Glastonbury 2007

WOW
I have been lost for words when describing Glastonbury - awesome, amazing, fantastic, crazy, inspiring, exhausting, overwhelming, fun, crazy... This was our first time to the worlds largest festival. We left home 3am Thursday morning, slowing driving past Stone Henge at sun rise Solstice morning. Many people where there, but the horizon was cloud. We arrived at Glastonbury about 6am and trudged to set up camp in Lost Vagueness. Then we rested, slept and chilled before going exploring.

There are the Greenfields, full of hippies - a healing field with massage, yoga and reiki available; a crafts field where one can try out stone masonry, iron mongery, knitting, candle making etc. There are loads of cafes in yurts and tents that have big steaming pots of chai and homemade cakes, all vegetarain foods. Then there is Lost Vagueness, which is an area of creative crazyness, you can buy your fancy dress outfit and dancy to ska, or punk or funk - while rollerskating, or just hang out in dodgem cars. (this is where we camped). There are the tipi fields, where you can take dance therapy or sit around a fire for story telling. There are the circus fields, where you can wonder amongst the strange sculptures or sit in a circus tent for while and see men swalling swords, riding 3m high unicycles while juggling fire blind folded. Then there is the childrens area, with workshops for drumming and diablo or clown acts, swings, castle to climb in and a million other fun things to do. There are the Greenpeace feilds with an ark made out of sustainable timber, a ship shaped climbing frame, poo poetry, a place to buy weetabix all day...(yep, we did). There are educational informational places, food galore, and the most AMAZING things to buy (wish I had more spare cash). THEN there is the music, everywhere, all the time, 24 hours. There are the big stages for the big acts, then there are a million little stages for everyone else. After the big stages close, then the periferal parties start and THEY are the good ones. Saturday night I had Sienna Miller push past me three times. I gave the organizer Michael Eavis a big thumbs up in his vehicle window as he drove right past - very friendly man, very inspirational. We saw some great acts: Bjork - thrilling. Paolo Nutini (my fav album of last year). The Marley Brothers (Bob's sons), for some reggae feel good, love music - yay! The Egg - for true festival dance music - we are friends with the sound engineer. And my favourite, can't wait to buy their album Think! - 5am dancing like crazy to the BEST funk I've ever heard - LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!

Did I mentioned it rained and was the muddiest in the past 10 years? I am now a professional on the subject of MUD. There is chocolate milkshake, which is easy to walk in, ankle deep water is - just hope the person behind isn't someone who walks kicking it up (most are). Then there is chocolate sauce - looks great. Then there is chocolate mouse - this is slippery. Then there is chocolate bread dough - arrrgh - this is where your boots get S-T-U-C-K, EVERY time you take a step and it make funny sounding suck-tion noises - hehe. All are very tiring and there is ALOT of walking to be done over a 2000 acre festival.


So last night we arrived home exxxuasted. Did I mention that we camped near a big tent, that turned into a pumping old school disco from 5pm - 5am? Its really hard trying to sleep while your feet can't keep still and your ears are ringing...so we got tired. And Sunday we decided we'd seen and heard and done enough, so we packed up and headed home. What an EXTRAordinary 4 days.



Oh my I could go on about how much of the waste is recycled, how much there is an atmosphere of love and peace and good times, how much I love the quirky creativity, the scale of it (180,000) on and on. Thoroughly enjoyed it and would go again if someone could promise no rain....

GETTING HORSEY IN SCOTLAND

We spent 3 days in Ayr, the Riviera on the west coast of Scotland. We went to stay with Reg and his family. He lives in a fabulous house that looks like a Castle, overlooking a golf course with the sea and the Isle of Aran in the background. His daughter is horse mad, so one day we went to the stables and got to see a horse being shod. Before going for a pony ride! Oh my! First time on a pony for Oscar - he is so confident, it astounds me. Samuel was on a teeny walk around when he was about 3, so he was equally excited this time. Brilliant.

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

On our first day of home educating, we went for a walk in Richmond Park and found a great spot that we decided we would come back to for story reading. We collected some green helicopters, which we later decided looked like fly wings. So we made some lovely squishy green playdough (I never knew you were meant to cook playdough before!) Such FUN!

BOBBIE IN THE GARDEN!

A couple of weeks ago, there was a knock at the door and 2 police occifers were there! We haven't had police at our place since that time me and a couple girls scared the poo out of Jeff, when we returned to haunt the house after missing a flight to Barcelona.

The neighbours MOST annoying alarm was going off and they wanted to peep over our fence. Os and his best mate Will were VERY chuffed to chat to them and get to try on the famous Bobbies hat.

JUST US AND THE GARDENS

Brett Hall at left, thinking he is not in the photo.

Twice a year Kew Gardens stays open late so that revellers can enjoy the long sunny evenings. A few of our friends with a zillion of our kids organized a dinner picnic. It was BRILLIANT! The kids all had soo soo much fun. We played at the Climbers and Creepers area and it felt like we had all of Kew Gardens just to ourselves. To the extent that the kids were riding around pretending to sell us ice creams...until we realized we weren't alone in the park and a security occifer came along. hehe.

Home Educating

what a beeeeaaauutiful pencil hold and wrist!

I took Oscar out of school 3 weeks ago, straight after half term holidays. This is so that I can build his confidence in his writing and spelling and reading - literacy. It is working wonders! He is SO SO happy - no more waking me up at 7am with tears and upset about having to go to school. No where near as much anger as before. He is HAPPY to pick up a pencil and do writing now. We are doing a program called: Handwriting without Tears, which is going brilliantly, certainly no tears about writing anymore.



So, I bit the bullet and realized that noone was going to tell me what I should do with my child. The school was amazingly supportive. And while I feel like I should be more organized, we are happy. yay!

making a card for Olivers Christening

GREEN DAY

speedy boy

he had a "parp parp" horn in his pocket, which he bounced on to honk...

the greeness

tickle tickle - he he

We spent a day in the Wye Valley, in one of the most beautiful spots ever. We had a picnic together right by a pond, under delicious green oaks. After a few hours of lazing around, we jumped on our bikes for a 7mile ride around beautiful foresty commission forest. We had SO MUCH FUN!! It was the most amazing blue sky day and we were one happy little family.

WOODIES AT WYE VALLEY

Over half term hols, the boys went camping with the woodies. 1 week away from Mum and Dad!! With a bunch of the lovliest people in the world. They had SUCH a brilliant time: rock climbing, caving, kyaking etc. They camped in the Wye Valley, right next to the river. FUN FUN!

Alphabet Gingers

Last week, we made a big batch of yummy molasses and ginger cookie dough. Then every day we would make the 2 letters we had learnt to write that day. F & E etc. One day we had our friend "Nickelarse" over for dinner, so he got a cookie in the shape of you know what, with a big "N" on it - quite yummy with yoghurt and strawberries.

RAIN DANCING

This evening O was reading me story when it started BUCKETING down. S reminded us that he was dancing in the rain neked when he was little. This inspired O, to get his gear off for summer rain dancing. Such giggles! hehe.

Studying a snail...hope the neighbours weren't looking out the window!

PRETTY PARROTS

Richmond Park Report 2

Forest School by OJR

Today was very fun. We saw lots of parrots and we’ve got lots of green feathers from parrots. We made some green clay and made it into birds. And we sticked the feathers into the birds. We made 3 birds. The parrots are not native and every year there are so many more! Check out this BBC article.


We stopped by a tree and we started to listen to a “time” book. Then Oscar started to not listen and we learnt the Perform words instead.

Then we saw a spider and then we saw a weird bug. The weird bug bit our pet snail and the snail was kind of bleeding. So, we let the stupid bug free. We pulled off bark and we saw a woodpecker house - a hole in a fallen down tree. We also saw a woodpecker.

We saw 13 dog poos on the path. I was riding my bike and I accidentally rode through a poo. We started to count them all. And then it started to smell in the car. YUK!

Wedding Bells

After Canada we were inundated with family. Uncle Paul got married on 14th May 2007. We got to know another Great Grandma age 88, who flew all the way over from Australia. We got to meet cousin Scout! The cutest little girl in the whole world! And we got to spend lots of time with aunts, uncles and great aunts, and aunts and uncles. It was WONDERFUL having so much of our Australian family visiting us in London.

Catching up on Canada

Phew, we have been away from here for a LONG time. So So much has happened. Most exciting was our trip to Canada. Where we celebrated Great Grandma's 90th birthday. Samuel performed on his Viola and the kids did a little skit.

We had lots of fun in Canada. Our first morning at Annika and Pedars we saw a Coyote, a teeny black squirrel and a woodpecker. We loved their chickens. One early morning we accidentally let them out and them spent AGES in the rain trying to get them back home - so the coyotes wouldn't get them...hehe.

We also had a FUN weeeeener roast and went on a Bear Hunt, walk up a lovely valley. We had great fun at Annika and Pedars.

Then we stayed at Jack and Leonas and there was family overload! People coming and going, meeting lots of cousins and kids. It was great because everyone was really excited to be together.

After the birthday we went and stayed at cousin Jills. Jasper and Jada live there, in a really trendy house. Their Dad took the boys rock climbing one afternoon, it was the first time rock climbing outdoors on real cliffs! We had to shoo away the deer before we got to the cliff too!

We had SUCH a great time in Canada, we all want to live there sometime.

photos later

WOWS ABOUND

Camper heaven

This weekend was such FUN! Saturday morning Samuel had footy training, I took Christy for a run/ride from Chiswick Bridge to Twickenham Bridge along the river. She is SO good at running next to the bike on the lead! wow.
Then we went to an art gallery in South Kensington - just behind Harrods to see Banksy selling his graffiti artworks for £50,000-60,000!!! wow.

Love Rat by Banksy

Then we prepared our house and food for the first bbq of the year. We had over 5 families for dinner - 14 kids!! Unfortunately Jeff was away for the weekend and he is an absolute master at bbqing on the Webber and none of these aussie men could cook on real fire - whats THAT about?? wow. Anyway, everyone had a great time, it was so relaxed - last guests leaving at 10:30, it was 12 by the time I had mopped the floors...

Honey with her 4 sweet kittens

This morning we went to Rebeccas, her cat had kittens on Tuesday and we got to pet them today - wow! It was very sweet watching the kittens and petting them - with one finger only. The kids loved it.


On the way home we stopped in at Volksworld for the afternoon. The annual VW show - oh my, we had a really good time there, drooling. The kids spent their savings to add to their Vdub collection.

how is that side kombi side car??

Then when we got home we planted our first seeds, chillis, basil and cucumbers - to germinate indoors. This week we will also divide up the 4ftsq vege garden into 16 1ft squares and start some seeds directly into the soil. I think the last of the frost/snow is over...(hope).

On the equinox I bought us all a new pair of gloves for gardening and a bird feeder with a load of seed for the little blue tits and robins who are busy nesting now.


This evening we watched "My Little Sunshine", not exactly suitable for young kiddies, but its real life and we LAUGHED. Mainly because we could relate to the Kombi issues! hehe.

BOOK WEEK

Gandolf and Merlin

Today was dress up like a Dragon day, which was expanded to include princesses, knights, wizards etc. So, the boys pilfered our dress up basket and came out as magicians. Book week is such fun. They have several famous authors come and give talks and sign books, they have comedians, performers, ALL sorts of FUN FUN stuff going on this week. Event after event ...

Merlin and his knight in shining armour

MOTHERS DAY

Sunday we went for a bike ride along the river to Teddington. I hadn't been this way for years. We were supposed to get all the way to Hampton Court Palace, but it was just too cold. So, we stopped at one of our favourite river side pubs and ate instead. It wasn't a remarkable day, but it was good to get outside and active and fang around this bike track. A toasty fire and a 'warm ya to the bones' bath was required afterwards.

Project

On Saturday after footy training Samuel came to me and said, I want to do an art project - YAY I thought, get out the paintbrushes, palette etc. No, he said I want spray paint...At the side of our house, left over from xrta large xmas dinner table as been a peice of mdf. So, They went for it. Here is the work in progress.

RIVER RIDING

Today, we went to a baby shower and since Jeff was working, the boys and I decided we'd like a ride - in line with our using the car a whole lot less. So, we cycled - as soon as we left there was a down pour, followed by a beautiful rainbow! Unbeknownst to me there is a tow path along the river all the way. We cycled to Putney along the roads, a bit hairy scary with little Os to say the least, but we arrived with no major incidents and had a nice time talking babies and watching toddlers.

Then we cycled home along the river all the way, between 4-5pm - a lovely light time of day by the water. We had to duck our heads to cycle under the lovely looking hammersmith bridge. I think it must have been just after a super high tide as the path was super muddy, which was super fun for the boys - weeee, no concern for getting covered in mud whatsoever.

We stopped at a pub for a drink and arrived happily home -What a fun adventure! Its funny, when the boys are enjoying their cycling - they sing!

handsome boy is growing up