May 2013 in photos

 Lots of photos of the boy eating, no idea why!

 Our local historic monument in All Souls Church. They've started opening it to the public on Saturday afternoons, and it has some beautiful features. Its crumbling in places, but I loved the fantastic tiles on the floor, and the stonework on the pulpit.

 He's such a happy boy.

 Juggling a baby and a roast chicken....

 Another dress finished

 The two dresses together at last!

 Investigating fleecy sleepsuits for camping. Completely too hot for him (he was cozy in my sleeping bag) but maybe for snowy camping...

 Woodchips are just what he likes to chew best. Or is it there are always a load around him?

 Sourdough bread rises much quicker in this warm weather. I guess our house is cold compared to some (but very hot compared to others!).

 Camping. He seemed to have a great time with everything happening at his level.

 He seemed drawn to the lump hammer. He kept finding it somehow (thankfully no injuries!)

He didn't mind if it was clean or dirty washing up that he rearranged...

 Driving his first car at Pigeon Farm near Peterborough, a fantastic campsite/place to visit.

 Jar lids are the BEST baby toy in the world. Seriously.

 Pigeons Farm had things for bigger kids too.

 The tent is still going strong

 I like the idea (meant to be bird boxes) but think you need to be picky about the teapot (size of lid hole)

 I've been asked how we keep smalls off the stove. This is a radiator guard with two carribiners holding the two halves together. It actually has been great when we didn't have  tinies as its a perfect drying rack for soggy clothes and towels, and can help hold wet coats with a few poles added.

 Picking salad. 

 Rainbow has done a first for all our kids- can crawl under the van from one side to the other. I admit I did panic slightly, but he was fine. Just bumped his head a little!

 Washing up is VERY interesting.

 Extremely interesting

 Peterborough services on the A1 has quite a nice play area. We managed to stop there twice on our holiday!

 We got a fridge. You know, the kind with shelves and everything. For the last two years our fridge has been great (coolbox size and shape) but I rearranged the furniture so we were ready for a change. Wow. Shelves. you can SEE things. You can have more than one portion of meat in the fridge at a time. House living is sooo luxurious at times! Anyway, it came with a box which has almost been as heavily used as the fridge.

 We visited friends while we were away, who introduced us to the wonders of Lush bath products. Only, in Kent its hard water and its much softer water up here. So, even more bubbles! This was part of the aftermath ( I didn't get to see the bathroom full of bubbles, but I wish I had!).

 Sad FLower needed a ride, so I slung them both to the park. I don't think that'll happen again, but it was lovely snuggles, and peek a boo going on around me.

 He looks so big when awake, but when asleep he's still just a baby after all.


DH is all set to teach people to carve spoons. He ran a practice course for a select few yesterday, and it seems to have gone well. No injuries and positive feedback so far. Flyers in production for the paying version next month!

Weekend Away

the entrance gate with our tent

approx 5 bell tents and 4 tipis .....

We've had a marvellous weekend away at Spoonfest. Utterly brilliant time had by all. I hoped to watch and listen and enjoy the atmosphere (which I did) but I even got to carve most of a spoon.

Arare sighting of me not holding Little Man, getting to carve instead!

Little Man showing off his T-shirt

The girls made new friends and loved that the village playground was within the Spoonfest site, happily finding us when hungry- occasionally!

DH was able to watch and listen, but didn't manage to get into a queue in time to sign up for a workshop when he tried.

Sunday's workshop sign up queue

engraving workshop- I daren't try that with my track record for injuries!



 Wonderful free demonstrations and talks were fascinating for us grown ups, and of course tons of lovely wood, lots of space to work and chat and share ideas with others. So many circles of carving, chatting people all over was wonderful to watch and occasionally be part of.

Mr 'Flying Shavings' Richard Law working away

It was really great to chat with other greenwood people we've met over the years, and meet new people- all happy to talk 'wood' for more than 5 minutes. Coming back to 'real life' its so sad how folk tend to glaze over, and on a practical level seeing kids hanging around on the streets- I've been itching to spend 10 minutes getting them doing something more productive with a knife and peice of wood.

someone to talk spoons and home ed with- it doesn't get much better than this!

I didn't get to partake much as Little Man was happy in the sling on my front, or feeding all weekend :) Of couse I could have put him on my back out of the way, but the small amount of sleep I get didn't have me feeling terribly safe with sharp tools- so I didn't want to risk an injury and spoil things.
We managed our evening meal on Saturday at the 'bring and burn' communal bbq- with the girls staying up terribly late but we got to enjoy ourselves. Have I worn out the word fabulous yet?

There were plenty of people doing workshops (only £10 for 1.5 hrs with an expert in a small group) and free demonstrations. I missed the Friday evening talk by Jogge Sundqvist, but DH recorded the audio for me (he had slides so it doesn't quite make up for it!). I did get to see most of his Sat am demo,

 Mike Abbott's lumberhorse demo, half of Sean Hellman's sharpening demo, and part of Martin Hazel's talk Sunday morning about the possible patron saint of spoon carvers. Little Man was rather loud when he had needs to be met, so I couldn't just stay and feed him- I had to scoot off so everyone else could still hear. Jared Stonedahl had come from the US and was doing workshops and a demonstration on making knife sheaths with bark and roots- fabulous! We were even able to buy one of his spoons :)

 An osteopath Terence McSweeney did an abreviated demo on ergonomic work (he had a workshop going I wish I could have attended) which was amazing. I hope he'll repeat it next year!

Terence McSweeney's demo

 In my work we're warned about working 'safely' but noone has explained to me which fingers provided  the 'power' for a grip, I just knew we use 'fine motor' muscles to provide too much pressure. Anyway, his brief explanation on how to use an axe not only will help me axe without hurting my muscles, but hopefully help me scan without damaging myself much more also. I want to know more about osteopaths now! DH noticed how many of the professional woodworkers managed to be around for his free demo and were listening very carefully.

pre-spoonfest- Fritiof's course did the first pass-along spoon carving- 10 individual spoon made by teamwork

The gallery of work was far too intimidating for us to add to- the idea was everyone is included but the contributions I saw were all of a very high standard. I am inspired to improve my spoons!
There was also an exhibition of an extensive spoon collection- utterly amazing. I suppose the only enhancement I wish for is just a little more information about the spoon collection/various spoons on display- some had numbers on which intrigued me, but I didn't find out what they meant.

Spoon Club

The weekend finished up with Spoon Club- everyone working in teams to make spoons- 5 minutes each then passing it on to the left... we weren't able to stay to the end but it looked something amazing to be part of.

It was a wonderful experience just getting to Spoonfest with Little Man being so new. I'm amazed at how much we were able to get out from it- and really enjoyed meeting new people and chatting 'spoons'. Hmmm, though this means next year will probably be even harder with a 13 month old...

someone found a good place for a hammock overnight! not so great when the kids start playing early, I imagine....