Spring is always early to arrive in Cheshire. I think its because we have weaker summers here, its the way of evening things out. At any rate, daffodils EVERYWHERE are fully up, and in some places blooming. My Daffodils are up, but not quite blooming. Tulip greens are up also, though no blooms--but I do love my tulips, and can't wait! Crocuses are blooming everywhere. Days are lengthening, though we won't change our clocks until the last Saturday in March. And the squirrels are out playing again, birds are chirping. (I sent N outside to practice his recorder-told him to see how many birds come and listen. That recorder is LOUD!)
One of the reasons we moved to where we currently are living, is we wanted more space (can you ever have too much????). This particular place has quite a yard (called a garden here), and lots of trees, and we really wanted to get the kids outside to play more. In fall, I think they were a little scared, and always stayed where they were pretty near the house--didn't go into the trees, or the clearing behind the trees with the tree swing in it, didn't venture out, and so they always ended up coming back in the house in 30 minutes or less. Then, I discovered a dilapidated tree house, and they ventured out a bit further. Next, they started climbing trees a bit more, N especially. And rigging things into the favorite tree-climbing tree, still quite close to the house. We're talking chairs and boxes and all sorts of things going up into the tree. Christmas came, and the number one asked for item on N's list was a rope, to aid in his tree climbing and tree adventures. Father Christmas came through for him, and brought him a toolbox and a few different types of ropes, and an assortment of pulleys and gears and such. Now, I'm glad the tree is near the house, so I can keep checking that the rope is being useful. And with three boys, is fire ever far off?? J has been lighting a fire recently-not sure why, but the property has been neglected, including the land. There are branches and leaves a plenty, so he builds the fire, and the younger ones gather sticks and branches and leaves, etc to burn, and we're all happy. (Im happy they are not on electronics!!!! Get outside!) Father Christmas also brought the family a metal detector and a shovel, and they've found a few rusty bits. Metal detecting is big over here--just because of the age of everything.
The kids, particularly W and N, have decided they want to try their hand at growing a vegetable patch. They want to do it similarly to how the Brown Family did it in Paddington Bear Grows a Garden--each family member had a plot, and they could do what they wished with it. W is going to have brick pavers and a path coming in from each side, as well as growing grapes, N is going to have an apple tree in the middle of his, and a fountain, there are requests for benches, brick walls, etc. At the library this week, they came into the adult section, as there are only 2 gardening books in the childrens area (have I mentioned the libraries are different here??). We walked out with many gardening books--we'll see how we do.... It really doesn't help that we'll be gone for nearly 3 weeks in summer, or that I don't have a green thumb at all, but rather two brown hands. N was going to grow beetroot, then W told him it colors your waste, and it tasted bitter, and that was the end of that! At any rate, they're interested, so we'll see how it goes.
As we do have some space outdoors, we got the kids a kite. They had a good time flying it--really no electric lines to run into--they need to worry about running into a tree. N was upset this weekend, as it was too windy on Sat to fly the kite, and on Sunday it was (surprise!) raining. But, G managed to get some pics from two weekends ago of them flying the kite. Its hard to tell, but its a pirate ship kite.
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| N flying the kite. |
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| W flying the kite. |
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