nature and nurture

My post today is a catch up of the past week, we have done a fair bit lately, surprisingly! The weather has improved loads and I have the first sun burn of the year from cycling in a vest top!
The picture to make us all smile has to be this one of our lovely lady, posing for the camera! I have put this on my redbubble where you can buy it as a greetings card or canvas!

We went to visit another home school family this week who lives in a wonderfully picturesque village in the countryside, we had a wander over the local pastures and came across this stern looking cow! very different shape to the ones we normally see, they made a right racket mooing loudly until I stopped with the camera at the ready and just froze, obviously the farmer must of been practising with them for a centre page spread in farmers weekly or something.

This one didn't seem as angry, or maybe its because behind me were tons of sheep bleating because we was in their field!, after a long walk in the searing heat and across a knee deep in grass field, over a bridge and a stile we arrived at the local ice cream parlour for a much needed delicious ice cream, home made on the premises, I had apple crumble ice cream which may sound strange but it was delicious.

We had a wonderful day with our friends in lovely surroundings and the sun shone all day so by bed time we was happy and worn out! Our youngest actually slept through the night, the sooner we move to the country the better, I keep dreaming and searching on the net for a lovely cottage with a plot of land for the chickens and I would love a couple of pigs and somewhere to expand my veg growing as our back garden is slowly becoming so full there is little space left to put anything else.

We have regular visitors to the garden now the weathers cheered up, we have two frogs in the pond who bask all day, the tadpoles are growing but no legs yet, water snails by the dozen,

and this fellow who has built the nest in the bird box DH and boys made, the little blue tit chicks squawk so loudly, I would love to peek in and see what they are like, or get one of those micro cameras to have a live feed going on. This blue tit works its butt off back and forwards all day with food.
A different day we went to St Annes, I went to college there 17 years ago and fell in love with the place, it was quite a windy day so we didn't do the sand dune trek but we did find lots to look at.

This is part of the man made river and gardens which has ducks and swans on it, plenty of dragonflies in the summer and loads of different plants all living happily by the sea.

This is my favourite part, the waterfall, its a lovely thing to see. You can walk underneath it and listen to the noise it makes, the kids love it, they love climbing on the rocks too. We then went for a game of bowling and I was rubbish, I don't know what happened to my technique, maybe its too much fake bowling on the Wii that's ruined me!

We went for a coffee at the beach cafe and as we sat enjoying the view all the starlings came to have a sneaky snack!, this one is a baby, all fluffy and squawky! what surprised me was other people shooed them away, one guy even tried to hit one, there kids were delighted at the birds being so close but not the parents, sometimes I feel in a minority until I read all the lovely blogs I do and feel like there are like minded parents out there, maybe none live in close proximity to me!

birthdays and crafty things......

It's that time of year when the birthdays start in our family, I have already had mine and loved the bird feeder my boys got me, its giving me loads of pleasure watching the blue tits feasting on nuts, Mrs blackbird comes every day too and yesterday a magpie came. My mum's birthday is tomorrow and I never know what to get her, I try and think of something she would really love but end up looking at things I would love like this sign from Diane

at Poppy talk handmade ,
or I could get her one of these delightful sweetie suitcases from Hope and Greenwood

They have some wonderful if a little naughty retro style sweets to take you back to your childhood, unfortunately eating sweets doesn't agree with my mums tummy so I decided to paint her a picture instead.

I really enjoyed painting this today, in fact it has inspired me to do some more painting as it so relaxing, it's something I rarely do any more even though DH keeps telling me I should do more as he thinks I'm good at it. I might take his advice and get back into painting again and who knows it may be my new career!! well for this week anyway, each day/week/month I come up with some idea to make money, I get really excited and for a short while think of nothing else, I research loads and spend too much time reading books on which ever subject it is then... well I'm not sure what happens, it kinda just goes out of my head until another thing fills me with inspiration.

Any way here it is, I'm not sure of a name, I think I will leave it up to my mum to decide, hope she likes it, she loves bluebell woods and angels so I think it will be OK


Some other things I have been making over the last week are bunting for my bedroom, its pink polka dots, toile de Jouy, roses and plain fabrics out of my scrap box with blue gingham ribbon for the string.



A blind for the bathroom, we don't shut it as were not overlooked and its frosted glass, just as well really I spent ages faffing with the ribbons to get them level!

A cushion for our bed, the flower material was a dress which looked terrible on but I loved the fabric so much I had to do something with it

We have also been trying to learn about cactus plants as the boys picked some from the garden centre the other day, we can't find a child's book anyway so far on them, I have tried finding a lap book on it but to no avail either so if anyone can send me any links I would be most grateful for them.

chicken house and chicken out......

As usual its been a while since I blogged, I don't know about anyone else but I spend more time reading other peoples blogs than writing my own! I also spend a lot of time looking at home and garden magazines and websites thinking "ooh I could make that" about all sorts of stuff but do I then actually make it, no I just procrastinate some more. In fact I have realised that amongst home schooling, trips out, shopping, gardening, etc I spend an awful long time procrastinating. Then before I know it another day has past in a wonderful blur of just doing "stuff" and not seeming like I have achieved much.

What we, well mainly my DH has finished is the chicken coop...at last. It has been a slow process and a great learning curve and we are very pleased with the finished result.

A few weeks ago, measuring up to see how big it should be......


the basic construction so far.......

The finished thing, complete with bunting made from an old cupcake design table cloth, iris blue outdoor paint and various chicken and flower designs on the coop part by myself and the wee ones.

The lovely ladies are pleased at being in there own space but I think they miss the contact of us, they make me smile and remind me a dogs in the way they behave. Each morning when I open the coop door they come running out pushing each other out of the way so I can stroke them, they make a right noise when you walk away from them.

It seems an age ago they were tiny little things, when really its only a matter of weeks.

Here they are in the tiny makeshift cage, they don't even have tail feathers yet!

Chris being really brave wearing gloves to hold them, they love him and nod off using his arms like perches.

Chris' nervous smile, hoping the chicken won't go any further up his arm......


Getting bigger and more mischievous, pecking at anything, especially my tiny seedlings I had growing in the front room!

Now feeling very modellesque in the outdoor coop!, I think they feel very grand as I am always telling them what pretty ladies they are - everyone thinks I'm daft I'm sure!


Still got a long way to grow, now 9 wks old. Can't wait for our first eggs and too spend many more days just watching them running around and making us smile.