"Although I speak from my own experience, I feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person. I will not propose to you that my way is best. The decision is up to you. If you find some point which may be suitable for you, then you can carry out experiments for yourself. If you find that it is off no use, then you can discard it." Dalai Lama...

Friday 14 November 2008

It's not so bad...

Having to juggle who has the car is proving a little bit of a pain now.I am so used to having access to it and not having to plan things.I am missing that spontaneity.We have a bus service of sorts!!Every couple of hours we can get a bus to the two nearest towns ,trouble is there is not much to do apart from shopping and that is not high on Emily's agenda of fun things to do;-)

Luckily however,I have a daughter who would probably not mind if we never had to go out again,she adores being at home.She never has to get out of PJ's, although this is evidence that going out in them isn't actually a problem for her!!She very often leaves them on to go on a walk with Al when he gets home from work.




So our days have been spent doing a lot of reading.We have finished Percy Jackson and now look forward to next May when the final one comes out.Alan and Emily have been reading Micheal Murpogo Alone on a wide seaThey very often slope up to lay on our bed for half an hour or so while I make tea as well as reading before bed.And I have just started reading Jacqueline Wilson's Kiss to her.

I bought a set of bells from Bright minds.I hoped Emily would take to them as she has been enjoying investigating music recently.I left them on the table and the next morning as soon as she saw them she started to play and she spent a long time learning Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle and Old McDonald.I took these at 9 o'clock at night when she was in full flow ;-)This is a girl who usually shy's away from anything involving the coordination it takes to do this, so I was so happy she enjoyed them.





The next morning she was back to it this time with added bubble power!!






She worked out her own way of laying out the bells which seemed as though it would be complicated but it worked just fine for her.I managed to keep my mouth shut and not give any unsolicited advice ;-)
We started a structure with marshmallows and toothpicks and she decided we should make a model of the Titanic.When she got out the book to look at the model she decided it was perhaps a little ambitious!





Milly has been recording some stories on her Dictaphone that my Mum and Dad bought her.She had filled it and initially had said she wanted to have the stories typed out and it sat in my filing tray waiting.I reminded her now and again and said I would type them out (she would need to be with me to keep stopping the machine and decide on bit's she didn't want in )but she kept putting it off.the other day she decided she didn't need to keep all the old stories and got Alan to delete them and she went off in to the living room to record a fresh.

She has been drawing many characters that are in her stories as well, a few of which she has said I can share with you.As with everything else, Emily has her own style and does not want advice or assistance.She won't draw in pencil so she can rub out mistakes she draws in Biro.These drawings have been evolving over time,little details are perfected and new things added.She is not interested in books that give step by step guidance.I love her drawings, they are quirky and individual I hope she continues to follow her own tune and continues to get as much enjoyment out of doing them as she does now.

This is a goth girl with her daemon and a skull on her t'shirt and a low slung belt chain.


Another goth girl,with black makeup round her eye's. She has 100's of bangles on her arms and stripey fingerless gloves.



Here is Lissy who is a big player in a lot of her stories about Bolvanger.She has a golden compass bag on and her daemon Pan is in her pocket.


This was the first one Emily drew with short hair as she had always wanted her girls to have long hair.



The last two night have been still, so we have had tea and then lit the burner and spent a couple of hours outside.





Rice pudding from the slow cooker Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


Milly has bounced( I joined her for a while tonight we had such a laugh)she has swung high,and she has talked and talked and talked:-)

It really isn't so bad that Alan needs the car,our life here is never hectic it is usually a slow relaxed pace but not having the car lets me off the hook, it means we have had even more time to let things develop at home and not feel guilty that you need to be out there doing something,learning something,seeing someone.It's good to just chill and spend time together .......

Sunday 2 November 2008

Halloween fun

Alan ended up having a week off work,his strains and sprains are still causing pain but he is mobile and feeling much better now.The bike is still in the garage and it may be a while before we get it back.We are having to juggle things a bit so we can have the car some days and he will get the bus and other days he will have the car or he will get the bus in and we will pick him up after work.Hope it won't go on for too long!! We are looking into getting a second car when the bike is fixed, but it will have to be really cheap and at the moment we are weighing up the pro's and con's.

We have taken a few photo's over the last few days.Milly has been experimenting with different camera angles!!
For Halloween she wanted to go trick or treating before we went off to a party hosted by our friends.We did her hair and makeup and she asked me to put some makeup on and do my eyes, here are the results plus some of the other things we have been up to this weekend.


She didn't want all the over the top stuff with white face and blood we usually do.She wanted to be a vampire.




A very sweet looking vampire!





Swirls on the eyes and a bat on her cheek.Two red vampire teeth marks hidden by the skulls scarf.Off she went trick or treating with Al.They didn't go to many houses she only wanted to be out a short time and came back with a reasonable amount of goodies.She tucked in to a few sweets and then told me about the man who had given her a home grown apple and a satsuma.She decided they were her favourite things,although the apple prooved to be sour and too hard.....




A few pictures by Milly using some "interesting"close up angles!!









Pumpkin carving,Milly enjoyed pulling out the insides and drew the design,then I carved it out.








Sunday was a beautiful day.We started off the morning slowly. I began to bake banana bread pretending to be the ships cook in a game we were playing, while Alan and Emily sailed to Bolvanger on the dining room table!! I then realised I had no eggs and Alan whizzed off to a local farm where they have eggs for sale.They leave them at the end of the drive with a box for the money to go in and you help yourself.£2.00 for a dozen free range eggs.(Edited to add)Didn't read well when I looked at it. I was making the point that they were a good buy, not that I had ripped them off by only paying £2.00;-)
Emily's friend A was coming to lunch and then we were all going off to the cinema to see Mamma Mia so we decided to bake soame fairy cakes that they could ice after lunch.I got out the ingredients and as I laid the seive down on the counter saw it made a nice pattern, so I wondered if Emily would be interested in some flour art!!



I cleared the counter after we had done the cakes and she came over and saw the design and set about working with it in a Milly fashion!!



Add some water



Mix and mould.



What about some coloured water?




Mmmmmmmm lovely



Ok could we make a volcano? With black food colouring?


What about more vinegar and some red food colouring?



Wow,I love it.....




While we were baking utube had provided us with the background music.After baking what better than a little table dancing to Elvis?




She had searched out the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams,she had heard them on the radio while in the car with Alan the other day and really liked the song.On the side bar on u tube Marylin Manson also had a version so she decided to look at it.Rather different to the Eurythmics!! She said she wouldn't be saving it to her favourites,she didn't like the version of the song but was very interested in the video.She reckoned he was like a zombie and didn't think he would have a daemon,it seemed he had no soul,it had probably died at birth!!



We have lovely mature tree's in the garden.The down side is the amount of work they take at this time of year:-( Alan didn't mind too much today as it was nice and dry and hardly took any work at all to get a big pile.