Working

Tom sieving stones out of the new veg patch.
And Annie too, some of the time.
Snuggly doll for Katya Laura Cairns made from a very soft brushed cotton sheet slept on by Alice, Annie, Tom and Bobby among others.

Birch Leaves

Pattern

Nothing Day

Put your head on one side and gaze on the Apple person Annie made from Bramley peel.

New Trombone

Spinning

I did some too, It was great, now to ply it and then knit it...

Cherry blossom and light
Love and Light
Spring Greens
Cherry blossom and sky, poor cherry tree.

Annie's 6th Birthday

My Baby is 6, how can that be?

Sandpit

Sandpit, thanks Julie and Kevin (on loan until the bump needs it).

Fimo landscape with tree.
Spring Table, pussy willows from Carcant

Savoy Cabbage

Greens, light

Scooter Rescue

The scooter was bent and has now been cannibalized so Tom's scooter works. Second scooter rescued from Mains Burn

February Callens Edge

Bliss

Caught Up

Today we cleaned and cooked - biscuits and soup. Tom and Annie washed up tea. Tom started painting a mug. Annie started making a castle. I did my exercises and we watched extreme pilgrim. Religions are much more alike than different. Where did the day go?

Christmas Day 2007

Cockleroi

Off to get the Christmas Tree.

10th January

Count the candles, the extra bright one is in fact two so Tom is now 8. The candles are stuck in the usual chocolate fudge version of a Landrover going through a muddy puddle.

Snow

Snow at last and much was made of what did fall. Off to the zig zags and whoosh.

Duplo Town

Feeling a bit better, desperate for the feel of wind on my face. The garden and lots of warm layers call. Tom and Annie have created an intricate 'Town with Farm' from the Duplo. Hours of construction and play.

Two Mummy in bed bugs , a trip to London and a visit from Grannie. What a weird month. The picture of us was taken by a woman (why didn't I ask her name) on a business trip stopping over between New York and home in New Dehli. Thanks you.
Fantastic trip to stay with Cousins to be repeated I hope. Very brief Visit from my Mum better come back soon.
Now to be picked up by Mary. What a friend!
On Tuesday Adele and Co came to our rescue then on Wednesday Mary whisked the children off in the evening and gave us food for Thursday. I am very lucky.
Now for high power vitamins and good health til christmas.

A Slice of Ice by Tom :: Feeling his penguins needed a home involving ice slides Tom has made one. Luckly not being put off by my attempts to 'help' he was finished in an hour or so.




The Big Draw:: Callendar Park Gallery :: Tom, Annie and I got stuck in with collaberative art for a couple of hours with Karen Kirkwood and Ewan Robertson. Starting wild, formless and messy, swaping work, reforming and pulling in - composition, rhythm, framing, boundaries, focal points, texture and more mess. Liberating art, discarding the impulse to protect our work from the gaze let alone marks of others we made stuff and set off home to do more.

More Sunshine

Annie has wanted to do painting for days and here we are sidetracked again by gummed paper pictures. And here is Annie modeling hers. How do I rotate these pictures? The camera has gone loopy - or I have - Hmm.

Jake dressed up as a monster by a fire.

The 'Map Man' inspired theodolite in action mapping the road in front of our house.

Up the maple tree again, pushed up there by Tom.

Sunlight through the leaves framing Tom.

We also bounced ball sand cleared a room for a carpet. T and A played a long hospital game with a 100% cure rate. Another Lego quarry has been made then converted into a toy with a train lift by my poor boy who's parents don't buy him battery toys. Now to sort out the un-rotated pictures and put the children's bedrooms back together more cosy and tidy than ever before. Well at least with carpets not covered in nameless muck with cut out bits of the worst bits of muck. Off to arrange beauty.

Autumn Lovelies

My Acer palmatum dissectum seedling 4 years old I think found with two tiny leaves at Callens Edge and transported north then nurtured.

Can you spot the children? Two days of blue skies and warm sun, mmm (contented purring noise).

Egremont Russets nearly ready to eat. Too beautiful to eat.

Knee Trauma

"This is Annie. My knee's sore. It's got two plasters on."

Catch up

Mountain climbing near Crianlarich

Very clever horisontal stilt walking Grannie Minehead.

Butterfly Cakes
Crab Apple Jelly with Grannie Millgate

A few shots from the summer

Back to normal. Matty at his new work the children and me at home back into some sort of a daily rhythm. We've read stories, painted, read poems, started to make a theodolite - Tom, prompted by watching Map Man with a 200 year old brass model- he also traced a world map, talked about autumn, collected and sketched autumn fruits and leaves. Still need to have our 'we've not gone back to school' celebration (or is that a little negative?)

Millgate Easter

Easter at Millgate, Pace eggs, Easter Nests, Egg cups, Easter egg hunts, La'al Ratty, Cousins, Wasdale, lovely hot sunny weather.... and I can't get my photos to upload.

Saline

Off to Saline to try permaculture. Much discussion tea drinking and playing later we had covered several patches of earth with compost, well rotted manure, straw and cardboard. Some cluelessness about what to do with seed that need to be scattered. Some gentle planting of little seedlings by little hands. What will the survival rate be? Note Annie really does have a halo, some enhancement by static electricity I suspect.
Potatoes to be grown in a bag. Planted carefully by Tom.