extreme poverty."

der da dod

Had a great day making a large cake in the shape of a house for Fug's teacher's party. I say that, as it seemed to take all day, although some of that consisted of messing about with pea sticks and bean poles in the garden and then quickly having to wash the mud off my hands to check on the oven (baking and gardening don't mix all that well, do they?). By the time it was nearly ready I couldn't work out what was mud and what was chocolate on Allie. I came back in the kitchen after switching wash loads to find him covered in cocoa- he was determined to join in the cake mixing and had grabbed the nearest things he could get. He kept saying "der da dod" in the intonation of "o my god" which I had not said, but I think Fugs must have said it!

Maeve finally had her brace taken out today! She will get a retainer to wear at night, but has been looking forward to eating corn on the cob.

Fugs realised he could make the number 4 and letter A out af a piece of pampas grass. When I was icing writing onto the cake he recognised the capital A. (I hasten to add that I most definately had no time for teaching him to read today, good job he is doing it himself ;) )