We have moved

This blog has moved together with its owner. If you want to know where we went check here.

Playmill in Cromford

We have tested quite a couple of play centers around here and one of our favorites is the Playmill in Cromford. It is a genuine hidden treasure, not only because it is so great for little kids, but also because it is rather difficult to find. I am really glad that one of my friends took us there, because we would probably still be cruising around, had we been by ourselves. The place is located in a fantastic building, squeezed into the valley that surrounds it and feels a bit off from everything else. To reach the parking lot you have to drive up a very narrow, curvy and steep driveway and I had several moments when I silently questioned Ls state of mind, because it looked nothing like a place where you would expect a play area.
 

 

And yet it was and a very nice such indeed. Not enough with being located in a cool building, it also gets a bonus for its free parking, which is quite rare around here. The entrance fee of 3.80 P/child is also acceptable, given that you are unlikely to do it every day.

What I really liked about the Play Mill is it´s open space. It is roughly subdivided into 5 areas, the climbing frame, an open area where kids can ride little tractors, trikes and the like, a big sandpit, a place for babies and really small children and a cafe, where the parents can sit down and sip a cuppa, while being able to overlook the whole area.

 

Our kids went straight to the sand pit and played happily with the little diggers, spades and buckets for a really long time. With no fights at all! It was awesome, not only because the kids got along so well but also because L. and I got to have a proper adult conversation, with complete sentences and no interruptions or lost threads.

The thing the kids enjoyed second most was the climbing frame with nets, "bumpy stairs-cases" and a twin lane slide, where they could slide down next to each other, holding hands.

We had a marvelous time and I really hope we manage to go there again before we leave England for good. (Whenever that is, but that is a different story.)

Eat me, I am good for you!

They stare me in the face and shout "Wowwowow, not so fast lady, are you sure you just want to walk past us. Have you really had your share?". Or so it seems.  I am talking about all the fruits and vegetables in the supermarket, which proudly carry their big labels "one of your 5 a day".  Most of the time this strategy of selling their bodies works; at least on me. I nearly always grab some extra berries, apples or other fruity looking stuff, just to make the echo of  the "Have you REALLY had enough?"-thought stop. It´s not that we have an unhealthy diet in this house, but for some reason I am always worried that the "supposed-to-be-fruity-ish" side on our plates is not big enough. How much are 5-a-day anyways? One grape is certainly not enough and neither are 5 blueberries. So, what is? 

After being quite annoyed by this ever-returning, nagging question I finally turned to my good friend Google and he found the answer on the National Health Service homepage for me. So once and for all:  

One adult portion of fruit or vegetables is 80g and the portion a child needs correlates roughly to the amount they can fit in the palm of their hand...

...and even more details on the exact portions can be found here. Problem solved. From know on my dear fruits and greens you can flash me as much as you want to but you will not manage to overtake my cart against my will ever again. If you are nice however, you can still get a ride with us, just because we all like you.

This said, it´s time for me to go. Have a lovely day you all!

PS: For those of you who wondered, wine does not count as your 5 a day, no matter how much you drink. Sorry guys!

Common sense has left the building

One of S. favorite CDs is called Benjamin Blümchen as a pediatrician. It’s about an elephant (who is very famous amongst German children), which has to substitute for the real, measles-stricken, doctor.

My favorite part is, when a mom comes into the clinic with her daughter, complaining that the child is always tired and does nothing but read. Benjamin tries to find out what is wrong with her and starts to ask her questions: " What is your favorite game at daycare?" Instead of the girl you hear the mom holler: "Daycare??? My Kathrin does not go to daycare. There are horrible kids that could teach her bad words!" "Oh" says Benjamin "ok, no daycare... mhhh, what do you like best at the playground then?" "Playground???" you hear mum shout "We do not go to the playground. Kathrin might climb on things and fall and scratch her knee!!!" Benjamin starts to get a bit desperate "But...but...äh, do you like to ride your bike then?" "Ride her bike, are you crazy? That is way to dangerous, she might get run over by a car...!" Benjamin looks at the girl and says:  "But what are you doing all day then, when you are not allowed to play, to be with other kids or ride the bike?" "Well, I lay down on my bed and read", says the girl. Benjamin's cure for her is a receipt that ordinates  going to the playground, playing with other kids, climbing and scratching her knee at least once a week.

Isn’t it brilliant? It makes me chuckle every time we listen to the CD, because it so nicely illustrates the apparently increasing over-protectiveness amongst parents and also the society per se.

I have previously written about the fondness of kids-harnesses over here and seeing a kid strapped into one still amazes me time and time again. I just cannot understand why people prefer to have their kids on a "leash" instead of just holding their hands. Is it really that dangerous to walk around?

Unfortunately, I could not find any numbers on accidents related to harness-less kids that escaped from their parents, while on a walk and got hurt but instead I stumbled upon a UK-wide poll from 2007, which found that half of 7-12 year olds have been stopped from climbing trees 21% had been banned from playing conkers and 17% were not allowed to play chase. Amazing, isn´t it?

It really makes me wonder how those kids will do later in life? It’s not like life gets nicer the older we get or that dangerous situations no longer exist. How will those children know their limits, if they never get a chance to test them? Looking back to my own childhood, some of the best memories I have involve trees, rivers, woods, playing chase and bike rides around town. And yes, of course, I fell and cried, got bruises and scars but do I look at those moments in regret? Not at all. Seeing my scars is more like a trophy, a daily reminder of the great times and the freedom I had as a child.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that one should not be careful at times and it is important to do some risk assessment before you let the kids do certain things, but at the same time it is necessary to not only focus on the dangers but also on the possibilities. The two go hand in hand. Always. In your life as well as in that of the children. The more children are deprived of those choices, the less likely are they are to learn judging situations for themselves. And that, in my opinion leads to, that we turn into a society of chickens, afraid of everything and seeing dangers lurking in every corner. Risk taking is a big NO NO and our boundaries are getting tighter and tighter and soon we might not even be allowed to use the toilet before reading the safety instructions.

 Luckily, we are not really there yet but our awareness/fear of new threats and hazards from hitherto unknown sources increases by the day. This is the latest example I stumbled upon the other day in our local Waitrose store:

Who would have known they are such vicious little bastards!

Honestly, who wants to live in a world where you have to have signs like that? Where is our common sense? Did it die and we did not realize it? Or is it just me, thinking this is crazy? I would love to hear your comments.

Rhubarb crumble

Rhubarb season has finally started and nobody is happier than me. I LOVE rhubarb. Love how the fantastic combination of sweet and sour tickles your tongue, how the green and red colors of the stems melt into each other and how it seems to have summer written all over it.

I spied my first rhubarb of the year yesterday (yay!), bought it and turned it into a rhubarb crumble this morning. I used a recipe that I have been using for several years, but being a scientist, experimented a bit with the ingredients. The outcome was tested on 4 moms who, after some rhubarb induced tongue twisting, face bending and eye twinkling, judged it "very good". I agree, this might not be a good indicator, given that the English are generally very polite but 3 of the girls asked for the recipe AND that I count as a sign that they really liked it. If you find it sounds mouth watering you are lucky. I am in sharing mood.  Give it a try, hopefully you like it as well and it is easy as...well...pie. Here you go:

The topping

1.5dl (150ml) white flour

 1.5 dl (150ml) oat meal

 2 table spoons sugar

125g butter, diced

and my additions:

hand full Macademia nuts, crushed

1/3 bar white chocolate, crushed

The filling

500g rhubarb, sliced

1dl sugar (I took less!)

1 tablespoon corn starch

 Preheat oven to 225C

For the filling: 

grease oven proof dish with butter

mix rhubarb, sugar and starch and put it in the oven proof dish

For the topping

Mix all ingredients with your hands or a machine until you get crumbles. Put it on top of the filling and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top of the crumble is golden and crisp. Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream (or something else vanilla-ish).

Enjoy!

"Busyness" as usual

After weeks and weeks of sunshine and blue sky, the English weather is finally back to normal. It has been raining cats and dogs and even little icy haildrops, while the sun has gone into hiding behind dark, gray clouds. The farmers are pleased. I am not. I begged for someone to turn the sun back on, but was rewarded with nothing but angry thunder and lightning. So I gave in, accepted that we would be stuck in our house for the rest of the day, dug deep down into our arts and crafts box, we all turned into creativity mode and tarraaaa, here are some of the results:

Our obligatory quaterly handprints. One from S.

...and one from I.

Modern art, bids are welcome!

Very hairy and "leggy", yet incredibly charming

Artist at work...

Not so artist at work. One finger-full in my mouth, one finger-full on the paper...

... one finger-full on my clothes, one finger-full in my mouth... Well, I guess you get it.

Our fingerprint animals. What they are is up to your imagination alone.

Flower power?

 Mind you, we might not be the most artistic family, but at least we had fun. What do you do on rainy days. Inspire us!

Wales, Wales and more Wales

Rhossili bay and Worms head

I love being at Rhossili beach!

View from Cafe Vista in Tenby - which served not only stunning views but also the best pie I had since we live in England. If you ever go try the Heidi pie. Yolladi-yolladi-yioladi-hoo.

 

Tenby beach

We had a serious amount of digging going on...

...when S. was trying to reach the other side of the world

Peace and rest in the hotel room? Why would we want that? Aaaaaaand action.

Hiking up and down the dunes

Not much can top a nice picnic

On the way back to the beach

Will she manage to throw this rock into the sea? Or one of the other 2472937 that she tried?

We are so funny, are we not?

Beach again! Hooray.

This time we picked the southern part of Wales, after a recommendation from a friend.

Since we were late out with our room bookings, we ended up in a hotel in Swansea, called the Village Prem. After reading some of the reviews, I was a bit uneasy about going, since people had complained about terrible breakfasts, long cues for check-in/ breakfast/elevator and shabby and untidy rooms, but luckily we did not experience any problems at all. Our room had an ok standard and it was definitely a good base to stay for the week. We also had access to a pool and the gym, which was a real treat even though we did not use it very extensively. 

The first day, the weather was a bit so-so and we decided to wait with "beaching" and visited Cardiff instead. Neither one of us knew much about the welsh capital, and it was therefore a really nice surprise to find a busy, easily accessible town, where innovative architecture sits alongside historic buildings. We especially liked one of the gallerias, with cute little vintage stores, cafe´s and a french/italian flair.Very charming.

After strolling around for a bit, we had a nice lunch in one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants. The food was not mind-blowing (yet good!) but the interior design of the restaurant and the staff were awesome. The place was super child friendly, with a great variety of food to chose from and crayons and coloring paper to keep the little guests entertained. Once the waiter arrived at our table S. introduced our family by telling him our first and last names and that we were from Sweden. He looked at her quite seriously, took her hand, shook it and told her that he was pleased to meet her and that his name was so-and-so (I cannot remember) and that he was from Ireland. After some more chitchatting S. got a bit disappointed in him, when he did not know, where the playground was, but he made it up to her, when returning with directions scribbled on a piece of paper just a few minutes later. It was hilarious. 

After lunch, and a stroll through town, we went to visit the castle, which is located in the heart of the city. How it was? Well,  have a look and judge for yourself.

Princess Knight

The main building

What a nice idea, maybe we should get one for home. ;)

Princess S. charming the dragon.

Inside the main house

Lovely the details

 

 

 

All right folks, that is it for now, our apartment requires my attention, as it looks like it´s been hit by a tornado (or two).

Time flies when you're having fun...

the saying goes, and it is true. I still cannot believe it is already Thursday night. We had a great week and did lots of fun things. Here is a little picture summary:

Easter Egg hunt and story time at the library.

The kids play garbage truck, after watching the real one picking up our garbage bags outside!

The water play area at the playground is open again. Yay!

Hungry after some splashing!

S. very first floral bouquet!!!

Making Easter decorations

Digging for worms. 

Coloring Easter eggs!

Finally, before I finish this post for good,  here is an excerpt of a conversation that S. and I had after her first (!!!) swimming lesson today. 

I :"I love you, my little swimmer"
She, somewhat taunting: "Mummy, I am not a swimmer, I am an artist!"  ;)

All right, gotta dash, it´s already after midnight and we are expecting a VIP visitor at our house tomorrow, so I need to be in shape.

Have a very Happy Easter everyone!!!

Science project

We got our garden ready for the summer last weekend. I was just about to ditch an old plastic bowl full of greenish-looking water and some other rubbish, when I saw them: 234 (or so, I did not count) little, sticky frog eggs and a mama frog. How cool was that? I love when things like this happen. It is almost like having the science museum move into your house. All excited, I showed S. our new little friends but to be honest; she did not care very much. She had a look at it, but probably thought I was crazy, to make such a fuss over some wobbly, slimy little balls. They were not even eatable. And a girl frog? How dull, it would never turn into a prince anyways, so why bother befriending it.

our new friends

I however remained excited. Not only for my own sake, but also for Pavas (that’s the frogs name) because she had picked such a great, wet spot to lay her eggs.  

"Wet spot? Of course, they put them in a wet spot. This is what frogs do!" I hear you holler but, let me tell you it’s not.  As it turns out, seeing Pava in our garden was a bit like a déjà vu, because we had a very similar encounter last spring. Only then, she had decided to lay her eggs underneath our buxus bush, which is probably the driest spot in our whole garden. There is no water anywhere near it. Back then, I felt almost sorry for her, laying all these eggs for nothing, and I guess, this is why I am quite pleased with her this year. She may have been the dumbest frog on earth a year ago, but at least she learned from her mistakes. Way to go! 

As to our science project, we are checking on the little beasts every day and so far things look good. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, that we are soon going to see some tadpoles. 

 

Peveril Castle

Having a little princess living in our midst, we have to make sure to expose her to some proper princess environment every here and then. And boy, what a good place England is to do so. Castles, castle ruins and ruins that may have been castles plaster the whole country.

We decided to visit a place called Peveril Castle, which is only marginally more than a stone´s throw away from where we currently live. It is really, really old (founded soon after 1066) and lies on top of a hill, from where it overlooks a cute little town called Castleton and large parts of the peak district. The weather was fantastic and already the drive to Castleton was a joy. The peak district seems to turn greener and greener (with lots of white "sheepish" spots in it) by the minute and offers a fantastic scenery.

Once we arrived in Castleton, we took a little stroll around town and decided to grab a bite before climbing up to the castle. We managed to track down a really nice little pub, called The George and were lucky enough to get outside seating as well. Sunshine, good food and a Bitter shandy and the world is your friend! I could have sat there forever, especially since the kids were little angels and behaved phenomenally well.  S. had a long and very serious chat with the people at the next table while I. just sat and happily popped one pea after another in her mouth. Everything was sweet, sweet harmony, almost like in a TV commercial.

After we had refilled our energy depots we decided to get going to conquer the castle, but on closer inspection it looked like more of a challenge than expected. It was not only quite steep, but it also seemed to be "off-road". No problem under normal circumstances, but we had not chosen our equipment very wisely and stood with a pushchair instead of a baby carrier. Buhuuu, so, what to do? Go up anyways or have the princess see her castle only from afar? "go, go, go" I hear you mumble and "go" we did. After a short chat with a very friendly lady in the ticket office, we realized that it might be possible to climb up after all. In her words "a few people had managed to get up with pushchairs" and even though this sounded a bit like a king telling his knight "a few people have managed to pass the dragon", we decided to give it a shot.

It turned out to be much easier than expected. The path up was paved and though with many steps, quite pushchair accessible. It took us maybe 15 min to get to the top, and this is with S. walking on her own and blowing a little "trumpet", like the one below, approximately every 10th second. 


We finally entered the place through the remains of a gatehouse and ended up in the main courtyard of the castle. It is surrounded by the remains of a curtain wall and contains also the rather well preserved keep, the foundations of a Great Hall and kitchens and other buildings. The latter turned out to be a perfect playground for kids that love to climb and S. was kept busy for quite a while. We also had a look at the keep, which I quite liked. It would be the perfect place for a nice party.

After about an hour and a nice chat with a swedish lady, we were all quite satisfied with our visit and returned down to town. We had some ice-cream and headed finally back home to our own little castle, where the princess immediately changed from "normal people clothes" to her princess outfit, mom prepared some quick dinner and dad and I. played "put things in a box". What a nice day!


PS: Our camera batteries did not cooperate during the trip but if you would like to take a peek at the castle just check out some pictures here.

Happy Spring

Easter is just around the corner and spring has made its entrance for good. It is my favorite season and I love how the whole world around me re-awakes. Flowers and leafs pop out at a stunning pace and the gray that surrounded you for month vanishes to leave room for a mosaic of bright colors. It´s a happy time, full of promises and expectations. Apparently it is also the time, when I get a bit more spiritual than usual. "oh no! you cry, don´t get all emotional and deep now!"  and don´t worry, I won´t. What I would like to do, however, is to share this really nice poem with you. I stumbled upon it the other day and fell in love with it. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Such Singing in the Wild Branches  

by  Mary Oliver: 

It was spring

and finally I heard him

among the first leaves

then I saw him clutching the limb

in an island of shade

with his red-brown feathers 

all trim and neat for the new year.

First, I stood still 

and thought of nothing.

Then I began to listen.

Then I was filled with gladness

and that's when it happened,

when I seemed to float,

to be, myself, a wing or a tree

and I began to understand 

what the bird was saying, 

and the sands in the glass

stopped

for a pure white moment

while gravity sprinkled upward

like rain, rising,

and in fact

it became difficult to tell 

just what it was that was singing

it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed

not a single thrush, but himself, and all

his brothers,

and also the trees around them,

as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds

in the perfectly blue sky

all, all of them

were singing.

And, of course, yes, so it seemed,

so was I.

Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn't last

for more than a few moments.

It's one of those magical places wise people

like to talk about.

One of the things they say about it, that is true,

is that, once you've been there,

you're there forever.

Listen, everyone has a chance.

Is it spring, is it morning?

Are there trees near you,

and does your own soul need comforting?

Quick, then

open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song

may already be drifting away.

Recipe for the worst-ever day of parenting

Mix a mother with fever, headache and a bad cold and 2 cranky kids and you get a cocktail that blows you off your feet. It´s not delicious, it´s not sweet, just highly explosive, so let´s call it a Molotov. I had one of those yesterday and it resulted in my, probably, worst day of parenthood ever.

Getting the mix right requires several successive steps starting with a lack of sleep. This is easily done using a toddler who wakes up screaming at least 5-6 times a night. In addition to that, you have to have some really weird dreams. Mine was about me and Prince William taking a hiking trip... Seriously, of all people I could have dreamed of, why him? And why the heck did we go hiking?

Anyhow, once this is done you should wake up totally destroyed and with a full blown headache. On top of that add a screaming toddler (this time awake and inconsolable) and a yet another toddler, who won´t listen to anything you say, because she just figured out she knows it better anyway. Go and have breakfast, make sure milk and cereals are spilled everywhere (if we had pigs they would be fat as hell) and make it drag out forever. The clock is ticking, tick tack, you have to be at playgroup by nine but neither one of the kids care. After HALF an hour you decide breakfast is over and get the kids to brush their teeth. Everything goes rather smoothly at this point.

Afterwards it´s time to get dressed. Let´s get clothes on, sweethearts! But oh, where did they go? You find that one has wandered off into the playroom while the other one is hiding under the changing table. "Hppppffffff, breathe, take it easy, you are fine" says that little person in your head! And hpffff you do. Ok, new attempt and this time it works. Off to school you go without anymore incidents. Then the remaining toddler goes to sleep, you listen to the silence and you decide it wasn´t that bad after all. You CAN cope.

When it is time to pick up toddler one you arrive at school, everything is sweet, sweet harmony until you tell her she cannot use the scooter down the ramp (because it is very steep and she does NOT know how to use the break properly).  She breaks down in tears and, as if this wasn´t enough, trips over the scooter and falls in the middle of the ramp. She is ok, no harm done but she refuses to get up and cries like she has just been hit by a missile. Behind you the cue gets longer and longer and finally the mom behind you offers to take the pushchair, so that the fallen toddler + scooter can be removed from the scene. Everyone walking by looks at you with those big eyes (like the cat in Shrek) and wonders if the poor girl is ok. And yes she is but you are not. You just want to get home and hide yourself under a blanket...

From being the saddest person on earth, scooting toddler now switches into happy mode in a millisecond (for no obvious reason), jumps back on the scooter and off you go. She happy, you exhausted. But hold on, the cocktail is not ready yet! Now, you have to spend an afternoon at home with a little toddler who throws fits for just anything and a big one, who constantly asks you to tell a story or do something else with her. You decide to do something fun, you boil some eggs and start coloring them. It´s Easter soon, time to get ready anyway.  It´s actually a peaceful activity, your Cocktails simmers for a while, and you get some nicely colored eggs (...and fingers, faces, clothes and floor, but that´s ok). The balance is re-established for a while and the tension you felt before vanishes. At least until around dinner time, when both kids are tired and crankier than ever. Little one keeps screaming - big one is on her all the time - makes little one scream even more - you try not to yell at either one of them but start to lose patience and so on and so on. In the end you are boiling and voila, the cocktail is ready. Just add one little thing, whatever you fancy and it is ready to explode! Hopefully your husband is at home by then, which mine luckily was. Cheers!

Shrovetide, the most amazing, entertaining & action-packed football of all times!

This post is a bit late but I just have to write about it. Little Ashbourne turned into a busy beehive in march when several 1000 people came to watch and participate in the Royal Shrovetide match. The game exists since at least the 12th century, where it, so the legend, was played with heads of decapitated people. The only rule was not to kill each other.

Today things have changed a little but the idea is still the same. There are two teams, Up'ards (born north of the river through Ashbourne) and Down'ards (born south of the river) that try to score at "goals"(old millstones, which they have to tap the ball against) that are three miles apart. The game takes two days and if the ball (which is now used instead for heads) is goaled before 5pm on the first day, another ball is turned up and the play continues until 10pm, or until someone else scores.

 

Ashbourne is geting ready...

...have fun, but don´t break my windows!

The moment before the ball is dropped into the crowd

I have not experienced anything like Shrovetide football in my whole live. It was crazy! The actual players are not that many, maybe 30-40 people, which a bit like in rugby, push and pull to get the ball (which being a bystander you hardly ever see at all). The men who form the core are surrounded by a huge crowd of non-players who watch in excitement. Adrenaline levels rise when the "core" starts moving and once it does, all you do is run. You really do not want to be in its way. The game can go anywhere through town and only church yards, the hospital area and private properties are off limits. You never know beforehand which way the ball will go and while sometimes the bulk moves very slowly, other times things happen very fast.  S. and I came too close once because the core quickly changed direction and came towards us instead of going down in the river, as I had expected. We had to hide behind a wall in order to avoid getting dragged along by the masses. Even though this might seem like a rather brutal game, it is not. It´s more like festival that involves a whole town and despite the massive amount of people I have not seen a single fight. To the contrary, everybody seemed to be in the best of moods and people also know that, if anything serious happens they would lose their game game forever because it will be prohibited by law.

Here are a couple more pictures to give you a better impression:  

Ball and players are down in the river...

...they later cross the duckpond...

... and are finally back on land where we also got to see the ball. Yay!!!

Two trucks got stuck for quite a while when they got in the games way.