Frosty The Snowman, Friends and Glitter

Ella was amazed to discover on Monday that the gnomies had allowed a snowman to take refuge in our freezer.. She checks every morning to see if she is still there, bless !

We went to visit our neighbour Nora on Monday, since the Rugby Home Edders were on a trip to a butterfly farm. Nora took possession of a new baby kitten last week, so we went to meet her..

Tuesday Ella's library came so we got a few books out, then in the afternoon we went to play with Eddie next door.

Thursday we went into Rugby to meet Gillian, Imogen and Cameron for some grocery shopping, then Ella meet one of our Quaker friends, Ann, for lunch.

Friday we had lunch at Gillian's, then headed off to Ryton Gardens for a wander and a play in the Children's Garden.

We started making our Christmas cards today, so we are finding glitter everywhere - including in Tom's ear...

Big Girl's Clothes, Siskins and Snow !

It's Snowing !! I was getting Ella ready for bed earlier when Karl came upstairs, pulled open the curtains and said "LOOK !". Huge chunks of frozen water falling from the sky... It's almost half past nine now, and it's it's still quite heavy and starting to stick. So, as you can imagine, Ella went to bed quite excited at the prospect of building a snowman tomorrow..

Ella is still getting over the sickness bug she had at the earlier part of the week. She could do with a nap at mid-day, but struggles through the day regardless (with lots of melt-downs and throwing things at the moment !).

Thursday we caught the bus into Rugby to get some groceries. Rural buses are fantastic. We get one a day - from the village at 9.30 then back from Rugby at noon. The drivers know us, so they stop outside the house,rather than at the official stop and occasionally carry the shopping to the door. We can also get the bus from Birdingbury, which is a brisk 20 minutes walk through the lanes and they run every 2 hours (luxury !). We can also get a bus to Leamington Spa from Birdingbury, but it takes forever, and the bus back has already left by the time we get there !! I'm not sure who's in charge of the bus schedules, but they should be sacked...


Yesterday we went to Ryton Pools Country Park, which is a couple of miles from us. It's a huge park with nature walks, a few natural playgrounds, a bird hide, natural ponds and a big lake.

Ella took Miffy with her.. We met with our friends Duncan and Gillian, and their children Imogen (6) and Cameron (3). We had a wander about, visited the bird hide (Ella asked the age-old question "Is that a Siskin") and played in the playground.

Ryton Pools is (not surprisingly !) a just a stones throw from Ryton Gardens which is a place we visit regularly. We have family membership to Ryton Gardens, and go there once a week if we can. Outside is a huge expanse of ground split into various "gardens" - wild flower, woodland, orchard, butterfly, biodynamic etc). Ella's favourite is the Children's garden, which has a big natural pond, musical instruments, natural insect houses, and best of all, the play house.


We went there for Pumpkin Day with our next door neighbours Joy (mum), Harry (8), Connie (5) and Eddie (3). They had lots of fun playing in the leaves and mucking about in the play house... Here's Ella and Harry on the balcony...


Ella was delighted to hear that her big cousin "Menissa" had posted a comment. She has recently been the very lucky recipient of many of Melissa's old clothes and Ella seems to think these clothes contain magical qualities. Her sentences used to start "when I'm a bigger girl I can... (do a cartwheel, bounce higher etc)" but the mere action of putting on one of Melissa's t-shirts means "Now I'm as old as Melissa I can...". Bless...

Well, we'll let you know if our snow has stuck, and if so, post pictures of the various snow sculptures Karl and Ella create..

Drizzle and Detective Work

We've been a bit housebound the last few days, since Ella picked up a sickness bug on Sunday. She was poorly Monday and Tuesday, so we missed our Monday morning at the library with the Home Edders group - they were celebrating Diwali; making crafts and tasting Indian sweets and food. They also had a quick yoga session..

Tuesday we had a day of what I consider to be "November weather" - grey and drizzly. Ella was a bit perkier, so we went out in search of things for me to sketch for my nature journal. Also, we fill in the online Autumn Watch pages on the Nature Detectives website (http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/) so we did a bit of detecting on the way to the fruit and veg van.

Actually that's reminded me something.. We have a mobile library which comes to the village on alternate Tuesdays and it stops outside our house. We're usually the only people to use it. We often go to the libraries in Rugby and Southam too, and Ella used to differentiate them by the "house library" (Rugby/Southam) and the "van library" (mobile). For the last few weeks, Ella has called the mobile library "my library", so she has developed the assumption that everyone has a mobile library that comes to their house every few weeks ! Bless..

We're planning to go to Ryton Gardens tomorrow to buy some supplies and have a wander around the gardens if the weather is good enough.

Adventures to far away places, leaf mould and gnomies

We've had another beautiful, mild day today, so we have busied ourselves collecting leaves and putting them into our leaf mould cage this afternoon. Ella pottered around the garden on an adventure to "the big wide world", complete with rucksack and sun glasses..

Granddad gnomie took the other gnomies and (possibly naively)the Sly Old Fox on a day trip to feed the ducks.

Tom woke up mid afternoon for half an hour, then went back to sleep again. Here he is mid-yawn. It's a hard life being 8 weeks old...

New blog, new friends and squirrels

Welcome to our blog!

We've had an unusually busy week ...

Monday we went to the Rugby Home Education group for the first time. Some of our friends already go, but we met lots of new friends. Ella did some painting, played with her friend Cameron and listened to stories. It's a lovely little group and most of the children are aged 3-6 with a few older children, so a good mix of ages.



















Tuesday we collected a few bits for our Autumn table (see picture). Now we have (from left) a magpie feather, teasel mice, walnut shells and Ella's squirrel nutkin, our sunflower head, conkers, pine cones and dried leaves, plus a few gnomes to keep an eye on squirrel nutkin (see later)...

Ella had more fun collecting leaves than thinking about the nature table, as you can see. We also discovered where the squirrels in our garden are burying some of their walnuts - in our herb planters ! I took all the walnuts out, but the next day they had buried more in there. Then on Thursday, we saw one of them scamper up the lawn, jump into the planter, dig up a nut and eat it just yards from the kitchen door. Cheeky.

Wednesday we went to visit another home edding family in Rugby. Ella used to go to the same Steiner kindergarten as Imogen and Cameron and they had a nice day playing together.

On Friday my friend Vicki came to visit, with her two girls. Another nice day playing and making things with dough...

Today Ella invented a new nursery rhyme "Hairy McClary, quite contrary.."

If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned Tom, it's because he's slept all week.. When he is awake he is very generous with smiles and cute baby sounds though...