Tomatoes, fungi, raspberries and sap

Champ is so proud of his ripening tomatoes! Kiki ran upstairs to tell me to come and look at the yellow ones! It's all so exciting :o)
Hubby found an old speaker and Champ jumped at the chance to take it apart.
There was no rain today and we wanted to make the most of it so we packed a picnic and went to explore a different section of the reservoir.
The kids were amazed at this tree holding on by by just a few roots dangling over quite a decent drop.
And we couldn't believe how much fungi there was! Already! It feel so unfair that it is already Autumn. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Autumn, it's just I feel a little cheated out of a decent summer this year :o(

finding a little stream running down the hill and wondering where it starts.

The reservoir was low enough to see the flooded village! Well here is one of the buildings anyway.

We stayed here for a long time but the boys could have stayed for hours longer, they are so happy throwing things :o)


That's my Kiki; shoes off, sandwich in mouth, hair in her face because she refuses to wear clips and wearing her brother's old jersey xxx

I managed to do a tiny bit of crocheting

Boo wanted to drag this down to the water and see what would happen if the burnt end went in the water.
she dragged it quite far on her own
and finally enlisted her brother to help
not sure what the findings were though
Kiki sat down to do some sketching
she drew ducks and dragons
we then went off for a walk and explore
Boo found a HUGE mushroom
and we found lots of wild raspberries!!!
yummy!


lucky heather a secret garden. the kids love little clearings like this.
Boo collected pretty things with a very dirty and scratched hand :o)
Champ found this little guy, he looks very small for this time of year though.
Boo was feeling all pretty and at one with nature :o)
My official poo detector and alarm raiser. It was all sheep poo so not that bad :oP
I love this picture of Googs just running free. He often likes to run ahead of us, my rule is that if he can't see me he has gone too far, even so I have a really loud whistle in case he gets carried away. Googs found a seesaw
The kids decided to make their own little birds nests. They wanted me to judge whose nest was best but I just can't do that! I tell them that as a Mom I make a really bad judge so they shouldn't ask me.
oooh look, sap!
Can you see the dripping sap? It smelt so good but oh so sticky! the children had to wait until they were home before they could get it off their fingers.

blackberry muffins, wires and royalty

I asked the kids to go outside and pick some blackberries to make some muffins, they refused so I said that I was going to be like the little red hen and whoever doesn't help doesn't get any - they soon put on their sandals and got outside :o)

we put in as many berries as the children picked which was more than double what the recipe called for..hmmm yummy!
I love the way the berries turn red when they are cooked.
After reminding the kids that we had this set, they got it out and played with it all evening. Googs was in bed at this stage as he just can't cope with his younger sister waking him up so early.
They set up a circuit which allowed them to launch this.
weeeee

Today,the children were playing princes and princesses, I was going to make them felt crowns but thought that they would enjoy making them themselves. So out came the trust all sequins and glue.

Champ wanted to keep going with his Hama beads instead. He spent hours on three sea creatures which his dreadful mother then accidentally knocked onto the floor before they had been ironed! I felt AWFUL! and sat down to repair the damage :o(
Googs chose bats and pumpkins and ghosts.

With Kiki every sequin had to be different. Boo went down the pattern route. The kids were impatient with the drying process so I decided to use the hairdryer to speed things up - not a great idea as I managed to blow a few off.




If only Kiki hadn't got blackberry all over her face :oP