Book Sharing Monday: The Little Yellow Leaf

Yes! A book sharing post! After, well, probably a couple of years? Anyhow, NEW AUTUMN BOOKS. This is pretty much my favourite story book in the entire house right now! The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger.




"Not Ready, thought the Little Yellow Leaf as a heavy harvest moon bloomed amber in the starry sky."


Stunning collage illustrations. Hypnotically beautiful words, sweet simple story. Nice colours, gorgeous design, perfect layout. Cosy Autumn picture book reading. :)

London

Only two and a half hours in the car, and this time we made it both there and back without stops. I knitted a handspun rainbow cowl and the children read and bickered over sweets. The plan was to travel down one day, sleep over with Martin's brother (and his family), go to the Natural History museum on the second day, then come home late the second evening. Weather-wise we were exceptionally blessed, and spent an amazing first afternoon playing on a huge park and enjoying the sun.



Not long before it closed for the day we spent a couple of hours in the William Morris Gallery which is such an amazing little treasure of a museum! I would happily have spent a lot longer there.


It was really lovely to catch up with family, and the children were thrilled to play with their little cousin. B and Talia are almost exactly the same age, and Talia was slightly wary of her as she often is with other toddlers. None of the children were keen to go to sleep that evening!

After an interesting and not terribly comfortable night sleeping on floors and sofas, we headed straight to the Natural History Museum. This beautiful building has awed me since I first set eyes on it, and at least half of the pictures I took in London are just of the architecture here. I thinned them out a lot to write about our trip, don't worry!





My children have a system for museums. They like to stand for very long periods of time looking at something innocuous, before rushing past six other displays of things I find extremely interesting... I was extremely glad for Ashleigh's extra pair of hands (and eyes) because it made it less essential to stick together and I was much more relaxed than usual about the children exploring and /or dawdling at their own pace - Talia mostly stayed in the mei tai on my back too. It was much more relaxed a trip than I expected!

I knew they'd be thrilled with everything here, though. Some of Rowan's absolute favourite things, in particular. She did a lot of excited squealing! This, by the way, is her "can you freaking believe it!" intense face:





Obligatory tourist shot of Dippy!



We stopped near the end of the Dinosaur exhibits to draw. Two pages of Jenna's sketch book are filled with pencil drawings of the architectural details! Either she takes after me in yet another way, or she fixed on those to draw because I barely shut up about how much I LOVE this building for the whole four hours or so we were there...





The thing Rowan was MOST looking forwards to:



You can just see the edge of her little face, she's lit up like a little glow worm. Her pure, pure joy at every single thing absolutely made my day.





We had to finish at the slice of giant redwood, which awes me every time, before surprising the children with a late lunch of sushi. More squealing. Lots more squealing.



They are pretty adventurous eaters anyhow, but they totally surprised even me by devouring all sorts of things they don't normally want. Jenna's favourites had avocado in, and she ate almost an entire plate of soy beans. Between seven of us (six plus Ashleigh) we got through nineteen plates in the end.



Rather than head straight back to base, we went to Covent Garden to see some of the street performers. I was a little worried about the amount of walking we'd already done, but when I put it to the kids they immediately voted for more adventuring even if it did involve more of a trek back. (We had to stroke the gorgeous subway tiles as we came out of this tube exit.)







Talia had been asleep on my front for well over an hour by then, and my back was starting to ache, so we stopped for frozen yoghurt with the aim to switch the sling over to Martin while we were there. Jenna had an upset when Martin got her the wrong frozen yoghurt, culminating in her bursting into tears and apologising for yelling, "I'm just sooo tired!" Fuzzy smallest woke up, and had some yoghurt too.





By the time we got back to base we were all utterly exhausted and had aching feet.



It was midnight before we got home; Martin and I are glad we have the weekend to recover, but the children are still totally perky! The cat missed us, and is being super nice to everyone. My baby brother did a sterling job chicken-sitting, and we've come back to find that the chooks are now reliably laying four eggs a day between the five of them. The pea seedlings are sprouting away on the window sill. And our adventures were truly wonderful, but home is such a good place to be. :)

Seven Days (and a missing weekend, ah well)

1. Top of the climbing frame
2. Sharpie plus baby
3. Jenna making doll clothes and stuffies
4. Painted pachyderms
5. Plied rainbow

My weekend was mostly spent feeling migraine-y and sorry for myself. So I didn't document much of it. But also: Ashleigh turned up and bought me a bunch of flowers, I went out for coffee while the children stayed home with Martin, I got to read a new book (yay), and I cast on a new knitting project. :)

More adventures, unschooling, and beautiful chaos

On Tuesday, Talia had her two year check. It was a bit twilight-zone-like. The health visitors are lovely, and enthusiastic about my sweet family, but Talia was really not sure about being in a play area without her sisters (she kept burying her face in me to hide from the other children, and taking me to the door to see if her sisters were still outside). Poor funny little fraggle.

We'd planned to head to Nottingham in the afternoon, maybe visit an art gallery or just take a wander around a less familiar place. We've never really taken the children in to Nottingham city centre before, only to specific places away from the shopping areas. Our first stop was lunch, followed by the market square where the children wanted to play in the fountains in spite of the freezing weather. We'd left their bag of spare clothes at home so we improvised a bit and spend a small amount in the Primark sale to make up suitable warm dry outfits they could change in to when they came out of the water!





As soon as they were dry and wrapped up warmly, the sun came out! They had such a wonderful time in the water, though, and it was another time I was so glad we could find a way to say "yes". Lots of people stopped to watch them play and laugh, and almost every single one smiled to see them.

We couldn't remember exactly how far away the art gallery we wanted to visit would be, and the children weren't wanting to walk far, so we visited The Token House (my favourite quirky little gift shop and fixture of my own childhood) where the children found hearts made from shells, beautiful boxes, reels of ribbon, soft fuzzy toy animals, a gorgeous map book, and rainbow egg cups. We rather wished we could afford to bring it all home with us!

Martin remembered how to get to the gallery from there, just around the corner, so off we went. There was an exhibition of paintings which was rather poop-themed, a giant latex alien-bug creature, some post-apocalyptic dioramas, a papier mache temple with a golden cat-goddess head inside, and an actual Cat Bus filled with squashy rainbow coloured cushions to sit on.



The beans were ready for another drink by then, so we relocated to the cafe inside Waterstones. After chocolate muffins and warm milk we washed hands, looked at a book about tropical fish and another about big cats, and went up and down the escalators (which have their mechanisms on display under glass).



Then back to the car, through the main shopping centre!

On our walk we found street musicians, and a lot of beautiful painted elephants. The children were particularly keen on one inspired by the rose window at York Minster, and I loved the one decorated in the style of Japanese lacquer-work. :) Morgan was interested in the artist's descriptions, and played hunt-the-signature. Rowan liked the brightest colours the best (she liked one painted all over with sweets, and one with iconic English birds and mammals).



Wednesday, we were all so tired we opted for the quietest day possible, which is never really all that quiet. The children spent a good couple of hours "duelling" (shouting Harry-Potter-accurate spells at each other brandishing knitting needles and chopsticks), and playing an elaborate game in which they were sneaking food from the house elves (ie my kitchen cupboards) and trying to get it past me and up the stairs as I in turn tried very hard not to see (or laugh at their antics).

Talia was so fascinated with her new melamine Elmer mug she insisted on almost hourly cups of tea (alternating between chamomile, peppermint, and english breakfast with milk and sugar!) and so tired from her very busy day that she breastfed and dozed quite a bit of the rest of the time.



The Sylvanians and the Ostheimer mummy and baby wolf shared the doll house nicely.



We painted. Had showers. Pretended to look after Pygmy Puffs. And watched Star Trek (TNG).





The house started off relatively tidy in the morning, and now beautiful evidence of life and living and learning is, well, overflowing somewhat. It took me hours yesterday afternoon to write this, with breaks to facilitate for children, and fetch snacks, and read stories, and hand over the laptop for Jenna to do some design work, and pick up the tired unhappy toddler again, and spell out a few words, and find a silver pen for Morgan. It's taking a good while this morning to edit.

This is what unschooling looks like, for us, right now, at these ages and stages. Lots of "yes". Lots of trying to keep up. Lots of running late. Lots of laughter and art and colour and snuggling on the sofa and watching the rain. :)

Ally Pally

Early on Saturday morning I left my little ones quietly going about their mornings, and got on the train to London with my wonderful friend Ashleigh (with coffees and knitting in hand). I was mostly very very excited, but also a little anxious. Twelve hours, and so very far apart!


One of the trains was cancelled, so we opted for the underground and a long walk up the deceptively steep hill.

I've never been inside Alexandra Palace before.



The noise, heat, and colour - it was totally overwhelming, and without the more organised presence of Ashleigh I'd have missed a lot just by meandering from one colourful area to another without any rhyme or reason! From when we arrived until about three o'clock the place was packed; jostling enthusiastic crowds of crafters everywhere we turned.

The first stall that really truly blew me away was this: Natali Stewart's hand dyed yarns. They were displayed so gorgeously, and I just wanted to take them all home with me. More subtle palettes are not my default, and the skill with which these colour combinations were put together was so inspiring and very easy on the eye. I could have spent a good long while stroking these beauties.



Natural Dye Studio, of course.



And I spent a fair amount of my budget on buttons, because Textile Garden had an awesome selection of truly gorgeous options. Little red octopus buttons, zakka-style ceramic effect and wooden buttons with stamped and carved designs, tiny square shell buttons - oh, and a lovely little wooden shawl pin. :)



When we got to the end of the main hall and found open space and a cool breeze, we stopped for a much needed drink and sandwich under the huge stained glass window.



Lots of design elements struck me and got me thinking along new lines. There were some beautiful garments on display (those above are from Purl Alpaca Designs) and plenty of creative stitchery of all kinds from artists and art students alike. I have more crazy ideas than ever.





I was very tired by the time we got to this stall (one of the last on our long walk around) so I didn't catch the stall holder's name, but I did very much admire the colourways of this Blue Heron yarn. The entire event had also gone very quiet, making it much easier for us to retrace our steps back to some fabric stalls Ashleigh had wanted to return to. And I bought some Colinette, because how could I not? (I got Toscana Prism, and Popsicle Art, for a cowl and a toddler Versa vest respectively.)

Before hopping back on to the train home, we had dinner in Yo Sushi at the station. I won't confess to how much sushi we had. We enjoyed in immensely, though.

When I walked in through the door, Talia shouted "MUMMMEEEEE!" with a kind of wild glee, and did a little happy dance on the spot. It took her about ten minutes of hugging me to even ask for milk! Apparently through the day she only asked for me once, taking Martin to the door and pointing at it, demanding to go find me in a most put out tone. After that, he had made cupcakes with them, so obviously that suitably distracted her until I arrived. :)

It was a great day out, with the best of company, and I really enjoyed every bit. Even the aching feet. But also, I do have to confess, nursing my sweet teeny person at the end of the day and her falling blissfully asleep in my arms. Yes, with every kind of wonderful distraction, and a day all to myself, I did miss my kidlets. As Ashleigh had observed earlier in the day, "You just can't turn the mummy off!"

Two Weekends of Festival Delights

Last weekend we spent a fair bit of time at the Woodland Festival, and most of our time there was listening to the Wild Man of the Woods. The atmosphere in the tent, as he sings and tells stories of ancient forests and encounters with nature, is spellbound.



We also headed to the closing of the Wirksworth arts festival, and saw a beautiful dance/music/drama/poetry performance including these great collaborative art quilts. Talia was happiest sitting in the sun wearing only her nappy. :)






This weekend, more festival-ing. :) Feste opening night, and the most incredible, moving, shocking, inspiring, beautiful, haunting aerial performance: As the World Tipped, about climate change and man's dependence on this gorgeous planet, and on each other.




The stage began to move, leaving the actors clinging on for dear life at the very top, high above us. When they dropped, Jenna gasped (in spite of moments before telling Morgan that it was OK "I'm sure they have harnesses!")




They danced and spun, acted, performed gymnastics, all on those wires, with performers in black racing up and down the sides of the frame as their counter-weights. Afterwards a cast member came and chatted with us about the thrill of cartwheeling across a wall in the air, and about the bruises they got when learning to use the structure, and on the joy of doing work that moves and inspires you every day.


Furthest From the Sea craft fayre: what a great day! :)


While I was at my craft fair, the children were exploring Derby Feste with daddy (and the frequent company of Ashleigh, and an hour or so with my Dad too).






The trolley ballet:




Then later, fire dancers:




Talia got tired at the Bollywood party and started trying to strip again, but was forestalled by some milk and a cuddle in a quiet dark corner. :)

(Ashleigh kindly snapped me some toddler nursing pictures, evidence of this time in our lives.)

Sunday was an amazing reenactment event at Sherwood, with performers and reenactment groups from a wide range of time periods.


We spent a lot of the time watching skirmishes and parades, folk dances, archery displays... Staff fighting followed by demonstrations of loading and firing weapons from the First World War (the first loud bang sent Talia scuttling for Martin's legs to hide).




Then there were the camps, where we watched spinners and weavers, and Jenna found another girl her age who uses a drop spindle. The nuns at the infirmary tent showed us old medical texts and the range of herbs they had, explaining what they were used for. Rowan amazed them by correctly identifying many of the herbs they had on display (mostly by smell).



(Photograph of Morgan's turn at archery taken by the lovely Ashleigh.)

I enjoyed a few quiet little opportunities to sneak away and enjoy the tents selling antique and replica wares, incredible costumes, leather flasks, Norse jewellery, tiny glass vials, rune stones, crossbows, amber, bone cups, and all manner of interesting things.

Martin went back later in the day and bought a tiny bone crochet hook for me. :)


We reluctantly headed home, returned the ever-patient Ashleigh to the train station to head back to Lincoln for work, and pretty much ate leftover picnic for tea. The children slept like logs last night, even the tiny usually-rampaging one. I am officially declaring a PJ day, and breaking out the DVDs!