Saturday 30 April 2016

Christmas Bike

Today Grandpa bought Rose her Christmas bike.  She specifically wanted a 'teal' bike with pink trim and we got very lucky.


It took a little adjustment as she couldn't reach the brake levers (bit of a design fault!) but now grandpa's got that sorted we're good to go.  Fancy Rose being big enough for a bike with 5 gears!  Here's an action shot.  Doesn't it go well with her coat.


We looked in vain for a bike Jacob felt comfortable on but discovered that Grandpa's old bike was a perfect fit so he's getting software instead.

We also went for a walk past the pond and found this excellent sign of spring.


Thursday 28 April 2016

Cooking Class

So I will have to find another time for Techno Thursday/Jeudi as Jacob's new 'interest' (forced on him by me to try to broaden his horizons) takes place on Thursday evenings.  Perhaps we can move him over to the time lapse Tuesday slot.

Anyway, tonight and every Thursday for the next 8 weeks Jacob is learning to cook.  Last week he made pea soup which he said wasn't as disgusting as he expected and I enjoyed very much at lunch time the following day.

Tonight he made oatmeal and coconut cookies...


As we were waiting for the class to start I asked him if he was pleased to be making something he might like and in true Jacob style he told me that they would probably turn out like most things in life, better than he expected but not as good as he hoped.  Wow.

Anyway, they were delicious and even Jacob ended up being fairly enthusiastic before he got too tired.

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Clouds?

I had no intention of blogging today as it is our first full day back in Canada and tired is an understatement.  However, at around 3.30pm today when I picked the impressively not jet lagged children up from school there was this really weird cloud formation.



The photos aren't great as I'm not at my best and was looking into the sun but you get the picture.

If any of my vast readership know what on earth was going on in the atmosphere to cause them I'd love to know.

Thursday 14 April 2016

U.K. 6

Today we went to the Lake District Visitors Centre at Brockhole.  It didn't rain so Jacob and Rose spent 2 hours in a huge course of suspended bouncy nets. Tam and I sat on grocery bags on a slightly damp bench to watch, it was a bit chilly so this is the only photo I managed.


Looks like I put him in a cage, if only.

We found a rather gorgeous mirrored sheep.


Apparently there is a trail of 60 of them around the lakes for people to go and find, we saw one at Allan Bank last week.  This one is called Parker so the kids needed to take a selfie with it.


Wednesday 13 April 2016

U.K. 5

We went to Sizergh Castle today and guess what? It rained.


It didn't bother some people, but others took it badly.


We went round the castle and did a very complicated quiz then had a quick walk around the gardens which were beautiful despite the weather.


There was a whole meadow of snakes head fritillaries which were quite stunning.


Tuesday 12 April 2016

U.K. 4

This is a very short post for the sole purpose of showing off to Tom.  Today we went to The Big Chip in Arnside for dinner and it was excellent.


How British is that? Eating fish 'n' chips indoors wearing a waterproof.  I can assure you that it was raining persistently outside and the cloud was so low you could barely see the other side of the viaduct.



I'm sorry Canada but I've not had fish and chips anywhere near that good outside the UK, maybe if we make it out to Newfoundland next year you can redeem yourself.

Monday 11 April 2016

U.K. 3

We have been staying with my Mum in the grounds of the house I grew up in at the very edge of the Lake District National Park.  Today we went up into the heart of the lakes, even on a grey day it really is very pretty.

We drove up to Grasmere and all the way Rose exclaimed in a loud voice every time she saw a sheep.  Even in French this got very wearing as there are a lot here.


We visited Allan Bank where Jacob discovered a new affection for a fedora (not the tennis player).


And Rose spent ages painting a rabbit.


I was very impressed by the extreme shabby chic paintwork and thought this might be a good alternative to the side of the fridge for displaying the kids art.


We also went for the inevitable, Lakeland walk (despite Jacob moaning) where Rose found a place for circuit training halfway up a hill.



Friday 8 April 2016

U.K. 2

Look, proof that sometimes the sun shines in England, even Northern England.  Here are the kids mucking about on the beach outside Conishead Priory yesterday.


Today we went to a bird reserve called Leighton Moss.  We didn't get much further than this natural playground and garden area where Rose enjoyed rockin out on some log drums.


Then my nephew Laurence showed us around all the trails where we were not quiet enough to see much wildlife.


Except for this female pheasant sitting on the wall behind Jacob that must have been completely deaf.


Wednesday 6 April 2016

U.K. 1

So Jacob, Rose and I are now in the UK and as expected it is mostly raining.

Here is Rose the bunny in her sleeping quarters in Nana's cabin where she slept like a log last night with no jet lag symptoms at all.


Jacob and I were not so lucky and are not in a fit state to be photographed close up.

Because J and I were suffering with semi-severe fatigue we didn't attempt any extreme tourism today.  We decided on a trip to the Dock Museum in Barrow which is free and has quiz sheets to win prizes.  Both kids won chocolate bunnies.

We saw a model of a luxury ocean liner called The Oriana which my Dad sailed on many years ago.  Hope they didn't let him out in the public areas or their reputation for luxury may have been slightly tarnished.


And the rain stopped long enough for a speedy run around the playground.



Saturday 2 April 2016

Techno Jeudi n stuff

Let's get the techies over and done with first...


There we are in perpetual twilight as ever.

'N stuff' is weather and I know that's not the most interesting subject but we've certainly had our fair share of it in the past 10 days.

So to recap, the Thursday before last we had the much blogged ice storm.  Then on Sunday it was 17 degrees, Rose played outside all afternoon in a t-shirt and I contemplated getting out the sun block.  On Sunday night an almighty storm rolled through and kept us awake with thunder and lightening for hours, it was accompanied by huge quantities of rain that kept going pretty much all week, on Thursday afternoon I failed to take a photo of a pair of mallards swimming in my flower beds.  Now this...




'What the heckin' boop ' as Rose used to say.  I might even resort to her worst phrase so far and say 'holy crack bottom' (how did she get to be so revolting?). Maybe this is the climate's idea of an April fool only 1 day late.

The temperature's hovering just below freezing so it's good packing snow and the Christmas igloo bricks are getting their first successful outing.  I'm not sure why the kids have chosen to barricade the patio steps but I'm not complaining as I can take photos without going out in the cold.


Actually I think I've figured it out now and although I'm impressed by the buttresses I'm not happy.