The Joy of Living!

~ * ~ My new blog! ~ * ~

2009-10-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

I drew this picture with Autunm in mind :)

I have decided to start a new blog as I have had my hair cut, been on holiday and feel like a fresh start! So from here continue to follow me with this new blog -

http://followyourdreamsmylife.blogspot.com/

I hope you like it! :oD

Baby bird update and injured baby Magpie!

2009-05-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

The other day Mum spotted some kids on the other side of the road looking intently at a injured baby magpie, she went out and took it back into the house... I helped by opening a carrier so she could put him in to calm down. Mum phoned up the same woman that had helped us with a tiny baby bird before. She said she would take it in and try and help it back to life along with all the other animals at her rescue! There is a small chance it will survive, but there is a chance... so I wish him 'Good luck'... I think he needs it. The woman said that it was probably hurt by a cat or another bird.

When we saw her we asked her whether the other baby bird we had taken to her previously had survived but it was bad news... it died after three days of her having it :( She said that its parents probably kicked it out of the nest because it had something wrong with it and they knew it wouldn't survive. I knew the chances were high that it was going to die but its still very sad... it was so perfect but obviously not enough. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post about him, if you want to see the last post then click here - http://freedomlearning.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-baby-bird.html

Thanks for reading :o)

~ Slow-worm ~

2009-05-20T05:25:00.001-07:00

Our cat walked into the house triumphantly with a slow-worm in her mouth and dropped it by us, then looked up as if to get a whole lot of praise! For once she didn't hurt it so it was a great opportunity to take some photos! This one has lost it's tail before and grown a new one... slow-worms are actually legless lizards not snakes and can't hurt you or we wouldn't have picked it up!

We've got a few in our garden, they mainly hide in the compost heap and under planks or plastic on hot days etc. They eat slugs and other pesky bugs so are great for your garden and beautiful :) The first time I found one in the garden I was about three and I picked it up and showed it to Mum who was hanging out the washing on the line... I exclaimed "Look Mummy I've found a big worm" I can just imagine her face because at the time she thought it was a snake and was 8 months pregnant with David!

After taking a look at it we released it into out compost bin.

Here is a video of its release... I just hope our cat doesn't catch it again... lol!

Cefn Onn Country Park!

2009-05-20T05:13:00.000-07:00

We went on a family trip to Cefn Onn Country Park, it was beautiful :o)

My Mums hand :)

My hand, Feeling the amazing energy of this big strong tree!

It was a lovely day to go there... especially because I was with my family!

The flowers gave everything so much amazing colour!

I loved the coating of pine needles spread across the floor like a soft blanket...

Me standing by this tree puts a scale to the sheer size of it, mind I still don't think the photo gives it justice!

The moss grows around me :)

There's nothing else to say other then "ahh, sweet"... lol! ;o)

There were many amazing trees to climb there, if I wasn't scared of heights then I would have gone higher!

Hi Mum and Dad! You can see a view of David and I on the other side of the pond on my brothers blog. (to get to it click on the photo of him on the Left hand side of my blog)

I love my Bro!

Its higher than it looks!

I took a photo of a very creepy looking tree :o{

My new hair style!

2009-05-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

My long hair (as nice as it looked) was driving me nutty... I had to brush it all the time to keep it tidy and out of my eyes and it got so greasy so quickly! I didn't want to wait to go to the hair dressers, so I got Mum to cut it for me and I think she did a pretty good job! It feels so light and easy now... I might have it cut even shorter soon... you'll have to wait and see!

Before front...

Before side...

Before back!

Then snip, snip, snip and a good wash dry and brush! The out come is -

This! Don't I look so cute! hehe!

See you next time!

~ 900 Views! ~

2009-05-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

~ To see the photo above bigger just click on it! ~

My Mum wrote the poem for me, thanks Mum :)

~ My Poem! ~

2009-05-04T04:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I made my Mum a tea and then used the tea bag afterwards to give my torn piece of paper a old effect, I also sprinkled a bit of coffee on before it dried and a little bit of mud for more authenticity. Once it was dry I took it up stairs and wondered what I should put on it. I did a small amount of decoration around the out side and then (on a different piece of paper first) made up a poem as seen above! I was inspired to make this poem because I accidentally broke my Dads camera the first time he had let me have a go at it (hands over face!). I took a photo of my brothers camera as he took a photo of Dads and the flash from my brothers blinded Dads... Sorry Daddy :(

I hope you like my poem :o) It is meant to look as though it was written in the past so I couldn't do it about a camera, instead I have done it about a favourite mug, enjoy!

~ ANOTHER new blog! ~

2009-05-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

I have started yet another new blog for my photography to space things out a bit! It is -http://heathersblinkofaneye.blogspot.com/

Also you can get to it easily by clicking on the photo of a daisy on the left hand side of my blog along with the other photo links. I hope you enjoy looking at my photos :o)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _@/"

~ My Wildlife Photography! ~

2009-04-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

I stood for ages in front of my Brothers apple tree for ages trying and failing to take a good shot of a bee in the air flying towards some blossom (good thing I have got a digital camera so I can take so many duff photos and delete them easily!). I was doing this because Ash put a wonderful photo of a bumble bee flying towards a fox glove on his blog ~ http://astonishingsplashesofcolour.blogspot.com/ ~ and he inspired me to try and take a photo a bit like it, Thanks Ash! You can look at the photo he took by clicking on this link ~ http://astonishingsplashesofcolour.blogspot.com/2009/04/plant-life.html And then, finally I managed to take some good ones which I am oh so very proud of! The photograph above is my favorite!

I am so pleased I got this one so crisp after all of the naff ones, I nearly gave up to soon but I'm glad I didn't!

This one isn't so crisp but I still like it :o)

Sucking out what nectar is left in this flower!

I love his antenna in this photo!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A woodlouse in amongst all the moss!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the willow we seem to have a infestation of aphids, they are unusual aphids with two red horn like things on there backs! (see below by my finger nail)

Good thing we've got little helpers!

On this photo you can see their shredded skins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I took these photos of the willow below about a month ago.

I love the way I have silhouetted these to the sky, It makes me dreamy :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The photos below are of a (I think newly hatched) bee fly which was just lending its self to a photograph so well!

I hope you liked looking at my photos! please, PLEASE ask before using any of them... Thank you!

* My Herb Pot! *

2009-04-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

I set up my Magic Witches Woods Herb Pot which I should have done sooner so I hope my herbs grow. It included Thyme, Sage, Catnip, Basil and St. Johns Wort! There was also a leaflet inside the kit telling you how you could use the different herbs, it was great. If they grow then I will post about it on this blog :o)

I love fantasy and stuff like that so this kit is ideal for me!

All done with glow in the dark bugs, a lizard and some volcano rocks!

~ My Baby Bird! ~

2009-04-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

I came home from being out and went into the garden and I found a very small (we think about one day old) chick that appeared as though it had fallen out of its nest, bounced off the tent we have up in the garden and onto the grass! I called Mum and she helped me gently take it into the house and put it in a small box with tissues. We tried feeding it small amounts of mushed up cat food from a match stick every half an hour which it ate but in all the time we had it in the house it didn't have a poo, which was getting quite worrying as his belly was swelling rather a lot. We phoned up a rescue and the woman said that it might not be pooing because it is not warm enough or something else worse and that she would look after it if we wanted... so we put his box on a heat mat and drove to the woman to drop the baby bird off to her. On the way the heavens opened and.... there was poo! We think he might either be a blue tit or a house sparrow. Fingers crossed he will survive in the rescues care and one day be free in the wild!

I have drawn a picture of this little fella which you can take a look at on my art blog - http://heathersartwork.blogspot.com/search/label/birds

If you want to find out what happens to him click here - http://freedomlearning.blogspot.com/2009/05/baby-bird.html Its bad news :(

~ Whats happened here!?! ~

2009-04-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've turned into a hobbit and I can't reach to the cupboard to get my Nutella.... I'll have you Gandalf! At least my clothes have shrunk too... that could have been embarrassing!

~ Another new blog! ~

2009-04-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

My Brother, Mum and I are making a new blog to post stuff about the home ed groups we go to on! It is - http://homeedgroups.blogspot.com/

To get to it easily click on the photo of my hand in front of the sun on the left hand side of my blog, I hope you like it :o)

~ RHS Spring Show! ~

2009-04-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

~ Ugg its a fly! Get him Venus fly trap lady! haha!!!! ~

I'm back from a rather long gap of not blogging, sorry to keep you waiting!

Two days ago we went to the RHS Spring Show because a while back I entered the 2008 Reflections of Cardiff Photography Competition and I came runner up and It was displayed there in one of the marquees so we went to see it! It was weird seeing my photo on display :o) While we were there we took a look at some of the other stuff -

~ ~ The wheelbarrow Competition entries were great! ~ ~

The stone work in Cardiff near the RHS Show was so amazing I just had to take some photos!

~ ~ Its a shame some of them were so far away! ~ ~

~ I wonder how they got them up so high! ~

~ The blossom and the flowers just adds so well to this photo! ~

I took a photo of my Brother in the car on the way home (inspired by a photography winning photo in my NG kids magazine) and I think it came out well :o)

* ~ * My New Blog!!!!!!! * ~ *

2009-03-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

I have made a brand new blog for all my art to go on! It is - http://heathersartwork.blogspot.com/ - I hope you enjoy looking at it :o)

I did this piece of art (above) on the Tate Kids games on this web site - http://kids.tate.org.uk/games/ - It is a good site!

* ~ * ~ * 700 HITS!!!!!! * ~ * ~ *

2009-01-13T02:14:00.000-08:00

700 hits! Wow... I never thought I would get this many! To make this picture (above) I used the snow from our garden, I had to do it quick because was melting fast!

The first Sunday of wreath lighting!!!!

2008-12-02T01:46:00.001-08:00

My Brother and I lit the first candle on our Advent wreaths! I can't believe December is here already, it has come around so quick this year!

I'm lighting the candle!

Close up!

Whose that pretty face!? hehe!

Group! Making Avent wreaths!!!! :-D

2008-12-02T01:44:00.001-08:00

At group we made advent wreaths! They were fun to make and to show off, hehe!

Making them!

Concentration! ~ The baby has got at the candles! eeek!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ The girls :-) ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

< < < < < < Nice one David!!!!! > > > > > >

We used willow from our garden and other bendy wood to make a ring and then we tied leaves around it and for decoration! You light a candle every Sunday until Christmas!

600 Hits!

2008-11-29T09:19:00.001-08:00

* WOW! I've reached 600 Hits!!!! Wicked! haha! *

Visit to Castle Coch!!!!!

2008-11-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

We went to Castle Coch with lots of other home edders and had a good day out learning about knights and old stories that are still around today!

The mighty castle where knight once fort and Lord Bute once lived!

The forest surrounding it is beautiful in it's Autumn colours!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Up in the castle walls! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Me in a very heavy helmet and the brave knight telling us what once was!

I got to hold his O-mighty sword! My brothers hair suites a knight quite well I think :-)

Running out of the castle walls and into the unknown!

* ~ * ~ * ~ * Window view of the forest! * ~ * ~ * ~ *

~^~^~^~^~ I love this picture! ~^~^~^~^~

I think I got this photo to frame the landscape very well ;-)

(-: (-: (-: My friend! :-) :-) :-)

Building the mini Castle Coch!

My Brothers new blog!

2008-11-17T10:51:00.001-08:00

Today my Brother has started his own (very happy and funny) blog!

This is it! - http://happyyellowtimes.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy looking at it!

~ My crazy yet friendly brother! ~

WATCH Dormouse hunting!!!!!

2008-11-15T05:06:00.001-08:00

We went to WATCH wildlife group and set out looking for remnant's of dormice! On the way I spotted some beautiful fungi and views! I LOVE this picture above!!!!!!

Out on our walk........

There were LUSH plants!

And plenty of fascinating fungi! The white candle like ones on this stump are called Candle snuff fungi and when you tap some of them they let off a puff of spores! So beautiful!

It was hard to take clear pictures as it was raining and I didn't want to get my camera wet so some of them are slightly blurred.

This one is like a tornado!!!!!!

I love the colour of this one!

A pixie ring, they use the fungi as drums! :-)

It looks like jelly! lol

The trees :-)

Down by the canal

Things a dormouse might like to eat!

Examples of nibbled things the warden brought in to show us. The large nut shell was gnawed by a dormouse.

Our finds. We had no luck in finding any dormouse sightings but we think we found wood mouse nibbles on some hazelnuts!

:-D !!!!!!!! ~ MY BIRTHDAY ~ !!!!!!!! :-D

2008-11-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Today is my BIRTHDAY!!!!! As you can see from the picture above I had a lot of balloons and..... PRESENTS!!!!!!!!!!

I had a box with lots of wood working stuff inside including proper tools!!!!!

PRESENTS!!!!!! My bird watching book! (note I'm not always a crazy beast, I've just woken up!)

At group there is two Birthdays, mine and my friends!

One of my friends made us this SUPER, BRILL cake!!!! Thank you!

*()*()*()*()*()* Having good fun!!!!! *()*()*()*()*()*

There are balloons everywhere!!!!!! Bouing, BOUING!

Little friends having fun!

The food and a close up of the cake! (Fairies and Gogo's!)

Pass the parcel. Stop on me. Me, me, ME!!!!!!

You've got a present, whats inside????!!!!

P..P..P.. PRESENTS! I'm loved!!! lol!

My cake at home, YUMMY!!!!!!!

I went to my Grandmas and Grandads house afterwards and lots of my cousins came to see me! Why I'm not sure!!!! lol!

Rockets and fireworks at group, eeek!

2008-11-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is my picture of a bonfire and fireworks!

We made firework pictures and lolly pop stick rocket bookmarks at group and had lots of fun!

This is my Brothers firework picture! Explosive!

Having fun!

Story time!

Nice rocket!

Some of the rockets! eeeeeeeeeeeeew...... BANG!

500 HITS!!!!!

2008-11-08T00:34:00.001-08:00

I went out side in the garden and designed this 500 picture because I have reached 500 views (or hits) today!!!!! Half of a 1000 now! I hope everyone who has visited my blog has enjoyed looking at it :-)

\/ Bonfire night fun!!!!! \/

2008-11-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

On bonfire night we lit the pumpkins from Halloween and lit some candles along the garden path, we also had some sparklers. The biggest thing that we did was make a...... BONFIRE!

Making the bonfire out of bits of unwanted wood around the garden, our cats were very interested in it as you can see! We locked the cats in the house when we lit the fire or we would have had roast cat!

Starting the fire, we had to give it a good puff of wind!

The candles along the path, they look like they are floating in the air!

Please note that it was warm enough for us to be outside in short sleeved T-shirts in November! Strange weather! The fire helped with warmth a bit of course!

When the fire got going we had to stand well back at it was a big fire! Scary yet beautiful!

~~~~ In close! ~~~~

********** REALLY HOT! **********

*~*~*~* Sparklers! *~*~*~*

big number 6! Swishhhhh!!!!!!

***** FIREWORKS! *****

Wheeeeeeeeeee.... BANG......BANG!

Quietening down now.....

Where has all the wood gone??? The ashes sparkled and moved like it was alive, I was half expecting to see a Phoenix pop out all smoldering and hot!

Birthdays 4th November! 2 & 69!

2008-11-07T04:29:00.000-08:00

YIPPY!!!!!! Double trouble with Birthdays today! Its my Grandads Birthday and my little cousins Birthday, a 2 year old and a 69 year old! We celebrated with family at my Grandads house and went to JUMP indoor play with my little cousin!

We're going to turn into fish in a tank. Keep on watching me and my brother until we turn into fish Keep your eyes on us....... are you watching.......

How long did you watch the picture above this one for?

A few seconds (You are more clever than I thought or just lazy!)

2-5 minutes (Do more brain training!)

5-15 minutes (Maybe you should take a nap!)

15-30 minutes (Are you OK?)

30 minutes onwards (Are you still alive?)

He, he!!!!!

boing, BOING! Off we go!

This is Donald.... you see, this one here! A lovely cross stitch picture done by one of my clever Aunty's for my little cousin! It's amazing!!!!! :-D

~~~~~~~~ Lots more cousins!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~ My Grandad and his picture cake!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~ Say CHEESE!!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~ Put them away!!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble! Halloweeeeeeen!!!!!

2008-11-06T12:23:00.001-08:00

At group we made Halloween paper plate masks! Don't they all look super!!!!!

The crafty table!

Some LOVELY Halloween biscuits that my friend brought in for everyone!!! Yum, Yum!

Aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! Wheres the kids gone and what are all these scary faces!!!???

Some of them are kind of cute! :-)

On the scooter!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Carving the PUMPKINS!!!!!!

My brothers is on the right and mine is on the left.The lantern is on the far right!

Turn off the lights!!!!!

Halloween evening we dressed up and went out shopping etc scaring everyone!!!

Mooo, Ha, HA, Harrrrr!!!!!!

I dressed up as a SPIDER WITCH!

~~~*****~~~~~~*****~~~

My brother dressed up as a skeleton mushy monster wizard!

The EVIL LOOK!!!!!!

ARRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Visiting our Nanna!!!!!

WATCH wildlife group fun!!!!!

2008-10-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

We went to WATCH wildlife group and made Autumn pictures using black sheets of card, leaves, chalks etc! I made a cat (above) and a hedgehog (below) I am really pleased with the out-come.

~~~~~ My Hedgehog, he he!~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~ My brothers shark chasing a shoal of fish!~~~~~~~~~~

There was a competition held at WATCH a little while ago for a T-shirt design to do with the wildlife WATCH club. Someone came up with this idea and won! Here is me and my brother wearing them :-) They look pretty cool don'cha think?!

The first frosty morning!

2008-10-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

There was the first frost of Winter this morning. The clocks have changed and it is getting very cold :-{ I wrapped up warm and crept outside into the garden with my camera at hand! The frost was magnificent! As I walked past, the garden path seemed to glisten as if someone had poured glitter everywhere! The frost seemed to have touched every leaf so delicately. Jack frost really must be magic ;-)

Autumn comes to group!

2008-10-24T03:38:00.001-07:00

!**~~**! !**~~**!

Last time at group I took stuff in to make Autumn Mobiles with laminated leaves, sticks, conkers and other Autumn stuff that we picked up around the place.

The crafty table where some Brilliant minds are at work!

The wonderful mobiles!

If you put the mobiles on the window then the leaves look really enchanting!

The Autumn gang with magical leaf mobiles all around!

Whats down there?!?!

Story time, I'm reading!

Good friends in a huddle :-)

Fast asleep? ahhhh!

And roar! I guess they were awake! :-O

! \~ 400 HITS! ~/ !

2008-10-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

I designed this picture on the computer today to celebrate that I have had 400 hits!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my blog!

YIPPY!

CRAZY HAIR DAY!!!!!!!!

2008-10-16T02:12:00.001-07:00

As I haven't got a sister to practise doing hair plaiting on I will just have to do it to my Brother!!!!!

I plaited his hair in 4 plaits and sprayed it with water and left it for the next few days (as he wanted me to leave them in longer than one day) I took them out and..................

FUZZ BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I usually have this done to myself over Halloween which is coming soon and I will hopefully be dressing up!!!!!

HOLIDAY FUN!!!!!!!!

2008-10-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

My family, my Aunty, Uncle and little cousin stayed at ParkMill, GOWER at the end of September for 4 nights and had some good times together!

There were some amazing views!

The first picture was taken in the morning and the other in the evening and the light contrast is beautiful!!!!!!!

The River going down to the sea!

Pics on the cliff edge!

The vast sand dunes!

Three cliffs bay!

My Dad took the next 9 pictures with his camera (see were I get my talent with photography! Hee hee!)

The old castle!

What a lovely bedroom view!

A view too take your breath away!

Its amazing to think of the people who used to live in that castle!

MY PICTURES AGAIN! >>>>>

DOWN ON THE BEACH!!!!!!

The little beach boy!

Fantastic rock pools!

Great sand!!!!!

Amazing picture of the sky above me! Hey, nice mote Brother!!!!

Off we go! ...............The Big Beach Boy!!!!!!

Home sweet home :-) .................(with a big garden!)

Me doing a bit of art work. Story time, bed time next!

The local park!

Bubbles!!!!!! .....................(I think you missed one!)

There he is!

We went to the Heritage centre!

On the tractor! Mind the ducks Bro!!!!!!

Phew, for once I can lock my Mum and Dad away for a while!!!! (unfortunately they managed to get out and lock me up!)

Hey Dad nice cloths and have your ears grown?!!!!!! LOL!

Hey you've aged a bit!!!!!!

I met some of my relatives from Australia! 26th Sep 2008

2008-10-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

I went to St Fagans Welsh Folk Museum with some of my large family and what a lovely afternoon it was! On the right are my Australian relatives, Ann and Liz (My Grandads cousins) that came to the UK to see us! The couple in the middle are my Grandma and Grandad! On the right is my Dad standing by one of my Uncles, my Brother is kneeling down next to them! In front is one of my Aunties and my little Cousin! Standing next to my relatives is ......... ME! (My Mum is taking the picture!).

My Mum is in this picture (she is sitting to the right of me!)!

Ann and Liz!

A picture in-front of the Heather!

(The plant not me!!!!!)

My little Cousin in the middle! :-))

Knitting at group for Age Concern & parachute fun!!!

2008-10-13T03:04:00.000-07:00

For our last home education group we knitted little hats to go on 'Innocent' drinks to raise money for Age Concern. 50p from every smoothie with a hat sold goes to Age Concern! here is the web-site - http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/thebigknit/

C my brill friend has been doing GREAT work making lots of hats for weeks! Well done, I'm sure they will do a lot of good for charity!!!!!!

I love her snow man!

My Mums handiwork lol!

Me and my Brother having a go at knitting.

My first knitting......................some lovely Pom-poms for the hats!

I took my parachute in to group for everyone to play with!

And UP it goes!

And DOWN it comes!

We had fun! I hope you have had a good time looking at the pictures!

Moth update, eggs!!!!!!

2008-10-11T14:29:00.001-07:00

This is a picture I drew of a male moths head on my doodle pad!

I raised some cabbage white butterflies from eggs. Here they are hatching out!

Wow, wow, wow! Look how small the cabbage white butterfly is next to the Chinese oak silk moth!

I love the fluffy bit on their backs.

I was REALLY pleased to capture these images!

The side of a wing, I love the patterns.

They're all over me!!!!! lol

A stunning bunch........

The cocoons.......these amazing pictures capture a moth hatching....

I hope you enjoy them! It was a real thrill to actual see one hatching!

...... shes getting there.....

....and out she popped!

...note how small the wings are at first....

.....now the unfolding begins!

......wow, wow, wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....fulling out...almost complete!

They hatch so quick and at night that I only ever saw one actually hatching so I'm really glad that I managed to take pictures of this one!!!!

Moths mating.

The egg laying.

The EGGS!

Lots of them!

European Day of Languages 2008!

2008-09-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

The European Day of Languages (26th September) is:

A Europe-wide celebration of all the world’s languages
A day to kick-start language learning
A chance to raise awareness about the value of language skills

EDL aims to:

To alert the public to the importance of language learning

To increase awareness and appreciation of all languages

To encourage lifelong language learning

http://www.cilt.org.uk/edl/

We decided that for the European Day of Languages we would make flags from different countries. We used willow sticks from my garden and sheets of A4 card or paper and then we coloured or stuck stuff onto them! We also had fun learning how to say 'Hello' in different languages!

I like the Chinese one! Nee-HaOW! lol!

The work table!

The flags!

When we were going to the park with some of the group I spotted this tree and thought it resembled a reindeer!

My little friend was having good fun with me on the swings! Whooooo!

Some of my littlest friends :-)

My Bro!

The boys! lol!

Stick insects at group!

2008-09-19T13:10:00.001-07:00

The gang!

Making the stick insects with straws, beads and pipe cleaners!

The sticks! lol!

The bugs!

Which one is real?

My Brother with his stick insects!

My little friend :-)

My other friends!

More friends! lol!

THE STICK INSECTS OUT IN THE WILD!

My friend with a REAL stick insect, which I took to group to show everyone!

My brave Borther!

Don't let it run up your arm!

Me with a stick insect on my face! Its escaping!

Good friends at the park after group!

*********************************

At home I keep Indian Stick Insects (Carausius Morosus) as pets which gave me the idea of taking them into group and doing a craft about them! The Indian stick insect is a olive green colour and when it is fully grown they get a red colour on their front legs. They have a life span of around 1 year and grow to about 3" after 5-6 skin moults from hatching. I usually feed them Privet, Bramble and Willow but they can eat other things too.

My group crafts catch-up!!!!!

2008-09-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

The wool OCTOPI

Little woollen man.

The wool caterpillar!

Card windmills with willow handles (fronts).

(The backs)

The one I made!

'God's eye' weaves made using lollipop sticks (backs).

(front)

My brothers!

My mums, with tassels!

The dancing puppets.

Puppet people.

One of my little friends puppets.

My brothers puppet is called Scatty!

Paper plate fish-scape!

My beach that I made at home after group, using material and real sand.

Butterfly and flower light catchers, using sweet wrappers.

Hamma bead picture frame.

A bunch of egg carton flowers.

My butterfly.

My 'god's eye' weave using willow sticks. Front and back.

Bead necklace and bracelet.

One of my littlest friends :-)

The first spread of wings!

2008-09-02T00:35:00.001-07:00

I put the Giant oak silk moth caterpillar cocoons in a wooden cage with mesh on one side and clear plastic on the other side. We made the cage a while back. Yesterday my Mum started squealing with excitement so I looked up and saw in the cage a HUGE but rather withered (as it had just hatched) Giant Oak Silk Moth! Today we took the moth out of the cage to take some pictures as it is not so withered now. Its been 28 days since he cocooned till the day that he (It's a male) hatched!

The BIG moth!

His tummy!
He looks like a fluffy mouse with wings!

See the holes on his wings, They have like a clear skin covering over them with a black line through them for support. I like this picture, the way it is silhouetted to the sky!

I love his antennae! My Mums grown a moustache! Lol!

My Brother and me with the HUGE moth!

One of the spots with the clear skin over them close up! I really like the pink, yellow, white and black around the outside!

Next to his empty cocoon!

His cage were his brothers and sisters will be joining him soon I hope!

His old cocoon.

This is a very good and educational web site all about silk moths! - http://www.wormspit.com/

Here are the Chinese oak silk moths! - http://www.wormspit.com/pernyi.htm

And here is his blog! - http://wormspit.com/blog/

I must have lost my marbles!

2008-08-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have got LOTS of marbles that look very pretty. I sat down yesterday and sorted them into

colours then I faced the long task of counting them!

The marbles!
Sorted into colours!

Counting them, eeek!

16 Big marbles!

25 middle sized marbles.

52 white and white with coloured marbles.

17 Non see through dark blue marbles.

17 Non see through yellow marbles.

18 Non see through light blue marbles.

16 Non see through green marbles.

62 Striped yellow marbles.

6 Striped orange marbles.

53 Striped red marbles.

84 Striped green marbles.

8 Striped brown marbles.

60 Striped blue marbles.

28 Speckled yellow marbles.

24 Speckled green marbles.

20 Speckled red marbles.

23 Speckled blue marbles.

51 Clear blue marbles.

40 Clear green marbles.

5 Clear yellowish marbles.

34 Clear brownie/pink marbles.

83 Clear marbles.

65 Dark blue marbles.

60 Dark orange marbles.

26 Dark pink marbles.

15 black marbles!

All together that makes.............

908!!!!!

See I told you I've lost my marbles!!!!!

Wow, wow, wow!

2008-08-14T03:21:00.000-07:00

Two days ago it rained heavily and it was sunny at the same time. When the rain stopped I looked out the window and there was a perfect rainbow!

I hope you liked my rainbow picture!

MY WOODWORK!!!!!

2008-08-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is some of the woodwork I have done. I love doing it, so thought it would be a great thing to put on my blog!

We made this fence last year with the willow. Willow is the wood I use.

The willow trees I get the wood from!

The tools I use! I hope to get proper tools in the future, then I can stop nicking mums!

The Wood Folk!

My hand for scale.

This is my Naughty Fred, he's always sticking his tongue out!

This is Wise Bob.

This feller is O-Man.

This is the bead necklace I have made!

Mum And Me.

Fisherman's Needle.

Easter Island Man and Star Man.

The Wands. Abracadabra!

This is my Brothers first creation, its called Chippy!

FUN WITH BUBBLES!

2008-08-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today we have been having fun with bubbles. This is some of the stuff we got up to!

I think the pic below that I took up close of a bubble is really wacky!

These bubbles look like a mouse blowing bubbles!

While I was taking pictures of bubbles I wondered 'Why are bubbles round?' so I looked it up and I found this website!

http://bubbles.org/html/questions/round.htm

Very interesting. I hope you enjoyed our bubblicious day!

2008-08-11T02:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my family and I had a busy day going out places, one of the places we went to was the cemetery to see my Gramps' new plaque. We forgot to buy flowers so we went around picking all different pretty wild flowers and leaves, I think his looked the best :-) I miss him :-(

Rain poem!

2008-08-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

Nearly all day today it has been raining! I sat on the door mat looking out at the rainy and very wet garden with a pen and a piece of paper in hand and I let my mind get taken away in a poem. This is what I came up with -

Drip, drop......... shhhhhhhhh,
listen, look, clouds,
wet patches, SUDDEN FLASHES!
Gosh thunder, CRASHING THUNDER!
Dogs are barking in the park and ........
look again a streak of lightning, how frightening!

How amazing, mouths a'gazing,
hearts a'rumbling, knees a'tumbling!
The rain came down like a curtain
and for this I was quite certain,
much to my regret
outside is now very, very WET!

I hope you liked it :-)

Here is a picture that I have just drawn with pastel chalks for my poem -

The picking of the apples!!!!!

2008-08-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

We have an apple tree in my back garden, it belongs to my brother. My Grandad gave it to him when he was really small and now it has grown into a nice little tree! This year we have had our second bumper crop of apples and we picked most of them today!

My brother picking his apples!

Mum helping me get a high one down!

We found a caterpillar on the apple tree. I looked it up in our books. It's a grey dagger moth caterpillar. It gets it's name because it is grey and has dagger shaped markings on it's wings!

We picked 32 apples!
All 32 apples weighed over 2.5kg!
The variety of apple tree is Discovery!

Afterwards my brother made us a fruit salad with his apples and the blackberries from our garden! It was YUMMY!

Cat attack!!!!

2008-08-07T04:28:00.000-07:00

I hung the jellyfish up to take a pic for my blog -

Then my cat noticed their tentacles wriggling around in the wind!

She got ready and ........

Pounced!

No jellyfish were too badly hurt in the making of these pictures! LOL!!!!

Jellyfish and park!

2008-08-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today I have been to my home education group, I arranged for everybody to make paper cup jellyfish with plastic carrier bag tentacles (see pic below!). My brother and I wrote a story about a jellyfish to read to the other kids!

Here is the story I read to the other kids -

Once upon a time there was a jellyfish named Jubbly, that roamed the giant jellyfish ocean. All the other jellyfish stung except for him.

One day he was out for a swim in a part of the ocean that he had never gone to before.
Squelch.....squelch.....squelch he moved through the warm, quiet water. Soon he got sleepy from all the fun of exploring, so he looked for somewhere to have a rest. He found a big, dark cave and went inside. Soon he settled down.

Suddenly he heard a loud rumbling noise. For a minute he thought it was his hungry tummy. Blumbu......blumbu..... the cave started to shake and MOVE!!!!
Jubbly started to shiver and get scared. Where was he?

Gulp, gulp.........gulp. He was in a big Sharks mouth!!!!

"If only I could sting like all the other jellyfish he wished"

He thought about his pet rainbow fish and his family at home and he started to get cross with the shark. He puffed up his jellish body , tensed his tentacles, and felt electric currents building up inside himself.

Dizzzzzzzzzzzz........

He stung the shark and it spat him out at a tremendous speed!
He swam as fast as could back home in time for tea with his rainbow fish.

THE END!

Afterwards some of the group went to the park, it was very busy as it is the summer holidays but it was still fun to be there with everyone! Here is a pic of us in the park!

Thank you very much to all of the group who said nice things about my blog :-)

CHINESE OAK SILK MOTH CATERPILLARS!

2008-08-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hello again! This is now my 3rd day of blogging and I thought that I would tell you about my CHINESE OAK SILK MOTH CATERPILLARS! I got them from Ebay as eggs but in the post they hatched so I ended up with 30 tiny black caterpillars. -

On there first moult they turned into little green caterpillars and started to eat rather a lot -

I've only got a baby oak tree so really I needed to take leaves from a bigger oak tree, so my family and I had to go out in the car every so often to get some oak! Then they grew HUGE and we had to go and get oak nearly every day!

Here are some pics of the FAT caterpillars! -

Now they are cocooning themselves with their silk. Here are some pics of their cocoons taken today! -

I'll keep you posted on the Caterpillars progress! TTFN!

Party time!

2008-08-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I went out to my cousins party! She is now 5 years old and looks like a little pretty pixie! I had good fun there and it was nice to see lots of the family :-) The grub was nice to!

I have to be careful with eating food at parties because I used to be allergic to nuts and milk, I'm ok with most stuff now but I hadn't tried peanuts till a few days ago and I came up in a stingy nettle like sore :-(
At least I'm not as allergic as I was.

Every week I go to a local home educators group which my Mum has the keys to! My friend (who is on holiday at the mo) and I every week take to the group craft stuff and activities to do.

This is just some of the things that we have done over the months -

Phew! Thats all for today, I've had enough of uploading pics! I hope you enjoy looking at them!

The first day of blogging!

2008-08-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Today is my first day of blogging (YIPPEE!). I am doing a blog to share what I get up to with my friends and family, my arty crafty stuff, things that I do at home and things that I do out and about! I plan to post pictures of lots of different things.

I hope to post again soon!

TTFN!