Scenes from the kitchen.

Wine brewing from the quick, spontaneous pick of wild berries while out on Bob one day....

Bramble jelly made from a serious blackberry picking session!!!
William the artist....the sunshine can be seen on the left hand side of the paper. We are all obsessed by it in this house!! This is one of several 'masterpieces' he created that day. He paints with a purpose: sometimes he paints a pre-detemined subject, others he paints and decides what it is afterwards.

William helping to unload the dishwasher...he loves to do the cutlery. He also loves to wash up but aswe have no hot running water at the moment (Don't ask. Sore subject. It has been nearly three months!!), this is the next best thing!

William chalking a picture of Louis...he added spots on after I took this picture. I was quite amazed at the detail! He even included representations of each of Louis toys..naming them as he drew them.

And one of our first duck eggs...it was enormous so I had an inkling it would be a double yoker. I had to crack it in to a bowl to show the boys. My question is...would it really be capable of hatching twins?!!! Wouldn't that be so cool!!!!

Most things seem to happen in our kitchen or garden in this family. I didn't include photos of the jars of chutney I made the other day, or the mountain of runner beans that just keep on coming!!! The small, sweet and juicy tomatoes that are ripening at such an amazing rate....hard to believe after they were showing real signs of blight a few weeks ago. A hefty pruning and some sunshine seemed to scare that away.

The vegetable patch is starting to look bare and so I am turning my thoughts to what grew well this year, what I want to grow next year and how best to organise it. The ducks are busy adding some nutrients to the soil in situ for me, and I have plans to move the compost heaps to make them more accessible....who does that? I ask you. *tuts and shakes head in disbelief*

A large amount of wood being chopped up for firewood and paper logs being made (not as frequently as I would like!!) as well as the usual woodworking, angle grinding and welding.
There have been many changes around here recently and probably a good few more before the year is out I would think. But then that is the nature of Home Education isn't it? Or maybe life in general...well, it is for us anyway. Nothing stands still for long. Things are evolving all the time. We change things to keep us all on our toes!!! We change things to stop things from getting boring and mundane!!! We change things to counteract external things that we have no control over. We change things to try and make something that isn't working terribly well, to work better. Things just change don't they because children change and we need to change with them.

So, Rob starts his Fire Service training next month and I have started a part time job at a local nursing home that specialises in dementia (hence the recent lack of postings!!). I am enjoying the job and feel that it is something I will be able to do well, as long as I can manage to detach myself when I leave and return to domestic goddess and education facilitator!!

David started swimming lessons just five weeks ago, and has already been moved up to a higher group. He is a fantastic swimmer...he has both strength and confidence in the water. It is just his technique which needs some fine tuning, but already his crawl and back stroke are starting to look like that of a 'proffesional' swimmer. We have finally found David's niche. I am thrilled. As is David. It has been a long time coming.

Jonathan has become a bit of a social animal!!! He spends a lot of time with friends down the park and is hardly ever around at mealtimes!! One boy asked hime when he was going to be back to his home schooling, and a girl asked him what he did all day if we don't have a television licence...to which he replied..'we go out, make stuff and read books'!!! Go Jonny, go!!

We have all been reading the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series of books by Michelle Paver. We are all on different ones and as I am on the fifth book (out of six) I am wondering what we will all do when we finish them. It is a fabulous series, one that has really captured us all. We all talk about them and often speak in Wolf or talk about the clans!!!! It will be like coming home from a fabulous holiday...we'll all be moping around!! My only hope is that David, who is showing a big interest in them, will be able to read them for himself soon and then we can re-visit them!

We are also considering a change to the blog. We are thinking of moving to a more website type set up , so that we can have different pages for different things that can be more easily updated. With the change to the way things are going in the house, it seems fitting that there should be some changes to the blog too. A more shared approach to everything.

Another post tomorrow...some more pictures from the last few weeks that I have missed.