Archives for March 2011

Mr Red Kite

Red Kite

Storm over Wittenham Clumps

storm cloud over wittenham clumps

Timed my head-clearing ride all wrong today. Did a loop, starting into a strong blustery headwind. Weather front moved through, so homeward stretch also had a headwind.

Lost the cobwebs & got a snap of the clumps from a different angle though.

Cheeky Homework

Cheeky Homework

F had to categorize the larder contents for homework this week.
Halfway through he was caught having a sneaky snack.

The winner

First Flower

The boys planted loads of bulbs with Fay last autumn. H had the left side of the garden, F the right. First flower was this tulip, under the window on the left. H was duly declared the winner. F, it’s quality not speed that counts…

World Pooh Sticks Championships

Badge

The mug punters and the berko bouncers almost managed to miss the World Pooh Sticks Championships…

Team waiting area

What with the clocks changing, roundabout approach drive and mixing up the ‘where to meet’ instructions.

Official standard pooh sticks

But we managed to just make the heats, clutching (or not) our regulation pooh sticks

Release...

Focus and concentration, as well as peak physical fitness, being the key attributes of world pooh stick championship contestants, as demonstrated here by Dave’s perfect stick release technique.

Berko Bouncers watching the results come in

Unfortunately that perfect release wasn’t enough to get the mug punters on the leader board, much to the amusement of the on looking berko bouncers.

Score board

May be next year? Team training starts in October…

Another Sunset

Sunset

Not a bad view from (almost) the front door.

Shillingford Bridge and Hotel

Shillingford Bridge

Fantastic morning in Shillingford, river like a mirror in a steamy bathroom and the bridge lit up by a golden glow. Worth getting out of bed for.

When not in Rome

Goose

Chickens Roam

Chickens Drink

P & R are in Rome, I’m not, which means I’m able to look after their chickens (a goose, and some ducks). So far, so good.

Eggs

It turns out that chickens make eggs, lots of eggs, which you can find labeled as follows:

From chickens fed on organic GM-free feed, and free to roam and nest at will.

The free to roam bit is what makes collecting the eggs a tad tricky, unless you have help of course.

egg and a head

Red Nose Day

Red Nose Day

Much redness with red Noses and other stuff for Comic Relief .
I remember doing similar for the first one, but I think only as far as a red nose…

Player of the week

Player of the week

F proudly displaying the player of the week trophy!

Cauliflower

Califlower from waitrose

Cauliflower from Waitrose for a Cauliflower cheese.
Lots of leaves.

Fay’s Flowers

Flowers from the lane

Flowers on Sunday. Everything from the garden.

The top field

Crops in focus

After a pause for the worst of winter, the crop in the field is growing again. The shoots are getting long enough for the wind to send ripples across the surface.

Domino Queen

Amelie: Domino Star

To quote F: “She poned you dad”.

Ewok

Ewok

Evening walk.

Close to the veg

First Veg Box from Close the the Veg

Putting the local into LOAF with closetotheveg .

World book day

Finn does harry potter for world book day

Today is world book day (in the UK and Ireland).
F celebrated earlier in the week by dressing up as Harry Potter for school (the Wallingford book shop provided vouchers and books!) while H has taken Fablehaven into school today to read.

I’m planning to pop into Oxfam Wallingford later today to treat myself to something.

Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-22 to fix broken links.

Florence and Lawrence

IMG_5820

Couldn’t leave Aylsham without pausing to remember, and to share those memories with H and F.

professional photography

No professional photography without permission

Yikes. Written permission for professional photography?

I had thought ‘professional’ meant something like ‘earning a living from’. But the definition in the OED also includes having the skill of someone that is a competent professional. I suspect that the sign is meant to convey that no commercial photography is allowed without written permission, either that or it could be more clearly written as only incompetent photography allowed.

But, just to be on the safe side, I wrote myself a note giving myself permission to photograph before proceeding to do so.

Twitching

Twitching

Holkham with Faith

Incoming Squall

Our second visit to Holkham Beach – the last was in 2005 .

Us on Holkham Beach

This time with Ewok

Faith

Faith

Faith

and her umbrella!

Huts and Holkam

Baconsthorpe Castle

Lonely Tree at Baconsthorpe Castle

Boys at Baconsthorpe Castle

or what’s left of it.

Half term at Bewilderwood

den building

Den building

hang time

web climbing

Maze

maze solving

Sliding

death slide sliding.

All at Bewilderwood .

Cone of Shame

Cone of Shame

Ewok gets a cone of shame.
Trivia: name the movie…