Huron Natural Area

Haven't blogged a walk for a while have I? Today was crisp and sunny so we went to explore a free place to walk - oh how I love things I don't have to pay for.  It was very nice, although everything is hunkering down ready for winter so there wasn't a lot of colour about the place and any sensible wildlife stays well away when the kids are around.

Jacob found himself a friendly rock.

And Rose wore a rather fabulous outfit, but that's a given really isn't it?

She bought herself the Mrs. Santa hat at the dollar store this morning, it has a tiara on the front.  It's the little things.

Techno Thursday

We had a problem with Techno Thursday yesterday.  It wasn't anything drastic like an empty desk situation, in fact our usual operative was skyping with the U.K. So I expect there were at least 3 different pieces of technology going at once.  The problem was just that he's got a cold and looked too bog-eyed to be photographed.

So we had to hire a stand in...

It took ages for Jacob to coach her into having half bad enough posture and this was still only the best she could do.

Jacob is off school today and lying in a big, festering heap on the sofa watching ancient episodes of Dr Who.  Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be back next week

Time lapse Tuesday

Guess what, no growth to report in the amaryllis department.  Here is Rose expressing her perplexity at its lack of enthusiasm.

That was just before she flicked compost all over the carpet with the end of the tape.

Not much has been going on here (other than snow) but on a protecting the furnishings from your kids note here are the take-them-of-and-shove-them-in-the-washing-machine-almost-ketchup-proof slip covers I made to try to preserve the dining chairs.

You will also note the stain resistant, cheap area rug over the light coloured, shag pile carpet.  I mean really? In the dining room? Clearly real children did not enter the property with a view to food consumption.

First Snow

We woke up to 3 inches of snow this morning.  This time there was enough to play in but only after the chores were done.  Here's Rose shovelling the deck.

Jacob cunningly managed to be eating breakfast while all the hard work was being done but made it out for a snowball fight when my hands were too cold to hold a camera.

We had more flurries on and off all day and I wouldn't be surprised if we are knee deep in candy floss/cotton candy by the time this front has passed through.

Techno Thursday

Well this is a turn up for the books...

The laptop is off.  But never fear, here he is...

Using a different mode of technology.  Note the pile of clean washing that I asked him to put away this morning - yeah right Mum!

Time lapse Tuesday and a Moose

Well I must say that this time lapse has started with just about the same level of excitement as the trees.  Here is Rose trying to pose and measure at the same time.

We have recorded a massive 5mm of amaryllis growth this week and that could just be the result of Rose pushing too hard on the tape measure.  Fingers crossed for a bit more action soon.

Jacob has been doing a lot of art at his new school, he's brought quite a few pieces home since the beginning of term but is particularly proud of this collage of a moose.

It is part of a social studies project on First Nations and Jacob claims that it was produced using traditional techniques.  Given that all the little pieces of paper appear to be pictures of either chocolate or ladies underwear (thermal tights/leggings I think) I am not so sure.

Crates!

Now that we have a place of our own we are struggling with furniture.  It hasn't been an issue before because Pinetree Drive was furnished in exquisite taste by someone else and Thorn Lane was such a disaster it made no odds what you put in it.

Our stuff currently consists of an 'eclectic' (putting it politely there) mix of the contents of a 1200 sq foot Victorian terrace house imported from England and a whole lot of gratefully received cast offs from Gary.  As a result we have a rather odd selection of things, we seem to have about 100 chairs but no adequate storage.

Which leads me to a minor rant about the price of furniture.  There's not much over here that's more expensive than in the uk (with the glaring exception of cheese) but there is definitely a gap in the furniture market, if it's not IKEA it's desperately expensive.  As far as I can see there doesn't seem to be a mid range.

So all this bla bla rubbish is an expansive introduction to my solution to a new book case.  I have rejected put it together yourself laminated plywood and $2000 for pre assembled wood (and plywood) in favour of crates from the antique market. This is the staged picture I took of my new storage...

But this is what it actually looks like with all the rest of the junk.

And that's on a tidy day!

I'm quite pleased as I like being a miser over somethings and I also like the recycling aspect of it.  I wonder if I can fashion a TV cabinet and a sideboard out of crates.  Perhaps I could make all our furniture that way then next time we move we don't have to pack.