Port Logan.

So following on from Mull of Galloway and just around the coast is Port Logan. As we were full of lunch we decided to stop for a walk and to enjoy the views. 

This area of Scotland is amazing. The sea on both sides makes for non stop picture taking and, with the sun shining down, it couldn’t have been more beautiful. My camera just doesn’t do it justice.

In Port Logan is a place called The Fishpond which says it is a cold water aquarium. I had no idea what to expect but it had the look of education and was very reasonably priced. Us home edders love a bargain learning opportunity! 

Basically a natural blowhole in the rocks was increased in size with dynamite and hard work many years ago so that a rich landowner could keep fish for his table all year round. The tide used to rush in through an opening in the rocks to keep the water fresh but is now controlled by valves. 

The crack in the rocks now contains tanks of small fish, crabs and various other little creatures. It is very hands on.

Who knew anemones were quite so hard and spikey. Or that some grab your finger as you gently put it near them. 

The main tank is in the middle of the hole in the rocks. Apparently 8 foot deep at its centre it contains up to 60 fish. These we could feed with a disgusting mix of dead whelks/cockles or somesuch. I’m not a fish fan and had no desire to put my hands in the dirty looking greasy water. HubB and Miss C got involved with relish and I have to be fair that I was amazed by the response. 

Mullien and cod were the first to appear. Taking the food right from their fingers. 

This gurnard was quite shy but very beautiful. His fins were like little wings. 

This dog fish had an even bigger brother that is only seen a couple of times a year. It clearly took a liking to us and was desperate to be a world wide star, via my blog, but I just couldn’t get a photo. It swam around and around the pond, changing direction and coming in close but I missed it everytime. I’m no David Bailey!! 

Just outside the pond is an old bathing hut. From a time when us ladies wore full length  outfits and kept our modesty. Quite appeals, especially the fire to warm up at afterwards and the covering of the knees! 

We spent the evening in the hot tub watching the airplanes from Glasgow crossing above us and identifying the different stars. Not quite as romantic but definitely warmer than the original tubs! 

A simple idea, but effective.

As I’ve already mentioned, Miss C and I booked a local village hall and threw a home ed Christmas party this year. everyone brought food to share and I just provided music via the hubby’s PA.

I also made a few simple ‘toys’ to keep the younger children entertained. For anyone with small children this one is a great idea, I can just imagine how much fun Miss C would have had with it a few years ago.

Basically I brought a large piece of felt for just a few pounds online and cut out the tree shape and then used my left over felt for the decs.

Now I love working with felt and made lots of tree decorations last year as gifts in Miss C’s advent calendar so I had a lot of colours but the packs are very cheap in craft shops everywhere.

We started off with proper shapes and hand sewing and then like all good ideas I procrastinated and ran out of time.

I then cut lightbulb shapes and basic circles.

On the day I double sided sticky taped it to a board and lent it against the wall at ground level but here it is just blue tacked to the wall. Either way it works a treat and kept the toddlers entertained for ages. The tub underneath was just as much fun for lots of the little girls who spent long minutes carefully packing everything back into it before someone else took it all out again. Great fun!

Bush crafts.

As home edders Miss C and I are used to travelling around the county for learning opportunities. When one of the other mums heard about a local site that offered bush craft classes and asked if anyone else was interested we were straight in.

Miss C loves hands on learning. It’s local and we both love being outdoors. It sounded the perfect event. So far it has not let us down.

We meet in a copse of trees under this great parachute style cover around a log fire. We have to park some distance away and walk through a touring park with pretty hedged pitches, off a quiet country lane. The sun has shone each time so far. Sounds idyllic? It really is.

This week the theme was shelter and fire. The kids were each asked to bring a cuddley toy and then shown how to make a shelter in small scale. This was Miss C’s design. I had been relegated to collecting the sticks by this time as I kept collapsing it whenever I touched it.

She covered it with rather a lot of leaves and thatch. Actually this is a good thing, as apparently the thicker it is the more likely to stay dry you are. I got a pre teens knowing look at this point as I had only minutes earlier urged caution on the amount being piled on top.

Here’s my teddy sitting in his partially built home. Miss C didn’t want to bring her own bear. A, it’s not cool to admit you still have teddies at her age apparently and B, she didn’t want to get hers dirty! I didn’t know I owned this one, I’ve no idea where it came from but she found it sitting in the charity pile of toys I want to give away and she won’t yet let me. He was small enough to make den building a bit easier and cool enough to make Miss C smile.

All of the other dens were just as good and all their owners were pleased for me to show them off.

This one was my friends sons. He comes with us each time and is a dab hand at it all. He made it across the ditch which wouldn’t be good from a survival point but had all the little boys very impressed. I couldn’t even get them out for a picture!!

Another friend brings 4 adorable little girls in pink leggings. They each made a free standing home for their rather trendy dolls. The three year old seemed to have the same problems I had, every time she added a stick the whole thing collapsed. No none tutted at her and muttered ‘doh, just leave it alone and fetch sticks. You’re just to heavy for this’
Was it mean to wonder if the mushrooms are poisonous?!

A day at the beach.

As I’ve mentioned we home educate Miss C and often have the opportunity to go to amazing places during school hours when they are quieter and often cheaper. It’s school holidays now and although learning doesn’t stop we do slow down a bit.

A friend suggested a meet up at the seaside this week and although the weather forecast was not great it was a  greatly anticipated trip here. As you can see the day dawned wonderfully and with picnic made and buckets and spades found we made the journey to the North Norfolk coast to a lovely nature reserve she knew about.

We arrived to blue sky and loading ourselves up, 6 families with 15 children between us set up camp on the golden sands.

The children swam, the adults chatted, the picnics were eaten and then it started to gently rain. The children were already wet so we packed away the majority of our things and by then it had stopped so lulled into a false sense of security we sat back down.

Half an hour later the sky started to darkened and darkened. The temperature started to drop and the wet children’s teeth started to chatter. One by one we started to dress them and pack up the last of our things.

Miss C had already headed for the car. She’s far to grown up to change under a towel it seems! I wandered along a few minutes behind her.

Lovely pine woods and sandy paths. A few rain drops and the promise of ice cream and coffee at the visitor centre.

This picture looks good but actually the rain  is coming down in stair rods! Didn’t stop all the kids having ice cream except for Miss C who had hot chocolate, she does love to be different.
As are the toilets

I think they might be composting as it seemed to be a seat on a long drop to a hole. No flush, no sink, no light and walls that didn’t quite meet the floor. Great fun but not for the faint hearted. Perhaps hubby will let me put one in the garden.  They would work a treat with my sustainable ideas and solar panel lifestyle.

Sun + rain = crazy growth

It’s summer in England and that means rain, sun, thunder, lightening, more sun, more rain. You get the picture.

It’s been very mixed this month. Very warm and muggy mixed with cool and windy, all watered down with lots of rain. The bees might hate it and blame me ( no I still haven’t managed a full inspection this month. More a dash in, do what I can and then a retreat to nurse my stings. The top inside of the leg and under the arm are both very sensitive to venom it seems!)
The plants however seem to love it.

Some parts of the garden now look like a jungle.

These self sown sunflower seedlings swamp a fuchsia.

Blackcurrants are covered by top growth and I have no idea whether they need cutting back to let in the sun to ripen or if to leave until after picking as usual.

White currants abound.

Grape and fig thrive on the side of the chicken run.

Hostas battle slugs and snails on a nightly basis.

The clematis on the summerhouse is a picture!

Autumn raspberries fruit early after I left a few canes from last year rather than cutting it all to the ground as you’re meant to. A rogue borage has sneaked into the row. It must know it has weeding immunity as the bees love it so much.

Best year ever for the blue hydrangea. Even a piece that accidentally broke off rooted after being pushed back into the soil underneath and covered with a coke bottle cloche.

The sweet corn experiment might be struggling. I think the corn is to close so the courgettes planted underneath are a bit swamped. Probably doesn’t help that I surrounded the corn by French beans that have gone crazy.

The poly tunnel is thriving. Not to hot yet which is helping.

I’ve planted the tomatoes in 2 rows with chillies in pots between but behind. Rocket and pak choi in the gaps. The cucumber is still in pots, still a bit slow but only sown less than a month ago. No idea where that will squeeze in. There’s still peppers and melons to come as well!

While taking mum supermarket shopping this week I brought these 3 little clematis for £1.77 each. Miss C then repotted them into these bigger pots for me. Clematis like to be planted deep so she placed them right to the bottom of these pots and refilled all up the length of the stem. I lost a gorgeous clematis to wilt during just one afternoon many years ago. Luckily it had been planted deep and a couple of years later it just suddenly appeared and is now growing a treat again. Hopefully by the autumn, when I have the space for them, these will be big healthy plants. A total bargain.

Mange tout. Note to self, better pea sticks needed next year.

Miss C grew a pumpkin seed at her Home Ed group. She has plans to carve the fruit so let’s hope we get at least one. If not perhaps I could smuggle one in later in the year. While she’s in bed perhaps!

Celery. Self blanching which is lucky as I have no space for earthing up.

The carrots, swede and turnips are a bit slow but perhaps that is normal.

Kale is to close but I think I’ll get something from it.

Leeks, next to the French marigolds. I planted lots of marigolds between rows but I have to keep taking them out to make space.

The onion tops fell over weeks ago when they were still quite small. I left them, even though the book said to lift, and so far am glad I did as they are already much bigger. They need weeding, it’s a constant battle.

Contribution to tonight’s tea. Not the wax obviously, that’s just to show off!

Talking of hive products. I helped the bee buddy today and he sent the chickens some left over drone comb. He said they would love it and he was right. They had a fine time picking all the larvae out to eat. Drone comb removal is a way of removing varroa from the hive so aiding hygiene.

The chickens don’t care about science they just like meat. I think they would eat each other if they could. I love them but they are mean, very mean.

Summer? You must be joking

It  was  apparently the first day of summer Wednesday and like so many of my posts it was raining!!

Miss C spent some time doing her home ed diary but soon bored of that and pulled the ‘ all my friends are off school for half term so why should I work’ argument. She was only marginally right as she never spends 6 hours at her desk so is hardly over worked, but she had a point.

I was cold and overcast myself so we lit the fire, settled down on the sofa and caught up on all the Springwatch episodes we had so far missed. Miss C loves wildlife and nature so that isn’t learning!

We drank hot chocolate and got out this puzzle

It’s only 250 pieces so far to easy but the round shape gave her a challenge. The fact that it had belonged to my nanna made it even more historical. Learning about kings and queens is not home ed now is it!

I used the time to make more squares.
I belong to a local knitting for charity group which is very generous of me as I can’t knit and only agreed to go along initially because I’m a key holder for the building. Anyway I decided to use up all the wool the other ladies don’t want to make crochet granny squares.

I’m thinking they might go together something like this. It will never be as impressive as the amazing blankets, hats, gloves and jumpers that the other ladies make. It’s another hobby I just don’t have time for!

A day of treats.

In a bid to avoid maths Miss C declared that she thought she could bake cakes without any help from yours truly.
She spent a little while finding a recipe and with only minimum input made a tray of fairy cakes.

While she waited for them to cook I suggested she have a play with some fondant icing we had. There were two reasons. One she was totally engaged and I didn’t want to lose that. More importantly I had two blocks of icing left from Halloween and one from Christmas.
I had had great intentions of making pumpkin and witches cats for the Halloween cupcakes. I ran out of time and settled for buttercream swirls in orange and black instead so now I have lots of short date fondant, and it’s not the sort I could feed to the bees so it’s got to be used.

We started slowly. Neither of us really knowing what to make. Then Miss C started to experiment.

She made a penguin and then a cat.

A whole plate full followed. The bee is mine, I never claimed to be artistic!

I did make some flowers. Miss C made a few more…

and a better bee. Just to show me how it was done. That one’s so thick it is guaranteed to give tooth decay instantly I think.

Then we piped the rest as time was drawing on.

Just as we were finishing there was a knock on the door. A large delivery box

and some wonderful cranberry plants ordered only last week arrived.

I’m not sure the photo does them credit. They are well rooted and bigger than I expected. After all I only paid £3.95 each for them from CJ Wildlife.
http://www.birdfood.co.uk which is a great price compared to other places I’ve looked. I just have to hope they grow now!

I am so excited about the garden this year.  Lots of good things to look forward to, and cake for tea!

A home ed opportunity to good to miss.

A treat in the garden today. I had let the chickens out only minutes earlier and as I checked them out of the kitchen window I was amazed they were nowhere to be seen. In fact there was not a bird in sight, pretty unusual so early in the morning on the feeders. Looking closer I saw the reason!

This is our local sparrowhawk. She and her partner have been fairly prolific this winter. Usually all we see are the feathers after the event, but it is often a daily occurrence.

We were able to find the video and watch as she made short work of plucking the feathers. She then struggled to take flight and made it as far as the fence post.

We watched for almost an hour as she plucked the chest and removed the wings before starting to eat.

We moved from the kitchen to an upstairs bedroom window. We were even able to open the window and lean out. She knew we were there but didn’t seem that worried.

The beauty of home education is that this happened at 8.20 just as we would have been leaving for school. Instead Miss C was able to stand and watch. We were able to discuss the whole event and follow that seam in our work.

Miss C did consider being a wildlife photographer for a little while. Watching an hour of wobbly video of bird, hedge, staircase, ceiling and the washing line perhaps it is just as well she changed her mind!!!

Home educational fun

Today was the day for the home ed party. Great fun was had by all as 80+ children and their parents played games and shared a banquet of grand proportions. Father Christmas visited and was so realistic that many of the children didn’t even  realise he was a she. Group games both old and new were played by all the ages. There are no photos for 2 reasons. Firstly I wouldn’t feel comfortable with sharing online but mostly because I was having so much fun I forgot to take any!!! But
here’s the vegetable tree that was my contribution.

Autumn sunshine.

A beautiful autumn day just needs to be celebrated so today I was up with the lark and busy, busy, busy. Having set Miss C up with some school work I got down to some ironing and housework. With the washing drying and the windows thrown open I got down to the finer things in life.. enjoying the sunshine. My poor little girl slaved over a maths program https://www.khanacademy.org/. Which is actually a great site that today kept her busy without complaint for over an hour.

First I jarred up a few pound of honey

Then I picked a bowl of autumn raspberries. I don’t have many plants but they have done me proud this year. In fact the whole garden is still dotted with flowers.

  Weigela. Pale pink and lovely still.

 Michaelmas Daisies

 Spiraea flowers for the 3rd time

 Honey bees (but not mine!) enjoy the Sedum

 Sunflowers just keep flowering and flowering.

 Pyracantha berries. Could be a cold winter?

 The climbing Hydrangea is losing its leaves!

 After all our efforts we treated ourselves to a visit to a dear friends for coffee and socialisation. Usually we organise the kids into board games and educational pursuits but today we just let them play while we drank coffee and caught up. There’s always room for more work tomorrow.