So, whats been happening?

I've been reading on different blogs a little about GAPS, so I've been looking into that as much as time allows and have now ordered Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Natasha Campbell-McBride. It all sounds very interesting and fits very well with Nourishing Traditions which I own and love. It is all about healing the gut and improving gut flora and how doing that can have such dramatic effect on overall health, apparently it has healed people with Autism, ADD/ADHD, Dyspraxia, schizophrenia and depression as well as less drastic conditions like food allergies. Fortunately we don't have any of those conditions in our family (except food allergies) but I'm always interested in optimising our health and would much prefer to prevent illness than have to cure it. From what I have read so far if the gut is truly healthy it will readily remove toxins we ingest. From my reading I was inspired to make some sauerkraut. I hope it is received better than the kimchi I made last year which I loved but everyone else complained loudly about as soon as I removed the lid. Maybe I used too much garlic. I'm keen to start some gingered carrots from Nourishing Traditions and some pickled turnips from Wild Fermentation. I watched a presentation by Natasha Campbell-McBride here http://gapsaustralia.com.au/gaps-utube/ and started watching one by Sally Fallon author of Nourishing Traditions they were both speaking at the Wise Traditions conference in London.
Totally against both GAPS and Nourishing Traditions Serena made this very yummy Danish apple pie. We've always has such trouble with the very buttery pastry but she made it work very well.
I finally finished this cupboard and am really happy with it. It was in quiet a state when I bought it but has come up beautifully.
An even worse photo but I wanted to include it because she is so lovely and I'm so prooud of her, she made herself this nighty from an old sheet. It was her first time using the sewing machine. Now she wants 'old fashioned dresses' and twirly skirts.

Other random happenings, Tim and I are both listening to the one year Bible in our separate quite times, I've read the one year Bible for the last two years but it's rather nice to have the iphone app with someone reading it to me. It's even nicer to know Tim is reading the same thing as me so we can talk about it together.

Thomas' s toilet training is going very well. He sometimes tells me when he needs to go but mostly it's a matter of me just taking him regularly.

We are back to doing school work every day, the children had been doing maths through most of the holidays but now we are back to a full load. It's going well as I continue to try different approaches. This year instead of covering every subject every day we do either science, history or geography as our core subject for the day and all writing stems from that subject. I think its going to work well for us.

Apart from that I keep feeling a strong pull to my spinning wheel and as is so cold now and my feet are so cold all the time I think I'll start by spinning and knitting myself a pair of slippers. Maybe I'll be able to start today, maybe.

A growing garden and a growing boy.

The sweetpeas self seeded from last year and are tangling up with the climbing beans. The children are busy in the sandpit, they are spending as much time as possible there at the moment.

Our strawberry beds have done well this year despite being transplanted so very late. However it has been rare that a bowl full of strawberries have made it into the house, most being plucked straight from the plants by little hands like these and popped straight into little mouths.

This is Daniels bed. We have had such a cool summer everything is slow to mature, I only hope the frost can hold off for at least another month. Daniel has very much enjoyed caring for his bed, weeding it and watching the little cucumbers develop.
These are my temporary beds, in place while my big veg garden gets it's major face lift. They have done very well too, though again some heat would be great.
One little boy turned 4 yesterday. What a lovely day it was too. He wanted a 'ginerman' house for his birthday cake this year after reading Jan Bretts The Gingerbread Baby. He believed his house was the exact house that was in his library book.
Yes his birthday present, and a refilled sandpit to use it in. All of the children have loved playing in the sandpit since it's refilling. It's been so lovely watching them play together.

Rain, rain and more rain.

We have been feeling for the flood victims on the mainland, amazed at how suddenly people's lives were changed, the damage done to the land and the way people came together as a community offering support with money and deeds. Sometimes the worst situations bring out the best character.

Over the weekend we had our own little taster of flooding, just a wee taster but enough for us. We had water over the floor in two rooms but managed to contain it with constant mopping from 7:30am until about 9pm. The flow had stopped before my 2am mopping shift.

The girls were a great help in mopping up without complaint. One wonderful neighbour spent much of the day digging out side trying to stop the flow into the house and inside mopping. He was soaked though all day just helping us. We are so blessed with the neighbours we have. We are surround by wonderful neighbours.
Railton was struck pretty badly with many houses and businesses flooded.
Josh spent the morning after our clean up in Railton with Tim digging out gutters and drains. He enjoyed his work and the ice-cream one business owner gave him! By lunch he was ready to leave Tim and the others to the task. There is still much work to be done.

A visit to Tasmazia.

Yesterday the children requested an outing to Tasmazia So we very quickly packed a picnic and headed out. We also packed books, thinking we might get a chance to read while the children played in the mazes. The books were not opened as we spent so much time lost in the mazes!



The children loved Cubby Town, running off to explore each house, dashing quickly from one to another and back again.

We had planned a picnic at the 'Three Bears House' but what fun trying to find it! The great maze trapped us until the children were hot and sweaty and the mothers we well ready for a lunch break.

I found this little boy smelling the daisies. He had a lovely time and selected his own house from amongst those along 'The Yellow Brick Road'.


Of course the fairy house found a fan too. The lavender was so lovely not fully open, just looking delicate.





Rain threatened while the children played on the balance maze and bought an end to our outing.

To England and Bangkok and Back again.

I had a fantastic trip with my older girls and little Thomas. The girls were great travel companions, we had so much fun! We all love markets and food and lovely accents and well we pretty much loved everything. We'd love to go back again but I don't suppose we'll ever all travel so far together again.

We just loved exploring the history, it's just so amazing for us to visit such old sites. We did an audio tour of this castle, I could have spent hours there, it was just so interesting and amazing to hear how different historical figures lives fitted together.
We had a great time is Windsor, again we would have liked more time based here to explore both Windsor and to take day trips to other places of interest to us.
Niels Yard, I loved it 20 years ago and loved it again this trip. I think the girls loved it as much as I did, it was so nice to share those special places and experiences with them.
Borough Market was smaller than I expected but great to see, especially the chocolate shop!
In Bangkok we had a mixed experience staying here at the lovely Windsor Suite Hotel with it's air-conditioning and having one night in the slum at Klong Toey.
We had a Thai cooking class in Klong Toey and this was part of our wonderful meal. Before the class we were taken to the market to buy our ingredients, that was quiet an experience! Rather different to Borough Market!!
There were many interesting creatures for sale, fortunately we didn't buy any of them.

We didn't get photos of the live toads tied together with rubber bands, or the turtles scurrying about in buckets, or the fish parts fermenting about the place

Out of all the wonderful places we visited Iffley was our favourite and we'd love to house swap with someone for a time.
WE walked down this road to the Thames which has a walking path running beside it, it would have been so lovely to take this path into Oxford but again we didn't have time.
This is part of that walk we did manage walk. When we find someone willing to house swap with us we'll be able to walk the path when ever we want. In our dreams.

Daffodils!

Every year we look forward to a wonderful flush of yellow in the paddock as the daffodils burst into flower. They were flowering like this when we first bought the house and the children thought it was so wonderful to be able to play amongst such beauty.
They also very quickly realised other people would enjoy the beautiful blooms too and so they began their first business, selling huge bunches of yellow daffodils.

There is a lot of excitement at the prospect of making some pocket money but I think most of all they simply delight in the abundance of the wonderful yellow daffodils. Aren't the colours great? I love the vivid yellow against the vivid green with the blue mountains in the background.

Geocaching

It's been so wet and cold lately. One sunny day we decided to head back through these hills geocaching. It's feeling a bit like treasure hunting. The children and their Daddy love it.
This little one enjoyed his trip in the car but it was so cold outside I left kept him in the car most of the time.
Isn't that lovely what a little mother she is! (I can imagine her Mummy smile down on this picture.) And he loves being fussed over.
So where are we then? This was a truly stunning lookout, sorry no photos of the view though.

The first cache we found, it was just so wind blown here, icy cold as you can see from the way they are huddled with hands in pockets.


All eyes are on the prize, what is it? They don't really mind, the excitement was in the adventure of the hunt. And I guess the shared goal.