Trips to Nottinghamshire, Germany, and London feature here, along with time spent at the bouldering gym, on culinary experiments, and serving our lords and masters, the cats.

It has been an adequate temporary abode, it has.

[These events took place and this entry was written pre-lockdown 3.0.]

The last time we went to Croome, Humuhumu was a toddler and Keiki slept through the whole thing in his sling. The grounds are stunning - it’s a Capability Brown extravaganza, no expense was spared, not even that of moving an entire village to improve a view - and they loved it. I’m still kicking myself for not bringing the dSLR but comfort myself in the knowledge that we’ll definitely be back.



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Can't resist. One more from Puzzlewood. Tiny intrepid explorers, biiiiiig trees.

We went to Stratford-upon-Avon today and outside the RSC theatre, two cheeky children found a chap in puffling pants.

I know I'm not obliged to post every day, but as (a) I don't have the energy to do the big Roman Baths photo post tonight and (b) this picture makes me laaaaaugh, here is a small photo post.

Our trip to Bath was cut short today by the cancellation of a raft of trains on our homeward journey. We managed to escape just in time to miss the brunt of the chaos. Fortunately, we had packed in visits to the Roman Baths and the Abbey (see above), as well as a rather excellent tea at Sally Lunn's Eating House. I even brought my dSLR, so fingers crossed there are some good shots to come.

I bring you another mammoth photo post from last month, in which we visited Sizergh Castle, a National Trust property near Kendal in the Lake District. It was a damp drizzly day, but we still managed to enjoy our time in the gardens.


Hello, lovely flower beds.

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We drove up to St Bees during the camping portion of our Lake District holiday and spent a day romping on the beach below the cliffs. We arrived about an hour before low tide, which gave us a chance to enjoy the full extent of the sand before it was swallowed up again by the sea.


Keiki, bloke and Humuhumu head toward the sea, with newly purchased rock-pooling nets in hand.

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Not at the same time.


Humuhumu and Keiki in their lab coats. Sadly, that cave-like entrance leads to Bella Italia, not the Crazy Scientist lair.

First, the crazy science. Both children participated in this activity, donning white coats and heading into Crazy Scientist Jill's laboratory with quite a few other children. She began with a lesson in polymer strength (!), giving them each a plastic bag of "green alien slime" and having them stick sharpened pencils through it. Some bags leaked straightaway (Keiki's) and others could take multiple pencils without leaking (Humuhumu's), depending on how well the plastic was made. I really liked this demonstration although I suspect it went over my children's heads.

( Humuhumu with the bag of alien slime )

The second experiment was making a plastic container full of green bogeys. They started with corn starch, stirred that around a bit, and then added what looked like a scoop of baking soda and alum from a test tube. Jill came by with a kettle of recently boiled water and added that while they had their goggles on. Then she circulated with some "dragon breath" (green food colouring) and dropped that in whilst they continued stirring. Both my children loved this experiment. Keiki in particular, because (a) the resulting bogey mixture was bright green and (b) we got to close up the container and take the bogeys home. Happy days!

( Keiki stirring the snot )

The third experiment was the classic making a volcano out of vinegar and baking soda. The children used construction paper and tissues to make a volcano "wrapper" for their plastic beaker of red-coloured vinegar, which the grown-ups helped them to glue on. And finally, everyone poured in the baking soda simultaneously. It was a joyously raucous affair.

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Jill ended the session by letting each of the children use her time machine, which let them travel the solar system in search of planets and aliens. Humuhumu saw a rainbow alien at Neptune. Keiki was far too overwhelmed at being chosen to take the first trip in the time machine to speak at all, but it was clear he enjoyed it.

( Keiki in the time machine )

The time machine was a green circular paddling pool full of bubble mixture and a red hula hoop. Jill directed each child to stand in the middle of the pool and then she drew the hoop up over their heads to make a giant cylindrical bubble that encased them for a few seconds. The session was by this point running well over the scheduled hour, but clearly no one was going to leave before they had their go in it!

In the afternoon, Humuhumu and I went to try our hands at pottery painting. She chose a small mermaid to paint herself, and a dinosaur for me to paint for Keiki, with orders to make sure it ended up green, like Tony from Dinopaws (CBeebies show).

( 3 painting photos )

We pick up the finished pieces tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed they turn out OK.