Air Heads

Crafting with smudge can be hit or miss. Her attention needs to be grabbed. If an activity doesn't do this then I can expect a peaceful crafting session while smudge is off doing something else. When I saw the Air Head balloon animals I wondered if I should bother. They were on Achica for £5 and loving a bargain I was unable to resist. For once I am really pleased I have no will power in the face of perceived money saving.

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With g working a back shift and smudge under the weather, Sunday afternoon was the ideal time to create. The kit contains everything you need, all the paper shapes are perforated so we didn't even need to find the interesting place smudge had hidden her scissors and the double sided sticky dots made sticking the appendages to the animals easy. By easy I of course mean that I didn't teach smudge any new swear words fighting with the sticky tape.

I was concerned why this had an 8+ age recommendation but would say this was pretty accurate as smudge needed a fair bit of assistance. Folding some of the paper noses, horns and ears was fiddly and not something she had the patience or dexterity for. Also I've yet to meet a child who can tie a balloon knot. That said I had smudge in fits of giggles fighting with an incredibly inflexible grey rhino balloon trying to tie a knot.

Doing this together was all part of the fun and meant we had a really good afternoon sat on the living room floor making up silly voices for the animals and trying to pick a favourite. The only downside to these is that I now I have a vase of balloon animals on my dining table. I'd much rather have flowers!

Morris Dancing with a Tea Towel

I've spoken before about my motivational woes. The Guilt that I seem to be achieving nothing and doing even less. Never is this worse than during the summer holidays. 

Smudge is an early riser and as she gets older and less likely to burn down the house making toast, has been really enjoying getting the downstairs to herself of a morning. Who am I to grumble about a child who wants me to stay in bed?

So staying in bed I have been. I'm usually awake and reading, one ear cocked for the first bleep of the smoke alarm. But I'm not putting my feet on the floor until after 9 most mornings. By the time that I've showered, dressed, tidied the crumb explosions, made and drunk coffee, bullied smudge into proper clothes 'yes we have to wear knickers every day in the summer holidays too' and walked the dog it's lunchtime.

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I'm spending my days glancing at the clock marvelling that it can't be that time already. I'm constantly playing catch up. Something will always drop off the end of the never-ending to do list and normally it's my writing.

Tonight I'm going to be brave and set the alarm for 6 and smudge will just have to make toast for 2 tomorrow morning. At least I'll be closer to the smoke alarm for my morris dancing with the tea towel duties.

Green thumbs

I'm a fair weather gardener. g will bemoan the fact that I don't really weed. Digging, hoeing and mowing just aren't my bag. I feel guilty when pruning. 

What I like is planting. Especially seeing tender fresh green shoots poking out of compost. My kitchen window is perfect for a few reasons: Sunny, warm and most importantly I remember to water things when I'm elbow deep in dish water staring at dry soil.

I mentioned on Monday's post that I've just planted out my chives, thyme and parsley. So all that's left on my window sill are 2 trays of dill, coriander, basil and rosemary, my massive mango plant, 2 nectarine stones and an avocado. Oh yeah, what I like best is growing things that I have enjoyed eating.

My favourite is when everybody tells me it won't work. Meet the cherry stones that will never grow...

3 weeks ago I was over the moon that my mango stone had sprouted. Now I'm wondering where the hell I'm going to keep it if it keeps growing at this rate.

Bank Holiday Fun

Since smudge learnt to ride her bike we're always on the hunt for decent family cycles. Unfortunately, cycling from home is tough as there are lots of hills in every direction. Canal paths are billiant and when we worked out we could combine a cycle with a trip to the Kelpies all we were waiting for was for the weather and g's shifts to coincide and co-operate.

We parked at the Falkirk Wheel. Thankfully g was driving and he remembered we had the bikes on the roof and didn't attempt to get under the 2m barriers. This post may have been slightly different had I been at the wheel.

The canal paths are really well maintained and great to cycle along.  The canal is obviously thriving as we spotted heron, nesting swans and lots of different types of ducks. Unfortunately, we didn't spot any otters.  Possibly because they heard our approach and ran to escape the din of smudge singing Frozen songs - for 4 miles!

The Kelpies are spectacular. Nothing I have read or watched about them prepared me for the scale of these sculptures. Not only are they huge, they are beautiful. Even on a dull day the panels of steel shine. But when the sun keeked out from behind the clouds, briefly, they glimmered and sparkled in the sun - Twilight Kelpies!

There is plenty of space to walk around and admire them from different angles. So now all I need to do is come back on a beautifully sunny day to see them properly shine and I'd love to see them against a really stormy black sky.

The site has ample bike parking and a coffee & cake and burger stalls.  We didn't have burgers, they did look amazing. But I had a decent coffee and by the speed it was devoured I can only assume that smudge's ice cream worked for her. There appears to be some sort of building going up. So maybe next time we go there'll be a visitor centre or cafe to shelter in if the weather isn't as kind next time.

After a wander and posing for some pictures we got back on our bikes and raced back to the Falkirk Wheel. Why is it that smudge cycles twice as fast on the way home?

One day we might get a photo with all of us in it at the same time!