Reptile night

Tonight at Cub Scouts, there was a guy who brought a bunch of snakes and other reptiles for the scouts to hold.

 All the cubs had a fabulous time just walking around the village hall carrying snakes, chameleons, bearded lizards, tarantulas (not quite as popular!) and other lizards. Dan the Reptile man did an amazing job of putting the children at ease and creating an environment that was calm, friendly, and un-scary. He was a one-man show and was surprisingly hands-off with the kids. He just let them pass the animals to each other and trusted the kids to be gentle with all of them. It was quite heartwarming, actually.

Tryfan started out holding the chameleon, but then he formed quite an attachment to "Natasha" who is a python.  Here he is with Natasha round his neck. It was a truly unforgettable evening.

Annabel is here!

.. and her family, too, but it is Annabel herself that I am most excited about seeing!

They arrived last night after some unlucky traveling which had them miss their connecting flight in Reykjavik, then fly into Heathrow rather than Gatwick, then lose their luggage, then struggle to find the right bus to take them to Gatwick.

But they got here safely in the end and I met them at Gatwick while they rented a car, then escorted them back to the house in time to have a late dinner and watch the opening match of Wales vs Russia at Euro 2016.

Today they had a quiet settling in sort of day, and I took a lunch break to go with them out in the wide world or at least to various Interesting Points in the Ashdown Forest. It was sooooooo great to be reunited with one of my bestest friends in the world.

Ashdown Fete

Today was the aftermath of the Ball, and the school PTA was obliged to set up and take down the fete on the same premises. It was a fresh, beautiful day with deeply textured clouds and sunshine. I got roped into working at a stall that was selling lavender plants, and Rhodri was working at the BBQ. The kids were free agents who only came round when they needed more money.

There were loads of different events going on in the main area, and one of them was Rhiannon's class singing songs from their upcoming production of Bugsy Malone. They were rather quiet and seemed shy and embarrassed to be up there singing (fair enough), so hopefully they will turn it around before their big performance in a couple of weeks.

It was a decent enough day, but required a LOT of work and it was really great when it was all finished actually. Tomorrow my long lost friend from high school - Annabel - is arriving for a 3 week stay! Woohoo!

The alternative to the Ashdown Ball

This is the weekend of the much publicized Ashdown Weekend, which happens every other year.
The 2016 event started a few weeks ago with the so-called Fun Run, but the main event was this weekend with the Ball and then tomorrow a country fair/ fete event. Rhodri and I did go to the Ball 2 years ago, but noted at the time that we probably won't do that again. We had actually agreed to go to a birthday party for some guy at the rugby club, but it would have been a big drive and fortunately another option became available!

The owners of Black Pig Orchards throw parties every now and then, and this night was such an occasion. How could we resist a party that is walking distance full of some of our favorite people?! They had a huge marquee set up, a food van serving really great food, a natural swimming pool, and live music. There were also several bonfires going in various fire circles round the property. Many people were camping there, but not us.

As the night grew darker, tea lights and fairy lights came out to decorate round the pool and in the trees. I didn't take any photos, but it was so magical. Several people swam in the pool (though not us) and a few different acts were providing entertainment. It was a proper party. Rhods and I hit the dance floor after our other friends left and it was so fun to be there!

Eventually, reluctantly, we walked home in the moonlight grateful to live in this gorgeous pocket of the world.

The vote to Leave the EU

Wow. Really? Leave the EU?
What a shocker! I wonder what will happen next, but I can tell you that today has been very strange. Its all anyone can talk about, and so many different opinions about whether its a good thing or a bad thing or what is going to happen next. But anyway, there we are. 

The EU Referendum vote

Ever since the run up to the Scotland independence vote last September (where Scotland voted to remain as part of Great Britain), there has been this promise of an EU referendum vote, (aka "Brexit" vote). The vote was promised by David Cameron (Prime Minister) to be sometime before the end of 2016, and some months later the date was set to be TODAY, 23 June 2016.

This topic has dominated the radio waves and the news for months now, as various political and cultural/ social figures have come out to say publicly which side they are on: "Remain" in the European Union or "Leave" the EU. It is a delicate and troublesome topic, because it is so polarizing and drastic in nature, and people tend to have really strong views on it one way or another.

People supporting the Leave campaign tend to talk about migration issues and wanting to have more control in the UK about who can come here to live. People supporting the Remain campaign tend to talk about not giving up on the idea of the EU and wanting to resolve the problems rather than run away and think the UK would be better on its own. We are voting to Remain. But the polls show this outcome to be really close and nobody can predict it at this point. We will find out tomorrow by 6am local time what has happened. Some of our friends will be staying up all night to watch the results come in, but that will not be happening in our house! 

Drama in the skies

This evening the sky was beautiful and dramatic. Perhaps its a hint of days to come, as we have the big In / Out referendum vote tomorrow!

Parents Get Lost (PGL)

Today Rhiannon and her class of Years 5/6 left on their residential trip to Windmill Hill, one of the PGL properties. Here is the Windmill Hill website: http://www.pgl.co.uk/en-gb/school-trips/primary-schools/centres/windmill-hill#.V4Kq1fkrLDc

Someone was REALLY excited!

Getting ready to build rafts

Mr W, the teacher, did a good job of sending regular updates via Twitter, which was entertaining and fun to read.

Elderflower Champagne 2016

This morning started with saying goodbye to our house guests as they started their journey to France for holiday, and then we brought Rhodri some Father's Day presents along with some coffee and toast. We had a lovely start to the day, and it turned out to be a relaxing day overall as we pottered around the house.

The kids and I made our annual batch of elderflower champagne. Our vintage this year started last weekend actually, but we messed up that batch so needed to redo it this weekend. We did a triple batch using this recipe and it worked a charm.

A fine weekend

Today we had two nice things happen: Rhiannon got to jump on Timmy during her riding lesson, and our friends Huw, Fran and Gwilym came to stay the afternoon and evening with us.

 Rhiannon loved looking after Gwil and taking him on the trampoline.

 In the late afternoon, Huw and Rhodri and Jules went for a bike ride and then we all met up down at the Coach & Horses pub. Good times!

Bugsy Malone in London

This evening Rhiannon and I went on a bus trip into London to watch the live performance of Bugsy Malone at the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith. One of the parents at school organized the whole thing because the Year 5/6 "Kestrels" class is also going to be performing this musical at the end of the school year. There were 56 of us that rode the bus, watched the performance, and then rode back home again. It was a long night but well worth it!

We took over the rear 4 rows in the theatre so we were right in the back, but it was so fun. Nearly the whole class was there plus quite a few parents and of course their teacher, Mr. Wilkins.

Chucks unite!

Today after work (it just so happened that I had to work at the London Victoria office today), I met up with my long lost friend from UCSB Rowing days. Her real name is Tara, but I know her as Chuck. She calls me Chuck also, and that goes back to when Thien (our coach) used to call us the Chuckleheads. It was so great to see her and also to finally meet her family: Doug and Chloe!


We tried to talk them into staying with us, but they only had a few days and wanted to be in the heart of the action rather than in deepest Sussex, so Tryfs and Rhiannon made a little video to say hi to them instead.

Anyway, it was a short evening over a Thai meal in Trafalgar Square, but much better than nothing. It's amazing how rejuvenating a short visit with an old friend can be. I'm so grateful.

Haircut for Bentley

Today Bentley got his hair cut by an up-and-coming dog groomer named Sophie.

This photo doesn't really capture it, but he looks SO funny now! He is very skinny and puppy-looking with about 10 pounds of hair shaved off. We think he looks like a shaved sheep. But even though he is a bit funny looking, he seems a whole lot happier and bouncier than he has in a long time. He must have been so hot and uncomfortable before, because now he is bounding around the yard like a real puppy (even though he is over 14 years old now!).

Lego

Tryfan is still big into Lego. Quite often he will just disappear up into his room and get immersed in the world of building stuff and staging action scenes. I came up the other day to see if he was hungry and said, "Ah, it looks there is a some kind of battle going on up here". He said, "No Mom, it's actually more of a siege." Ooookay... I'll just back slowly away then.

Hammocks

Today we worked in the garden most of the day, clearing branches and stuff like that.
We found our two hammocks and discovered that we actually have a place to hang them up now!
This is in the little tree island in the middle of the garden.

The troops hung out and read their books while Rhodri and I slaved away.

Ashdown Weekend fun run

Today was the start of the biannual (every two years) Ashdown Weekend here in the village.
This year Rhodri was roped into being one of the Officials in the 5 km Fun Run around the forest, and so I really didn't have a good excuse to not participate! I haven't done a so-called "fun" run for a long ole time, but this was a nice day for it at least, and it was on my turf. It was really hard but good, and I was stoked with my time of 29:26 in place #35/72. Well, maybe not stoked but at least not disappointed.

Down the field

For the past several weeks at Tremaine's riding stable, Rhiannon has been gearing up in preparation to ride down in the field ("down the field" is what they say here rather than "down IN the field").

She is in the Sat afternoon 3-4 pm class along with our neighbor Mark, and this class is the next level up again from the 2-3 pm class. Their instructor Heidi is really great, and Jane (Mark's mum) and I have made a weekly thing of this class now so that we hang out and chat while the kids are having their lesson. Each week Rhiannon and Mark find out who they are riding only when they arrive to the class. Today Rhiannon rode Cheyanne.

Jumping jumping

The trampoline has got loads of use the past few days. The troops have all had a really good time out there at many hours of the day! 

We were sad to see them all leave today. Boohoo.

Destination: Kew Gardens!

Grandma Bucky has been nagging me for years now to go visit Kew Gardens at the end of May.
Finally, with the extra motivation provided by Nia and her kids, we decided to go make a day of it. Today was a public holiday, and not the warmest day ever but it was perfect for visiting the fabulous Kew Gardens.

In front of the famous Rhododendrons

We took the train from East Grinstead, changed at Clapham Junction to get to Richmond, then changed again to the overground Tube to get to Kew Gardens. Phew! It was fine on our outbound journey, but then when we attempted to get home things took a turn for the worse.
It wasn't that bad, it was just that the trains from Richmond to Clapham Junction stopped running so we had to go back to Kew Gardens and then continue on the Tube all the way into central London to Victoria station, then wait for a train to take us straight to East Grinstead. Sounds worse than it was, actually, because our detour to Victoria meant we could stock up on special treats to eat and drink on the train! Plus this way we didn't need to change trains at all since East Grinstead is the end of the line. A great day

Summer evening picnic

Sometimes the air and the light in our back garden is so special, especially in the summer evenings such as the one we had tonight.

In this case, we seized the moment and took our dinner outside to the picnic blanket so we could soak it all up.

Giant's Chair

We gave the cousins a tour of our local woods and they were really happy to be able to run around and play. Here they are sitting on the Giant's Chair.

Start of the half term holiday

Today was the last day of school for a week. Rhodri hosted a football game as usual for any school kids that wanted to play from 4:30-5:30, and then other parents trickled in with stuff to BBQ and drinks to share.

The evening went on until about 9;30 pm, and it was really fun to gather as friends and neighbors in our local green. The only bummer was that I didn't feel all that well and so wasn't really in a partying state. But it was still fun. Tomorrow Nia is coming with Gabs and Valentin to spend a few days with us. Woohoo!

A near perfect Saturday

Today nothing was planned and everything turned out wonderful.
Emma and I went grocery shopping in East Grinstead during the morning, then later this afternoon we went to the Red Lion where they were serving free prosecco to celebrate a year of being open.
Tryfan and Oscar played Lego for hours while Rhiannon and Sophie went walking with Emma and her Mum.

Then we came home and watched Eurovision 2016 altogether. Fabulous!

Little detour

At short notice this week I went to France for work. It was nice to be out in the wide world.
The 2nd night, I was kindly invited out to dinner with a couple of colleagues. We went to this really cool jazz bar/ Moroccan restaurant. There were fascinating pieces of art and furnishings around the place and we had quite a funny and lively evening.

Two of my colleagues: Pierre and Mostefa

 It was a useful trip and I got to meet some people that I've been working with for a long time but never had been able to meet in person until now. That sort of thing always makes for happy times. The only bummer was that my train going back to London had some sort of problem with it and so was nearly an hour delayed. But we made it in the end and I got home this evening.

More on the green

We are so happy to have the totally usable and friendly "Jubilee Green" across the road from us to go play at whenever we want. Today our friend Bruno had his football - themed birthday party there after school and it was super.

There are picnic tables in the corner of the green, and the playing field is behind with the Jubilee Woods behind again.

Water + trampoline

...+ neighbor we haven't seen for awhile = really fun on a hot day!

Ok, it wasn't Hot, but it was warm enough to bust out the hose. 

The troops jumped and hosed each other while I mowed the lawn. Perfect recipe for a Sunday!

Lemon tart

Tryfan was flicking through the weekend newspapers and found this recipe for lemon tart that he wanted to make, so we gave it a go! The recipe called for a 5 lemons and a lot of zesting and squeezing, but we were up for the challenge!

It turned out a little TOO tart, so next time we might lay off the extra lemon, but it was still tasty. 

Preparing for big school

Now is the time that we have to start looking at options for secondary schools for Rhiannon, since she will need to submit her 1-2-3 choices in October 2016 for starting Year 7 in Sept 2017. Yikes! The nearest secondary school which about 50% of her primary school end up going to offered morning glimpses into normal school days this week, so we 3 arranged to go today to have a look.

The 4 students who took our group of 3 families around did a great job of answering questions and presenting the school. We liked what we saw, and at the moment this would be Rhiannon's first choice.

Boys are back in town

All the rugby boys came back tonight, exhausted from their weekend of playing rugby and staying in a place they normally would not choose to stay.

After hearing all the stories about the weekend, I was really glad that Rhiannon and I didn't have to go!

Bluebell bliss

Today was a gorgeous Sunday and we celebrated the new month by going for a bluebell walk in the wood between Danehill and Cumnor House schools. This particular path is the same one that both Rhiannon and Tryfan's classes walk each week to go up for a swimming session at the other school. As we were approaching the really amazing section, Rhiannon had me close my eyes and she led me to the spot with the best view. Of course, the photos don't do it justice!

This is truly the best time of year and it was such a treat to be out in the perfumed woods with my favorite girl and favorite dog!

Weekends apart - Fri + Sat

This was a long holiday weekend for us, and Rhodri + Tryfs were at a rugby tournament all weekend over in Great Yarmouth (a long way away from us). That meant that Rhiannon and I got to have a lovely stretch of days just to ourselves! First we watched a couple of episodes of our new favorite TV show (on Netflix) called Heartland. Then when it was already past 10pm, we decided spontaneously to sleep on the trampoline.
 We did sleep in the end, and we didn't get rained on, and it was lovely to be out in the fresh air (it got down to 3 C/ 36 F)! We woke up at 6:15 am and went inside for a couple more hours of sleep, which has got to be one of the nicest things in the world. Then we had breakfast and, as it was the most gorgeous day ever, decided to rent a double kayak and paddle around Ardingly reservoir. So great to be out on the water with my girl enjoying the day!

 We did feel a little bullied by the sailing school and also the rowing club because we weren't entirely sure where we were supposed to go or not go. But in the end, nobody got hurt and it was a really enjoyable hour on the water. We celebrated by going to the "Cosy Cafe" in Ardingly and each having an egg and sausage bap, which we waited quite awhile for but was very tasty in the end.

 We went back home and quickly regrouped so we could make it to Rhiannon's riding lesson at 2pm. This week she was riding Gemini.

Then back at home, we did some useful things around the house and had dinner while watching more episodes of Heartland! Our friend and neighbor Jane came over and we watched 2 girly movies: Wild Child and Pitch Perfect. It was such a fabulous and special day - one of my favorites in a long time.