Cannon hall farm

The kids really didn't believe me, when I told them it was going to be 17 degrees, and we'd need sun cream and hats. The sky was blue, so last minute we managed to find shorts and sandals, and we set off for a day out to Cannon hall farm. We looked around the animals and played on the playground. Then we had a short tour of the small animals.

We had a very informative talk, here are the baby rabbits. They have a shorter gestation period than guinea pigs and need more care when they are born.
Whereas , baby Guinea pigs are more able to look after themselves from birth. Baby rabbits have the comfort and protection of the warren, guinea pigs don't.
Then off to see the chinchilla.
The girls asked the farmer if she would go and look at a piglet, they were worried it was ill. The girls were right, the piglet had sadly died.
A big favourite of the day, talking to the turkey.

When we go to Cannon hall farm, we always wash our hands!!!!!Fab UV gel to check that you've washed your hands properly.
Time to play on the big grassy bank, but Rosanna spent most of her time trying to get into the ha-ha.
Nice to find shade and relax.
Although one little girl, never needs to rest.

After our visit, we got out the farm set. It started out, just me and Rosanna playing together.


And then Immy joined it, she was much more fun than Mummy, she invented games where foxes chased chickens.

Then Mima came to play, and she was much better at setting up the farm than Mummy.


And finally Reuben joined in.
Welly boots are great for splashing in puddles, but also make great farm buildings too!

Happy Sundays

Can't believe it's Monday again, already. The weekends go far too quickly and especially this one. We lost an hour! Well we all managed to survive Sunday without being too grumpy and are now looking forward to lovely long Summer evenings.

At the weekend we like to have a cooked breakfast,
using eggs from our hens.
mmm, Yummy Nutella,too. Wonder where she's picked up the habit of eating Nutella straight from the pot?

Our conservatory was finished on Friday, so we have begun cleaning up outside. After that we hit the garden and did a mega weeding session.
I just had to take a photo as I walked into the greenhouse, I love the pile of seeds and the eggs!

The girls have planted lots of things in the greenhouse, and they are starting to grow.
The polytunnel is finally being used to grow plants!
It's past uses include a soft play area, chicken house and rain shelter.
Our felt sad as the Snowdrops faded, but they are been replaced by a colourful display of Spring flowers.
We have a mixture of Daffodils.
Our first Bluebell

It's such a relief to see plants erupting from the ground. We are still not sure what to do with most of the shrubs, but it's looking as though most have survived!
Pretty pink Primulas
The Rhododendrons are just coming into flower,
Which reminds me, I must re-new my season ticket for Wentworth Castle gardens. The Rhododendrons and Camellia's are spectacular this time of year.
The Black Orpington's are back in a separate pen, once again!

Den building at the top of the garden.
And a trip to the garden centre to buy rope,
for the tyre swing!
Are you brave enough to have a go?

Planets, Plants and Robin's eggs.

We have been very busy over the last few weeks, lots of home ed visits, groups and gardening too. This blog post is a mixture of things we've been doing:

Girls are still loving the home ed singing group, they both were given solos on Monday and have been busy practising.

We had a scare with our Robin's nest, a big blackbird emerged from the conifer, both Robin's then left the nest and were flying around the garden, going to the nest, but quickly leaving.

Here is the sad little Robin. I normally can't get a photo, the Robin is so quick to get food and return, but after the encounter with the Blackbird, it hopped around in the back garden.
We looked for signs of eggs, but didn't find any. This photo is of a Robin's egg with contents probably eaten by a rat. We have found a couple of Robin's eggs like this in our big garden.
This is an hatched egg, much different from one that has been eaten by a rat!

We went to a home ed history forum about the industrial revolution. There were three planned activities, all very practical and lots of fun, learning about child labour, how land usage has changed (modelled with playdoh) and making a water wheel. In between the activities the children did presentations. We learnt loads about the industrial revolution -trains, production lines, farming. Immy and Mima gave a presentation about the invention of the hoover.
Child labour in action!
Baby plants been watered with a baby feeding cup!

We have planted lots of seeds, some in the ground and some in pots. They are starting to shoot up.
We also got a new camera this week, so hopefully no more blurry, blue photos!
And our first Rhubarb of the year, mmm, very tasty, it was made into Rhubarb and apple crumble.

Geoff took the girls on home ed visit to an Observatory. The event started with a slide show about stars and then they got to look at the stars through a telescope. The girls really enjoy going out at night to look at the stars.
We decieded to draw the planets to scale, using a compass the girls first drew the planets.

Cut them out
and then marbled them.

The marbling inks made a spectacular night sky!
The girls put the planets on the wall in order, but we had to take them down for building work. They used a mnemonic to remember the order
Last Saturday we watched the moon rise,
This inspired us do chalk fantasy planets.