This stupid cat

disappeared a few days ago.  It took me a couple of days to realise that I hadn't seen her for a while as we have five cats and she is quite erratic in her behaviour, spending days in our company then disdaining it on a whim.  We looked in the shed and the greenhouse and up the loft and in the room belonging to the one at university who would have known straight away because he checks each of the cats every day when he is here.  I got more and more worried to the extent that yesterday I rang the police and the local council, both of whom were very kind and took a description in order to let us know if they heard anything.  This afternoon after HE group I was just about to spend a few hours ringing vets and rescue centres and making laminated posters for local lamp posts when I passed the cupboard under the stairs and something twigged.  I opened it and there she was.

How she had been in there for about three days and not made a sound I do not know, but she has done something similar before when locked up the loft.  Strange as she can make a quite alarming noise when you annoy her by stroking her for one second too long.  She is very beautiful but I fear that comes at a cost.  At least two lives used up by not bothering to yell for us when trapped.  I am so glad to have her back though, I was feeling so very sad at the thought that she might be gone.

Eggs

Today we took part in the most awsome home ed wildlife group, it happens every second friday and the theme today was eggs.

Starting with a group discussion about all the creatures that hatched from eggs.

What a fantastic prop selection, have you ever seen a plastic snail before?

Followed by a demo of different sorts of edible eggs.

Hen eggs.

Duck eggs.

Goose eggs.

Quails eggs.

frogs eggs.

and fish eggs.

A discussion of the construction of the egg.

and a very hands on investigation.

Then outside to make rubber eggs.  

once the shell has been removed you can carry out other experiments on the eggs.

Then back inside to blow eggs, something I had always wanted to know how to do.

And to paint and decorate them.

And a video of the development of fish eggs.

Duckling Soup

For the Home Baked Challenge for March ‘Fictional Food’ we have chosen to make duckling soup.  This soup is described in the passage below which is from ‘Physik’ the third book in a series about Septimus Heap a young wizard’s apprentice.  Jenna, his step sister, has just worked out how to follow Septimus through a mirror into a strange and unpleasant period in their history and has been mistaken for a missing princess.

The image of duckling soup made an impression and was the first thing to jump into my mind when considering fictional food.  Warning, it isn’t too pretty - to be read first by an adult - but at least Jenna’s duckling survives.

A gong sounded.

An expectant silence fell upon the hungry crowd.  This was the announcement of the first of fifteen courses.  They licked their lips, shook out their napkins and, almost as one tucked them under their chins.  The little Door Pages heaved open the doors, and a long line of serving girls in pairs, each one carrying two small silver bowls, filed in.  On entering the Ball room, the girls divided up, one line to serve each table.  In a tide of gray, the girls swept along the tables, each depositing a bowl in front of an eager diner.  The last two girls to enter the Ballroom made their way up to the dais, and soon Jenna too had a small silver bowl in front of her.

                Curious, Jenna looked down at the bowl and gasped in horror.  A young duckling scarcely big enough to be out of the egg, lay in a puddle of thin brown broth.  The duckling had been marinated in wine, plucked and its little naked goose bumpy body was slumped in the bowl.  Its head rested on a small ledge that stuck out from the special duckling bowl and gazed with terrified eyes at Jenna.  It was still alive.  Jenna was nearly sick on the spot.

                Queen Etheldredda, on the other hand, looked very pleased at the sight of her duckling.  The Queen licked her lips remarking to the young man on her left that this was one of her favorite dishes --- there was nothing like a tender young duckling freshly scalded in hot orange sauce.

                The gong sounded for the second time, announcing the arrival of a long line of boys carrying jugs of boiling hot sauce.  Jenna watched the boys enter the Ballroom two by two, one line going to the right and one to the left, each boy stopping to pour some of the orange sauce into the waiting bowls of the diners.  The two boys at the end of the line with the hottest jugs of sauce were ordered straight up to the dais.  Quickly, before the sauce boy reached her, Jenna picked the duckling out of her bowl and thrust it into her tunic pocked, where the tiny creature lay in the soft fluff at the bottom of her pocket rigid with terror.

                Jenna watched the boys thread their way through the throng.  Eyes down, trying to avoid spilling the brimming jugs of hot sauce, they stepped up onto the dais, where a burly footman hissed in their ears, “Tarry not, serve the Queen and Princess Esmeralda first.”  And so it was the when Jenna looked up to politely thank the boy who had just poured orange sauce into her duckling free bowl, she found herself looking into the haunted eyes of Septimus Heap.

For the soup we made this tomato soup and it looked a lot like orange sauce, the bread recipe is from the manual to breadmaker and we made the dough in there and proved it in the microwave.

The ingredients are

1 tsp yeast

250 g Strong Wholemeal Flour

250 g Strong White Flour

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

25 g butter

1 1/2 bsp salt

350 ml water

A good day

Thanks Jo







Talking to big brother via skype



Blurry but difficult to get, Jamie's new hair.



And somebody was only just starting to party

Passing the time

with some displacement activity, one very overexcited and impatient girl.

A card to oneself, why not?

Some painting with tea, morphing into potion making.

And a bit more excitement when we realise it is that time of year again!

We almost have a weekly plan!

Don't tell the LA!

On Monday we go swimming where we sometimes meet other home educators, but we are fine when they don't come and have a lovely time which for me includes some exercise (Good).

We often follow this up with a trip around the very good charity shops in this little town, although having to ration ourselves on this as they are too good and can leave me running out of money in the middle of the week.  

Last week we spent 5 freezing minutes in the local park.

Where my funny bone was mightily tickled by Syston's version of the Millenium Bridge.

On Tuesday Beth does Ju Jitsu at the Hope Centre in Nottingham, a centre open Tuesday and Thursday and offering a variety of classes including music and hopefully soon drama.  Beth will be starting very reasonably priced guitar lessons there next week.  The day includes lots and lots of free play and socialising as well, for us both : )

Every second Wednesday of the month we attend the home ed meet at the Ice Centre, more socialising for both of us and lots of exercise for Beth.

This lady gives me hope, when my legs are a little more recovered I may give it a go myself!

She has enjoyed these sessions so much that she has started lessons on a Thursday night.  After lessons the public session is free so Thursdays see us arriving home between 10 and 11 at night, ah well we don't have to get up the next day.  And I usually make it back for Newsnight and This Week, good job The Big Bang Theory is repeats at the moment, and that I have discovered where to park for free in the evening rather than paying an extortionate £5.50.

Fridays used to include French but we are taking a break from that for the moment so it is fortnightly wildlife and wellies.  Lots of information about the natural world, usually something to bring home and lots of socialising for both of us : ) again.  

We are trying to fit another swim in here as well.

And we try to include a photography walk in our weekend plans, sometimes more successful than others!

Who knows how long this will last but now I have written it down I will be more aware as the pattern changes.

Art All Day

One of the things I love about autonomous education is how you can just go with the flow.  We started the morning looking at Hannah's blog, and deciding to take part in the March Home Baked Challenge.  This led us to look at some other posts which led us on a blog cum Flickr walk to the Sketch Tuesday project.  We had a look at the results of last weeks challenge and loved this one, but for next Tuesday the topic was spring flowers and we decided to have a go, not necessarily take part but just give it a try.

Here are our attempts.

Of course we both liked the other's best and I told Beth how much I would love just to be freer and not always have to go for precise portrayal of the subject.  She decided we would draw something else and to give me a chance to be more carefree chose a very silly photo of a giraffe for us to draw.

This was fun and freeing

but Beth decided hers looked more like a fish and went off on a tangent, proving that however hard you try you can't beat a child for creativity.

We then decided to have a rest and revert to our artistic comfort zone which for Beth is trees,

and for me is horses, oh those misspent hours at the back of the geography class!

Beth requested the horn and the wings, why not!

Then Beth got bored of comfort and took on the greenhouse.

We also had extra fun by rediscovering the water colour pencils.

All in all a very productive day and now she is off with Dad for pizza and an ice hockey match with his co workers and I have the house all to myself!