Month: April 2018

There are small signs of new life appearing if I slow down to look. Snowdrops are now in abundance, and we’ve enjoyed seeing baby lambs, all soft and white compared with their tired looking mums. A friend brought me some daffodils, which are just beginning to unfurl their petals to the world. And our hens’… Continue reading 5 February 2018

The rain has continued seemingly unabated, and the coughs and colds morphed into flu. So, not much to report, other than our attempts to keep going with some sort of learning for whoever wasn’t too unwell at the time. Lanky Dude continued to go into college, but eventually succumbed with a high temperature and stayed… Continue reading 22 January 2018

Coughs, colds and sore throats are working their way through our family. And we’ve had grey skies and an abundance of rain. The girls and I did get out into our back garden and start clearing and digging, much to the delight of the chickens; on hand to scoop up any worms uncovered. We are… Continue reading 15 January 2018

A week into 2018. We tend to celebrate the full twelve days of Christmas, and then gradually slip back into our regular home-school routines. However, with Lanky Dude at college now, we were all jolted back rather abruptly into a new term! However, we did still have a somewhat “staged return” at home, and only… Continue reading 8 January 2018

  New Year’s Eve. Family prayer time spent thanking God for many ways he has blessed us over the year. We watched a slide show of photos of the year ( my IT skills very slowly improving). Then put stones in a jar as we said our thank yous. A jar overflowing. Our hearts overflowing.… Continue reading 31 December 2017

The anticipation and excitement of the night before Christmas seems a while ago. For as long as I can remember I’ve taken the children swimming on Christmas Eve; a great way of releasing excess exuberance. Then a few more preparations after lunch, maybe a film, sometimes friends over for tea followed by the Candlelight service… Continue reading 30 December 2017

Two days till Christmas! We had family and friends calling in throughout the day, but in between the children worked at some of the pre Christmas tasks we’d allocated to them. So, Rhythm Dude and I set to make the sausage and bacon rolls and stuffing while Lanky Dude iced and decorated the cake. He does… Continue reading 23 December 2017

Like much of the country we had snow last week end. It didn’t really settle here but we went up onto the hills and had fun tobogganing, having snow ball fights and making a snowman. The world looked so beautiful. Making quantities of mince pies is another annual tradition. The boys used to “help” when… Continue reading 18 December 2017

First day of the holidays! Absolute bliss. Lanky Dude finished yesterday, as did Rhythm Dude, so girls did too. I took girls to Mc Donald’s to celebrate the end of term in between dropping Rhythm Dude off at college and collecting Lanky Dude. Last ballet of term (parents able to watch...Sparkly Eyes does lots of… Continue reading 15 December 2017

Here are some pictures of our Christmas tree. We went last week to choose it and cut it down. The man who owns the land always has stories to tell from his fascinating life; he has a lucky dip for all the children, a fire to warm up around, and mulled wine for the adults… Continue reading 12 December 2017