Happy Christmas!

Well, I guess I just wanted to say HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!

We have enjoyed a month of Christmas preparations and fun. Before we handed our car over to David and family we made sure we fulfilled those of our Christmas wishes that required transport. We visited the London Temple, and actually managed to stay over there for a night, which was fun. We rode one more time on a friend's pony. Everybody enjoyed a ride, abd Rebekah really did fantastically without anybody holding onto her this time. She was worried still to start with, but once she got into the stride, or the "wiggle, woggle, wiggle, woggle" as she said most of the way around the field in time with her movements, she did brilliantly and really enjoyed herself. We also visited an equine rescue centre (for horses, ponies and donkeys) which Michael and the children had found the previous month and really wanted to go back to. Peter just loved wandering freely around finding yet more horses and ponies everywhere he went. He especially loved the Shetland ponies, which is fun as he looked just the right size to ride one.

From there we went to Stratford on Avon where we have been for the previous few years at Christmastime to see their lights. We ended up having a day there one year as a family and by chance it was the day the town Christmas lights were being turned on. They were really nice, and we had such a nice time that we returned for that again the next year. Last year and this we went in December rather than late November, and went instead for a free ride on a tour bus (open-topped double decker), which gives some history of Stratford and also takes you around the lights. We had fish and chips for our tea there (in the chip shop this time, out of the rain). Last year I remember going a week later than we had planned because of bad weather. This year we were getting rid of our car and couldn't do that, so we had a rather wet and windswept ride on an open-topped tour bus. My mad and determined older daughters decided they were going on the top, on the back seat as they had wanted to, no matter what. So Michael stayed downstairs in the dry with Peter, and I accompanied 4 damp girls, well equipped with dome umbrellas that they could sit inside and see through on the back of an open-topped bus. Of course once we moved away, it got rather windy, so Rachel and Hannah who were sharing an umbrella were tugging hard on it to keep it down. Whereas I was across the aisle from them tugging hard on Rebekah's and Sarah's two separate umbrellas to stop them (and probably us with them) from being blown away! Unlikely I know, but it felt like it! Needless to say one of those umbrellas was bent totally out of shape and had a whole in it when we got back downstairs. As soon as we set off on the tour Rebekah, and shortly afterward Sarah wanted to be with Daddy downstairs. Well, you try walking along a wet and slippery open-topped bus in the wind and rain when it is moving, and then getting down a steep spiral staircase with a 3 and a 5 year old. Not I! We had another ride after that - all in the dry this time. Then we wandered back to the car through the Christmas market and across the river. Some of us were drenched, but actually nobody seemed to mind. It was a lot of fun!!

We've done some other fun things too, most of which have included giving/doing in one way or another instead of receiving. That has made it a really special Christmas so far. Now the girls are nestled all snug in their beds, and have been really excited to put out their stockings tonight and to open a few presents too. More and more people have been handing us gifts, so there are a few to keep them going! :o)

We have a few more Christmas wishes to be fulfilled this week. One is to see our family in America tomorrow. We'll have a video conference with them. Another is to have Nanny come to visit us (she'll actually be staying with us for a couple of days). Then there's the all important pyjama party, complete with a video and popcorn of course. A few other things too. We'll be enjoying them, this year as last through our illnesses. Last Christmas day Sarah was too ill to share our Christmas dinner. We ended up having a second one on Boxing Day just for her. Well, we've been knocked for six with a nasty virus again and have been taking cover and hiding away under blankets for the last two weeks. Now it is Sarah's turn again for the illness - bad timing! Hannah is the only survivor so far, and we hope she stays that way. If we're well enough we'll also be going to stay with my parents for a few days from Saturday onwards, though we'll stay away if we're ill so they don't come down with it too. I think there'll be enough presents to keep the children busy anyway even if they are quarantined (I mean home and resting) a little longer.

We hope you enjoy a very healthy and happy Christmas, and actually we hope we do too. :o) So we wish plenty of love, light and laughter to you all.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS LOVELY FAMILY!

From 4 wheels to, um, ... 12 or so!

Well, for quite a long time now Michael and I thought that we would not always have a car. Two months ago we felt quite strongly that we should get rid of our car, and we nearly did it, but not quite! Then a month ago David's family car decided that it was going to stop working, and it turned out to be way too much to fix. That was the push we needed. We offered our car to David's family and prepared to go car-less. Not a big deal for most of the population of the world I know, or even for other families as large as ours. However, the big red people-carrier (or family bus) that we had been driving had certainly made many things possible for quite some time that would not have been otherwise, and we have enjoyed that travelling freedom. Maybe now is a time to work a bit more to get places, maybe it will reduce our carbon footprint a little, or maybe, actually, it just allows us to work within our budget a bit better.

So as of a week ago we left our four wheels behind (round the corner at David's house to be precise) and we are walking, taking the bus to church and the girls' ballet class, and riding bikes to as many other places as we are able. Now that we have the lights and everything else we need for winter riding (thanks for your help Dad), riding the bikes won't cost us anything so they are definately preferable. We had been having a lot of fun going for rides as a family over the summer - mostly around a 2 1/2 mile block from our house and around the nearby woods. Rachel and Hannah are pretty strong riders. Rebekah made the block just fine, as did Sarah although quite wearily toward the end. Peter always had a nice ride and often liked to cuddle me from behind. :o) We felt the need to get bikes sorted for everyone, and a bike seat for Peter on the back of my bike which helped us be able to have that fun exercise over the summer. We now also have a couple of trailers bought second hand for not too much but in great condition, which means we can still ride long distance with the 3 younger children in trailers. Especially good for winter journeys, and handy for shopping trips now too. So instead of our easily recognisable family bus, we are now travelling on anywhere between 12 and 16 wheels (training wheels/stabilisers included) :o).

Things are taking longer, which is to be expected. Life will sometimes go a little slower in what can be achieved in one day - also to be expected. It is taking a little bit more initiative to make some things work. We've used the internet and postal service a bit more for Christmas presents! We also see a lot more of the world around us as we pass it by at a much slower pace though, which has been nice on occasions and hopefully come spring and summer especially will be even more enjoyable. You never know, we may even end up a bit fitter because of it! Of course it was the first day or being car-less that the freezing weather really decided to set in. Typical. Come summer, riding everywhere will be a breeze! :o)

An English Thanksgiving!

I have been trying to put this on here for a while, but we have been quite busy for the past few weeks.

This year, on 22nd November (now three weeks ago) we celebrated Thanksgiving along with our family and friends in America. It might seem strange to do so, not being American and with the reason behind much of why thanksgiving happened in the first place, however we have a lot to be thankful for, and looked forward to the opportunity to have a day dedicated to thankfulness, and especially as it was intended, to praising God for all that he has done for us. A primary reason for us was having Emma and Will and family in the States, along with many others that we love, and this was another opportunity to be a bit nearer to them by sharing in some of the things that they would be doing, albeit many many miles away.

We asked lots of Americans we know what their family traditions are for thanksgiving and enjoyed reading about all of the traditions that they shared with us. There are some that we didn't manage this year that we might well try out in the future as we are hoping this will also become a tradition for us. It is fun to know the kind of things they would be doing.

That week wasn't my best of weeks, nor that day my best of days (in terms of how I was feeling), but we kept things simple and had a lovely time. We had looked at the history of thanksgiving over the previous few days and the children enjoyed learning something about the "pilgrims" and what was effectively the first thanksgiving. That was really a harvest festival to us, and our meal reflected that partly. We did in the end go with partly 'traditional' food for our celebration meal. We enjoyed a free-range chicken (not turkey!), and mashed potato, gravy, cranberry sauce (we made our own in the end so that it would fit in with our no-sugar diet!), green beans, carrots, a big mixture of roasted vegetables - parsnips (mmm!), peppers, mushrooms, leek, sweet potatoes, garlic, etc., and then a baked butternut squash with some soya mince and cheese. Oh, and we also had sweetcorn (corn-on-the-cob) which Peter was especially thankful for! We didn't eat the squash in the end - we had that over the next couple of days instead along with some of the left-over veg. We had chosen some fruit we really like for dessert, but really didn't want it in the end as we were so full, so kept that for another day too! In future we might go for apple pie for a dessert, and I have a recipe for pumpkin pie (no sugar again) that we'll try out at some point, but maybe when we grow our own again in the next couple of years!

Rachel and Hannah really enjoyed helping out with preparing our meal and decorating the table in the morning while the little ones played and Peter had his nap. Then before our meal we had a few pieces of corn on our plates and thought about how the pilgrims for a long time really didn't have much food (like many others in the world now). We each took turns putting a piece of our corn into a glass as we shared things that we were each thankful for, until the corn was all gone, and we then had a special prayer of thanks. Then we filled the table with food that we really were thankful for (partly as it's food we don't normally get to eat!) We had coloured leaves decorating our table as a reminder of all things natural that we are also very thankful for.

We went for a walk in some woods near our home during what was left of the afternoon, and enjoyed exploring a part we hadn't visited before, which came out into a lovely grassy clearing in the middle. We gathered some fresh holly while we were there - that was the first of our Christmas decorations to go up that evening when we got back home. That was our only decoration for a while, tied up with some Christmassy ribbon, as despite our intentions to follow the tradition of decorating for Christmas right after thanksgiving, we had a lot happening here at the same time and didn't get organised enough - maybe next year?! I did manage to paint over some of our walls the day before though while Michael and the children went to visit Nanny, so the house was looking pretty smart!

We finished off our day with tea/dinner and a pyjama party - we watched a video (a Bob the Builder movie!) while enjoying some popcorn - all of us in our pyjamas. :o)



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A little bit of culture!

Last night our ward had a "Royal Variety Performance" with various singing, dancing and other acts from different ward members. The third performance was The Kruger Girls! Since having their ballet class each week with Pauline from church they have never had a show even though it nearly happened a couple of months ago. So last night, we had Rachel and Hannah dancing to the waltz in Coppelia, and then Sarah and Rebekah dancing to/being Little Bo Peep. We were surprised that Sarah and Rebekah at 5 and 3 wanted to do that in front of so many people, and at bedtime too - not the best time of day for them! They didn't falter either, even though they had a problem with feedback at the beginning - Sarah picked up the singing perfectly. I did see Rebekah trying to hide behind her sister just a little bit though, whereas normally she sings out bold and strong. Apparently Rachel's favourite part was curtseying at the end (to the king and queen!), maybe because of the huge applause they got?!

It was really fun for us seeing them enjoy it so much, and feeling so confident. Also hearing all of the aaahs when Sarah and Rebekah came on stage. They had fun, and so did we. We hope you enjoy watching them too. Oh, Michael says sorry for being a bit abrupt with the zoom to start with, but hopefully you'll see just fine. So without further ado, here are THE KRUGER GIRLS......






Can you also recognise one of these lovely ladies who graced the stage a little later on?



The girls have enjoyed seeing themselves and Rachael on these video clips this afternoon, but have also really been wanting to see the other acts again that they enjoyed. It's a shame we didn't film them all!

We've had a few problems today from having such a late night last night, and from having lunch too late (after church and choir practise), but it was worth it for how good they feel about what they have done. Choir properly began last Sunday after a break of many months, and Rachel and Hannah are now joining the soprano section. Rachel is an especially good soprano. I am quite a solid alto, and Michael prefers bass. We all took a turn to sing individually with the new choir director a few weeks ago though, and she has asked me to join the altos for a while and Michael the tenors. Our range nearly goes that high, but she was excited (as she is about many things) at the vibrancy in our higher notes, and so wants us to try to develop that more. It is nice for me to be able to sing along with Rachel and Hannah and perhaps be able to support them in that if we come to any more tricky music. After our first practise last week, we sang for the first time in sacrament meeting today - The Lord Is My Light. Rachel and Hannah have been singing it through the week which is nice. They know so many Primary songs really well, and this will be a good opportunity to really get to know some of the hymns of the church more. Good for Rebekah and Sarah too as they pick up music pretty well while it is played or sung frequently. Rebekah fights pretty hard normally against singing anything in FHE that she doesn't know herself, which can be a bit limiting, and does sometimes mean that although we've tried to work with her we end up singing a different song with her bawling in the background!! Of course she'll have more Primary songs she'll know soon from singing time (from this January when she moves up into Primary), but I think we'll be able to happily sing more hymns together as a family along the way too. :o)

Brum brrrrrum!

We went to the transport museum in Coventry a couple of weeks ago while Edan had his half term break. I thought Peter would be fascinated by the cars and buses. He didn't see them all, but took it all in his stride really. He was really tired though as he wouldn't go to sleep! The thing he loved more than anything though was all of the toy cars. He really wanted them! Actually, when I just showed Peter this picture, he gasped in wonder as he did when he first saw them - a sort of "WOW!"



Peter liked the bikes. He kept standing by this penny-farthing trying to get onto it. Doesn't he look diddy on it?




















We finished off in a play space including some soft blocks that were shaped so that you could make your own car from them. Hannah was chief designer when it came to this. She suddenly gets so animated in these situations and her creative energy runs wild! :o)


We had just about everybody in all together. Peter mostly just got knocked down a lot by people walking around by big blocks, or jumping and landing on him, but he held up fairly well!





I was exhausted by this time, but had a go too after sitting down for a while. So this is my racing car, made for Rebekah, with Rachel as the expert driver.

Hello!

HELLO!



WE LOVE YOU!



:o) X X X X X

Smile Mum :o)

Hi Mum,

We hope you are feeling much better (from the cough and cold too) and that you didn't have any more trouble yesterday. We wanted to say good luck with your interview tomorrow too. We hope you get to do it (if it's right for you that is! - pray about it won't you!)

We hope you weren't too disappointed at not being able to come over, and hope to see your smiling face soon.

Lots of love XXxxxxx

Goodbye, Wiltshire - part 2

Hello again, everyone!

I hope it's OK to keep doing this - there've been no comments, so perhaps you're finding it all a bit much, but I hope not - I love looking at the places on the satellite view and hope the children will enjoy it too, when you have time :-)




We visited another white horse on the way home, at Westbury. We were lucky that he had been recently renovated and was glowing white - they tend to go grey over time, and the chalk-cut ones get grassed over. Here's the Westbury horse from the distance:





and closer up - Gramps thought he looked hungry!









There was a wonderful view from the top of the hill (by the horse's ears) despite the cement factory in the valley - you can see the smoke from it in the last picture. It turned out that the horse was so white because he was made of concrete painted white - courtesy of the cement factory! It was very windy up there - quite exhilarating! The white behind me in the picture below is the horse's ears.





Above the horse is Bratton Camp, another hilltop fort where people lived many years ago. If you look at it on satellite on Google Maps (put in Bratton, and the horse is between the two roads that go to Westbury, about halfway along), you can see it clearly, with the narrow road running through it. To the left of the road is a long barrow, like the one at West Kennett. Long barrows had a lot of people buried in them - up to 100, while round barrows usually had one important person in them. There are two round barrows at Bratton, but they've been ploughed so much that you can't see them any more. You can have a look at lots of round barrows though, if you put Stonehenge into Google Maps and switch to satellite view. South of Stonehenge there is a white field with green spots - zoom in and you can see that they're barrows. There are a lot more around Stonehenge, including more further south and a few to the north. How many can you see?



We visited two more lovely villages briefly before we went home - Lacock, where many historical films have been made, and Castle Combe, which is really pretty, and which was used for the film of Doctor Doolittle. Here's a picture of Lacock that Dad / Gramps took; the sign on the bakery had its founding date in Roman numerals, which looked impressively old - I wonder how many people could work out that MCMXCII was as recent as 1992?








Well, as you can probably tell, we had a memorable few days in Wiltshire. In fact we enthused about it so much that Pauline and Phil Mitchell, who are away for a few days this week and are passing through Wiltshire going to and coming back from Dorset, asked us for the details of the best places - they got almost all of them!!!


Well, I hope you have been / will be able to look at some at least of the great places we saw. Maybe you will get to visit them when you move down to the south, as they'll be nearer to you then.

Oooooooooooooooodles of love to you all

Mum / Granma

Goodbye, Wiltshire - part 1

Hello again, everyone, and sorry about the delay - I started this and had to stop in the middle, but although I could see the draft, it wouldn't let me add to it or copy the text!

Thursday 20 September - time to leave Wiltshire, but we packed a lot into our journey home! Our host asked if we'd seen the badge carved into a hillside near the village - it was done by Australian soldiers in World War I. (There are quite a few of their graves in the churchyard; most died in a flu epidemic.) We hadn't seen it, so went and had a look at it from the other side of the valley - it looks a bit like the sun, which is appropriate for Australia where it is almost always sunny!

If you want to see it too, (1) put Codford St Peter into Google; (2) click the + button twice; (3) change to satellite view; (4) you will see a circle above the village - move this up so it is at the top in the middle; (5) below it there is a shape like the hands of a clock saying 10 minutes to 6, and on the ridge that runs down from that a faint white mark; (6) keep clicking the + sign, or you can use the little wheel on the mouse if it's got one, and there it is! There were some other soldiers stationed - that means sent to live - in the next valley to the south, and they also made the same badge, this time with words on it - but they didn't stop at one badge! To see them, type Fovant in at the top of the map. It should come up in satellite view, but small. You should be able to see the badges already, though, on a curved hill down from the arrow and to the right. Zoom in using the + arrow or the mouse wheel. How many can you see? Can you see the sun one? Unfortunately it's upside down, but you can see it properly - and all but one of the others, which was done later - here http://www.fovantbadges.com/pictures.htm#. You can open the pictures bigger by clicking on them. Did you notice the big circle by the badges on Google? That is a site where people lived a long time ago, because it was on top of the hill and kept them safe. (We saw the Fovant badges on the Tuesday, on our way to Wilton and Salisbury.)

I'm going to post this as we have to have tea now, and then go to our Strengthening Marriage course. Sorry it's been a bit boring without actual pictures, but I hope you've looked at the maps and pictures and enjoyed them.

Love to you all, my lovely family, from Mum / Granma
xOxOxOxOxOxOxOX

Wiltshire, part two

Hello again! Here goes part two - hopefully with the pictures behaving! In the previous post the top two pictures - which I inserted after the others - are of Salisbury Cathedral, and the others of Wilton Church; you probably worked that out! Did you like the reflection picture? You really need to see it a little bigger, I think.

Wednesday was our ancient history day. We started by trying to go for a nice bracing walk on Salisbury Plain, but the majority of it is used by the army for exercises, and there were red warning flags flying everywhere we tried to go! We finally found a path along a ridge on the north of the Plain, from which there was a good view, including two of the white horses cut into the hillsides for which Wiltshire is famous. We then set off to see if we could get closer to the horses. We found one and ate our lunch looking at him from below. To see him, go to Google maps and enter Alton Barnes. When the map appears, switch to satellite view then do 2 clicks on the up arrow, and he'll appear.

We were heading now for Avebury, where a very old stone circle and bank has a village partly built inside it. It is believed to have been begun about 5,400 years ago. A lot of the stones were destroyed to make the village, or buried, but there are plenty left, as you'll see. On the way we saw two other old places. The first was West Kennett long barrow ( a burial mound), thought to be 5,600 years old, and the other was Silbury Hill, which is thought to be 4,500 years old. The people in those days spent huge amounts of time building these sites, but apart from the barrows we aren't sure why!

To see these three places together, on Google maps enter West Kennett. When it appears, move it so that Avebury is a little down from the top and in the middle. Now switch to satellite view. Avebury will be a big circle at the top, Silbury Hill a smaller circle lower down, and West Kennett long barrow should be near the bottom; look for a deep green field and a pale green field to the left of it, both with wavy top edges, and the barrow is where they join at the bottom. if you zoom in, you should be able to see quite a lot of detail of each. At Avebury, the positions of the missing stones are marked with small concrete bollards.

Here are a few pictures; the first one is the big blocking stone across the entrance to the long barrow, taken from the top (it's about 10 feet or 3 metres high - on Google you can see how big it is from its shadow). To get inside, you have to climb over some smaller stones; originally you couldn't get in at all. When we arrived at the long barrow there were some very strange noises coming from the burial chamber inside; they turned out to be a young man playing a didgeridoo! Apparently lots of musicians go there to play because the sounds reverberate so well.

This is Silbury Hill from the long barrow. You can't climb Silbury Hill (I don't think I'd have wanted to anyway!) both because of rare plants that grow there and because it is being restored - various attempts to excavate to find out what it was all about had weakened it; in fact when it rained heavily in 2000 the ground covering a pit that had been dug right from the top to the bottom in 1776 collapsed, leaving a big hole!

Hey, I think I've cracked the picture thing - I remembered that when we posted to the blog while we were in Devon we had to drag them to where we wanted them!

Here we are with some of the huge stones at Avebury. I think the first one looks as if it fell from space and just stuck there! The second one seems to have a cheeky grin at the bottom, and third one has a little flat area in it like a seat - you can see that lots of people have sat where I did by the way the grass is worn!

From there we found another white horse. On Google Maps enter Winterbourne Bassett. To the right of the village you'll see a road with a wiggle in it. Switch to satellite view and you'll see the horse in the wiggle; the road is wiggling to go up a hill. We parked at the top, where the red car is, and Dad / Gramps walked down to the horse; it started to pour with rain while he was gone and he came back at a run, with memories of being out on Dartmoor in a thunderstorm speeding him up!

There are some other interesting things to see on the satellite view: below the horse in a field (up and left on the computer) is a crop circle, though not a very good one. Some people think these are made by spaceships or strange forces, but the best ones are made by a group called "The Circlemakers". This link should take you to some great pictures of designs they've done this year: http://www.circlemakers.org/totc2007.html . I don't suppose the farmers are very pleased to have their crops flattened, do you? To the right and up from teh horse you can see three clumps of trees, all in very neat circles; you can see these in many parts of the country but they really stand out in Wiltshire. They are probably the sites of round barrows - more burial chambers from thousands of years ago.

We went to Marlborough for tea - a lovely town with a very wide main street and lots of interesting old houses, though not as old as the other things we'd seen that day, of course! - and then back to the B&B via Stonehenge. It was pretty dark when we got to Stonehenge, but D/G had never been there before, so took some pictures anyway! I like this one (it looks better bigger - and, in our case, if you dust your screen!):

Here ends the history lesson for today - more tomorrow, probably.

Love from Mum / Granma and Dad / Gramps

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wonderful Wiltshire!

Hello everyone!

We had a wonderful few days in Wiltshire last week and wanted to show you some pictures. It'll have to come in installments like yours, as I have to meet someone from Redditch at Harborne to help them get some temple work ready for the temple trip tomorrow.

We arrived on Monday evening. The B&B was posh - owned by Colonel and Mrs Richardson-Aitken, who were into shooting :-( but were otherwise very nice and helpful! There were hens in the garden (very feathery ones) and on the thatched roof of the cottage we could see from the side window were a family of ducks - Daddy, Mummy and two "teenage" children - not ducklings! - all made of thatch.

On Tuesday we went to first to Wilton, a few miles from Salisbury, which used to be the county town - hence Wiltshire - until Salisbury outgrew it. We went there because Michael Hinton's ancestors came from there and I wanted to try to find him some background information. The "carpet museum" was just a few displays in a space in the shopping village, which was disappointing, but the place itself was very nice. The pictures show the Italianate church built in the 1840s, so his ancestors would have worshipped there. (I'm not having much luck at placing the pictures - sorry!)

I bought a lovely long seersucker skirt for £10 and some sandals reduced from £40 to £16 in the sale, and we got Dad / Gramps some slippers that you can go outdoors in - he hasn't had any slippers for ages.

Later we went to Salisbury, which is a beautiful place with a clear river running through a long pedestrianised area. We enjoyed the looking around the cathedral - I especially liked a water feature inside which had water constantly welling up from the bottom and pouring out of four spouts into holes to start all over again. If you enlarge the picture you will see that people have been throwing money in - I threw in 5p which we had found outside, but thought afterwards that coins could interfere with the flow of the water!

More later - probably tomorrow!

Love from us!

Splash!

This was an unplanned paddle. Hannah just couldn't resist it, and of course everybody else followed suit! 3 in shoes, 3 barefoot and Mummy on the side taking pictures.

Hip Hip Hooray, it's Granma's Birthday! (or was)

We had a little walk and ride at Ryton Pools, ...




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... we played in the park, ...









... and rode back again.





Speedy little Elijah on his new scooter nearly caught Auntie Ceri!



Then we had a lovely tea full of homegrown, homehade yumminess, and a morning and evening celebration cake for Granma.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,



HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVELY GRANMA,



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

X X X X X X X X X X X X