Thimbleina

A jumbled post

 

Amongst all the weeds and against all the odds I have something to show you that actually came out of our veg patch. So if anyone is starting off growing veg, take it from me these onions and carrots grow without any care, attention and watering and survive stamping from small people and it doesn't matter if the older small person scatters the carrot seeds afar they still grow!!

 

I had a tidy up and clear out of our junk box. I put things that we can use for junk modelling in here before the recycling bin as alot of junk modelling goes on in this house and you can always find something useful in this box to fashion a van, lighthouse, digger, pencil holder, stilts, scoop, telescope, rain measure etc, etc (just a few of the things that have been made so far). I would highly recommend a junk box if you have children and you haven't already got one as it totally fires the imagination along with a dressing up box of old clothes, shoes and hats and other things that you have collected along the way as kids that come to play always seem to like diving into our dressing up box as there is so many variations of what you can do with a scarf and an adults silky skirt and sometimes I put things in there thinking I'm not going to wear them anymore and then pull them out again at a later date to wear as they are just what I am looking for.

 

Last but not least of this jumbled post a little science experiment that Lady A did from a book that she has got from the library'Kitchen Science'. It uses mainly ingredients that you will find in your kitchen. The above experiment was putting a third of the jar filled with golden syrup, then fill a third with vegetable oil, then another third with water containing food colouring. You will notice that the oil will settle as the top layer as it is the lightest liquid, then you drop in a cork, a grape(this settled in the coloured water layer) and a metal screw/bolt. This is to show the density of the items and get the child to guess where each item will float. There are plenty of other great experiments for us to be going on with now. 

The Harley Gallery

 

I found a new art gallery which I might be visiting often as it is so peaceful and child friendly. The Harley Gallery if you are ever in the area is worth a visit. It is in the grounds of the Welbeck Estate in North Nottinghamshire and not only is there ever changing modern exhibits and local artists wares for sale, but also a museum which again changes its contents regularly which houses  objects from the Portland collection which was built up over centuries by members of the Cavendish, Bentinck and Harley Families who have lived at Welbeck since 1606.

They also have a section for children to draw a picture and create a mask and as with the above section at the moment they have a section set up as a victorian photo studio, they have a dress up box and the idea is that you dress up and then someone takes a photo of you on the chair witha digital camera and you send it in to them and they then put it up on the projector that they have running in the same room on a continual loop.

Paper into paper

 

Lady A was bought some gifts for her birthday on the recycling theme. One being a paper recycling kit. So far she has only made pink paper out of newspaper, but other experiments are to be done, I think for paper to write on used white paper may turn out a little better. The kit has its own little blender to turn the soaked paper into pulp which you could do with your blender at home if you don't mind blunting the blade.  We shall put the results on the blog when more have been produced - though it is a slow process at the moment.

She also got some great books which show you things to make out of junk - Ecocraft books this just links to one of them, but there is a whole series of which we found in one how to make this polystyrene aeroplane out of a pizza base packing

 

Back refreshed!

 

It has been a bit busy around here so I needed to take a blogging break to get it all done.

Lady A turned 6 and had a circus party

 

Juggling balls needed to be finished and toffee apples made for the pary bags. The toffee apples seemed to go down very well as did the coconut shy and the novelty of winning coconuts.

 

The Elderflower champagne was ready to uncork and enjoy and give to teachers at the end of the term.

 

A camping trip was organised to Brighton on the Blackberry wood campsite and a great time was had despite the constant rainfall on one of the days (at least we now know how water tight our tent is). 

I'll leave you with one more holiday photo and will be back hopefully tomorrow with a recycling activity for the summer break.

 

Lost in life

 

No this is not a picture of me. We have been quite busy with life this week so I haven't had chance to post. The photo is Lady A's experiment with a grape and how it changes into a sultana or it could be how you might luck if you have too much exposure to the sun?!

 

We have bottled the Elderflower champagne and now I have to wait for 8 days for it to ferment before I can have a little sip and let you know how it has turned out. The aroma eminating from it as we bottled it was beautiful.

 

Master T and I made this quick and easy Lemon fork biscuits with some of the leftover lemons from the Elderflower:

150g butter

75g Caster Sugar

Grated zest of one lemon

200g self raising flour

Cream together sugar, butter and lemon zest then mix in the flour. Form to a soft dough with hands

Place walnut sizes pieces of the dough onto well-greased baking trays allowing room for spreading. dip a fork in a little cold water and flatten the biscuits

Bake at 180c/355F/Gas mark 4/Fan oven 160c for 15-20 mins until pale golden. Put on cooling rack

You can also use orange if you haven't a lemon lying around

 

Lady A fancied making rose petal perfume as the roses are just blooming in the garden. So the large bottle of water is steeping the petals in the hope that we will get some perfume, though she is not convinced. If anyone has any tips on this other than pour water over petals and leave them a few days I would love to hear them.

Have a great weekend.

Buttering up

 

As it is another wet and rainy weekend and the rain hasn't stopped today we need to find some activities which will stop the cabin fever arriving. We did all go out and walk the dog in a local woodland this morning and got soaked through.

This afternoon I put some spare double cream in an empty jam jar so that they could try to make butter as per The River Cottage Family Cookbook. Well they got board of shaking and daddy did the most shaking, I thought all we were going to get was a slightly yellow thick double cream, when all of a sudden the change happened and we were left with buttermilk and butter

 

I was really impressed by the sudden transformation and so were the kids. I have put it in the fridge for putting on toast for breakfast tomorrow as we are all full up with what I concocted for lunch

 

I wasn't sure what I was going to feed them for lunch and I didn't really have much in the fridge as I will not be shopping until tomorrow. So I put on a white dough mixture in the bread machine after breakfast hoping that something would come to me. As all I had in the fridge was two slices of salami, three small vine tomatoes and some cheese. I don't think they would have been happy with plain old cheese sandwiches again. 

So inspired by this recipe I thought I would create something similar. I flattened the dough out and lay along the middle the chopped up salami and tomatoes some torn fresh basil (which I grow on the kitchen windowsill) and grated some cheddar which I always have in the fridge and some parmesan which again as it lasts forever is always in the fridge then I rolled the sides and ends up and over and baked in the oven. The taste was really good and the whole loaf was eaten up in one foul swoop - result!

 

I went to a art and craft fair on Friday and bought these for the kids bedrooms and some decopatch glue and papers to decorate them. I shall let you see the results when they are finished. I bought a few other bits which I shall show you later this week   

Stories before bedtime

 

The picture is not really related to the post, but I didn't have one and I wanted to tell you about a link that I have found for kids.

BBC Radio 7 a radio station which I didn't know existed until yesterday, I happened upon it when I was doing a search for things on the BBC website. The link I have given you is for the story hour which is on for children at 4pm each day (GMT) but you can click on any one of the hour sessions on this link from the last week to listen to the stories being read. A great wind down before bedtime. I do read to the kids before bed as well but thought this was good just for wind down time before the bath and so I can get the pots washed.  Oh there are also stories for grownups on there as well if you take a look around.

Tiger tiger burning bright...

 

I went along as a helper with Lady A's class yesterday to see The tiger who came to tea. It was just the right length 55 minutes and there was singing and dancing that the kids could join in with (and the adults). It was just three actors and one set and it had them all on the edge of their seats it was so enchanting and a lovely play to see at that age. The tiger who was large was not too frightening and the props were really good when the tiger eats all the food. We all had a wonderful time in such a lovely small local theatre. 

Quackers

 

As we have some ducks nesting in a garden nearby and we see them daily wandering around Master T wanted to paint a duck. This is his masterpiece of a adult male mallard. He did another in crayon (the second time blue). I love it at this age that to them that splog is a picture with such detail - he said when I hung it up to dry that he had forgotten the wings, what great detail and observation.

 

I got the stamp and red ink in the post for the party bags that I made up, so a bit of stamping has now to be done, I have a couple of willing persons for that job

To the rescue!

 

A few more pictures from 'Superhero day' yesterday. This is the badge Lady A made for herself like Superman's badge. We also found lots of vintage Superman cartoons on Youtube to watch. Then Lady A made her own superhero comic.

 

Then the rocket in the comic book had to made out of the items in the junk modelling box

 

What a great superhero type of day.