Fourty eight hours of much needed sunshine...

Since the clocks changed we've tried to get out for a walk most days, 

even though some of the days it has been very cold. 

The sunshine at the weekend was not to be wasted.

 We started with a walk, setting off from our house, we walked to the canal.

 Having our first chippy picnic of the year.

 Great excitement- a real life ugly duckling. 

Reuben and Rosanna love the ugly duckling since seeing the story on cbeebies. The Northern ballet company are touring the country with the show, sadly the shows near us are sold out, but we may try and catch the show later in the year. There are also some great resources to go with the ugly duckling story on the bbc website.

 

 On we walked to the country park.

 

 smart walking attire

 

 time to play by the stream

 The orange colouration on the rocks is from the old mines.

 On to the reservoir

Feeding time for the owls at Wigfield farm.

 

 Back home for birthday cake.

 Sunday we were brave and ventured into the garden to tackle the weeds.

 These are flower beds, there is no lawned areas in the garden, 

but this doesn't stop weedy grass sprouting up everywhere.

 

 

 This year we are putting down weed guard to divide the vegetable beds.

 

Rosanna and Geoff plant some plodders (broad beans).

 Finished off with a bonfire and a tub of Ben & Jerry phish food ice cream.

Looking forward to more Sunny days.

Easy Easter crafts and decorations

Over the past couple of days we've been busy with Easter crafts, 

and we made enough to decorate the window...

Our Easter window.

I made the Easter wreath, from a wire coat hanger shaped into a circle and strips of material.

It's very quick and easy to make, at this point I was doubting it would look anything like a wreath, but I kept on adding strips and pushing them tight and it soon took shape.

I bought these polystrene eggs from poundland.

We decorated them with wool, we found that it's best to put blobs of PVA glue on to the egg and then wind the wool around, we tried different ways, side-to-side, random and length ways. We found winding the wool length ways around the egg was easiest. We added a few strands of wool and then left it to dry, this acted as a key for the rest of the wool.

The finished eggs, my favourite is the orange egg, this wool was thicker and fluffy and stuck down really easily.

Also using the polystyrene eggs we added layers of tissue paper, let them dry and them Jemima decorated them with painted flowers.

This is a larger decoupage egg, which stands on the window sill.

We used toilet paper tubes.

We painted them and left them to dry.

Some were left whole and made into rabbits.

Others were cut into three pieces and made into a chick and a frog. 

I wonder if a creme egg would fit into the tummy of the chick.

Easter + snow = snow flake Easter eggs!

Using this cardboard box from our new Hetty vacuum cleaner, 

we have started...

 an Easter wonderland!

Imogen is knitting Easter bunnies...

They are big enough to fit a chocolate egg 

or real egg if you are being healthy!

 I feel as though the spirit of Easter is lost with the piles of cheap Easter eggs in the supermarkets. So I've started making little gifts for the children.

 I've filled these cellophane bags with their favourite pick 'n' mix and then added paper chick details.

They haven't cost much to make.

I also bought the children's favourite chocolate and wrapped it and added rabbit details. Much cheaper than an Easter egg.

But I'm sure I'll give in to the mountains of £1 Easter eggs on offer.

Reuben and Rosanna are really enjoying playing with the Easter things we have made. They especially love these Easter decorations on a stick,which I got form poundland. They make brilliant wands and pretend knitting needles to sit and knit with Immy.

Easter window complete, we'll now move onto decorating the fireplace...

Spring Snow

This morning Rosanna was the only one in our house to be excited by the snow.

 Although it looked very pretty, we really could have done with out it today.

We were waiting for deliveries and had a home ed group to get to.

 Instead we had a crafty day at home, a table full of tissue paper, glue, paint, wool... and toilet rolls!

 The kitchen is now empty and plastered.

This time last year we we were having work done on the attic. 

It was so hot I had to give the workman cold drinks with ice cubes.

 

Freezing cold day and we had the door open to help the plaster dry!

This time next week, we'll have our lovely new kitchen :)

April Showers, snow showers!

Well, the weather forecasters got it right! We woke to a blizzard and a covering of snow on Thursday The girls weren't very impressed as we had to cancel our plans to visit our friends.

We went up to the big garden

New plants in the polytunnel still need water.

Reuben and Rosanna found it very funny to find snow in the 'bonfire'.

First snow for the hens.

Snowdrops long gone, but plenty more Spring flowers emerging.

A quick science lesson on the trampoline:
Imogen found it really difficult to bounce on the trampoline.
Is the snow adding to or resisting her weight?

Off we went for a walk up the 'doggy' footpath.

The horse ran to meet us, hoping to be fed.

I love the view at the top of the hill.

Horizontal snow lashed our faces on the way back down the hill.

Back home, a welcome warm up and time for hot chocolate biscuit dunking,

and dippy eggs!