shows and walking

It is all dance around here at the moment, we have costumes arriving and being altered, routines being rehearsed and reluctant highly enthusiastic parents being roped into actively participating in dancing practice. 

The skeleton dance should be fun, they do it in the dark and the coloured parts of the costumes glow. Good luck Faith xxxxxx

I wanted to share these photos of Roghan from this week too. He is growing so fast, his first year is almost done and he is learning and changing so much.

His climbing skills are improving daily...

He can join in harmonica playing with his papa....

He is enjoying his new found skill....

Jo x 

at our place

This week has been, finding the biggest slug ever, beautiful solar with a beautiful tail plaited by faith, laughing at chancer who loves to stop and splash in puddles, getting stuck in to some creative homeschooling, and helping a friend get ready for a fancy dress party, (I sewed that cowprint waistcoat, he went as woody from toy story!).

Jo x 

one small change

Our one small change this month has been really successful. We decided we were all feeling quite sluggish in the morning and finding it hard to get going so we started going for a 'wake up walk'. This is sometimes just 5 minutes around and about if the weather is bad or we have things to do but sometimes if the weather is nice and we find interesting things along the way we can wander along for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. It is a lovely way to start the day and I notice that on the occasional days when we miss our walk, things don't flow so easily.

It has also been a nice opportunity to explore all the little paths and alleyways that make up a town. As we have no route or destination in mind we just follow our feet and when we see a likely looking path, we take it. We have found shortcuts to places we've been going for years, we have found whole new places and we have found lots and lots of dead ends!

Jo x 

up on the roof

We have scaffolding all over our house at the moment and to cut an extremely long story short - we have a rain problem. (Problem being that the rain does not stay where it is supposed to - the outside). So, after 3 years of various workmen, builders and 'friends of friends who are quite handy' coming over, standing about drinking tea, staring at the walls, climbing on the roof and having absolutely no effect on the leaks, I think we finally have some people here who know what they are doing. For starters there seems to be a whole lot more work going on than ever before and they have put a liner in the chimney and installed my long wished for wood burner so they are very much in my good books!

They also let us go on the roof! (I should clarify that after asking if me and Faith could go up and being informed that they are not insured for that kind of thing, I reassured them that I knew they hadn't given me permission to be up there and I was being very naughty and then went up.) It is so beautiful up there, it gets us out of the sea of houses and we can see the real sea and the bay, the horizon, tree and birds. We can feel the wind, hear the seagulls crying and smell the saltwater. I love being up high and I think Faith shares that as she scampers up those ladders with no fear at all. Our house is 3 storeys with a tall loft space above that so it is quite a height.

(I think next time I go up I will get someone to stand at the bottom for perspective)

It was a misty day when we went up but when it is clear you can see st michaels mount in the bay. The scaffolding will be up for another week or so and hopefully I will get a clear day when I can go up again.

Jo x 

poor boy

I have a feeling this is only going to become a more common sight.....

I was referring to the hair clip really but the giant grin and lunch all over the place are fairly common sights too!

Jo x 

lovely letters

We spent some time over the last few weeks doing some lovely watercolour paintings. Just spreading the colours on the page and getting used to the flow and how much we needed to load our brush up and things like that. We ended up with lots of beautifully covered pieces of thick paper, some have been used to make book covers but some were used to make these lovely letters...

Faith had a fun time with them spelling out words and sounds then we had lots of giggles with her laying out lists of letters for me to sound out and inventing words!

The cards really are lovely, I don't think the photos do them justice, the colours are soft and gorgeous.

After our first 6 weeks of more formal schooling we are really enjoying ourselves. How are you other homeschoolers out there getting on?

Jo x 

things to love

This package of gorgeous fabric arrived in the post this week. I am so excited to get to work on it, I think most of it will be used for Christmas presents. It is doubly exciting for me because I usually use reclaimed fabric and so to have a big clean swathe of fabric feels so good to cut in to. I love those little woodland creature fabrics so much, they will become clothes for Roghan.

I am loving the autumn colours that are everywhere at the moment. When we were all out for a walk the other day, I made everyone stop in the middle of a road in the crazy wind so that I could take a photo of these beautiful ivy leaves!

Had to share this picture faith did. I think all children go through the toilet humour phase and faiths pictures and stories are currently full of characters relieving themselves. Love this drawing so much!

So many things to love x 

Jo x

at our place

Been away from this space for awhile, nothing special just enjoying some screen free time, I thought a little catch up from our week would be a good re-start for me. So we have been, playing games, watching a frisky foal (who finally, after much persuasion, gets mum to join in), discovering that mittens (the little black bunny) is a climber, (that is a 2 storey hutch, not an easy thing to get on top of), enjoying some blustery autumn weather, enjoying the ponies having fun, finally visiting the gold postbox, and taking part in dance exams, for which you need to dress up as a rabbit of course.

Jo x 

Note: the gold postbox is in honour of an Olympic gold medallist from our town. Helen Glover in the rowing.