Olympics London 2012

The girls hadn't shown much interest in the Olympics,

apart from collecting the LEGO Olympic minifigures.

I'd got books out of the library, we were going to study the Greeks and then learn about modern Olympics. After renewing them twice I took them back unread.
After watching the Olympic opening ceremony on TV, the girls appetite was whetted, and we watched and talked Olympics. We desperately tried to get tickets. We didn't manage to get any, but we did see the Russian rhythmic gymnastic team rehearsing at Don valley arena.




It was so exciting when we saw them on TV, trying to spot the girls we had seen practise.

Geoff took the girls down to London.

Platform 9 3/4

They had a hectic few days, fitting loads into 3 days.

Geoff had booked for them to go on the London eye.

But as they approached it, the girls thought it was very tall and didn't look very strong!

Geoff persuaded them to go on, although Jemima sat down and didn't look when they got to the very top!

The book maze

It's great to get lost in a good book!

Dining out at 'The slug and lettuce'

Westminster Abbey

Natural History Museum

 

On to Stratford Park

 

She punches better than me!

The Olympic orbit, viewed from John Lewis window

And finally they got to see some Olympic competitions.

The marathon

The walk race

In Stratford park watching the Olympics on the big screen.

Eating curried goat,

and watching and cheering for Bolt.

In Sheffield we joined with 12,000 people to welcome Jess Ennis back home,

and eat Fancie cupcakes!

Hathersage Outdoor Pool

We've managed to tick off another activity from our Summer Wall, a trip out to Hathersage, and a swim in the outdoor pool.
We always do the same, swim, have chips with ketchup and then

finish off with a play in the park.

Happy days :)

New potatoes and Nasties. Nematodes next year?

There is nothing like the thrill of turning over the soil and uncovering a cluster of creamy new potatoes which gleam out of the rich soil.  Unless it is 2012 that is.  With the wet weather the wireworms and slugs have thrived.  The former drill little holes into the spuds through which the latter enter and start eating and excreting.

The bowl on the left (2/3) contains all the infested  portions.  

The pan on the right (1/3) all the salvageable chunks.

(As you bite you must have faith that if there is no hole going in or out 

then all you are going to taste is nice new potato!)

Last year I bought nematodes, which have to be kept moist, if you do that they will eat all the baby slugs from the inside out - rough justice.  The drought conditions must have killed them (we only have water butts and no mains in the 'big garden') buy luckily it also kept the slug numbers down.  

After that experience I decided not to waste my money on nematodes that I can't keep moist 

and look what's happened.

I was thinking of giving up growing new potatoes.  But then a miracle ...

and I have a wireworm to thank for the neat little eye hole.  If he looked a little more like Jesus and a little less like Mr Magoo I would feel even more blessed (and no doubt be quids in).  

Instead we ate him the night before last.

On a happier note the garden is producing plenty of nice things too.

Milling, mining and laikin round the res

I remember clearly my first supply teaching day in Barnsley - my first ever day of teaching in fact. It was Monday morning and I did the usual, "What did you do at the weekend?"
The reply came back, "I went Laikin at res". "Oh so you went pond dipping?". No, was the reply. "Laikin. Door knocking," said another child. So I eventually worked out Laikin (pronounced laykin) is playing.

And the res (Worsrough reservoir) really is a gorgeous place to laik.
We tend to go there on a Sunday morning, for a walk around the res
and then bacon sandwich at Wigfield farm.

At the side of the reservoir is the mill

Last week we took a tour of the mill with a difference

We were transported back to the 1800's

Through game, song and theatre we learned how the mill worked all those years ago.

With Mrs Anne Shaw we made bread

into faces

and shapes.

At the end of the tour, the date Sep 2 1819, was pointed out.
The date Anne Smith had died.

At home, Geoff and the girls made bread.

We found out more about local history with a display of old books from Worsbrough,

that are now kept at the Sheffield university.

The girls loved trying to read the old swirly script

There was also a display showing the history of Worsbrough

In 1875 Barrow colliery opened.
Along with the button mill, furnaces, gunpowder factory and other industries that had sprung up in Worsbrough near the canal and later the railway, it provided employment for most of the local rapidly expanding population.

And here is a photo of the seven men that died in the Barrow colliery disaster. It brought a tear to our eye when we read the story of one of the men. His mother was getting his birthday tea ready of the eve of his 21st birthday. He never tasted it...
Barrow colliery was at the heart of Worsbrough for many years. Every family had a relative that worked down the pit. For many years there has been a campaign to bring home the banner.

And finally Barrow Colliery banner has come home.
Although we have only been in Barnsley for 13 years, and the pits had long gone before we came, growing up in nearby Rotherham, I can clearly remember the miners strike of the 1980's, especially a gala held in Clifton Park.
The miner's strike finished in 1985, with Barrow colliery shutting shortly after.
27 years after the closure of the mine, ex-miners stood shoulder to shoulder, chatting and standing proud.

We were served a traditional miner's lunch, pork pie and mushy peas.

In Yorkshire the mines and steel works are long gone. And we are in the midst of a double dip recession, being told to go out and spend. Go and spend at Meadowhall, where once great steel works operated. Surely we'd have been better off keeping our industries running, even if only at a small profit. Then maybe folks could go out and spend!

Life must have been much simpler when it was all about, milling and laikin round the res...