first spring picnic

just when we were feeling Februaried out

the sun shone, the skies were blue, the catkins are out

at an old mine working near Godolphin

no-one was feeling up to much walking after lots of bugginess so this was perfect, a picnic just out of the car in the sunshine

french bread mozarella and avocado so we could feel the approach of summer.  Tomato soup as well because it's still a bit chilly!

"but you can't put a bookmark in it" or "my american sister"

My American sister (I only call her that to annoy her) is a kindle pusher and this week she had a success because she convinced my (not the most technical person in the world) mum to buy one.  We have been arguing the pros and cons for a while now.

cons (as I see them)

I like books

I buy second hand books which are cheaper than kindle books

I use the library which is free

pros

it has an amazing screen that is a dream to read and therefore I don't need my (extremely annoying) reading glasses

did I say pros plural, I meant pro because that's the only one there is.

My American sister says she still buys books and proved it by buying about thirty from a library sale recently so in her opinion books and kindle are not mutually exclusive

but now I think I have her

Bookmarks!  You can't use a bookmark in a kindle, in fact it would be pointless

and just look at this beautiful bookmark that I bought from carol's crafts.  There's no question it would scratch your kindle but it looks beautiful in my book.  I already know what her answer will be... You can still buy books.

I have added punctuation to my title because my lovely partner insists it doesn't make sense.  All I can say is it makes sense inside my head!

Just reading

and so quiet

diversions and evasion

or where I've been and what I've been thinking about instead of writing my essay

the gorgeous gingermelon on etsy how could you not want to make one of these cuties

Annis bought me a ring from silk purse sow's ear and my son recently bought one for his girlfriend for valentine's day and now she's tempting me with another!

and I just love this fabric from fabric rehab, the pots remind me of some childhood cups and bowls

oh and flickr, just look at the beauty of these valentine cookies from freestyle girl's photostream

I hope you are all diverting yourselves in such lovely ways today

hmm perhaps I could do some baking, after all I've written 1061 of the 4000 words...

books and books and more books

Reading is just about all that's happening in our house at the moment.  The weather has turned grey and cold so all we want to do is snuggle up and read

I should be writing an essay on Orlando but instead got caught up in Hermione Lee's biography of her. 

This is our book club book.  The children voted to have book club once a fortnight so I tend to read the book to them, otherwise we would have to get two copies.  And I am enjoying this one.

Annis is reading the time wreccas which she has just started and says 'it's funny and I like the names of the characters, snot and scratch and killjoy'.  Ours is a library copy, for some reason the copies I found on the internet are hugely expensive but maybe it's awaiting a print run.

Teague who cannot be photographed is reading Clive Cussler The Chase which is an adult's detective story set in 1906.  He really likes the historical aspect of it and finds it exciting. 

Did I miss two days?  So early in February?  Hmmm I think so.

New Books

Today our new books arrived from amazon. 

I had seen these books several times over the last year on Angry chicken.  She uses them as starters for enviable home ed projects.  So, in need of a kick start, we ordered four of them last week.  They are suited to younger children, my ten year old is happily reading them.  There is a lot of information in them and they do make a good starting point for a project.  We just ordered the non fiction books, we didn't bother with the story books as they seemed a bit too young.

I let Annis choose three of them, she has a fascination for ancient cultures, especially the Egyptians, so we went for Romans, Greeks and Egyptians.  I also ordered Leonardo da Vinci for my son who doesnt' like to read, the language is quite young but the information is interesting.  Some good comparisons of Leonardo's inventions with modern equivalents.  I'll post more as we work through them and create our projects.

A day late!

but with good reason, the poorly blanket has had to come out

this scruffy merino and blue faced leicester slightly felted, well worn, well loved blanket is a sample of my distant spinning.  I have friends who can spin a kilo of aran weight to make a jumper, I only make blankets or throws because there is no consistency to my spinning.  It has a home made quality to it!

a (bad) picture of my lovely, and very old, ashford wheel, as proof of my spinning past.  In fact I even belong to a spinning group, we don't actually spin anymore, we knit instead and I sometimes embroider but we still call it our spinning group so ssshhhh don't tell anyone we're not spinning!

but back to the blanket and my missed post yesterday, there is a little child under the blanket who was feeling very sorry for herself and distracted me away from the computer yesterday.  She is still feeling sorry for herself this morning and has got out of bed to lie back down on the sofa under the poorly blanket.  After all, how would I know she was poorly if she wasn't under the poorly blanket?

MICMACS Official Trailer!

This is one of the most wonderful films I've ever watched. He made Amelie and just has a way of creating the most beautiful stories. Almost like an animation. Maybe it's the way forward for getting rid of arms dealers

A bit of late night art

just when I thought we weren't going to have a picture for today a sudden late night art attack created three

sports night

badminton night for the younger ones and J which means 'being human' for the teen and me

New hairslides

Gorgeous gorgeous hairslides from supercutetilly She photographs them so much better than we have this morning here on her totally gorgeous blog

February swim anyone?

Yes, she really did!