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!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The old married couple
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.
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
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
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!
matt and I as taken by sam. I guess that blue dress wasn't as flattering as I thought.
My handsome boys
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
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.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The bank is coming awfully close
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
Not sure what he is thinking here but I think that is his 'I'am concentrating look'.
Yikes!
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.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Lego Master
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
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
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.
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