First day of Spring and Kitchen Renovations...

  March "comes in like a lion, out like a lamb", according to a saying which dates back to the 17th century. And yesterday, the first day of Spring definitely came in like a lion, with wintery snow showers for most of the day.

 Yesterday also saw the start of our new kitchen, out with the old!

 

 It's been a steady decline over the past few months, as originally we thought we'd have the new kitchen fitted before Christmas.

Bye-bye to the old oven, which struggles to ignite!

We'd all grown rather fond of the new floor covering, which started it's life as a table cloth and then did a good job covering the floor once the tiles had been removed.

We are currently living without a sink, oven, hob or fridge...
Happy days, as you can well imagine!

Que es..? Spanish guess who

 In the home ed Spanish lessons, the girls have been learning how to describe someone by their physical characteristics.

 They then went on to play "Guess who?" in Spanish, a really fun way to practise descriptions.

 Questions to ask:
Que es...
los ojos verdes/azules/marrones/grises eyes green/blue/brown/grey
el pelo negro/rubio/castano/pellirojo hair black/blonde/brown/red
el pelo largo/corto/ondulando/liso -hair long/short/wavy/straight
gafas -glasses
bigote -moustache
barba -beard
pecas- freckles
coleta -ponytail
un sombrero -a hat
un gorro - a cap

When Jemima was small and we played "Guess who?" she would always chose Lucy. Good to see somethings don't change!

Story in a jar

For world book day, we went to a workshop and made a story in a jar.

 The story we used was Alice In Wonderland.

We were inspired by the book,

 

 the Mad Hatter's tea party,

 

 

 and outfits.

 We started with a glass jar and an egg, a rare dragons egg.

Reuben could hear the baby dragon's heartbeat.

Next we drew three pictures and wrote three words connected to the story.

This was later used as a planner for the Alice in wonderland jar.

We also drew a picture of the dragon which had laid the egg.

 Busy at work!

  We took a word from the story and cut out the letters from books and newspapers. We chose the word, White Rabbit. We then looked for phrases or words within the books, magazines and newspapers which fitted with the story of Alice In Wonderland.

 We wrote an abridged version of Alice In wonderland, to go into the jar.

 Table monitor!

 Imogen focused more on words than decorations,

 and I focused more on decorations!

 Inside the Alice in wonderland jar.

 Jemima incorporated the egg into the Alice theme, the egg is wearing the crown, as it has become the Queen of Hearts turtle's egg.

The crazy world of Alice In Wonderland.

 Reuben's jar has got a ribbon. 

He decided it had to be anchored down, so it doesn't float away.

Show and tell time, Rosanna went first.

 Followed by Reuben.

Today brought back memories from our visit to Weston park museum and the Mad Hatters tea party.

I feel inspired to do more 'stories in a jar', I think we'll start with an Easter jar, in fact we could have a jar for every season. 

Christmas in a jar, I can already hear Michael Buble!

Ravenstor, Buxton, Derbyshire

Since November last year, we've have set a target to have a weekend away every month. November was Whitby, December -Wales, January Haworth and February we had a two night stay at YHA Ravenstor, near Buxton. Not having a car at the moment these have all been done on public transport.  

Every weekend we've been away, the weather has been freezing 

and February was no exception.

 

YHA Ravenstor was originally built as the family home of the local mill owner.

On his death it was donated to the National trust and for many years has been on lease to YHA. Set in 60 acres of magnificent grounds with spectacular views, it was here that David Bellamy first got his inspiration, 

on what is now called Bellamy bank.

 

 

On our first full day we went for a walk to the nearby village of Tideswell.

It was barely above freezing for the whole weekend 

and the icicles were everywhere.

 

 

 

 

Tideswell Church - Cathedral of the peak.

We were originally going to walk to Tideswell and then get the bus back, but we weren't very tired and decided to walk back as it was mainly downhill. 

But then Reuben decided we should take a detour up Ravenstor.

So off we set...

Having to almost crawl up the last part!

 

Spectacular views fron the top of Ravenstor, 

with surviving patches from the last fall of snow.

The kids were pleased to see the youth hostel not too distant.

Almost home?

But the slope was so steep we couldn't get back down and from here you can't even see the steep gorge with it's sheer cliff on the hostel side.

So off we had to go in almost the opposite direction to the hostel.

looking for a way down...

and eventually we did!

It was worth the extra miles to see the old mill.

 Back at the hostel, cup of tea and time to enjoy the view back to Ravenstor.

We all slept very well that night!

The next day we got the bus to the spa town of Buxton.

 The pavillion gardens were created in 1876

to add to the attractions and increase the prosperity of Buxton.

The playgrounds are great, but again it was very, very cold!

Luckily there was a toy fayre in the pavilion, so we headed inside.

I was so excited to see this yellow car with two little figures. It brought back lovely memories of playing at my Nanan's house when I was about four or five. She had a china cabinet filled with all sorts of stuff, my three favourites, a silver donkey, a porcelain horse with a wooden cart and a little yellow car, like the one pictured above.

 Slightly scary old mechanical toys.

 At last we found some Barbie things!

Next door were the Buxton winter gardens

 with the added excitement of hidden dinosaurs

  And some beautiful splashes of colour and scent to lift the spirits.

 

In the Elizabethan era Buxton enjoyed considerable fame as a spa. Mary Queen of Scots visited to take the waters on several occasions during the time she was prisoner in England. In 1572 Dr John Jones wrote the first medical book on Buxton waters entitled The Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones, which cureth most grievous sickness, never before published'. Many others then wrote on the curative values of the waters and Buxton continued to develop as a spa throughout the 17th century.  Modelled on the Royal Bath Crescent, the 5th Duke of Devonshire financed the building of the Crescent at the end of the 19th Century.  The Crescent has lain empty for a number of years but is about to start being redeveloped as a modern Spa Hotel complex.

 

The Hot thermal baths at the side of the crescent are now an arcade shopping centre.  Built in approximately 1820 the facilities were elegant.  The baths closed in 1963 following a steady decline in the number of treatments from the mid 1950s.

 

 

The baths' heritage was preserved by retaining a small plunge bath 

within the complex as well as the original tiling.  

Here are some of the photos from the boards outside the Crescent, 

showing how it originally looked and how it declined.

When it's renovated I think I'll treat myself to a spa day

 St Anne's well pumping out warm spring water

Revived by fresh air, exercise and sampling the Buxton spring water, 

our batteries fully charged until our next weekend away!