Home-made rocket from crisp packets and a straw.

Gardening delights

Peep asked if we could do gardening. The sun was actually shining - not something Sheffield sees much of at the moment! SO we grabbed some gloves and started pulling up Teasles. Teasles are a traditional English country garden plant that has a purple cone head of flowers that goes on to feed birds through the winter with its seeds. I love that they self-seeded into my garden but they have a wonderful habit of growing everywhere, including in between paving slabs!

Then we got the secateurs and Jos joined in. We cut the drying seed heads of the Euphorbia off their stems. Peep didn't like how the Alchemilla Mollis was growing over the path (I thought it was actually quite beautiful!) so he got stuck in to cutting that back too.

With all this going on, and we had also earlier harvested some alpine and more typical strawberries, we decided to cut some flowers for our kitchen. We used the off-cuts of Alchemilla Mollis along with Lychosomachia (can't find it in Wiki so perhaps I have the name wrong!) and some Spiraea Japonica to add in some pink.















Peep also wanted to add some Lupin but they were turning to seed. Instead he pruned them back and lay the seed pods out on a tray in the sun. Hopefully we can dry them out and have a go at planting them in the spring!

Practising axe skills at Treehouse Festival

We've come down to Norfolk for The Treehouse Festival which is a small gathering of folks who are excited about sustainable living. Peter and Gabriel are teaching Peep and Jos how to use an axe. It's the second time they(e done it - first was at Manic Organic farm in the spring.

On Thursday I'll be giving a talk titled " 'A' is not for apple and other things you learn when you don't go to school". Everyone is the kind of interesting people you can site and watch for hours. Their conversations are refreshing and spontaneous guitar playing seems common place.

Sunny glades & bridge building

We spent a stunning couple of hours in a gorgeous sunny glade, with friends, building bridges across a stream. There were nearby piles of logs we could use, a magical wooden shelter that has apparently been up for years and a buttercup meadow with horses.

Gorgeous!

There was an ill-fated moment where my phone fell out of my cleavage (an obvious place to store it whn lifting logs!) and into the water. Amazingly it has survived!

Am looking forward to return trips to this sun-dappled spot. On the path that leads to it there is a field of jersey cows and a derelict stone building. It's of considerable size with a boundary wall too but no obvious access roads. I'm fascinated by its history and wondering where we can find that out.

Water fights and the economics of exchange

We bought summer hats and water pistols. We'd been home 10 minutes when one of the water pistols broke! So off we trot back to the supermarket to exchange it.

Customer service was excellent. As we walked out of the store Jos asked why we didn't have to pay. I explained that we had exchanged the good one for the broken one so we didn't need to pay. He exclaimed to his brother, "wow Peep, we get this one for free!".

So we ended up discussing the costs to the supermarket is their product breaks or doesn't fit its description. That we hadn't got it for free but without money physically changing hands the store had given us back the money for the broken gun so we could buy another one.

The second gun lasted 20 minutes. Jos is stronger than he realises and the pump action is as strong as the cheap price would indicate!

I think we'd better start collecting empty washing up bottles if water fights are to be a success this summer!

One of those perfect sunny days...

... Where the boys just wanted to he indoors! I remember, as a kid, wanting to stay indoors on hot, sunny days. It is only as I've grown up I've started to want to he increasingly out in the sun.

But we did go out. We started the day in town cheering on the competitors of the Sheffield half marathon. Several of our friends were running it and the atmosphere was great.

We returned home for.lunch and this afternoon had friends over for a BBQ. Bea has been experimenting with coconut oil as a sunscreen. It turns out it's not as effective as she first thought! Whoopsy - very pink! But coconut oil IS very good at helping sunburnt skin so that's good.

Peep and Jos chose to stay inside most of the afternoon and evening although Jos ventured out for a bit of food, a bit of bike riding and a bit of trampolining!

In bed now. Tired, warm and ready for sleep.

A gorgeous, sunny, family day.

Peep's music list

1. The Wanted - Chasing the sun
2. Jessie J - Domino
3. Katie Perry - Part of me
4. Professor Green feat. Emilie Sande - Read all about it
5. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
6. Niki Menaj - Starships (this one is explicit - i couldn't find a clean version!)

Peep says, "When I hear all my favourite songs I can't help it. I start dancing. Even in the car."

Peep has a great eye for photo styling!

Inspired by Becky and Ben

I came across a post today that my friend Becky had written with her son Ben.  I felt so moved by it and it reminded me that Peep and I plan to do all sorts of blogging but somehow we never get round to it.  SO many things going on in our life!

I really recommend you read Becky's post :)

Now to get on with blogging about us...

More photos - i seem to have a limit!

Been doing loads and now Peep wants to blog too!

Rather than try and recount everything we've been up to i thought i'd just put up a bunch of pics. Anyone reading this (probably no-one!) can ask me about the pics if you want to know more.