Rainforest Play

Rhiannon's class put on a play this week and Rhiannon was one of the main characters: Boss #1.

Several people came up to us after the performance to comment on how convincing Rhiannon was as a demanding boss! "Give that girl a job!", said one lady.

Springtime

This is the BEST time of year. Things are slowly coming back to life and it is so magical here in this landscape - the green is so lush and bright, and trees still mostly naked but starting to bud.

This is not a special landmark, it is just a typical view of these country lanes. 

Bristol weekend

We just got back from a really great weekend in Bristol, staying with Gaz and Rachael and also visiting with Huw and Fran and their new baby Gwilym. We arrived on Friday night around 9pm and tucked the kids into bed, then stayed up late chatting with Gaz and Rach. Then around 8:15 in the morning on Saturday we heard the kids outside on the trampoline.

View of back garden with kids bouncing on trampoline

 It was the most gorgeous spring day ever - perfect to sit outside in the sunshine drinking tea and later, eating lunch. Gwilym got happily passed around to various adults to hold, and Rhiannon also got a good dose of baby carrying and cuddling time.

Huw, Rhodri and Gareth

 In the afternoon, Huw, Fran and Gwilym had to go somewhere else, but the rest of us went for a really great walk in "Leigh Woods", which was across the Clifton suspension bridge. There was an exhibit called "Withdrawn" that opened today which consisted of 5 old fishing boats stranded out in the middle of the woods. Nobody was allowed to climb in or on the boats, so that was a bit of a disappointment to the kids, but not the end of the world. 

 Saturday night we gave the kids dinner and then later on we adults had dinner. It was a really great night! Sunday morning the troops were all out on the trampoline around 8am, laughing and screaming in joy and waking up the entire neighborhood I'm sure! As my Grandma Bucky likes to say, "Not my problem...".  They sure had a great time!

Hugo, Josh, Rio and Lil T having breakfast

We ended up leaving around 10:30 am to drive back home, and that was a good plan. Actually we stopped along the way to buy Tryfan some new shoes. All in all, a great weekend!

Woodburner

Now that the winter is over, our woodburning stove has been installed! Better late than never...

We had a nice bottle of sparkly to celebrate this grand day, and it was really great that Auntie Sions could stay this many days with us. She is leaving tomorrow but its been such a fun week having her here, especially since we got to spend a couple of evenings listening to her stories of Uganda (she just got back from a 3 month visit there!) and seeing photos of her adventures and the people she met. In fact, she has a lovely blog: http://sionedslittlestories.blogspot.co.uk/

The Easter Rug

For the past 7 or 8 years, we have been topping up the Easter Egg dye on this fabulous Ikea rug of ours. It has become an annual tradition after we accidentally spilled dye on it while we were renting a house in Norway and had to buy the owners a replacement rug. Isn't it beautiful? Once the floor finishes curing in our dining area, I think it will resume it's spot under the dining table.

Here are Sioned and Rhiannon making their wishes and pouring the last pots of egg dye on the lucky rug.

The New Nest

Setting out on our adventure

A few years ago at Easter time, we got together with the Spackman family and built a nest in the forest for our families to sit in and spend time together in. Unfortunately this nest was bulldozed by the Ashdown Forest Conservators in their attempt to keep silver birch from taking over the forest, so we decided to built a New Nest. Our friends Max, Nicky and Philip happened to be visiting this morning so it was a perfect opportunity to go play and build something. I took this whole day off work so that I could participate in this long-awaited day of building.

We found a new spot to build on at the boundary between the woodland and the heathland in a stand of Scots pine trees.

Rhods, Rhiannon, and Auntie Sions with Max, Nicky and Philip

 Soon the Spackmans joined us and we were 10 kids and 4 adults building this awesome den/ nest/ luxury hotel.

Site at the edge of the open heathland (light green in the background)

We enjoyed a little picnic before heading home for real lunch. It was really fun and we hope that the bulldozers stay away! They should, since there are no birch trees in this area.

Wilderness Wood

We joined three other families at Wilderness Wood today and had a grand time playing and running and walking lamely (ok, that was just me) through the woods. It was a gorgeous day too! All the kids ran around like a pack of feral wolves and they were really fun to observe.

Easter 2015

We had such a lovely day today! It started very early when the kids woke up to find clues beside their beds leading them on a treasure hunt through the house to find the Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny had left for them. Then we had breakfast and went our separate ways - Rhodri went on his annual Easter morning bike ride with his cycling homies, and the kids and I joined Cat and Bruno at Danehill church for the Easter service.

A real lamb called Pebbles in Danehill church!

As part of the sermon, the vicar had a real lamb brought in to demonstrate the "Lamb of God" concept: he had all the kids come up to the front and then asked them if they were afraid of the lamb, then explaining that Jesus was the same as Pebbles - not someone to be afraid of, but gentle and easy to love. The analogy got a little confusing when there was talk later of drinking the blood of Jesus and eating the flesh of Jesus (i.e. the whole wine and biscuits thing they do in church sometimes), and the kids were really grossed out at this. At one point I looked over at Rhiannon and she was making vomiting faces and gestures in her pew alongside the 4 boys she was with (Tryfan, Bruno, Thomas and Jake). The analogy was further confused by the knowledge that we were going to have lamb for dinner, when Tryfan asked if we were having lamb because we were eating Jesus....
Anyway, it was a memorable church service!

Jake, Rio, Tryfs, Thomas and B at Danehill church

After the service there was an Easter egg hunt outside on the grounds around the church. Of course, our collective gang of relatively big boys managed to get out the door before the littler kids and quickly scoop up all the easy chocolate eggs that were hidden. But then a cap was announced of only 6 eggs each, so the boys had to re-hide the eggs that were above their quota. Rhiannon was her usual sweet self and hadn't joined in with the boys but had befriended a little girl and held her hand while helping her find eggs.

Then we went home for a light lunch to be followed by Easter dinner. Auntie Sions arrived at 12:30 pm and we had such a happy reunion! After lunch the sun came out a bit and we all worked in the back garden - bit of a spring cleaning and tidy up - then played football (soccer) at the Jubilee Green before coming home for dinner. Rhiannon and I made the trifle made famous by Grandma Bucky, which turns out to be online also though it was originally published in the Dec 1991 Bon Appetit magazine: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/english-chocolate-trifle-with-apricots-and-raspberries-2832. It was sooooooo good.

The monster trifle made with white chocolate custard and other yummy things

The only bummer was that I sprained my ankle playing football (it made an impressive clacking noise!) and so I need to lay low for a few days now.

Moving back in

Hurray! The floor is finished and walkable now, so we are moving back in. Here are some photos for archival purposes.

Our first dinner back in the dining area (i.e. no longer in the hallway)

The woodburner will be installed next week, and the floor still has a few weeks to cure completely before we can put some rugs down, but we are getting there!

Anniversary #16

Today was Good Friday and also our 16 year anniversary! It was a rainy day and we worked around the house for awhile before the kids and I nipped into East Grinstead to do some shopping. The main road into town was closed because of a choral gathering, and so we walked and saw the parade of people following a man carrying a cross.

Troops in front of cross-carrying parade to choral gathering

Later on in the afternoon we dyed a bunch of Easter eggs. It is a bit annoying that we can only get brown eggs here in Britain because they never turn out as vibrant and lovely as good ol' white American eggs. Oh well. We had some fun anyways! I taught the kids about the color "skybluepink", which was my Dad's favorite color. My memory is that he would spend a lot of effort and care in coloring at least one if not many of his eggs this special color. Again, starting with a brown egg and trying to get it to become the color of skybluepink is very difficult, but it was wonderful to spend time trying, especially since I got to do it in his memory.

Dying Easter eggs from the dining table in the hallway

Our favorite babysitter Lauren came over around 7, and Rhods and I went to the pop-up brewery called Hop Yard which is down the road in Forest Row in an old industrial warehouse. It was a bit of an epic night! We sat in a converted bathtub on a little stage and drank craft beers while watching the local wildlife. There were all sorts of people here - from elderly citizens to young families and everything in between! We actually saw a fight between two ladies (I know!!) which was a bit hilarious. We also got to have tasty local burgers from Tablehurst farm which was a special treat.

Rhods in the bathtub at Hop Yard

View of the "scene" from the bathtub

So all in all it was a very Good Friday!

The end of March

Last week the school term came to an end on Fri March 27th. There is so much going on at the school right now and I think every single person sighed a huge sigh of relief on Friday afternoon as the Easter holiday period kicked off! Rhodri has been away since March 19th and he returned late this evening as well. We had a very good weekend organizing our house and getting ready for the final stage of work on it, which involved sanding and then sealing the floor...

We have had to be verrrry careful on this floor and not walk on it. So in order to get to the kitchen, we have to walk around the outside, but at least we have a door to use over there!  Rhodri has been working really hard and even waking up at 6:30am on the weekend in order to get coats of tung oil down. Anyway, nearly there now!

Our first stall at the village market

We have been talking about selling our concrete art projects at the village market for a few months now, and today was the day we took action! Sophie spent the night last night, and meanwhile Tryfan went to their house to stay over with Oscar. It was a pretty good arrangement all around, cause the boys got to play Skylanders and the girls got to watch a film that the boys definitely would not have been allowed to watch (Pitch Perfect). All good!

In the morning, we packed up all the functional concrete artwork carefully into a roll-along suitcase, and we walked to the village hall to set up. I sent the girls on ahead to find someone to talk to, as we hadn't reserved any space to set up our wares ahead of time (despite trying quite hard to do so). The Lady-In-Charge was Not Impressed, although she reluctantly let us set up on this huge table near the entrance. The cost was £20 to pay for a table for the market which ran 10-2 on this day. This seemed pretty steep, but having gotten this far, I was willing to pay. However, as the day wore on and we received very little traffic to our table, the lady took pity on us and reduced the price to £10, then eventually waived it altogether.

In the end, we did manage to sell a single item which was our "Eggbox", retailing for £3. Our neighbor Susie bought it and we were so happy! So all in all, those were 4 hours that I'll never get back. But there are worse ways to spend a chilly, blustery Saturday - we got to chat with loads of neighbors and friends from the community, so that was pretty fun. Rhiannon managed to spend quite a bit of her money because she bought a grown-up-looking leather handbag from the stall across from us. She had been eyeing it all day, and eventually she just got out her money and bought it! It is really nice though - reversible pink and beige leather with a beige zip purse inside, and a shoulder strap that can go with either the big or the small bag. She was really stoked.

View from marquee entrance, our stall on the left

Tryfan, Oscar, and Rob showed up at the market in early afternoon and joined the herd of other kids (mainly boys) running wild in the forest at the edge of the green and playing soccer on the green itself. Rhiannon and Sophie soon joined the herd of feral kids and I was alone at the stall to see out the day, pack up and take the stuff home. It wasn't a bad day but I am not sure if we will be attempting another stall at the village market any time soon!

Solar eclipse 2015

There was a lot of drama surrounding this partial solar eclipse that came our way today.

http://www.solareclipse2015.org.uk/the-partial-eclipse/

There was a lot of publicity in the news ahead of this special event and people were really excited to see it, especially since the last one in 1999 was really spectacular. Thus we had several weeks of build up and anticipation, everyone very buoyant and so forth. But then a few days ago, a letter was sent out to all the parents at the school which was rather negatively worded and depressingly bureaucratic. The letter basically said "We are going to forbid all children from going outside during the period of the solar eclipse because of safety reasons. Hopefully they will see a solar eclipse during their adult lives." !!!!! Parents were a bit disgruntled to say the least! This led to a flurry of emails and phonecalls and threats to keep kids off school, etc.  It was quite a lot of drama! As this day turned out, there was such a thick layer of cloud you couldn't even see where the sun was supposed to be! Our household had put together several different gadgets to help us witness the eclipse - a projection box, a mirror with a cardboard hole cut out over it, blankets and tarps to be able to make a comfy viewing area in the middle of the Danehill village green.... but alas, none of it was to be used.

In the end I dropped the kids off as normal for the day and hung around the village green hoping that the skies would clear a bit, but they didn't so I drove to work. I stopped at a car park along part of the Ashdown Forest and just spent the 10 minutes either side of the actual event (due at 09:35) laying alone in some dead bracken looking up at the sky and listening for changes in the birdsong. This was the view from my patch of bracken - fairly uninspiring! But it was really really nice to just lay on the earth and tune into my senses. When I got to work about 20 minutes later, I was really chilled out and relaxed. I should stop for a little 15-20 minute lie down on the earth more often!

Rhodri, however, was in Norway and he apparently got to see the whole thing under spectacular clear skies! Lucky dog.

Nice to be back

It was a good trip to California, but it is so nice to be back home!

We went out for dinner at La Casa the night I got home and this was a special treat.  My two little cuties got dressed up for the occasion - well, Rhiannon did anyway. Tryfan needed some convincing to change out of his "cozy trousers" (aka sweatpants or tracksuit bottoms) but he got there in the end.

When we sat down at the table, Rhiannon excused herself to the ladies room.  Some minutes later she emerged wearing some blingy clip-on earrings and eye shadow to go with her outfit. Such a little miss!

A brief dose of California

I had an opportunity to nip over to southern California for a few days, so I took it and flew off by myself! My Mom picked me up at LAX and we drove 2 hours across LA traffic to see my Grandma Linda who is in a nursing center. I hadn't seen her for awhile and she looked really well, I thought. We had a happy reunion, however brief, before driving another 2 hours up to Santa Barbara. The sun was setting as we drove the back way (sort of) from Pasadena to SB, and we passed Six Flags Magic Mountain, which looked rather romantic in the sunset sky.

 

On Saturday I got to go to water aerobics with my Mom, then a bit of grocery shopping and then home to hang out with Eric, Kristin and baby Billy. After a couple of hours, we headed downtown to the beach and then to their house. It was the most glorious afternoon - really warm for SB, about 80 deg F (25 C) - and there was a strange optical illusion out at sea which was weirding us out a bit.  I was soooo happy to be at this very spot at this particular moment. Bliss. It would have been better if the kids and Rhods were there, too, of course.

Billy, Kristin, and Eric

On Sunday night we had the weekly family dinner over at Grandma Bucky's house.  Plenty of people were missing, but it is always a great crowd over at "G-Buck's" house, not to mention the consistently wonderful food that she prepares. Tonight it was meatloaf, and this was one extraordinary loaf!

Libby, Corinne, Kristin, Billy, Eric, Grandma Bucky, Mom, Heidi, and Molly

On Tuesday, Heidi went back up north to her family and I hung around SB for a couple more days. I met Mom and Grandma Bucky to see a matinee movie (2nd Exotic Marigold Hotel), which was really fun.

 On Wednesday morning, I spent a couple of hours at G-Buck's house and we dug through some of the genealogy work she has done over the years as well as looking through old photographs. It was really great to be able to sit at her breakfast table and dig through all these fascinating archives.

Thursday (today) I tied up some loose ends and then will take the SB Airbus back down to LAX and fly back to London. It was a short trip but very full and VERY worthwhile. I'm so grateful that I got to spend these days with my precious family.

Headtorch outing with the Beavers

Tonight I took Tryfan and his little Beaver buddies to the field next to Sheffield Park National Trust site so that they could go on a headtorch (aka headlamp) expedition. It was still pretty light when we set out, but on the way back it was spectacular due to the full moon rising over the rolling landscape.

We also saw a murmuration of starlings, which I was very excited about. I had only ever seen videos of this phenomena but never in real life! I don't have any of my own footage because I was too engrossed in the moment, but here is a website that looks like it has good photos and video of murmuration: http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/s/starling/roosting.aspx

This gorgeous evening followed a really good day as well, since at Forest School today we built dragon lairs which turned out to be far more creative and interesting than even I had anticipated. Good times.

Guitar Girl

This girl has been very diligent about practicing guitar. Sometimes she still rolls her eyes when we remind her about practicing, but she is getting really good at playing!