A place of our own

Managed to get everyone to come out for a walk together on the weekend, this one was taken within Dibden Enclosure as we headed over to Pooh Bridge to throw some Pooh cones. As itbwas Lewis' birthday we were in nostalgic mode and recollecting the things we used to do when they were smaller....

Untitled...

She was doing her homework when I came out to play with the kids after teatime. "I'll just be finishing my homework first Dad", ...she said keenly!

Out she came ten minutes late with a notebook in hand/ "I need to make a list of fruit and vegetables" she told me. So whilst Lewis and I kicked the ball, she wrote down her list.

After reading her bedtime story, it was the same story, she wanted to do more writing, so we had another go and worked on a few of the spellings. That was all getting a bit technical for her, too late in the day!

Domino

We've had a nice walk this afternoon at Rans Wood, which looked beautiful in it\s autumn colour scheme

Tapas

 Earlier in the week Caroline had made some quince paste, which we all love eating with cheese, and it was the inspiration for our supper, which naturally was Tapas!

Tortilla Espagnol

Bean Salad

Chick Peas with Spinach and stuff

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Courgettes with Mint

Potato skins with Garlic Mayonaise

Beetroot Salad

Patatas Bravas

Houmus with pitta

Olives

Manchego with quince paste

All washed down with a bottle of Ned Sauvignon Blanc

hpbd

I'm sure you can see the theme going on here, but this is Miranda's lovely card that she made for Lewis.

The spinaker is blazing, and the suin is shining, and the lads are smiling!

Lewi's off sailing in the morning, and I'm off on my bike for a ride on the trails.

This evening Miranda had a bit of a fall. She was playing on the slide in the park, and she took a tumble. Felt almost certain that her arm was broken but after slowly being able to see that she could move everything in every direction, and that she could push herself up with it, changed my mind. She went to bed happy as Larry, and when Caroline went upstairs to take her to the loo, she was in bed asleep with her arm bandaged up...!

Birthday Boy

From today he's officially a teenager!

Caroline pulled all the stops out to make his cake look like the RS Feva, and Lewi was pretty chuffed with the result. We all had a slice at teatime as this evening he's had a barbeque on the beach with Sea Scouts.

Miranda made him a lovely card which I must scan and post up - he was very pleased with the presents he was given by Mipp and Greg. Model makers drill and drill bit set!

He was pleased too with all the other presents he was given, but I'm sure he'll do his own thank you's...

Monkey Business - you must read this!

Every once in a Lifetime

 

A little glimpse upon our daytrip down to Langton Matravers on the weekend. You may be shocked so press the PLAY button with extreme caution...

You can do some amazing things with an iPhone these days, but I warn you this is reality, unedited in any shape or form....

Related

It's like opening a window on a whole new world, a secret garden. And yet it would have been so easy to have known nothing about it.

Yesterday I spent the day with my Mum and Dad, who were holidaying with my Mum's brother and wife. Jeremy has researched the family tree for years, and although he's told me stories about things he's discovered over the years; somehow the connects have always evaded me.

What I learned yesterday though was the name of my tenth great grandfather on my mother's side - a man called Thomas Larkham, who was born in Lyme Regis in 1602.

He was an English Puritan clergyman, who courted his fair share of controversy. There's a piece on Wikipedia about him, and an interesting description elsewhere as "a colourful character with a barbed tongue. He was neither presbyterian nor puritan, but a boisterous independent."

A portrait of whom hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Ten generations spanning 400 years, so I guess I am not that unusual, age wise.

iArty

Larking around with Greg in bed this morning. He was telling me about a drawing that he'd done downstairs, so I took a quick photo of him in the half light band rendered it in SketchMee on the iPhone.

Not a patch on the real thing.

We've been down at the Sailing Club this afternoon, Lewis and Kyle were racing up to Ashlett Creek against everyone in the Club - they came third! That's a result.

Selfie

Another one of Mirtanda's delightful little self portraits completed yesterday when I was in London.

It reminds me of a little moment she shared with me recently.

"What did you dream about last night Mipp?"

"The merry-go-round. I was at the fairground, on the pink horse, but my legs were touching the floor. I wanted to go on the big horse but they wouldn't let me...."

I was left with this incredibly fragile moment of self realisation that she knew she was already growing up faster than she wanted.

Clowning around

Just an arty illustration I did of Gregory that I thought should be seen, rather than buried on my computer.

Statement of intent

It's similar to the earlier image, but I like the purposeful gait she displays here with marker in hand. The picture is a self portrait wearing a dress with a picture of a dog on. The dog is also below; his name is Bouncer...

Remains to be seen whether she follows in the footsteps of the great British artist Richard Hamilton who has just died aged 89. I've always liked his work and was particularly fond of 'I'm dreaming of a White Christmas' - have a read of the article in the Guardian about a year ago. He was one of the modern painters who were very influenced by the photographic image....

Princess Castle

Miranda has done several versions of this castle picture in the last week. She has a fairly strong imgination and has been telling me all about the characters nin the windows. Usually she does thes drawings early before we are up, and it's lovely to see the spelling when she proudly brings it in to show us in bed.

Lewis and Caroline have been sailing again on the Beaulieu River again today - very nice sunshine but strong winds at times. Everyone exhausted and retreated for bed nice and early...

Horseplay

Needed to distract Miranda for 15 minutes so we decided to do a blog post together. This is her choice from the pictures I had ready. She's watched this video about 5 times so far, and she's been running around like a wild thing trying to get everyone to look at it as well. Which is the exact opposite of what we were supposed to be achieving!

I shot this when we were on hols at Loe Bar near Porth Leven - a huge white shingle beach, and we were the only people on it (in sunny August)

We've have been sailing with Bouncer on the Beaulieu River today. Lewis and Kyle mainly but Caroline has been in the boat as well with Greg. The wind was fresh, and tomorrow we may get a small vid post of the action

Din dins

A little snapshot of our dinner this evening; beetroot and some other kind of root in a very tasty salad with a dish of slightly cooked beetroot leaves.

I'm sure Caroline could have described it better, so you'll just have to drool over the photo. Did I mention home made bread... And all the rest fresh from the garden and into the pan.

Probably inspired by Yottam Yoghurtlentil I shouldn't doubt.

Lewis was keen to show me a sketch he'd done when I got home from a meeting earlier - trawlers are making a marked appearance at the moment since spending some time in Polruan earlier. By chance Caroline had been doing some sorting out earlier in the day and had found one of his sketches from August 2005 which one presumes was inspired by my Wayfarer sailing days! Makes for an interesting contrast...

Link for Lewis to watch if he's paying attention

Life's a Beach

Still finding a few gems from the holiday snaps, so as the weather is absolutely foul, and work creating a cloudy landscape I'm rasing my spirits with a sun shiny view of Kynance Cove.

Although it's a bit of a palaver carrying wetsuits and buoyancy aids and bodyboards etc down to the beach, it does make lfe a lot easier when you can just chuck them in the sea and not worry too much!

I love those footprints coming out of the sea...

On the weekend we picked about ten pounds of Blackberries and Caroline has them fermenting for our next batch of wine. We had a glass of last years Blackberry tonight and it was very good indeed. As good as any dry rose we've tasted in recent times.

There's some interesting footage of the footprints and space debris left behind by the Apollo 17 mission to the moon on YouTube today

Hippy Chic

Miranda told me tonight that when she was older she was going to have long hair "right down to her bottom"

I pointed out to her that when I was much younger that's exactly what mine was like...

Giant Flymo

Living in Hythe we get huge variety of marine craft visiting, or passing by when they are being worked on. We found this one parked up on the slip at the Marina, looking like a cross between a go-kart and a giant mower. They are marvellously primitive devices and yet they can tackle pretty much any terrain. This one had handlebars like a bicycle and two metal deflectors strapped over the fans which was it's steering system!