We've had the time of our lives....

and we're back!

What a fun weekend that was!

It was quite an experience for me as I've never done a festival solo with a child in tow, I've always been with Mr Beehive.

Ha! Burnt my face this year (2007)- A rarity on all festivals to follow!

We have nearly always done a festival each summer since the kids were tiny, starting with Gathering of the Vibes in the US for three years. The first year we hadn't quite figured out the volume of the music and lack of soundproofing in the family campsite, hence a serious lack of sleep, followed on by two years of swimming due to excess rain and doing it as a day fest to avoid the small toddlers and lack of sleep.

Girl Rocker even at two!

Solfest

Then there was the year we did Solfest with friends.
It rained!

Again!

And we camped on a slope and the airbed deflated at 2am.

Pyrites 2010 with Jonah and Saskia

Then we did Pyrites one year (oh I did that fairly solo, only I met a friend there with her son) but Master Beehive the elder was sick so Mr Beehive had to drive in the middle of the night to come and get him so I was left with the younger two and lots of vomited on gear, Oh yes, I forgot, that was also the year that I got stuck going down a road that became too narrow and too steep and I had to reverse up it. This caused LOTS of black smoke coming from the car and lots of scared, screamy small people who have never quite forgotten that and now everytime I drive anywhere with them alone always seem to drop into conversation things like 'Are you sure that you know the way?' 'Are you sure the car will get down there?' 'Are you sure that x is meant to do y?' I feel they lack faith!...yeah, these aren't the best memories!


HOWEVER...Bestival really was the best!

LMB with the wonderfully, wickedly, wild and
wacky authoress, Laura Dockrill. She and LMB were
peas in a pod!

We didn't get lost. It didn't rain. I didn't cause any colour of smoke to come out of the car. We found where we were going. We didn't get washed out of the tent. We slept (a little!)

We did cheat a bit. I didn't want to put up our ten man tent by myself again, so we hired a tent that was already erected. We didn't 'glamp' in one of the posh yurts or airstream caravans, this was a basic two man tent, but we did cheat a little further because it came with hot showers and flushing loos on the site. However, it was on a slight slope and we didn't do airbeds because I feared a revival of the flatness experience. I have since learned that I am too old to do Karri-mats and if we hire bigger than two man tent we get a flat pitch. Guess what we'll do next time?

I burnt my face again...you'd think I'd learn, however, apparently not. I think I probably just wanted to prove it was hot. Suffice to say I now don't need to turn the lights on in the house as I am continually emitting a reddish glow.
I spent Friday trying to introduce Billy Bragg, the Proclaimers and Ash to LMB and she spent Saturday with Mr Tumble (that was more by the fact that his music drew us in and we wanted good spots for the following act - Honestly!!!) and Horrible Histories.

Mr Billy Bragg

Camp Bestival is totally set up for children. It's in the grounds of Lulworth castle and spreads for acres! And those would be 'rolling' acres, quite literally. We probably walked the equivalent of 10 miles over the three days we were there, but these were up and down miles too.

Once you've parked your car you need to walk to your tent. And that will be you and your child/ren and your kit (sooooo glad I didn't bring a tent!). I did think to pack our reliant radio flyer truck as LMB has, at previous festivals, used this as a place to sleep and hitch a ride. I don't know how we would have done it without, short of hiring one of the many trolleys that were there for our expensive convenience. That said, not having cars on site meant that it was safe for the kids and clean. In fact, the whole site was kept remarkably clean. My biggest shock was the sheer number of tents and people. It was, in some terribly crude way, much how I would expect a refuge camp to look. A sea of tents stretched as far as the eye could see and, as this was at Lulworth, this was actually 'the sea'! The tents were simple, garish, big, huge, humungous and pop up tiny. People had flags, whizzy things on sticks, banners, bunting, protest banners...you name it. The costumes we saw ranged from the ordinary to yoda and Princess Leia as well as a fully regaled trolley pimped as an aeroplane complete with four year old child-pilot and parental team comprising Airline staff and trolly- dollies (quite literally the whole crew!).

Everything you could possibly want was there: yoga, massages, a sauna...in a yurt...that was added to my 'I want' list!
Obviously the acts on main stage plus fairground rides, dance floors...a knitting tent!!!! farmer's markets, science tents, cooking demos, lots and lots of fairy gear, beer and burgers...amazing.
I think LMB's favourite place (apart from the rather cool 'tea and toast' cart and just about every ice cream cart or food stall) was the Dingley Dell...or maybe the science tent...but then she loved the Storytimes and kids outdoor theatre...

It is a bit of a posh-bird's gig and you are highly likely to hear names such as 'Rupert', 'Tiggy' or 'Tallulah' over 'Tyrone' or 'Chardonnay' being called out, however, there is a huge mix of people from all backgrounds and ages which meant that there is a nice atmosphere of both young and old. I was able to nurture my hidden hippie and LMB was able to run and cartwheel everywhere in a safe and clean (glass bottle free) environment.

We're definitely going next year, this time I hope we can all go together.

Back soon...

Almost as much stuff as if we're ALL going!

I love my radio flyer truck - works everytime!

Men are being left behind.

Education into the music of one Mr Billy Bragg to commence.

Girl's are off to Camp Bestival.

Perfect festival attire: Wellies and shorts. The girl has learned much!

See ya later dudes!

Slasher Flicks!

Day two and I've been all alone.
Has it been productive - has it heck!

The Little Miss went to a gymnastics day so I had six hours to myself. Six hours during which time I seemed to manage to be productive doing nothing particularly productive.

I did buy new pillows, how's that for the wow factor?
I also bought a new toy for Pippin.
She, being a lab, is obsessed with having something soft in her mouth.

When someone comes to the door, it's...

'where's ma toy? Er, Ugh? No toy! Oh there's the teatowel, that'll do'

When someone gets up from their seat, it's...

'where's ma toy? Er, Ugh? No toy! Oh, there's a seat cushion, that'll do.'

When we come down in the morning, it's...

'where's ma toy? Er, Ugh? No toy! Oh, there's a sock/slipper/rug/piece of garbage....that'll do'

So, tired of finding odd socks removed from the clean washing basket or finding my oven gloves on the floor with fresh dog slobber on them, I have bought her a new toy.

BUT, wait for it, this toy has to be one of a special brand of toy.
Oh yes, we Brits are so darned stupid about our pets that it's not just an old teddy bear or a cheap piece of flammable stuffed nylon that we got from the market, Oh no!

See, if I bought any of that it wouldn't survive the day.

No, for all her cute, somewhat stupid, gorgeous, slobbery demeanor, she also a toy terminator.
She initially takes the toy and bounds up and down in, what we take to be, excitement.
She runs around with said toy in her mouth.
She lies down, rolls over, licks it.
She dangles it in front of Meggie.
She takes it into the garden, brings it back from the garden, drags it through the water bowl, picks up a heap of dirt on the now wet end, pushes it into one of our laps.
She lies down and sleeps with it...aw so sweet!
But, don't be fooled.

Within the hour the toy is being ripped limb from limb. It is being shred all over the floor. The plastic squeaker has been found and tossed carelessly to the side. There is now a scene of gruesome toy gore and destruction all over the kitchen. There are innards under the table, on the chairs, there are bits of toy guts floating in the once clean water bowl. It is a scene from CSI.
Finally, the panting stops, she lies down next to her handiwork. The shell of the once fully stuffed animal is now limp and lifeless next to her, a gash from neck to stomach splaying the final contents around.
The deed is done!

It has taken us nearly two years to give up on this. We did continue to forgive her for her homicidal nature. She was soon out on parole and given another doomed toy to carry around in her mouth as a replacement for the bedroom slipper she had sneaked from one of our beds.

So now she gets ROADKILL!

You can buy roadkill toys as we have aptly named them.
These toys are soft and cuddly, only they have no squeaker, they have no soft and fluffy innards, they are just an imitation roadkill. Flat, already lifeless, glassy eyes and no voice. Perfect for my killer dog!

Those eyes don't fool anyone!

First week of the holidays

It's oh, so quiet....

the boys are away at camp, the husband is in Moscow...there is just me and the girl left behind.

It's almost too quiet, although to not have the arguing is rather pleasing.

We have been pickling and preserving today. There are a LOT of courgettes coming at the moment and this year I am determined that I will not be turning more than one into marrow or feeding the excess to the chickens. I will be preserving them for the winter months to go alongside the pig and the lamb that will also be in the freezer.

We now have pickled courgettes, ratatouille, pickled beets and pickled eggs (sales to mums at the school gate go down in the summer, so I have to find ways to preserve these too.) Tomorrow we shall be making a couple of chocolate and courgette cakes to freeze as well.

We have also had an excellent crop of raspberries and redcurrants this year, so alongside the jam and icecream, I've now tray-frozen the excess. I always try to tray-freeze fruit because it prevents mushy fruit as it defrosts, it also means you can take a handful out when you want them or add extra to your bag as they come ripe during the season.

We have had a lot of stuff going on at home at the moment. Some of you may have read a post which has now disappeared. We feel that whilst this stuff is still ongoing, unresolved and very raw, it is perhaps best not to over share with the world wide web. However, in all this crap stuff happening there has also been some wonderful stuff too.

Master Beehive the younger ended his era at primary school last week. It has been a pretty awesome final run for him as I'm sure I've mentioned in previous posts. Still, he rounded off his innings with a merit in his grade two trumpet (only 3 marks off a distinction - clever boy!) and he then won the music trophy at the end of term at school. I think a certain African trumpet playing baboon that fell out of a tree on a brass residential has well and truly earned his stripes here.



For now though, he's climbing and rafting and tunnelling with his older brother and here it's just her and me and so peaceful until.......

Tarzan turns eleven!

Hot and airy, the breath from the monster coated my face like a shroud. I could just about feel my hands and feet that were trapped beneath the covers but I could not move. In the background I could hear a whirring, a fan perhaps, or maybe this was my grisly end at the hand of some deranged beast from the underworld...then...suddenly....it moved, up and down, up and down, the air was pumped from me like bellows into a fire. I tried to speak but nothing would come out, my eyes would not open, my body was stiff and cumbersome and I could not budge. Finally, just as I thought my time had come, it spoke...

"Can I wake him mum, can I, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, I want to give him my present!!!"

I peeled open my eyes like layers of a tightly wrapped onion and tried to focus on the clock in the far distance. I couldn't quite make it out...but I'm sure there was a 6 at the forefront of it all. My internal screams died to a quiet hush and I pulled her under the sheets with me.

"Five more minutes until I come round"

I think he has had a great time today. Well, if the laughter and giddiness from the back of the car has been any indication. He has wanted to go to Go Ape since his brother went two years ago but he hasn't been either old enough or tall enough. Today, however, at 11, he has crossed into new territory, he is over 1m4cm and was allowed to go!
For those of you who aren't familiar, it's basically a very high ropes course through the trees. It's the kind of activity that you send Daddy on, not because you are too scared to participate yourself (honestly!) but because you are too scared to watch your fearless children throw themselves off platforms that are hundreds of feet off the ground!

The Little Miss and I did the foot safari at Woburn whilst we waited for the boys to complete their circuit of monkey training.

The Gloves! An essential part of the kit!

Albino Wallabies - so cute!

Marmoset monkeys

Red fronted lemur - my favourite

Some goat midwifery lessons

The Giving Flower

Oh wow! Just look what the sun has given us!!! A huge bowl of raspberries, red and black currants and a few more strawberries. It's finally time to get out the ice cream maker as I promised Master Beehive the younger and turn these babies into gelato!!!

These beauties below I am renaming; they are not just sweet peas they are 'The Giving Flowers'. This morning we took in small gifts for the teachers. I am somewhat anal with gift presentation. I wrapped in tissue and raffia and then added a small posy of sweet peas instead of a bow. We cut two posies from the garden early this morning and then, by this evening, the giving of these flowers to brighten two gifts rewarded us with at least triple the amount of blooms on the plants this evening! Amazing.

Final days of Primary school, mark II

Well, that's one exam down, just two more to go. I'm not sure which ones are worrying me more, the ones that require me to retain stacks of information that seems to go on forever, or the one I did yesterday where I had to present 6 different pieces of Montessori apparatus!

On the upside, school is now over for me, so I have three full days to revise and then summer will truly begin next Thursday afternoon.

I've decided to take a break from Facebook for a while this summer. It's the first year where I'm not studying or planning to study, so the only thing I plan to do this year is read lots of books, take lots of photos and enjoy life.

The last weeks of school have been quite an achievement for Master Beehive the younger. He started off last week by opening the school show as Rafiki and (of course I will say this I'm his mum...) he was quite a star! He had fantastic SAT results which spilled over into a wonderful school report and then yesterday he got his trumpet exam results back. He got 127 which is a merit! He was over the moon as were we. It's been a great end to his time at primary school and, looking back over his time in these early years, he's climbed a very long ladder and completely excelled by the end.

Montessori Casa - Waterloo, Belgium, starting nursery school

He used to cry me off every single day at Casa. I used to watch him standing at the window, tear stained and sad. I never thought he'd settle!

Graduating from nursery aged 5, The Montessori School, Wilton

This young man had a predisposition for lying on the floor and 'observing'. Learning via osmosis was his forte.
He had moments of driving us to distraction with his lack of desire to just do anything much. One valuable lesson he has taught me more than ANY of my children is that I need to have trust in him. He has always been one to do things at the speed in which HE needs to do them. Everything new is done strictly on his terms only, once he decides, then it is done (or my friend, Charisse uses the term, WASA). It has been, possibly, one reason that I have done the Montessori diploma; he has been one of the reasons, he has shown me that it is possible to believe in the child and trust the equipment and they will become those carrots I wrote about oh so many years ago.

Rafiki, about to leave primary school, aged 11.

My gosh young man, you've come so far, you'll fly so high. Believe in yourself and I'll keep believing in you. Keep using those wings my boy xxxx

Gratitude * Sunday

 G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

* 
If you would like to join us, see below. 

Our gratefulness feeds one another.

So things I have felt grateful for at the start of this immensly crazy fortnight with school shows, leavers' ceremonies, exams, parents' evenings, a black tie event and the normal humdrum of daily life....

• My husband giving me the time to go and take my revision to the nail salon and revise literacy and knowledge and understanding of the world whilst having a pedicure.

• To the garden for beginning to give us plenty: Spinach, chives, potatoes, eggs, courgette and courgette flowers gave Master Beehive the elder (fresh home from a week on the Norfolk Broads) and me a Saturday morning omlette.

• More garden gatherings and my gratitude to having one of my favourite trees outside my back door. Elderflower cordial, champagne and jelly were made this afternoon whilst the heat of the midday sun beat down outside.

• A fun evening eating at our local pub with two of the three young Beehives (the middle one was at Scout One World Camp) and a well earned Pimms and lemonade after shifting a heck of a lot of stones again. Pimm's weather...Wimbledon (didn't he do well ???) and sitting outside....I can't get enough.

• The fact my Rafiki costume for this week's production of The Lion King, seems to look pretty effective. I may, in the interim however, have shelved some revision in preference for playing with a hot glue gun...ah well, life's too short for not playing with hot glue guns and paint!

• Excuse the grumpy photo, but I was actually enjoying sitting out on the deck. So forever grateful for a weekend of nothing particularly planned and lots of lovely warm weather and sunshine to lift spirits. Friday morning we all sat out to eat breakfast on the deck before I left for work and this afternoon I was able to sit for a half hour and read my current book and watch some red kites circling in the sky above me. All the windows in the house were flung wide open, I could hear the lawnmowers of neighbours, smell barbecues and hear people's laughter in the distance. This is summer as it's meant to be.

• Finally, just for a materialistic moment, I was thrilled with finding this floor cushion and large teacup on Saturday. It seems to make my mint tea all the more special somehow - perhaps it's a token to remind me of our holiday in Morocco last summer. We drank so much wonderful (if not a little sweet) mint tea there that it caused me to find my own source of good peppermint and tea infuser. Despite the heat, mint tea really does work to refresh.

I expect the next time I'm back here will be once exams are over on July 25th.

What have you felt grateful for this week.

* If you would like to join in with Gratitude * Sunday, you can leave your URL link below in the comments with your list of gratitude on your blog. In reciprocation, please link back to this blog to show where you heard of Gratitude * Sunday.

Weekending June 28th

We're in the penultimate weeks of the school year and, with one child graduating; one child moving into Option year and off on the Norfolk Broads next week for curriculum enrichment week; one grown up child sitting final Montessori exams and two out of three children with roles in the school end of year show, (the Lion King...my favourite), life is far from calm in the Beehive.

I have a parent's evening and final reports to write as well as 7.5 hours of exams, including a practical. This has meant that this weekend I spent 8 hours in the company of other Montessori students as we worked our way through the whole of the 0 - 6 curriculum. Shattered didn't come close.

Added to that I have to make a Rafiki costume for one child which, as all things go, is probably one of the hardest of the costumes to get together and make look right. Fortunately, the younger Beehive, although singing the role of Young Simba, is only required to wear a brown top and brown leggings, so I can breathe again for her costume. Of course, I am not helping myself as I don't do things by halves. Rafiki 'will' look authentic. I have already received my hat from Ghana, am awaiting a linen tunic from Ebay, have made a wooden necklace and a belt with seed pods and raffia, Ebay have also saved the day for ankle bracelets made from seed pods too. I'll upload some photos when we're done.

So I really am counting down the days until I can kick back and truly roll into summer. 

We're in the final stages of the flood renovations. We're doing the outside now: This is the current state of our front path. 

We're putting in new drains, a permanent alarm system and pump and fixing the wall so it's not going to landslide into the door.

I'm really chuffed with what we're seeing, however, Thursday evening saw Mr Beehive, myself and a delivery guy manually shifting 7 tonnes of Scottish pebbles via our car tow bar and then pulling and pushing a truck. My butt ached all weekend but we made them onto the drive, but you can see they just ended up where we could get them!

We also celebrated Master Beehive the younger's birthday with his friends this weekend too - why not try to cram in as much as we could. He has parties and Scout camps until the end of term, then his birthday falls on the first weekend after term finishes, so everyone will have gone away. We decided, therefore, to go early. Bowling and pizza hut and six over giddy, end of SAT's, post Secondary school visit week, too many blue sweets from the ice cream factory boys with four Super Soakers...well, I'm drinking a glass of wine this evening !!

See what I mean???

She was invited to pizza, and as always, found a time to draw and write.

We have  had a lovely weekend though, gorgeous weather and the garden is positively blooming, so to finish this weekend, I'll just leave you with some garden shots from this week.

 Vegetable garden really beginning to flourish

It doesn't seem to matter though, how crazy the week or weekend is, the colours in my garden, rich in hues of blue, purple, white and pink, always seem to have the calming effect I need...add a dash of sun and splash of warmth and I'm easily pleased.

Have a lovely week!

Newness

It's started!

Yes, that moment in my life that I was hoping I would not have to deal with until he was into his third decade ;-)

Girls!

He has a girlfriend no less. His first and so new.

He even asked my advice when she asked him out. I suppose I should be grateful that he started there.



It's a funny feeling. No one told you this when you had your baby.
When they were telling you to push and you were cursing or crying or both.
When they were telling you it wouldn't be long before you held your long awaited newborn in your arms.
They left out the bit that said:
'But it's only temporary that he's yours, soon there are going to be others that come in to the limelight, that muscle in on your territory and claim they 'love him'. These same ones will love him and these same ones will hurt him, hurt my baby like he has never been hurt before.
But this time I can't put a band aid on his boo boo or puff on some gas and air to make the pain go away. This will be hard, aching and raw and he will just have to go through it and come out the otherside.

He won't want me when he is in the love part, I will need to learn to shadow dance in the wings.
I will need to learn when my cues arise and when to apply the safety harness to make sure his falls don't completely hit the ground and that he gets up again and back on the bike.

Inside my mama bear will roar like no other. Trees will tremble, the earth will shake, let it be known. I will curse these young women and smite them with balls of fire. 

I won't tell him anything other than he will learn to breathe painlessly again. I will hold him and tell him that love is not painful when it is right, that love is a truly beautiful thing. I will reassure him that there is someone who is right for him out there, but he has yet to find her. I will tell him that love is indeed the most painful and most amazing thing all at the same time and her guises are wily and immense.

For now though, my boy, my firstborn, is enjoying these newborn days of young love and I, continue to learn  and evolve through him.