Outdoorsy stuff and indoor crafts and games.

We've been really busy since my last post, so this is going to be rather a mammoth one!  Having got back from Beaumanor on the Sunday, the girls and I headed off again the next day to my parents', where we saw my best friend from uni, S, and her four children ranging in age from nearly 4 to 10.  Fortunately the weather was good, so for most of the time the children all played together in garden, while S and I caught up over tea and cake.  It's always lovely to see them, but is sadly these days not a common occurence, although her having relatives not too far from my parents does help.

On the Tuesday morning, the girls were booked in to do a sewing workshop at the local haberdashery/yarn shop, something they've done previously and enjoyed.  This time they made double-sided fabric baskets, I think is the best way to describe them.

K's finished product....

...and M's.

After the sewing, we went to watch Granny finish her bowls match, before taking her and Big Grandad out for lunch.  Later we went to visit Great Grandma too, who was delighted to see us as always and had a good old moan about her health, which given she's 94 and still living independently is really pretty good!

On Wednesday, the girls and Granny went swimming while I read my book, and then we went off 'Shakespeare-ing'.  Although the girls still like going to the Shakespeare properties, the appeal is waning somewhat, particularly for the Birthplace since the actors who they considered friends have all now moved on.  We went to Mary Arden's Farm for a while, before popping back to Granny's to finish packing up our things and have some lunch.  Rather than going straight home, we went into Stratford and checked out the newly re-opened New Place.  We had been there once before, in the early days of our Shakespeare-ing, when it was still an archeological dig but with very little that you could actually see.  We much prefer it now, with the additional sculptures in the garden and some hands on activities as well as the exhibition inside.

View from a roof terrace over part of the garden.

K building New Place.

Matching play, with plot and characters.

On Thursday after we'd got back we saw our lovely friend, C, who's having a tough time at the moment.  We went out for a drink together while the girls were at Scout camp, which was the day before her birthday.  I gave her Bananagrams for her birthday (she'd borrowed ours and loved it), so although it was rather late, K made her a matching card.

K's quilled card.

M gave her a little pile of presents, including the fabric bowl she'd made at the workshop and made her a card that said 'Happy Random Day' on it.

One of the things M made for C; a little felted fox.

We had a few days at home before we headed off again, this time to visit friends in the Worcestershire countryside.  We were pretty fortunate with the weather and had a lovely walk in the Clent Hills on the Bank Holiday Monday.  It was really rather busy when we got there, with lots of people on the main paths, but once we headed off onto the less well-beaten tracks in the woods, you wouldn't have known it at all.

M, K & M.

M & M.

Two of the standing stones on the top with K enjoying the view from a bench.

As well as the lovely outdoorsy stuff (we also toasted marshmallows on a fire in their new-since-we-were-last-there fire pit, and had a barbeque) they introduced us to a new game and we played some others we'd played before.

Mexican Train

Sequence

The new game that they introduced us to (I don't think it has a name or at least they didn't have one for it) is one where you need only pen and paper (and if you play outside as we did stones to weigh the paper down!).  One person prepares the game (the way we did it they didn't then play, but I don't see why they couldn't, or you could have more than one person preparing it).  They write 25 different words down on separate pieces of paper, the words should be generally fairly random, but with some groups of words linked in some way.  They also draw a 5x5 grid and add 6 ticks and 7 crosses into random boxes on the grid along with one star.  The 25 pieces of paper are then laid out in 5 x 5 pattern at random.  You need two teams, with one person from each team who gets to look at the grid, who then has to give the rest of them team clues to try to find their words and it's the first team to find all their words who win.  If the word with a star is said, then it's game over immediately and the other team win.  The clue-giver is allowed to say one word and then a number, the word is the clue to one or more of the words they need to find and the number is how many they can guess (it may be the exact number needed, but if there are more words that could fit, particularly if they're not words the other team need to find, then your team can guess more as there's no penalty apart from the with with a star).  That team then can guess words up to the number given that they think best fit with the clue word and those words are turned over.  The team that goes first has to find one extra word to even it out and the team that has all their words turned over first, no matter by whom, wins.  We really enjoyed this one and played it several times.  I was thinking that if you keep say 100 words in an envelope, you could pull out 25 random words and have a go without the preparation each time, although I do think having some words that are related probably makes for a better game.

On Tuesday we went for a bushcraft day the other side of Derby, with our friends C, G & L.  It was really good, very well run with a variety of hands on activities that were real, involving fire, saws, axes and drills!

We started with lighting fires, although first we had to find fuel.  It wasn't a piece of cake as it had clearly rained rather a lot recently, but with some tips on what to look for (the silvery part of birch bark for kindling for example) we soon had a good pile.  We did have a little cheat to help us of a ball of cotton wool, which catches fire easily but does burn out pretty quickly.  K, M, G & L started off in a group together and C & I were told to go away, so we did, although L joined us after a while.  It was fairly easy to get the fire going, but not so easy to keep it burning.  I think everyone managed eventually, although most people had to have at least a couple of goes before getting it established enough to cook popcorn over.

L lit it!

M, K & G cooking popcorn.

Nearly ready!

After we'd eaten our popcorn, it was time to get lunch ready.  Rather unexpectedly it was pizza!  There was dough, which one of the helpers rolled out and everyone got to add their own toppings from the selection provided and they were cooked in batches in a metal box thing over the main campfire.  It was very impressive and the pizzas were delicious!

C with M, G & L making their pizzas.

After lunch we went into a different part of the wood, where the children had a bit of a safety talk and explanation as to why it was good management of the wood to chop certain young trees down.  They then tackled sawing down trees, sawing off sections, splitting them in half down the middle with the aid of an axe and mallet, drilling a hole for a leaf sail and then sailing them down the stream.

M & L sawing down a tree.

They learned about how to judge which way the tree should fall, cutting out a wedge on one side, before making the felling cut on the opposite side.

It was a bit tricky around this point, as M & G have become very close and want to spend time just the two of them, however this means that K & L can feel left out.  It's a really tricky balance to try to help them manage for C & me, but F, one of the leaders of the activity, was extremely helpful.  After going off on her own for a bit, K returned and with a bit of persuasion went to help F with another tree and spent a good bit of time with him, sawing and chatting.

L watching K & F sawing down a tree.

Next step, splitting down the middle.

K drilling the hole.

Some of the finished boats.

M & G sailing their boats down the stream.

After some more time exploring the wood and the water meadow beyond it was time to head off.  The whole session was extremely well run and we'd definitely be interested in doing something like this again.  When children are shown how to use real tools safely and trusted to do so, they live up to that trust and can have a really good time doing so.

I had said that we'd have to go straight home after the session, but I was persuaded by the girls to pop back to C, G & L's for a quick cuppa first.  It really was on the way home, so I didn't need an awful lot of persuasion, particularly since and they have a new kitten that turned up hungry and apparently neglected in their garden.  Happily after some tlc and help from the vet she is now doing really well, being full of beans and incredibly cute!

I had planned on getting completely up to date with this post, but I think this is long enough, so will stop there now.  I'll have the evenings on my own this week after the girls are in bed to do so, as A is off to Singapore tomorrow.  He's only actually going to be in the country for just over 48 hours, but away from Monday until Friday.  So there will soon be an update on the school admissions appeal (just over a week to go) as well as another trip to the Dice Cup and some baking!