survivorsAugust 31st posted by Hannah
Following a successful campaign by Jon to wring every last drop of fun out of the weekend, we were among the last to leave site yesterday lunchtime. This is our survivor's photo courtesy of Pab. Fortunately, you can't see the bags under our eyes!
greenbelt 2011August 30th posted by Hannah
I think I enjoyed Greenbelt more than ever this year - which is quite something as we have had many great greenbelt weekends over the years. It is exactly 20 years since I first made it to the festival. I'm not sure how many years we have been during that time but we haven't missed many.
This year there were some bold changes to the whole structure of the festival that worked really well for us as a family. As always it was a great gathering of the clans. Friends old and new from many different chapters of our lives; Bennetts, Grews, Searle-Barnes', Maycocks, Willcocks, Ensolls to name a few. I have it on good authority that the teaching programme was excellent but I didn't hear any of it. Instead, I chose to explore the festival with Dan and Boo so it was quite a different experience this year for me. We saw some fabulous things, including the award winning Ocham's Razor - three aerial artists who created jaw dropping theatre above our heads, and Elmer the Elephant, live on stage! We had a go at african drumming and egyptian belly dancing and hung out a lot in a venue called 'Messy Space', where Dan made a clay volcano and Boo had her face painted: "What would you like to be Bethan?" "I want to be a baby cat with pink fur and yellow whiskers and sparkly eyes!" To his credit, the face paint man did an astonishingly good job, very wisely sticking precisely to the brief. All in all, it was a great weekend, and now I'm looking forward to a long bath and a big sleep in my own bed.
Photo courtesy of Andy Exelby (himself a festival highlight)!
geocachingAugust 21st posted by Hannah
We've got into geocaching this holiday and have been enjoying hunting for some of the caches in the village and surrounding area. If you haven't already been bitten by the bug, geocaching is like a great nationwide treasure hunt where you use a GPS to find hidden treasure boxes. The deal is that when you find the treasure, you can take something from the box but must put something in, in return. There is also a diary in each Geocache to record who found it and when. It's been a fun pastime on the sunny days - and is free to play which we like.
molly's marshmallowsAugust 21st posted by Hannah
We enjoyed a marshmallow cookout after tea. Soaking up the last golden rays of sunshine and drinking pear cider.
dan's sunflowerAugust 13th posted by Hannah
The annual sunflower growing competition 2011 has been won by the southern branch of the family. They won hand's down with proper six foot giants. This is our tallest offering this year and having seen the Sunnyside sunflowers with my own eyes, I know we were well and truly beaten! However, as ours don't look anything like 'giant sunflowers' we're going to blame our poor efforts on the seed. That's our excuse anyway! Bring on 2012.
the universal language of gigglingAugust 8th posted by Hannah
Boo made a new friend today at the mini golf in Ambleside, a little girl called Hye-sun, who is visiting the lakes from Korea. Bethan's Korean isn't up to much and Hye-sun doesn't speak any English but they had a lovely playtime together, skipping up and down the putting course and giggling. With the help of Hye-sun's mum, Boo managed to say 'would you like to play with me?' in Korean! Meanwhile, Neve had many, many turns on the slide - enjoying climbing up the ladder equally as much as sliding down and Dan glued himself to the golf.
international arrivalsAugust 7th posted by Hannah
We've taken delivery of the Bangladeshi contingent fresh from darkest Dhaka. They flew into Manchester airport on Friday evening and it was wonderful to see them stride through international arrivals - Catherine with a glorious bump and Matt with a goatee! Neve toddled out pushing his own pushchair which was extremely clever! They are surviving the rigours of international travel and jetlag, and acclimatising to the lakeland drizzle (Neve's first outing yesterday was to buy a pair of wellies). So far the big highlights have been eating fresh salad (without risk of serious stomach upset), double decker buses and Cadbury's fruit and nut.
