Diss Mere

Took the kids out to Diss Mere for an hour this morning, as there was a bit of a break in the clouds and we could actually see sunshine.   By the time we got there and I'd spent a couple of frantic minutes running around trying to get change for the parking (duh, I forgot to take loose change for the parking meter), it had gone very sunny indeed and in face became pretty hot.   I couldn't take photos of the kiddies playing on the climbing and playing equipment, as there were a lot of kiddies and mommies there today.    But here are a couple of shots taken just after we arrived.

Works of Art.

I decided to try out an art project with the kiddies today.  Faye has already 'got' the concept of collage but this is a completely new animal for Ewan.   I wanted them to enjoy using the acrylic paint first of all and see the effects that they can make on paper using this lovely medium.   I squeezed out primary colours into an old cupcake plastic container (it's a pre-formed container and very  handy for art projects!). I then also put in some white (but not black, deliberately).   I wanted to see what colours they would choose and I left it entirely up to them.   The only instruction was that they keep the colours "clean" - i.e. not to blend them and to use as much paint as they liked but separate brushes for each colour.   This is a difficult concept to stick to, even for an adult!  It's very quick to let it all descend into mud.

I was a bit taken aback when Ewan straight out asked for Green paint - so I decided that rather than fiddle  about blending blue and yellow, I would just pour out some premixed green that I had available in my 'studio' (cough).    Faye got stuck in straight away with the golden yellow.  Then left some space and chose red next, then blue and finally a bit of green. She adhered to the instructions and her paper looked very clean and bright.  Ewan watched her for a bit but then became deeply absorbed painting the thick paint onto the art paper (I gave them a sheet each of heavy duty canvas type paper, specially designed to hold acrylics).   He spoke about how it looked like grass.  I sprayed a bit of water into the the thick paint and onto his paper and showed him how the colour bled into the paper and how it changed colour.  The more water you add to the paint, the lighter the colour goes - he was quite interested in that and continued painting his paper, covering it completely in green but using different thicknesses. I sprayed Fayes paint and showed her how the colours bleed into each other and showed her how to push the paint with the tip of the brush and also using her fingers (she used her fingers to blend the red and yellow together, she really liked doing that!).

I went away to check my emails and clean up a bit, as well as put a wash on my painting that I'm doing in my ...er studio.  Came back and Ewan had started scratching into the paint with his paintbrush and also the end of the koki pen to make 'grass' ... what?!  This is Sgraffito technique, he hasn't been taught this at school, I'm sure.  Anyway, I was quitely surprised at that.  He has a natural desire to make the surface interesting and isn't hesitant.  We sprinkled salt into the paint and then also put some bubble wrap onto the paint.   The whole purpose of the exercise, as far as I was concerned, was to make an interesting background.  I wasn't really worried about the collage.

I went away again to check my erm art in the garage ... er studio ... came back and Ewan had taken red paint and painted a small amount onto the bubble wrap and let it seep through onto his background, so he had made just a little bit of contrast there.  He didn't go overboard, as most children would do and dollop tons of paint on ... just a little bit to make a highlight.  No-one told him to do that, he didn't ask for any other colours.  My word, I think the boy is a natural artist!

We then had a lot of fun assembling things to put onto the backgrounds once they were dry.  Faye cut out part of a tree from a photo I'd printed.  We made sun shapes and butterflies and tissue flowers.  They each coloured their own butterflies in - Faye's had to be pink and smaller than the big ones we used for Ewan's painting.   Ewan wanted peoples in his picture, as well as a bunny and a carrot. So Faye cut out her photo taken at the funfair of her on the jumping cords and this is the people in his painting.  I made the flower out of tissue paper in Ewan's painting but he coloured in the flower stalk, leaves and glued it to the flower.  Faye made smaller tissue flowers and only painted the centre in yellow - to look like Daisies, Nana.
All in all I think this was a very successful little art project, I'm very pleased with the end results. 

Ewans work of art - note the red contrasting piece in the middle and the scratch marks and texture on the paper.

Faye's Rainbow picture.    Faye also enjoyed doing spattering with white paint onto her picture .. doesn't it look pretty!

A walk in the woods

I spoke to a local woman on Friday at Ewan's Nursery school and asked her if there were any forests or woods nearby that we could go to with the kids.  She told me about Tyrrel's Wood, which is basically about 1 mile from our house.   We went this afternoon, with puppy and had a lovely walk around in the sunshine.    Here are some photos - again, click on image for the larger version.  One of the photos was taken using the 3D mode but as I don't have 3D glasses, I can't check if it actually worked or not!

Arriving - no fee, no hawkers, no vagrants, no rubbish.

We gave Laila a bath this morning, which was a bit of a waste of time, after she'd wandered through as much mud as possible. She made friends with a couple of local dogs who were also out for their constitutionals and of course, found a stick.

Walks in the wood are all part of the Boudicca Way network of footpaths in this area.

The Boudicca Way is named after the legendary warrior Queen of the Iceni, whose tribes once inhabited the area, and passes through the beautiful, unspoilt rural countryside of South Norfolk and the Waveney Valley where visitors will find sites where unusual wildlife and flora are present.

The Boudicca Way is a long distance footpath which runs for approximately 36 miles between Diss and Norwich. Running roughly parallel with the old Roman ‘Pye’ Road, now known as the A140, the route follows public rights of way and quiet country roads, stopping off in picturesque villages such as Pulham Market, Saxlingham Nethergate and Shotesham along the way.

Kevin pointing out the Unicorn tracks and Goblin houses

It's easy to get lost even in a regular sized wood like this one ...

The light was stunning filtering through the trees

Here be Goblins and Fairies

The bark on these trees is almost a peach colour

A new shoot on the forest floor, glowing neon yellow green in the sunlight.

A little boy and a puppy

Lots of different types of trees, very interesting and we all thought better than Thetfore Forest Park - plus totally free to get in!

Every shade of green hey?

Hayzel cut her finger this morning doing the dishes on a broken glass in the sink - she slit it quite deeply in the webbing between her fingers, so she's not been a very happy camper today.  She should have had stitches ... we'll see how it is tomorrow.

GET WELL SOON!
Oma is in hospital after having an emergency hip operation, following her fall.   I hope that she is feeling a bit better and that the pain is bearable.  We are all thinking about you!   Get well soon.

Faye's Birthday, and thanks to all

Here is Faye's birthday, with all her thanks to everybody for their presents they gave her. Dave and Mag's mention from Faye will be posted a bit later as it involves some special effects which take a long time (I wanted to post it up all together but then Faye's birthday would be long past by the time the video went up).

Video still to be posted is the Framlingham Castle trip. That will also be posted some time in the near (far?) future. This video editting take a long time.

Remember the full 1080p Hid-def loveliness if your South African band widths can handle it (ha, ha, as soon as the fibre connect becomes available in Long Stratton we will sign up for it for an xtra tenner a month then our net will fly like a boeing at speeds most SAér would never have dreamt of).

Click here for Faye's Birthday thanks

All the fun of the fair ...

Long Stratton had a little Fun Fair on Friday and Saturday ... just down the road from us.  All the rides were basically a pound each.  We had a great time.  I actually went on a Waltzer with Hayzel, which might seem major tame but God, we couldn't see straight for about ten minutes after the ride, it was hectic!  The guy on the machine was spinning our cup around so fast, the G's were incredible.   Then later Hayzel got me to go on some other contraption that scared the living Bejesus out of me for 5 minutes - it felt like an hour of hell.  I almost puked.   Great fun!   We ate candy floss, sausage hot dogs and foot longs. Kevin won a bow and arrow and a machine gun for Faye and Ewan respectively.   They had a blast on the Dodgem cars ... here's some of the pics.

Eating his hotdog

Big climb for a little lad!  And he did it twice ...

Aeeeiii!!!  

All harry casual ... wait a bit...

Rather a 'happy' looking Batman hey?

Strolling home at 930pm ... note how light it still is!