Half term holiday

We've had a mellow week. We didn't go anywhere exotic or do anything superfun (unlike a lot of our friends who jaunted off to Italy, Antigua and elsewhere).

I've been at work as normal and Rhodri has been working on his business as normal, so the kids have mostly been left to their own devices during the day. Rhodri has taken them on small outings nearly everyday though - Tuesday they went swimming at the Triangle in Burgess Hill, Wednesday they went cycling in Forest Row, Thursday they went to the climbing gym in Crawley, and Friday they went cycling again between Forest Row and Hartfield. In the meantime, Rhiannon has been practicing headstands and Tryfan has been playing with his Lego and Skylander dudes.

Posing in front of all the Lego guys with Mama Kitty and Baby Kitty

We've had impromptu visitors and made impromptu visits to other people's houses - this is how fair weather life in Sussex should be! Here is a little video that Rhiannon took of Tryfan and Bruno playing with the Skylander dudes (all but 2 of them belong to Bruno)...

Here are some photos from the climbing and cycling outings with Dad...

  

  

Just a bit of rain

We've had mostly nice weather, but today it did rain a bit.
Auntie Sions took the troops out for a morning jaunt in the forest before getting into her car to drive home. Its been so nice to have her visit, although we did spend an awful lot of time looking at the Freitag website .. but that's a story for another time!

Bank Holiday Monday

Today was a Bank Holiday and also the start of a week off from school. We had a morning of playing cricket in the back garden with Sophie and Oscar, then went into Uckfield so that the troops and Sioned could see the movie "Epic". During this time, Rhodri and I just walked around town. Most of the shops were closed but we got a few bits and pieces of random things that we needed. 

In the late afternoon, we headed down to the Coach and Horses pub because there was an Irish folk band playing and rumors of a BBQ. The rumors were unfounded but it was a fun afternoon anyway.

Friends in the foreground and the band in the background

Me and Sions

We adults set up camp in a choice corner (i.e. with the most sunlight) and the kids played in the playground (out of sight) the whole time. Perfect!

More friends in our corner of the garden.

Bluebell woods

Auntie Sioned is visiting this weekend and what a treat! This morning we went on a family walk through the Bluebell woods at Heaven Farm. This is a place that one pays for the privilege of walking through the bluebells, which seem like a rip off when you consider that bluebells are growing all over the place right now, but our friends and neighbors who have been here all say that it is worth the money and effort so we gave it a go.

Walking through the bluebells in the late morning on a sunny day - the smell was amazing

More bluebells and ferns

This sign was on the path, along with one for "Western Hemisphere" and "Eastern Hemisphere" on either side of this sign.

The final part of the path went along the perimeter of a beautiful field

Rhiannon was carrying Abigail the whole way in her Ergobaby carrier

Bentley was on the leash for most of the journey so he didn't trample the bluebells, but we let him run free in the field

Sioned and Rhiannon

There was such a beautiful wind blowing across the field where Tryfan was hiding and Rhiannon was picking dandelions. I had to scamper off to go spend the afternoon at Forgewood helping Lou, but the rest of the gang made their way back to the farm where they got ice cream as a little treat.

Typical afternoon

Finally spring has really sprung and we've had a bit of sunshine to brighten up our lives. 

Typical late afternoon scene at our house, post-cricket playing

The gardeners mowed a cricket pitch in the middle of the back garden, and so after school the kids and Rhodri have been playing a lot of cricket. But after a session of that, its nice to come inside and just chill out. The 2 boxes of Lego pieces continue to be a source of endless entertainment, as have the Transformer dudes and the [new] Skylander dudes. We love these windows that make it feel like we are still outside even when we are inside.

Musical evening

Tonight I went straight from work into London by train to meet my friend Macha and go see the musical production of "A Chorus Line". We'd been talking about this for a long time and finally she booked us some tickets and we went. I rarely go into London but since we live not that far from the city, it seems like we should make more of an effort. 

A rather blurry image of the cast during the finale

Everything went as planned and I met Macha at Victoria Station at 6 pm, then we found a Korean restaurant to eat in before getting to our seats for the 7:45 pm show. We were in the 6th row and the audience was very enthusiastic about the performance. It was a good performance and I think we'll have to go again and find another show to see in the near future!

A minor disaster

Last night before Rhodri came home from his trip, I wanted to finish off my list of stuff to do. One of the things on the list was to give both Rhiannon and Tryfan haircuts. Normally there is no problem doing this, but actually come to think of it, Rhodri is the one who has been giving Tryfan haircuts for the past few years.

So I didn't realize that T gets really freaked out by the electric clippers... the combination of noise and itchy hair falling onto shoulders makes Tryfan move and squirm and complain bitterly. I was trying to do the job really fast and just get it over with! Unfortunately, I didn't see the blade cover fall off the blade and so accidentally mowed this stripe across the back of his head! 

Poor little guy. When I saw what I had done, I switched off the clippers and went into the other room to get a shorter blade cover so that I could try to repair the damage (as if!!), but when I was gone he looked in the mirror to see the front part of his head (i.e. the part that looked good/ normal) and burst into tears because it was too short and he didn't like how he looked. So by then he was crying uncontrollably and he didn't even know yet about the disaster on the back of his head! I gave up trying to fix the damage and helped him get into the shower. He had a nice long soothing shower, and when he got out I said to him, "Tryfan, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that I'm going to buy you 2 Skylander dudes! You can choose any 2 and I will buy them for you! The bad news is that I made a mistake with your hair and it doesn't look very good. You'll need to wear a hat to school tomorrow and probably for the next few weeks."  

Right then, Rhodri arrived home. Rhiannon had already briefed him on the hair disaster before he came upstairs, but it was still shocking for him to see! Anyway, at least by now things were calmer and Tryfan kept being reminded (and suitably excited) about the Skylander dudes he was going to get from me.

This morning I left for work and Rhodri had the genius idea of showing Tryfan photos of soldiers, then asking if he wanted a real soldier's haircut. This did the trick because he is really into soldiers. So Rhodri saved the day by giving Tryfan a really good soldier's haircut.

 

In the end, he never did have to wear a hat to school and actually none of the kids even noticed! A few of the parents made comments but only in a funny way. I don't think I'll be using the clippers for Tryfan's hair anytime again soon!

Cirque Normandie

The circus came to town this weekend and we went to see it with Lou and her son Finley.

Us with Lou and Finley (who was not that stoked)

This wasn't a circus with animals - it was a European circus with 9 or 10 people: 4 clowns, 4 acrobats, 1 MC and maybe there was another person that was there but we didn't confirm the existence of a 10th person.
Click here to have a look at this really cool circus school!

This troop of people set up the tents and the equipment, sold and collected the tickets, drove the trucks and towed the trailer that held the equipment and everything! Such a cool idea. Their acrobatics were amazing and beautiful and we had front row seats. Then we went home and looked up youtube videos of Cirque du Soleil trapeze acts. 

A little gift

I didn't take this photo, but it is similar to what I saw on my run

Rhodri has been away this weekend, camping solo up in the Lake District for the Keswick Mountain Festival.  The kids and I have had a good time together but Bentley hasn't had much fun**. So I rallied the troops to take Bentley on a walk in the forest this morning with me, and as we were heading out, Mark and Toby's Mum pulled into their driveway a few houses down and offered to have the kids over to play while I took Bentley out. Hurray! So actually I went back home quickly to change into running clothes and Bentley and I went for a lovely run. This was the little gift.

I didn't take this either, but it looks like our section of heathland

Today was forecast to be heavy rain all day, but for this little window it was bright, cloudy, and mild with a little breeze. These conditions mean that the bluebells are nearly fluorescent violet under the budding canopy of deciduous woodland. So we ran through a really beautiful long section of just-budding woodland and a carpet of illuminated bluebells, then out onto the open heathland where the bright gold colored gorse is in full bloom as well.
On this day (and always when the temperature is mildly warm enough and the breeze is just right) the air was filled with the scent of coconut / vanilla coming from the gorse flowers, and it was so wonderful to be in the midst of it before heading back down into the bluebells on the stretch back home.
Thank you Jane for the little gift today!


** ..except for when we were all at Bruno's house on Friday night and had an impromptu reunion with Anna and Ori who have moved schools but their Dad lives next door to Bruno, so all 5 kids were playing together in the front garden for hours and hours while the 3 of us adults sat inside enjoying fine wine and adult conversation. In the midst of all this activity, Bentley went walkabout through the Sussex countryside. When I would suddenly realise that Bentley was no longer laying under the table, I'd go outside and whistle for him, and about 5 minutes later he'd arrive from a different direction everytime!

Jubilee Green party

Rhodri has been away up in the Lake District for the past few days, attending the Keswick Mountain Festival. So the kids and I have been doing our own thing. Last night we went over for dinner and fun at Bruno's house and we ended up staying till 11:30pm! But that's another story..

Anyway, today was the long awaited Jubilee Green celebration here at the Chelwood Gate village hall. The local parish has fairly recently (last year) purchased a plot of land adjacent to the village hall, and called it the Jubilee Green because the transaction happened around the time of the Queen's Jubilee. Anyway, today was meant to sort of launch the official public usage of the land and our friend Mark DF (the one we circulated flyers to try and gather election support for) was the one organizing it.

There was a life-size cutout of the Queen herself, as well as some really good live music, local beer and cider, local sausages, a bouncy castle, maypole dancing, tug-of-war, country dancing and a campfire area where the Nursery school was hosting an area for children to make crafts and cook on the campfire. I got talked into working by the fire for the day and it was just fine to be tucked into a corner of the area, close to the live music stage, and keeping the fire going with my friend Lou.

Maypole with tug-of-war going on in the background and the bouncy castle behind

Tryfan and Rhiannon were jumping on the bouncy castle for 4 hrs and 45 min of the 5 hours we were there! They just took a short break to eat sausages and drink lemonade, and then they were straight back to bouncing.

Campfire area under the oak trees in the corner, with a table of craft supplies behind

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and a lot of our friends and neighbors were there so it was very social but relaxed. I was also thinking all day of my sweet Mom, because today is her birthday! I knew she was up visiting Heidi for the weekend so didn't want to disturb her, but we did think about her today.

Deepest darkest Sussex

I took today off of work and we 4 adults went on a little roadtrip through deepest darkest Sussex. It was a beautiful day and we headed west.

Here is the route we took, first stop at Bramber Castle

 We had a little guidebook with us "Slow Sussex", and it mentioned this ancient castle from 1073 so we stopped by.

Aerial photo of it, with the church in the lower part (still functioning) and the motte-and-bailey castle at the top.

 We were the only ones here and just ambled around looking for a tortoise that was signposted as lost in the area. After awhile, Margit and I tried to not be looking so hard for this tortoise because it is really addictive and distracting to be scouring the vegetation for signs of tortoise movement.

Ambling around the Bailey part of the castle (Motte is the mound in the middle)

Then we got back in the car and headed to Arundel. We knew that the fabulous castle which dominates over the city would be closed (because it was Monday), but we had a poke around town anyway. We literally just walked around the streets and went into the Cathedral , then made our way past the castle to an Italian restaurant for a spot of lunch.

Arundel Castle

It was actually quite a cold and windy day by this time, and we walked out toward the river flats to get a better view of the castle before getting back into the car to start our return journey home.

Self take from the river flats

We had a nice drive back along the south coast and stopped at The Half Moon for a swift beverage refreshment (some nice ciders and ales). I thought we also stopped at Trading Boundaries, but actually I think we did this yesterday after the Bluebell Railway. Anyway, it was a really great day and so special to be able to spend quality time with our good friends. 

Bluebell Railway for the day

We had a really great day today, out on the Bluebell Railway
What a treat! It was a special event today "Southern at War" which featured World War 2 paraphernalia, music, outfits, and even a Spitfire airplane fly-by at Horsted Keynes station.

Arnie and Margit at Sheffield Park station before boarding the train

 We took the train from Sheffield Park (the main station) all the way to East Grinstead station, admiring the blooming bluebells and the beautiful countryside of deepest Sussex.

Inside the train

 We stopped in Horsted Keynes on the way back and had a picnic lunch in a field next to the station which was supposed to be the best place to see the fly-by for the Spitfire. It did eventually fly by and that was mildly exciting, then we went back to the platform to maneuver ourselves into position to get a good seat on the next train.

Watching the Spitfire fly by as promised

A musical production at Sheffield Park station

Bluebells along the Bluebell Railway

Tryfan with his new Baby Kitty

One last thing that happened today is that Tryfan found a Baby Kitty in the gift shop which has the same markings as his beloved Kitty. This little cuddly thing cost £7.99, which is kind of a lot for a little thing but he wanted it so much that he was willing to pay half of it with his allowance money. He probably would have paid the whole amount but I wanted to make sure he got it.

All in all, today was a fabulous day and we all enjoyed every minute of it!

Very special visitors !

Yesterday we were reunited with some really special people from our past: Arnie and Margit Orange. Arnie was especially important and influential in Rhodri's and my life for a lot of years. We had been trying to get together with them either in the US or England for quite awhile now, and finally they decided to fly over and see us for a weekend - all the way from Austin, Texas! We feel so honored that they did this for us!

Walking a roundabout way to the National Cat Centre

 We had a fantastic night last night of just sitting around talking and enjoying each other's company, and then a leisurely morning today. We went on a walk to the Cat Centre (it's got to be seen to be believed) and then ambled on to the Red Lion for some refreshment before walking back home ahead of the rain.

All the bluebells are out right now!

 We had a rest in the late afternoon and then Arnie and Margit treated us to dinner at nearby pub The Griffin Inn. Rhiannon had not been feeling herself for a couple of days now but she was especially grouchy when we were heading for dinner.

Arnie and Margit with the kids in front of The Griffin

 We had a lovely meal there and sat in the pub section rather than the restaurant

Me, Arnie and Margit

 After our food, Rhiannon fell asleep in her seat and eventually moved to a horizontal position on the floor sort of under the table. She is a really good sport because she hardly did any complaining but just sort of checked herself out and slept. Poor thing.

Our table at The Griffin, with Rhiannon sleeping

Self-take with my friends

We got back home and finished the evening with a lovely nightcap.

Bentley's 10th birthday

Today Bentley turned 10 years old.
We had picked up a little treat box for him yesterday at the Forest Row village market and gave him some of the treats today -- a selection of meat and fish flavored gourmet cookies. We think he has been making more groaning and grumbling sounds than he used to, but hopefully that doesn't mean anything bad. He is such a good dog.
We love him so much!