Igniting Passions…of Interest!
I have been tagged in a meme created by the rather lovely Kerry, over at Multiple Mummy. The premise of this meme is that she had to go to a dinner party last week and, wait for it, wasn't allowed to talk about nappies or weaning. (I'm not sure that they actively banned her from that, but she did have to try and remember how to talk to adults about something other than her children.)
Obviously my family make my world go round, but remembering what things make me tick, ignite my passion, strive for more and give me confidence and self esteem is also very important. So what are they? What are my interests? I have found this actually quite hard. It is like writing that crappy bit of your CV when most people say things like they love climbing and then get caught out in interview, because they can’t name one other Mountain other than Snowdonia!
Ben Nevis, Sugarloaf, Scapell Fell, Mount Everest. Wahay! Go me, and I didn't need to refer to Google either!
Not the point here. What are my interests?
Ok, Here goes:
- Gardening: I'm pretty damn sure that the weeds in my flower bed would like to raise their leaves in protest at this point, but just because I don't have time to weed doesn't mean that I can't make things grow, because I can. My garden (when it's looking tidy) has lots of compliments from a range of people. When I look out of the back bedroom window, ours is the only garden that has had anything done to it. Other people have retained their uniform '70×30 foot rectangle of grass, concrete path to the end of the concrete washing line and nothing else' garden exactly as it was 50 years ago. The first thing we did was cut down the hedges, knock down the line and kango hammer the concrete path. I then drew a plan to scale, laminated it and within six months that garden had been produced.
- Photography: I know that I am not Annie Liebowitz or Lord Snowden, and that some of my photographs are a little like 'snaps', but when I whip out my Canon EOS 300D and actually concentrate then I can produce some photographs that I am really proud of. Like this one, or this one. Before The Boy, I had the time to experiment and understand the manual setting a lot more. Nowadays, I am confined to the restrictions of the automatic settings. Composition is something that doesn't take much effort though and stems from my next point.
- Painting: Specifically oils or silk. I did Art 'A' Level and it was my minor in my teaching degree. I get rather passionate about children being taught the correct mechanics of drawing, once they understand that, they then just have to battle with their natural ability. I used to love painting with oils and produced some decent paintings; my sister had one on her wall for years. Silk painting is something that is so effective and easy to do, everyone should try it. My number one medium though is probably pastels. My parents have still got my 'A' level exam piece on their wall, and I do feel a sense of pride when I look at it.
- Reading: I know, I know. It's the one thing that everyone puts on their CV and the one thing that employers groan about. I was going to say "I'm not that good at it", but that sounds wrong. I clearly can read, I mean the analysing of the text. Hence only getting a 'C' in my GCSE. However, I do enjoy a really good book be it Wuthering Heights or Divas Las Vegas.
- Blogging: I'm not entirely sure I'm any good at it but it's something I enjoy. My original purpose was to share a few stories and to create something for the future. However, through my reviews I've managed to gain some lovely goodies and share these with people in competitions. I've combining my love of photography in my 365 project, and I've come across some fantastic reading material (which is just as well since I've not finished my book that I started a month ago!)
This is not a tagging meme as Kerry has set up a linky on her blog for it, however I'm tagging in the hope of guilt-tripping them into taking part. Who do I want to converse with in my metaphorical dinner party? Lets go with these lovely souls:
Christine over at Thinly Spread
Garry over at The Blog Up North
Kate from The Five Fs
Helen from Jessies Crazy Kitchen
Lauren over at The Real Housewife of Suffolk County
How Egg-citing!
Last year, Easter was a bit non-consequential for us; The Boy was too young to appreciate anything to do with it, besides not having any chocolate until he was one years old (something that didn't happen until June). Therefore this year was going to be different.
Hubby started the day well, he managed to take the hints from twitter and got me these.
I felt slightly guilty because he had a Mint Aero Easter egg in exchange. However, The Boy chose it by shouting "Daddy! Egg!" in the middle of Asda and reaching out and grabbing it. When this was explained, all guilt was instantly diminished!
We then gave The Boy his Easter egg, it was a Zigzillas one with a mini xylophone and a mini tambourine in. Not that that mattered, as you can see!
Having stayed up 'til half past midnight making the structure of The Boy's Easter basket ready for his Easter Egg Hunt, he helped me decorate it this morning before he went back for his nap.
Then after lunch, we had our Easter Egg hunt. It took a while for The Boy to get the hang of it, and actually resulted in daddy having to hide the eggs repeatedly throughout the remainder of the afternoon. However, we all had great fun!
Saturday 16th April 2011 – 'Al fresco' (106/365)
First outdoor meal of Spring. Yum!
Learning Through Play: Water!
Before I became a primary school teacher, I trained and worked as a nursery nurse. My 'dissertation' equivalent had the rather considerable and earnest title of "The Importance of Play as a Part of a Child's Development". That was written 15 years ago when I conducted a comparative study between the pre-school establishments in Denmark and those in Wales. A group of my fellow students went out to visit a range of nurseries and took a whole load of photographs for me, while I poured over reference books and a fledgling Internet search engine.
What was hugely apparent back then was how the Scandinavians viewed education to be something that evolved through the child's natural curiosity and desire to learn and understand their world. At the time, nursery education in Wales was still incredibly formal and started at three years lasting a year before little Myfanwy or Dafydd entered formal schooling (as is still the case). In Denmark, children don't start formal education until the age of six which allows them time to be infants before the stiff structure of schooling.
The reason that I mention all of this is because The Boy is 21 months old now and I am fortunate that when he starts his formal education, he will enter into The Foundation Phase. This shift in the style of schooling has been heavily influenced by the Scandinavian model, and sees children exploring their world, getting mucky, playing with toys in a guided manner.
So after a wander around my school's nursery last week, I pinched their ideas and came home and set up a water-play area in the garden!
Do you know what that equals? A whole lot of fun!
Our garden is already quite child-friendly; swing, slide, a cube climbing frame and a playhouse. However, I wanted a messy area. Somewhere that he can mess around with water and dig and get dirty, just like children should. Somewhere he can find insects and bugs and learn about nature. I used to adore my garden as a child and I want The Boy to feel the same way.
Therefore on Saturday I decided to get creative with the above equipment. This is the result:
The educationalist in me will point out the scientific development and vocabulary learnt: pour, empty, full, splash, down, up. That's in addition to the mathematical enhancement when he started pointing out the shapes: triangle, square (ok so it was a diamond, but he was trying) and circle.
The mummy in me will highlight the pride when my son learnt that the water he poured into the funnel came out of the tube a metre away. Or when he was pouring water from one can to another.
The big kid in me is too busy splashing in the mud to care!
The next step is to surrender one of my small vegetable patches to a digging area and 'mini-beast' hotel for him!
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This post has been submitted to the Tots100 March Blog Hop.
Tuesday 15th March 2011 – 'Mr. Gardener' (74/365)
Sunday 13th March 2011 – 'There's a worm at the bottom of my garden' (72/365)
Let them eat cake!
I'm a little bit OCD. Mainly in my work environment, but it does spill into my real life. So when I take on a 'project', if I'm going to do it, I will do it properly. The reason I give this background information is because when a friend suggested a theme for The Boy's 1st birthday, I may have gone a little over the top with it.
It didn't help that The Very Hungry Caterpillar was everywhere last year. When I say "it didn't help", I mean it did because it made finding everything for the party so much easier, but it didn't because it then meant that I had to have the party bags, badges, table-cloth, napkins and balloons. I would like to add that my mother bought all of those things that I've just mentioned. I had said no because of cost. She also bought the party hats and dishes. I love her, I knew I got my OCD from her really!
For months before, my crimping scissors and sewing machine were on over-drive, making bunting for the party. The garden was festooned with 50 metres of Very Hungry Caterpillar bunting strung from the trees and pergola. Birthday parties in the summer months are easy; throw a load of toys in the garden and have the party food on blankets for an instant picnic! The food, while I mention it, was of course straight out of the pages of the Eric Carle classic; watermelon, chocolate cake, gherkins (ok it was cucumber but who the hell likes gherkins anyway? They're the first things to come out of hamburgers!), swiss cheese, cocktail sausages, salami, the whole lot! The table looked really enticing.
And so to the centrepiece: the birthday cake.
I spent hours trawling the Internet to find a good idea, and stumbled upon a fabulous one designed by a cupcake company in Vancouver. Shipping, I could foresee, was going to be a problem which meant of course, that I had to make it myself. I scoured the cookbooks for a healthier option to a buttercream topping. What's the point in carefully monitoring your baby's diet, and introducing foods at an appropriate age to aid the development of their digestive system, if on their first birthday you chuck a load of sugar at them? So we had mascarpone & icing sugar topping (straight from Delia's bible). It was scrummy! I adore tiramisu so loved it. Everyone wolfed it down, and I only found one discarded topping, not bad for 15 babies and parents!
Imagine my dismay today when sat in the staffroom, two 'friends' (who have babies two months older or younger than The Boy) decided to completely rip the p*ss out of the fairy cakes I made for him. And I mean, absolutely ridicule! Infront of the other members of staff, some of whom had also been invited to, what I considered his really special celebration. I half-heartedly laughed along with it and over-exaggerated my outrage to hide my rapidly-sinking heart. I asked one of them afterwards if it was really that bad, and she looked shocked. Admittedly at the time, she did say 'Jesus Christ, where's the sugar?' , but when I confronted her today, she was mortified! Maybe she should have considered that before criticising my child's first birthday party?
Next time, I'm going to do a reverse Marie-Antoinette: they can eat stale bread and like it!
That's if I even invite them!
Linked to ShowOff ShowCase: The One About Birthdays
Children of the Past – 26th January 2011
These photographs are of my parents when they were both five years old.
I love the innocence and happiness on their faces, and the fact that they are both playing in the garden. I used to spend hours playing in the garden as a child; with my dolls acting out The Faraway Tree, pretending I was a pop-singer on the picnic table, or being tied to the cherry tree by my brothers (by my waist-length plaits no less!). I hope The Boy enjoys the outdoors as much as his family has in the past.
