"Mr Parkin (her teacher), says we have to build a house for our homework." she said, dropping her bag in the hallway, her coat on the lounge floor and kicking her shoes into the dining room. So, that evening after tea, she set about making a house out of cereal boxes, glue, sticky tape and acrylic paints. There was cardboard and sticky tape all over the place. The room looked a mess, but out of the rubble arose her house. She did it all by herself, with minimal, not a lot , maximum help from her mum. I think she did pretty good considering she's only 6.
Who knows? She might become a builder for Mac Alpines when she grows up.
What a hectic week-end wev'e had at Freddy's place.
Saturday was over to Brighouse to see the charity gala. The gala always starts with a procession and at the front of it is the town crier. He wanders a good few yards in front ringing his bell and shouting at the top of his lungs warning everyone that the procession is on it's way and to get ready to put your coins in the charity buckets. No gala would be complete without a Queen and her entourage. This young lady in the back of the car was clearly up to the task, waving to the crowds as the procession wound it's way slowly to the park, where the gala was being held. also in the procession were some floats that the local children had decorated, a few bands, majorettes and some tumbling gymnasts. My two kids loved this character. I think he/she must have been very warm in that costume! When the procession ended, it was down into the park where all the side-shows, fairground rides etc were. We watched the gymnasts go through their stuff in the arena, had a go on the coconut shy, saw the dogs being judged in the dog-show, the kids went on the tallest bouncy castle slide I've seen and loved it. The lad won a couple of prizes on one of the many tombola stalls, which upset the little lass because she didn't win anything. When he collected his prizes, one of them was a doll, so the little lass won in the end. We enjoyed the gala and are already looking forward to next years.
On the Sunday it was over to one of our regular haunts, Red House at Gomersal. There were quite a few things going off,including guided walks around the garden by a guide in period costume, dancing on the lawn, "Pride and Predjudice" style, plant and herb stalls, craft activities for the kids and pot pourri making. These sort of events are provide free of charge by the local council, and they always are interesting. We watched the Arbeau Dancers going through a couple of Quadrilles and Magot's. It certainly took you back to Jane Austin days. When they had finished their performance, volunteers were asked from the audience to have a go. Guess who got roped in! I enjoyed it though, and it's not as easy as it looks. We took a guided tour of the gardens next with a guide in period costume who showed us around as if it really was 1820. He told us that Charlotte Bronte was a good friend of his daughter Mary Taylor, and often stayed at Red House. Charlotte had written about Red House in her novel "Shirley".
The wife descended on the plant and herb stalls with a vengeance and made the wallet suffer so much I had to retire for refreshments. Whilst we were resting, the kids got on with the craft activities, which consisted of colouring in a victorian fan and a flower decoup'age.
We called in at the PYO strawberry field on the way home so by the time I pulled up outside the house the kids had very red faces!
A couple of pictures courtesy of the BBC News web-site. The first one is of the camp-site at Glastonbury Festival. ...and this one is of dawn over Stonehenge on mid-summers day. Which event would you have liked to have been at?
It's raining, It's pouring, Glastonbury is boring, They went to bed, To get some zzzz, And floated away in the morning!
What a thunderstorm the festival goers had down at Glastonbury. The images on the tv news bulletins of a field of tents in 2 ft of water were quite shocking. The start of the live acts were delayed by a couple of hours because of the extreme weather, but the sun was out by lunchtime and they all started rocking.
There was great excitement at the school today, an helicopter was flying in.
This helicopter flies around Yorkshire taking ariel photos of your house and then tries to flog the pics to you. On this occasion the school requested it to fly over and take some shots of the building and then land in the playing field adjacent to the school and have the kids photos taken in front of the chopper.
I went to pick my kids up at home- time and got there a bit early, just as the last group of kids were getting snapped. Shortly after, the photographer and pilot hopped into the aircraft and started up the engine. The rotors started turning faster and faster, and then he was up in the air. All the kids started jumping up and down and cheering and waving. If theres not a few wet knickers amongst the kids I'll be surprised. They were that excited.
"The pilot man is called John," said my little girl, after she'd collected her schoolbag.
"How do you know?" I asked her.
"Cos' I asked him." she replied.
At least she's chatting up someone with an interesting job.
It is with great regret that I have to inform you that I only have 1 goldfish left now.
Carrot, the fish that we brought in from the outside pond, developed a fungal disease and went about two weeks ago, and Ben must have caught the same thing, was lying on his side yesterday. Wev'e refreshed the water and put anti-fungal chemicals in so hopefully Goldie will be alright. He certainly looks none the worse for wear.
On a lighter note, Bramble, the hamster, wich has been going stir crazy for quite a while now managed to break out the other night, whilst we were all in bed. The wife noticed the cage door open when she got up in the morning and there was no sign of the critter. After a fruitless search, she was making a cup of tea in the kitchen, when she heard a rustling noise coming from the cupboard were the veggies are stored. Of course the hamster was there chewing on an onion. I've managed to fix the door on the cage, so there's no more midnight feasts for hammie.
It's just left us with a stir crazy hamster with onion breath. I know it's a mouse but I like this gif.
I know wev'e been gallivanting off on a Sunday for the last few weeks but this week the weather forecast wasn't too cracky so we decided to stay at home. This gave me the opportunity to take some photos of the garden, some of which I'm going to share with you. If youv'e been dying to know how the decking looks like with the seats on, here it is. We couldn't put the seats out until the birds had fledged. You can see in this picture the nesting boxes on the wall. This space is quite peaceful and catches the early morning sun. It's enclosed by honeysuckle and a Francis rambling rose and some clematis all climbing up the trellis. In the gravel in front of the deck are clumps of different grasses. A bit different from the rubbish tip that the previous house-owner used it for. At the front of the house we have a drive which is big enough for two cars side by side so there's not much room for a garden. We managed to put some heathers in and this standard Cotoneaster which is in flower at the moment. The wife says it's like a firework going off. The area is gravelled to cut down on maintenance, wev'e got enough work to do in the back! The country cottage feel is attained in this border. There's all sorts of things going on in this place. Roses,Papavers,Foxgloves, even a young Hawthorn bush which was planted in April. There's a wildlife pond in amongst this lot with some frogs in residence. My wife got a couple of packets of wildflower seeds last year and just broadcast the lot. She's waiting to find out what comes up. Probably a Triffid! Whilst I was out there taking the pictures, this Blackbird came to see what I was up to. This bird has been hanging around our garden for a while now, but the remarkable thing about this bird is the fact that it only has one leg.We make sure we put plenty of bird food out and this character never misses out, even with his handicap. He rewards us in the early evening with his beautiful singing voice.
The garden will look even better in a months time when all the flowers are out.
Wev'e had a bit of decent weather recently, quite warm and sunny, so the plants in the baskets and tubs were looking a bit parched and guess who's job it is to do the watering.
My wife is mad keen on gardening, and nothing makes her more happy than a nice looking hanging basket or a flower tub. Trouble is, she likes them so much she got carried away with it this year.
45 different baskets and tubs, and Iv'e got to do the watering, every day.
Took me nearly an hour, and I was using a hose that leaks.
I wouldn't mind if they had a little nibble now and then, but no, they've got to have the whole thing. 2 pumpkin plants, 3 lettuce seedlings and damage to my marrow plant. It seems that I go to the bother of raising these vegatables in order for them to come along and have a free supper. They are crafty and all, because they only come out at night. Big ones, little ones, brown ones, black ones, as soon as it's dark, they are there, chomping away on my potential dinner.
But I'm fighting back!
I've got some new batteries for my torch and as soon as it's dark enough, I'll be out in the garden....
For the past week, my kids have been off school on half-term holiday.
Some of the days the weather has been kind to them, and they have managed to play outside and other days when it has rained, they have kept themselves occupied indoors. I have had one or two of the days off work, and wev'e managed to go to the odd place, so they could have a bit of fun. Today for instance. We only went to the garden centre, but there was a free bouncy castle and my two were never off it. They were a bit upset when it was time to go home.
My two are not the most unruly kids on the block but they are a bit boisterous.
"This is a customer announcement. Would the parents of a lost little girl, please go to the reception desk."
We were in Matalan, looking for a nightie and some gym shirts for the little girl. We'd found the gym shirts and were looking at the nighties. The little lass was bored as usual but brightened up when she saw some Barbie lunch bags.
"Do you think she'll like this one?" said the wife, holding up a Barbie nightie.
"I don't know," I replied. "I'll go and find her and ask her."
I went over to where I saw her last, looking at the lunch bags, but she wasn't there. No panic, I thought, she'll be around somewhere.
But she wasn't. We started looking for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. By this time all sorts of nasty things were going through my mind. You hear about people abducting kids all the time.
Then the tannoy crackled into life.
We hurried around to reception and there she was, all tearfull and looking frightened. Poor little lamb.
Married with two children. A boy age 14 and a girl age 12. I have 4 goldfish,a black and white cat just like Postman Pat, a 7yr old Ford Focus 'C' Max and a mortgage.
So, that evening after tea, she set about making a house out of cereal boxes, glue, sticky tape and acrylic paints. There was cardboard and sticky tape all over the place. The room looked a mess, but out of the rubble arose her house. She did it all by herself,
posted this photo using 
So, that evening after tea, she set about making a house out of cereal boxes, glue, sticky tape and acrylic paints. There was cardboard and sticky tape all over the place. The room looked a mess, but out of the rubble arose her house. She did it all by herself,
I know it's a mouse but I like this gif.
The White Rose Of Yorkshire
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