Insult and Injury

I've had broadband issues for a few days so not been posting anything, so I thought I'd cheer myself up with a smiley picture! You tend to forget how much you rely on services like the internet, but when they stop working it's really disruptive.

I generally recommend BT, as the quality of the actual product is usually very good and consistent, but my abitity to tolerate their abismal customer service has been tested to the limit, and beyond.

If anyone can recommend a company with decent customer service and fast internet I'd be grateful...

Genius photo in the Gridiron today

Considered

"So what did you learn about in school today then Miranda?" I asked her after she'd had her supper. It's often a struggle to get her to open up about school, but she surprised me with "We've been learning about dinosaurs and what they were eating..." and before we knoew it we were talking about crocodiles and all sorts.

So at bedtime we had a Ladybird reading book which featured two kids playing with a crocodile in a puddle, and that hit the spot too - sometimes you just have to ride the wave.

You wouldn't think that Miranda was sitting on the nose of a dinosaur - but she is -  a real fire breathing monster...

Lego of my arm

By marked contrast to yesterday, it was a perfect spring like morning in the forest today. Everything was covered in a thick frost when we set off for our bike ride at 9am although the sun was casting a golden glow over everything.

I think this winter has been the dreariest I can remember in a while, but this morning made up for it - and the forest looked spectacular.

When we got back at 1pm the car still had frost all over it, so temperatures hadn't risen much, but Greg had been busy with the Lego...

Save my Home

Lewis has been out on the streets of Hythe with Domino the Donkey along with supporters of the campaign to stop New Forest District Council from building houses on Barry's Field.

Since we moved to Hythe, the smallholding has been at the heart of our community; the kids have learned about animals at first hand and we've had endless fun there over the years. All the kids have ridden the donkeys, and they have also walked the goats, as well as helped with the feeding and putting to bed of the 35 or so animals in the field.

So today it was out in force to gather signatures to tell NFDC they can keep their hands off... So far the supporters who are signed up amount to over a thousand, hardly a ragged handful.

There's a consultation meeting in Hythe on 23rd Feb at the Community Centre -
Come and have your say at the Public Consultation to be held on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 between 3:00pm and 9:00pm at Hythe & Dibden Community Centre, Brinton Lane, Hythe.

Rudolph Valentino

Well Miranda's getting better all the time, and I'm looking forward to the day when she's able to make me look at good at Rudolph in the picture behind me! For my part I'll keep Natasha Rambova in mind when I'm photographing her...

You can see the photograph by James Abbe in 1925, and printed from the original glass plate here although they don't credit him for his artistry!

Just because it's there

This one from the weekend at Stubbs Wood when Lewis was in slightly more energetic shape than he is at the moment. He's been very under the weather for the past two days, even having the day off school yesterday - and that for Lewis is very unusual.

He doesn't have a temperature at all, and is complaining of stomach ache, but mainly from about the late afternoon onwards. He's even been coming in to see us in the middle of the night to tell us how much he's suffering. He has a fairly reasonable appetite, so we are confused?

Big gong

You'd be forgiven for thinking that she'd won an Olympic medal, but Miranda was very pleased with her gold medal in the ProKick competition at school. Even Gregory was unable to get the top spot in his class, although not a hint of jealousy as he bigged up her achievement! Apparently you have to kick the ball as hard as you can into the net and the highest speed was then recorded in each class at Waterside Primary...!

Lucky Gilchrist

Hide and squeak

I was taking some photos of Miranda this morning when Greg popped in - so I had to get a few of him too! In truth he always used to be the most fun when posing, but he doesn't really make too much effort these days!

The boys played football this morning at the park, so Miranda and I went for a bike ride into the village. When we got back to the park it was nice to watch them from a distance playing with some other kids. Lewis was in goal, all the others trying to blast the ball past him!

This afternoon we've been for a walk from Rans Wood, Lewis tried to stalk us, hiding out along the way and trying to take us by surprise. Greg had great fun, and so did Lewis. Great boyish activity...

Interesting obit of Tony Boxall in the Guardian today

Self portrait

Miranda had a huge pile of furry creatures with her going to bed tonight. Raggy is still a firm favourite but there's competition from a variety of others too.

In this picture he seems to be wearing trousers, and is getting more three dimentional.

I was feeling quite tired when I popped her into bed so I just gave her a cuddle and lay there for a bit. "Come on Dad" she said "I want a shnurkle", which means a wind me up til I pop, sort of cuddle!

Tubbytime

Just flicking through an old box of polaroids...

Henry IV

Time for another one of Greg's lovely illustrations I think! I'm also hoping that by paying a bit more attention to matters historical, I start to absorb some of the gaps in my education. A bit late you may say, but better late than never.

I was joshing with Greg last night at bedtime, after he made some remark about older people knowing so much more than him. I told him that I knew everything that there was to learn, and then sensing that I was bragging, he said "Well who was the first Roman Emperor then?"

"Begins with an A; ...is it Augustus?" He was delighted with my reply and said "Yes Dad, you got it right!!"

I had to own up that the only reason I knew was that he'd mentioned this a few weeks ago as a fact when we were looking at the statue head at the British Museum. You live and (hopefully) you learn.

Girls

Taken in December just before we went for lunch when my Mum was visiting. The idea of the picture was a portrait of me and my mother - the lighting wasn't fantastic; foggy and very miserable. So Caroline took a bunch of pictures, which I quickly checked on the viewer, and every single one was blurred, not just foggy blurred but pea souper blurred.

So I took the helm, and you can just imagine what she was saying...

I'm listening to Tomasz Stanko's Korozje from 1983

The Surrey with a Fringe on Top

Taken a few days ago, but probably I chose a different picture at the time. Interesting enough for the writing that Miranda's done, but the real reason is that you won't see too many more pictures of her with the Olde English Sheepdog look..

Miranda has taken to it with a pair of scissors, and now has a fringe! CJ is less than pleased, as you can probably imagine....

A little Ladybird


One day she fly to the moon. Ladybird played on the moon. She went to dig with her friends.

Between a rock and a hard place...

It's been rather gray again today, even threatening to rain during our walk in the forest this afternoon. Didn't stop us trying to climb trees, and generally lark around. This one I like as it captures (for me anyhow) Greg struggling to climb one side of the tree, and me on the other side trying to climb high enough to see him. The tree was wet and we were both falling so I had to prefocus and hope for the best.

Boom Boom Cluster

One of Miranda's photos from yesterday; to be fair it was dark in my work room and the lens is a manual focus jobbie, but it's probably better than a camera phone picture.

Anyone who knows me will be aware of my appreciation of Southampton Art Gallery - it's a fantastic gallery with a superb collection. I went this afternoon with Greg, and although I'd noted on many occasions a caption refering to the David and Liza Brown Bequest, was fascinated to discover the reason it has so many excellent modern art pieces. David Brown was a local guy who trained as a vet, but got passionate about art as a collector and after training as a curator, supported Southampton Art Gallery in many ways. Later he left in his will about 400 pieces to the gallery, including many of the Roger Hilton's that I personally love. He was also responsible for all the Hamish Fulton and Richard Long pieces that I also adore, and marked Southampton out as a place to visit.

And now I live here.

Rollin'

Just dreaming about my bike ride tomorrow morning as I head off to bed! I hope the weather is a bit better than today, which has been grey and wet in the main...

4s Cheese

We've been reading from the Septimouse stories most of this week, which Miranda enjoys. She prefers her ad libbed version of the story to the verbatim, and I have to be honest, sometimes it's much more fun to listen to her make it up, rather than take her through the words one by one.

Lewis is playing 'Empire State of Mind' tonight on his guitar with no music to hand. As he starts to listen to more music on his own he's developing a taste for what he likes... and it just so happens I like it too!

There's a great article on the BBC site today about the decline of the record shop by Graham Jones who has revisted many of the shops he knew and recorded them within a book. A few times recently I have done something similar,  although just standing drop jawed outside 'Ray's' and 'Dobells' in Covent Garden who no longer sell Jazz records, but Pizza or somesuch product. By contrast however we were in Boscombe recently, and there delight of delights, I found Snu-peas still trading.

How I used to love trawling through the racks of vinyl (before I had kids)

http://www.lastshopstanding.co.uk

Virtuous Circle

Lewi has a few objectives in his music at the moment; one is to read more music, as he has a tendency to scan it then play by memory... and his second objective is to follow the timing notation better. Both of which are slightly anathema to him. He much prefers improvisation!

Anyhow this evening his new piece from his Hampshire Music Service teacher was El Condor Pasa, which he studiously looked at, then played in the most hauntingly beautiful way, 'straight from the box'

I asked him if he was familiar with the tune, and he was unaware that he'd just played one of the Simon and Garfunkle tunes we often listen to (stripped of the lyrics)...

'Bro

Seeing the shirt in yesterday's picture reminded me of one of Gregory's drawings of Lewis. It's filled with admiration for his big brother. And this is what he was singing last night...

"My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why
I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window
and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey,
but your picture on my wall
It reminds me that it's not so bad,
it's not so bad

I drank too much last night, got bills to pay,
my head just feels in pain
I missed the bus and there'll be hell today,
I'm late for work again
And even if I'm there, they'll all imply
that I might not last the day
And then you call me and it's not so bad,
it's not so bad and

I want to thank you
for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you
is having the best day of my life

Push the door, I'm home at last
and I'm soaking through and through
Then you hand me a towel
and all I see is you
And even if my house falls down,
I wouldn't have a clue
Because you're near me and

I want to thank you
for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you
is having the best day of my life" 

Y Ddraig Goch

Two good practice sessions today by Lewis, I really ought to try an record him a bit more often. Only trouble is by the time I've got the laptop out he's aware of the intrusion.

This morning I came down stairs to let him know I thought it was going well, and got into a real life pop video it was so much fun. He gave me one of those looks....

He has a bit of the Joe Cocker to his voice and intonation at the mo, very charismatic.

We had a beautiful walk from Beaulieu Heath via Dilton and over to Ivy Wood. The sun was low in the sky, and everything looked magical, ponies, cows with calves, and the birds singing madly in the trees. We came back through New Copse and Round Hill, the vibe was so good I even did a few pics of the sunset (shock horror)

Another of Lewis' lovely cards capturing a small slice of his imaginary farming life. There was at least a dozen in this series and I managed to scan a few of them before they went out in the post.

At dinner time tonight he announced " I've had the almost perfect afternoon. Playing Farm and listening to Radio 1!"

So what would have made it perfect "Oh, a nice big Dorset Apple Cake to myself...."

Tall tales

Story time and they are locked in with another tale at bedtime. Greg has been reading another one of his Michael Morpurgo books, and I've also read one of the boxed set that Gran gave him for Christmas - what a great writer he is. I read the 'Wreck of the Zanzibar' which painted a similarly bleak view of Island life (Bryher on the Scilies) to Adam Nicolson's 'Sea Room' which I read last year (about the desertion of the Shiant Isles in the Hebrides), although I'm in awe of the way Morpurgo makes it so accessible, and yet so vivid.

Well 'ard

One of those pictures that I like mainly for personal reasons, the memory being better than the image per se.

I sneaked in for a candid shot of them looking at Augustus' Head at the British Museum, and when Greg caught me he gave me one of his intense stares! The look mirrors Augustus' fearsome expression, although you can't really see it

Check out the BBC article below...
the link take you to the iPlayer version

Object No 035 in the History of the World in a 100 Objects - Head of Augustus 21 May 2010

Fri, 21 May 10

Duration:
15 mins

Head of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, looks at one of the world’s most famous rulers, whose powerful, God-like status is brilliantly enshrined in a 2000-year-old bronze head with striking eyes. He explores how Augustus dramatically enlarged the Roman Empire, establishing his image as one of its most familiar objects. The historian Susan Walker and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, help explain the power and methodology of Augustus.

The Competition

Miranda was giddy with excitement when she came home from school today with her Head Teachers Award. She really has been trying very hard over the last term, which we should remember is only her first term at Primary School. Even this morning she insisted on writing down her words, which really she's only just supposed to read out loud...

We had fun at bedtime reading a few books together, I don't know why but it's always more enjoyable doing it one to one, rather than with two or three.

A great set of tunes from Lewis tonight, makes all the difference.

Been reminiscing with my old school pal Andrew Scourfield tonight about old times, so seems particularly sad to learn of the passing of Gerry Rafferty who defined a portion of my musical history in the seventies.

I phone, you phone, we all phone.

Well we're back from our travels to visit the Guthrie clan in Holmes Chapel, and Miranda is missing being looked after morning noon and night by her cousins Christabel and Elsbeth. I don't think they stopped playing games with Miranda, or cuddling her, or feeding her or keeping her entertained, whilst the boys indulged  in boyish activities like watching Man U on the telly with Uncle Nich...

Mip took about 15 seconds how to work out how to use Elsbeth's new iPhone, and thereafter it was a gonner!

Tomorrow it's back to school for the kids, hooray! The early start might be a bit of a challenge....

I'm listening to Jezebel by Anna Calvi

New Year Scenes!

Elbeth and I have been making a movie on her iPhone, so faced with the challenge of shooting and editing it, and loading it to the blog by 6pm - here it is! We did shoot several more scenes but they came out up side down.... doh!

Happy New Year!

Swordid

Greg can turn any situation to his advantage. This is one of his 'Thank You' cards that he's been making today, managing to get a knight drawing in without any difficulty.

He's been scything around the house most of the holiday, with wild hacking and thudding noises as he decapitates his victims. I was just about ready to explode yesterday as it gets on my nerves after a while, but I put my head around the door and what I saw stopped me in my tracks. Greg swording violently (obviously), Lewis laying on the settee with Miranda (dressed in Nursey outfit) applying bandages to various parts of his body....

Turns out they were involved in unrelated activities, but the picture was magic....

Stuck in

Gran gave Greg a box of Michael Morpurgo books for Christmas, and he's been stuck into a few already, in between the Percy Jackson and other assorted books he's currently reading. I was surprised yesterday in the British Museum to discover so many things he knew about Greek Mythology, and characters such as Poseidon, Zeus and Hades just from reading the Jackson books.

Lewis has been reading many of the Morpurgo books himself, and is already a big fan. He currently has his latest book out from the Library. I have to be honest that because he runs around brandishing a sword all the time I'd assumed they were just a load of warrior nonsense...

I myself have been reading Morgurgo's 'Escape from Shangri-La' which Greg finished earlier in the day, and it's a great book. I'm trying to keep up!

British Museum

We had a reallyearly start this morning as we wanted to pack in a full day at the British Museum. The doors were just opening and we had the Egyptian gallery to ourselves, but it soon filled up with people. Greg had prepared a list of interesting list of objects from our History of the World in 100 Objects book, and we grazed our way around, looking for some and stumbling across others. You could go here every week and still be learning interesting stuff when you were in your wheelchair.... Greeks Romans, Assyrians, Persians, Mayans, Saxons, Vikings .... and more. The look on Greg's face when he realised he'd found the Sutton Hoo Warrior Helmet was a picture (that I did not capture unfortunately)

We had lunch in the main cafe, and what excellent and reasonably priced nosh it was too, even jugs of iced water to boot.

After kicking out time we trawled around Covent Garden and back along Regent Street to see the lights. Carnaby Street again was best for christmas decorations, and we had supper in the Masala Zone which everyone enjoyed, even Miranda. Food fairly good and excellent service...

New Forest Snowball

"How can you tell when a snowball comes from the New Forest?"

"When it's peppered with pony poo!"

Lewis was most disappointed to discover that the Point to Point was canceled due to the weather. Everything is frozen solid, and although we've had sunshine and the temperatures are not that low, it's certainly not doing any melting.

The forest looks fantastic, but the animals are not too impressed. I watched a poor pony trying to get a drink, but sliding back and fore on the ice. It gave up in the end!

Hurling...

Christmas Day spent in the traditional manner, on the beach for a bit of fresh air, then a slow and over-indulgent lunch! Games, book reading and lazing in front of the fire.

After putting the little ones to bed Lewis joined us for Cheese, his grown up remarks about food quality nearly brought a tear to my eyes!

It's almost five years to the day when I took my all time favourite picture of Mippy...

Christmas Eve

Miranda managed to stay up for a few games before dinner, and long enough to get her stocking ready. We have been playing pontoon and singing Christmas Carols with the boys in front of the fire. Father Christmas' mince pie has been put in front of the fire and the glass of red wine prepared hic

Don't get up too early now boys will you...

Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year to wish y'all a Merry Christmas! We're planning on sitting tight and chilling out, so where ever you are hope you have a great time time...

And lets hope that 2011 is a good one for us all.

What's your flavour?

Caroline's been out today toiling, and I've had the day at home with the kids. Miranda wanted to play Ice Cream Shop, one of her activities that she's done with Mummy during the summer. Sadly the sign had come off the 'service hatch' causing her to get quite upset. I thought nothing of it until some time later, having set the thing up and lost sight of her, I was wondering if I'd wasted my time.

She reappeared with a piece of paper "It's OK Dad I've made a new one..."

Raspberry
Blackberry
Bilberry
Orange
Strawberry
Lemon

Ice Cream Parlour

Greg watching the birds

We've had a few lazy starts this week, finding it difficult to get out of bed before 10.30 most mornings. I think it has something to do with Miranda being under the weather...!

Anyhow today we visited the Museum in Poole for a change, and we had the place to ourselves. There's such an interesting range of things to see there. Greg was transfixed by the bird videos i the "bird hide", although the section about the Speedway track he also thought was fab.

We had supper at the Thai restaurant in Boscombe (Thai's Smiles) on the way home, and the food was fantastic again. I asked Lewis for marks out of ten - "Ten"

Page turner

The weather forecast was hideous, and with the prospect of either heavy snow or very heavy snow (with nearly bare cupboards), we thought maybe we should get a few provisions in, just in case!

So whilst Mum was in Waitrose we went to the Library to change some books. Miranda came out with 23, nine of which we have read so far today. She's still not feeling up to much so a few books were just what she needed!

The weather forecast turned out to be wrong, as we've had heavy rain which melted all the snow, but hey ho - such is life.

Where have those pesky mices gone now?

Miranda is quite under the weather, moping around unenthusiastically. These two mice are her current faves, made I think by Mummy. They are always hiding somewhere, and especially so when you are looking for them...

I thought we'd better have this photo on the blog to cheer her up tomorrow, although I sense she's on the mend any how.

Wipe out.

We were mid lay-in when Gregory bounded in to tell us that it had been snowing. So we are back in a winter wonderland, and as it's the first day of the Christmas break, we had a nice breakfast and a walk from home out onto the forest.

Miranda unfortunately a bit under the weather, but she managed all right, although she had a nap when we got back.

The road along the shore was sheet ice about two inches thick, so we may be holed up for a little while yet.

The Antidote to Christmas

It's been a tradition for some time for the photo boys to go to the Isle of Wight on an expedition (to avoid the last Saturday before Christmas). This year we went on the Friday instead but had a great day shooting from dawn til dusk and beyond - then to the cosy sanctuary of the pub in Shalfleet. It was as cold as I've ever known it, so the glow is just that little bit rosier...

Rarer than hen's teeth

When Gran was here I managed to snaffle a few photographs from her camera, and this one she took when we were in Wales on our recent visit. Remarkably all looking at the camera and almost smiling!

Silage time

Not sure exactly when I started making my own Christmas cards, but nevertheless all the kids do likewise! This is one of Lewis' little vignettes of the farming life that he aspires to.

The house is all quiet and back to normal tonight as Gran has gone back to Wales after a few days here, I think we're all having an early night.

Miranda performed in the school production this morning, she was the Angel Gabriel - if you can believe it!

Downhill rapidly

Just before breakfast this morning with Lewis serenading me, and Greg and Miranda singing. Gran was quick with her camera, but she hasn't mastered video on it just yet or we'd have the sound too!

We've had a nice weekend in London on our own, whilst Gran stayed at home with the kids. As we were staying at the Bloomsbury Hotel, we spent Sunday at the British Museum brushing up on our Egyptology as Greg is doing them next in History.

Lewis's card this morning featured a drawing of a Mountain Biker descending rather quickly, hence the title...

Ice cold

Lewis has just got home from Sea Scouts, it's strange him coming home alone, long after dark...doesn't seem quite right.

Greg had his cello concert in school today. Twenty eight of them on violin and cello, must have made an interesting noise. I put some Erik Friedlander on earlier in the evening, and I asked him who it was

"Cello?"

Star Award

This came home from school today, along with a very excited Miranda "Daddy I've been given the first STAR Award in School"

Apparently Mrs Cullen had given out the assignment and was going to write it on the board for them to write on the paper. But Miranda got there first!

So today it's Mippy blazing the trail...

Top Banana(s)

You can tell from a mile off when he's got good news, he exudes self confidence, and today I could tell by the excited voice I'd be having a visit into my workroom to share it! Lewis' had had his first report from Secondary School, and it confirms that he's doing very well across the board, and it was great to be able to share his obvious pride. There are times when parenting seems like very hard work with little reward, today was not one of those days...

In fact this actually happened twice in one day, as Greg brought his English homework in to me this morning before going to school, very chuffed with his story that he'd planned and written. And so was I too...

Miranda I think gets enough praise, but I might just put a picture up of her "written piece' from the weekend tomorrow. A Clue...?

......wspnotm...thewos a lttw red hen

Got it yet?

Scream

Decided to go into Southampton today and were surprised to see so many people in their jamjars on their way to the Art Gallery. It was bumper to bumper all the way in.... wherever they were going it wasn't to the last day of the fantastic Bridget Riley exhibition. Southampton Gallery is always good, but the collection today was just fantastic. Not only a Riley show with old work, new work and loads of WIP sketches, but several other superbly curated collections of Modern Art.

We also paid a visit to the Maritime Museum, which is also fascinating. Main thing I discovered today was that the view of the River Itchen that I faced for a few years when I had an office at Kemp's Quay would have looked over the  Day, Summers & Company Boatyard which built huge boats despite the apparent shallowness and narrowness of the river at this point. Although it's fair to say that some amazing superyachts are being produced here now, it's also home to one of the biggest (and fairly interesting to watch) piles of scrap metal in the UK.

Miranda's Munch-like picture from this morning, the subject is Raggy her Rabbit!

My Gregory

We had a drawing session after lunch today. The weather was foul, and to be honest I could have done with a snooze, so pencils at the ready, we did portraits instead. This one is Miranda's version of Gregory; she was really hootering as she drew his hair!!

Main reason for the exhaustion was our bike ride out over the forest this morning. The ice thick on the ground despite heavy rain overnight - in place hard crunchy ice that was difficult to penetrate, in other place you could fly over the hard stuff but ran the risk of falling off as it was so slippery. Lewis had several nasty falls, grinding his bits 'n bobs painfully. A few times I thought we'd have to abort our ride it was so bleak, mist, ice, wind and rain - not a person on the ground all morning.

Nevertheless we did make it back the promise of a hot lunch kept him going, after three hours in the saddle. When we got back we had one of the finest lunches in recent memory - mushroom and butterbean soup, sweetcorn muffins and cake. All homemade.

It'll be all white on the night

When Miranda was very small Christian gave her a Book of Letters - a sort of scribbling book with lots of letters and numbers inside. She has used the book a lot over the last few years for drawing and the like - but now she's also writing in it! I wonder when she'll be doing the blog herself...

The snow is still thick on the ground here, although we're forecast rain overnight. It's been very cold and even the road along the shore into Hythe has about two inches of ice across the whole surface - very treacherous indeed. Normally it's just the bit of road outside the house that stays icy, but this time I think they have given up! Also still a deep layer over all the fields. Walking back across the playing fields the scene was just like the famous Frank Hurley photograph of Shackleton's fateful mission to the South Pole. Didn't have my camera with me, so no photo of my own!

Really sad to hear of the passing of Gregory Isaacs, who for one reason or another reminds me of that first term at Farnham Art College, way back when... at just 59.

Night Nurse