We started the day as we meant to continue...strawberry fluff on toast! The colour is much more fluorescent in real life, we thought that maybe it would give us glow in the dark properties - especially useful for our camping expedition later on!

Our campsite - it is purely coincidental that it looks just like one of our fields!Two of our friends that we are camping with already getting into the holiday 'spirit' - need I say more!

Despite the torrential rain, we had an inch in just a couple of hours, the children all played cards together - ages range between 8 and 18.

This morning Husband showed all of the children how to use the airgun safely. Here is Niece having a go.

Now we are off out - so next installment will follow later!

I never managed to make the blog meet organised by Winnibriggs, as my children had other ideas. The youngest two wanted to go canoeing with Scouts, so I was roped in to help. As usual our accommodation was second to none. Our Scout leader really does spoil us! See how tempting the exterior is...
As you can imagine the inside is equally tempting...

The canoeing went well and we stoped at Welsh Biknor for lunch.
I must say Ross-on-Wye was a lovely town with lots of shops and tearooms! I was only to happy to volunteer to replenish supplies! I found a gorgeous shop called Lizzie Bunting and just had to explore...Inside I found lots of Greengate and Cath Kidston goodies - my kind of shop!

There were of course lots of other shops, but it has taken ages to upload my photos to blogger so I'm only sharing my favourite shop.

After a hectic couple of days and as we were closer to Mid-Wales than Lincoln we drove to Mum's, having a quick stop at Ludlow. I haven't been there for many years, but it is every bit as quaint as I remembered it. The many Tudor buildings ooze history...

... and the fact that there was a shop selling reasonably priced John Rocha T-shirts was the icing on the cake!

Monday afternoon saw us visiting Powis Castle. The castle and gardens are amazing.

I needed to go to Wales as Mum was due to have an operation. She was due to have it two weeks ago but a lack of bed meant that the operation was postponed. Anyway, this time the operation went ahead and Mum had both her kidneys removed on Tuesday morning. She is doing very well, although her blood pressure is low. I wasn't going to blog about Mum but I am finding it difficult to concentrate on much else. We have returned to lincoln tonight, just for a couple of days. I have brought my youngest niece with us, she has been desperate to come and stay with her AJ so how could I refuse? I am going to try and blog every day for the next couple of days so that my sister can see that I am looking after her daughter!

This evening, whilst our supper was cooking we went for a walk on the field. She talked farming with her UI.

School is out! It finished officially for the children yesterday, but us staff were dragged kicking and screaming into a training day!

More pictures of the field progress. Last night as were busy clearing the spinney, I heard what sounded like a tractor type vehicle. There is nothing unusual about that as we are in the middle of the countryside! We carried on working, but the noise became louder. Through the gateway came this...

... our next door neighbour driving his telehandler. 30mins later and the rough overgrown area had been reduced to this...

This means that we are now ready for the next phase (not quite sure what that is at the moment as we are completely making it all up as we go along) and it also means that this pile of debris will make a lovely campfire when we have our camp out next weekend. I feel a rendition of 'ging gang ghoolie' coming on!
Might even get some practise in this weekend as I am off for a canoeing weekend in Ross on Wye with the scouts.

This week's 52mmm challenge came in the form of a story sack that I have made for one of the amazing support staff that we have in the Foundation Stage. Now that she has completed her training and is no longer on student pay, the school can not afford to pay her the going rate, which means that she will be moving on to pastures new. This is a picture of the story sack that I have made for her.

As you can see in this picture I also bought some Old MacDonald masks that are available from here. I love the resources that you can buy from Sweet Counter, they are especially good at shows where you can buy just single items instead of the class packs that they sell online.I have been meaning to show you this for a while. I can't help myself when it comes to fabrics, wools, haberdashery, sewing machines... So it will come as no surprise that I just couldn't resist buying this beauty... One of the appeals for me is that it looks and smells old. It has been well used and I can only imagine the history that it may have. Even more exciting was that when I opened the case I saw a little box inside. I eagerly opened the box and look what I found inside!It is the instruction manual, very battered and dog eared but still there!I also found the key! Happy days!Along with the pleasure comes the pain...I'm also trying to get my head around blogger, so that i can be organised and have labels on my post. Long overdue methinks, but at least I'm having a go now. It would all go well if I wasn't quite so special!

With the holidays upon us, I have found some lovely nature activities to do here. I would also like to share a minbeast craft with you for those rainy days. It's cheap and easy!

The base for this is the shaped card that is used to package layers of apples for supermarkets. They are normally only too pleased to give them away.

You will need:

apple packaging

scissors

glue

black and red paint

sharp pencil

googly eyes

cotton bud

Instructions:

Cut out one of the round shapes.

Paint just over half of it with red paint.

Paint the remainder of the shape with black paint.

Also if the red is dry paint the line down the ladybird's back and as many spots as you would like.

Whilst you are waiting for the ladybird to dry paint the cotton bud antenna with black and leave to dry.

Meanwhile, cut out six black legs.

Stick them to the underside of the ladybird

Stick on some googly eyes. With a sharp pencil make two holes

Cut the cotton bud in half and put one in each of the holes.

Stand back and admire your handiwork!

A quick update since I wrote my post earlier. Now that we have sat down to watch TopGear, Husband and I are moving around the house like Derby and Joan, we have seized up! We have both been scratched, bitten and stung, everything aches! Yes, good times!

In the corner of the field is a small spinney area. Our plan of action is to make this area into a pond and small woodland. We have got bigger plans than that but one step at a time.

It has been a long and tiring day, lots of clearing of weeds, dead trees and the nettles were brutal.To give you an idea of the height of the nettles I took a photo of husband, with the nettles in the background. We have shifted some of the rotten wood, to an area which we could burn it in. We only have a bike trailer at the moment so we have improvised. And being the responsible parents that we are, we let our children travel around the field on it!

An update from yesterday...

as you know from my post last night I worried about the caterpillar, researched what he eats and set him free on the relevant plant - what I should have worried about was the little frog that had been set free on the bus!

Anyway, animal theft aside, I had a parcel awaiting my return from school.

I eagerly tore it open to find some lovely gifts to myself (well, one has to sometimes ;0) )
It wasn't my fault you see, I was quite happy catching up with blog friends when I came across this posting from Mary Poppins. She had kindly provided hyperlinks and being the compliant sort (Hah!) I clicked. Before I knew it I had ordered Cath Kidston goodies (well they were in the sale!). I have obviously commented Mary for her wayward leading ways! Meanwhile I have been looking at my goodies and opening and closing said tins,whilst smiling to myself. (It's definitely not wind before you comment!)

Before I forget, there was a little interest in my fragrance last night (I think I got bitten by a mosquito!) so I though I'd share the recipe (never let it be said that I am mean):

various green plantation - leaves, grass etc

dandelion heads if available (substitute with other wild flower as appropriate)

Twigs or sticks

a small amount of Magical blue water (very similar to blue food coloured water)

Mix and mash to release the full fragrance. Apply liberally and await the results!

For week 1 of my 52mmm challenge I have done some baking...

...cupcakes...

...fruit scones...cheese scones.

Yum!!

Today was our long awaited school trip. the beautiful weather that we have had for what seems like ever was sure to last...NO!

It has drizzled and mizzled all day! Still we didn't let it spoil our fun. I chose my seat on the bus carefully...We hunted for minbeasts and we searched for Stumpy the Chief Wood Elf using lots of clues... We made magical potions...And they made me wear it. I'm smelling good tonight!

One of my little cherubs took a caterpillar back to school in his pocket. I was suitably stern about the implications of his actions. He was under no illusions about my feelings. When his grown up came collect him, we talked about the matter with very serious faces. As they turned to go, grown up whispered to me 'Enjoy your new pet!' I love my class and their parents!

Meanwhile I have had to research how to feed this newly acquired caterpillar, and have now laid him in pastures new! It's a cinnabar moth caterpillar who eats ragwort and groundsel - luckily I know a man with a field or two!

Happy Birthday Mother! Love The Clampetts! x