The excitement of the King Harry Ferry

It's really a floating bridge pulled across on a chain.  It crosses between Trelissick and the Roseland peninsula in Cornwall saving about 26 miles of driving, it is the King Harry Ferry.

You're only on it for about ten minutes but it's so beautiful, even on a grey day like this one

this is the ferry

and this is a strangely beached looking HUGE ship in the river, I have no idea why it is there or whether the high tide brings in enough water for it to leave.

I like to think that these are the ferrymen's cottages and not holiday cottages for a change

it's such a lovely ten minutes out of a busy day

warm thoughts

what to do if you're 10 (or 43) and have just watched the scariest dr who ever before bed

take one warm thought, available here, and squeeze very very tight

and if you wake in the night from a 'silence' related nightmare then press his belly button

and if all else fails go through to your mum and dad's room (this only works if you're 10) with your warm thought so you and mum can hug him together

Is there anyone else out there who suspects that dr who isn't and never has been suitable for children (or nervous adults)?

xx

a folksy/etsy easter

just look what annis found in our garden

a pink fluffy bunny puff!!!  he (because apparently he is a he, despite all that pinkness) is utterly loved and the easter bunny who left him behind had been doing a little shopping on etsy at kitty pink stars where there are all kinds of glorious creatures

a gold rabbit provoked quite a lot of smiling too

and look!  Is that what I think it is!  A gorgeous zombie bunny bookmark from fiona t, so gorgeous we have had to order a second blue skulls one for middle boy

the boys did not want to be photographed in their pyjamas for my blog (I can't understand it) but they allowed their balaclaved bank robber eggs to be photographed instead (well one of them) they loved them and what's even better is that they are from folksy at TamaraJayne.

Ok, I know you're wondering, is that a shot glass that their eggs are sitting in?  In all the excitement of easter we didn't realise that we no longer have any egg cups, I don't know where they've gone but they are no longer in our house so we were madly running around in the early hours of Sunday seeing if boiled eggs would sit in espresso cups (they wouldn't) then Jason remembered my dad's old shot glasses... perfect and even a little bit retro.

Hope you all had a wonderful easter, with plenty of chocolate

xx

the inconsistant blogger!

It's true, once the sun shines we tend to drift  far away from the computer, forget to take the camera out with us, and forget to blog.  We have been enjoying the sun, I'm sure you all have too and we decided that this year we would bake our own hot cross buns

I've done it once before, a long time ago all alone but this year I had a little helper (who did most of the work).  We used the recipe from this book.  My copy has a few errors in it, half a pint of milk and water was translated as 125mls which is only a quarter of a pint.  Stupidly I suggested we go for half a pint and see if it worked!!  So we were adding extra flour!

but they tasted delicious and worked despite our messing with the recipe

MY knitted hat was finished and immediately stolen!  I love it though, it keeps my ears warm and feels very 1920's.  It was from this lovely book

and I have begun some very scruffy crocheting with some gorgeous gorgeous Manos del Uruguay wool classica.  I am sort of aiming at something like this but need more luscious yarn so a trip to St Ives is in order, once the holidays are over

Hope you're all enjoying the sunshine and maybe getting a little crafting done too.

Wednesday walks

a bit of a longer break than I had intended, but life just takes over sometimes! 
Now the weather is more beautiful we have decided to do some proper walks.   We used to do these a lot when the children were smaller and we lived out of town but in recent years not so many so we have decided to revisit some of the beautiful places in West Penwith and do some lovely long walks with picnics.  We won't necessarily walk on Wednesdays but I think we'll post the walk on a Wednesday (it's the w w thing!) So without further ado here is walk number one, a walk from the merry maiden standing stones down to Lamorna cove along the coast to St Loy woods and back up through fields to the merry maidens, we think it's about six miles so not too far for someone who's been sitting sewing and drawing all winter!

a little bit of cooking

things have been very hectic here lately so we've slowed up in the evenings to do a bit of cooking.

not from this book but from the tv programme on 4od

I really want all the children to be able to cook for themselves by the time they leave home and these meals are even uncomplicated enough (but interesting enough) for my seventeen year old so I'm going to buy him the book for the next time he's home alone (he can cook meat to his heart's content then!)

we cooked this. 

I should point out that this is a picture of Jamie's pie not ours as ours was eaten too quickly for us to photograph it

It was utterly delicious, the best recipe we've tried (we had to use puff pastry as we had no filo, so not authentic but delish anyway)

and today classic school cookery, rock buns, I don't think I've eaten these since I was school age!  We used the recipe from this book which I love despite all the meat recipes.  She just has some great ideas for people like me who are never organized!

We're away celebrating J's sister's 40th this weekend so we will have to wait until next week to make Jamie's mushroom risotto!  Yum!!

Teaching each other

Teague has just started piano lessons.  It was something he suddenly decided he wanted to do and he seems to be really focused on practicing

Annis would also like piano lessons but we can't really afford two lots at the moment so Teague has started teaching her, and he is a wonderful teacher.  More patient than me (that might not mean a lot!)  and they don't seem to bicker at all while they're learning together.

I think this is one of the nicer things about home learning.  Sharing their skills with each other seems so much more meaningful than simply showing me what they can do. 

and we don't have to pay for a second lot of piano lessons yet ;o)