Productive Day

Having had a lovely relaxing weekend on the boat we came home today and had a very productive day cleaning and tidying. We were on the boat from friday until today as matt was on call. He worked most of friday, all of saturday and most of sunday. Sam and I went into lincoln to games workshop on sunday so he could play warhammer. M and the boys met us there (as did matt) and a good time was had by all. Sam won the game and was over the moon that Al and Conall had come to join him. M kindly took sam back with her for the afternoon and Matt and I had a very relaxing afternoon reading the paper and pottering about lincoln. Sam had a ball at Al's house. It is so nice to have them in lincoln, sam loves having a friend on hand to play with.

Today it was back to leicester, back to housework and laundry! Got lots of both done today while the boys had fun painting space marines and chilling in front of the computer. We are at home for most of this week, hoping to get lots of school stuff done. Sam and I are really enjoying sonlight at the moment, especially after our visit to the Franklin House. We have had lots of interesting discussions about what makes a patriot a patriot and if violence is ever justified. Only wish we could take a field trip to visit boston and philadelphia and dc.

Our plum tree had produced lots of plums this year so tomorrow we are going to try our hand at plum jam and plum chutney. I am not very good at making jam and have never made chutney so should be an intersting experience!

The old married couple

The old married couple
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

How did we get so grown up? Seems like yesterday we were students here in london, often ending up here after an afternoon in the Long Island Iced Tea Bar.

Please let me go for a swim dad.

Please let me go for a swim dad.
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

It was a lovely warm day and sam was very keen to go for a dip in the fountain in trafalgar square. Needless to say we didn't let him!

The Franklin House

The Franklin House
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

About a month or so ago I read The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox- a Dan Brown type thriller where an archaeologist and journalist save the world from an ancient and unspeakable evil. The book opens in the Franklin Museum in London-which I assumed was a made up place. Imagine my surprise when sorting out places to visit on our trip to london I googled and discovered that it was a real place! I have lived here over 16 years now and have never heard of it-though it turns out that the museum only opened 3 years ago and the house was almost derelict in the late 80s and early 90s. It is now run by the Benjamin Franklin Trust and is a fantastic museum. You can only go round on a guided tour led by Polly Hewson who was Franklin's landlady's daughter. We were the only visitors and she spent the whole tour engaging sam and drawing him into the story. Neither of the boys usually like guided tours, especially ones led by historical characters but this bowled them over. There weren't many artifacts in the house but Polly's acting was so vivid that you didn't need objects to appreciate and enjoy the house. Franklin was a much more interesting and complex man than I realised and bought a biography him while we were in london and am captivated. If you are in london you must go to the Franklin Museum-it is an amazing experience and well worth the entrance fee. The website is: www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org

Playing the water harmonica

Playing the water harmonica
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Our trip to the Franklin House was rounded off by a chance to look and touch some of his inventions. This is sam playing the water harmonica-the first musical instrument invented by an american. The sounds is a bit like running your finger along the rim of a glass and possibly an acquired taste. Apparently some of the greatest composers of the 18th century wrote pieces for the water harmonica-who knew!

An old married couple again!

An old married couple again!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

matt and I as taken by sam. I guess that blue dress wasn't as flattering as I thought.

My handsome boys

My handsome boys
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Here are the boys waiting for the boat to take us back up the Thames . We had a fantastic time in Greenwich, there was so much to do that we didn't even see half of the sights. It was a blistering hot day and it was nice to be on the water, if only we had had boudicca!

An amazing ceiling

An amazing ceiling
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

A panel of the ceiling from the painted chapel at the Royal Naval College. It was so beautiful and all the delicate plaster work reminded me of the sort of work that matt's uncle rick used to do.

The bank is coming awfully close

The bank is coming awfully close
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Last night sam went kayaking with his cub scout pack and had a ball. He really enjoyed himself, especially the falling in! He fell in once and turned over once as did most of the boys. There wasn't as much falling in as there was on the sailing trip, mainly because this time they had two instructors telling them what to do and playing games with them. The canal was absolutely filthy and all the boys were made to take showers at the end. Sam was on an absolute high when he got home and he and matt spend the rest of the evening looking on ebay for kayaks!

Paying attention

Paying attention
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Not sure what he is thinking here but I think that is his 'I'am concentrating look'.

Yikes!

Yikes!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Here they had to hold on to each other's kayaks and then each in turn stand up and say who they were and where they were from. When it was sam's turn he stood up, announced his name and then hesitated-you could tell he wasn't sure where he was from-leicester? Syston? Peterborough? so in the end he opted for Peterborough and everyone giggled.

Lego Master

Lego Master
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Here is the monster putting together his latest lego set. It is some super duper power miner ship, complete with lots of aliens and power crystals. I recently won £500 in John Lewis vouchers from tickbox.net and we have all enjoyed spending them. Sam chose this lego set and we also bought a small tv for the boat. Matt has yet to choose something and I have spend a small portion of mine on make up. Matt and I are saving the rest of ours to spend in london when we go as the John Lewis there is much bigger.

Work in progress

Work in progress
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

When we moved in we laid laminate in the hallway but over the last three years it has slowly gotten grubbier and smellier (thank you cats!) so we decided to pull it up and lay tile. This is the result. It looks fantastic and makes us wish that we had done it from the start. Hopefully this will make the house easier to sell when we do put it on the market. Sam has really enjoyed helping Matt and my father in law lay the floor, especially the grouting!

Bountiful Harvest

Bountiful Harvest
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Our veggie garden seems to have thrived on neglect this year and we have had a good crop of lettuce, cabbage, peas, blackcurrents, gooseberries, blueberries and potatoes. These are the potatoes and they were especially yummy.

Piggy back!

Piggy back!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Sam getting a piggy back from Charlie at Burghley on Tuesday. It was lovely all being together again but we did miss miriam and the boys.

Sun at last!

Sun at last!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

The boys and the dogs at Maplethorpe Beach last weekend. We spent last saturday exploring lincolnshire and ended up at the beach. Although we didn't have any beach stuff everyone had fun running up and down the beach and jumping in the waves. Rogue tried to eat the waves while miko didn't like getting her paws wet.

I confess..

It is our fault that it has rained non stop for the last 24 hours. It is all because we bought sam a new pair of sandals. Perhaps if we had bought him the doc martin's that he really wanted it would be blazing sunshine right now!! I am pleased to say though it is now 2am and it has finally stopped raining. I honestly can't remember the last time I was so wet. Sam and I went into lincoln today and despite the umbrella got soaked and my red leather shoes got so wet that my feet are now also red. I think it is going to take them days to dry out.

Apart from the rain we are having a good week. Monday sam had a summer camp session at the Apple Store. He spent 3 hours learning how to make movies using imovies and had a ball. As parents were not allowed to leave the store (liability issues) they also gave us a session on movie making, it was easier than I expected and sam and I have spent quite a bit of time this week playing around with imovies. `I will try and post the fruits of our labors when they are fully edited. Next week he is doing a session on iphoto so watch out for a blog post with lots of enhanced photos! While I realise that the whole point of these free sessions is to encourage parents to buy software and hardware they are a great idea as we never would have played around with any of the programmes in ilife. I generally just download pics and load them on to flickr and have never thought about playing around with them. Sam really enjoyed the session, not least because he got a free t-shirt.

Tuesday we met up with the boys at the Garden of Surprises at Burghley House. Thankfully we sun was out so the children were able to splash around in the water park. It was lovely catching up with everyone, especially Lisa and her family who are over from the states for the summer. We all missed Miriam and the boys but are looking forward to seeing them when they move back from Ireland at the end of the month. Sam is very excited about Alex coming back as he will have a friend in lincoln-he already has all sorts of plans for the two of them.

Jamming in London

Jamming in London
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

One of the highlights of C's trip was getting to go to see Jimmy Buffett play at the Empire in London. Matt was supposed to join us but couldn't get the next day off and being a sunday there was no way to get back by train after the concert. So matt very kindly stayed with Sam while C and I went. The venue is an old music hall theatre and can't hold more than 2000 people if that. We were in the stalls which was all standing and managed to get very close to the stage. We got to the venue a couple of hours before the concert and had fun waiting in line with all of the other crazy parrot heads. We were amazed at how many people there were, how many of them were english and how sober they all were! At a typical jimmy concert back home most people have had such fun tailgating that they are are bit worse for wear by the time the concert starts. The concert was amazing-jimmy played for 2.5 hours straigh and everyone was singing along. I think he was really taken aback by the amount of people and the level of adoration expressed by the audience. He has promised to come back next year-fingers crossed that he does and fingers crossed it is still at the empire. Having seen him in two small venues seeing him somewhere huge just wouldn't be the same.

Heading to Margaritaville

Heading to Margaritaville
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Jimmy and Mac chatting before the next song. I have never seen a group of musicians who look so unlike a group of musicians. Mac looks just like grizzly adams.

Up close and personal

Up close and personal
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

I took lots of pics but this is the best of the bunch. I forgot to ask matt how to use the video setting on the camera so didn't get any video footage. I still can't believe how close we were to the stage-any closer and we would have been on it.