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.

Let´s be creative!

S. loves to dress up and the best present we ever got her was her dress up box. It does not take more than 3 minutes until she swaps her regular clothes against a princess costume once she gets home and nowadays we have to address her as Maid Marion or Cinderalla (Törnrosa) at least as often as by her regular name. Anyhow, we pretended today that the princess was invited to a costume party and that required a mask. We did a pretty good job didn´t we? ;)

Cornwall part II

This is probably the 5th time I start writing this post but hopefully the last. I. is taking a nap and S. is easter egg hunting with playgroup so chances are that I actually might manage to finish it or at least put up some of the pictures.

Let´s get started with Day 4. We decided to head south to visit Saint Michaels Mount and the little fishing village called Mousehole (I still wonder how it got its name...). We arrived at Saint Michaels at 11 o´clock and missed the boat-car-truck thingy (photographed 20245 times by M.) that takes you over to the island by about a minute. The next one was scheduled for 2 pm and we had plenty of time to kill. Since our kids are absolute beach lovers we decided to stay right on spot and play in the sand and collect some shells.

Mount Saint Michaels in the back, the "boat-truck" arriving at the beach and I. trying to get a chance to destroy the sandcastle:

The hard work made us hungry and we went on a quest to get lunch and an icecream in the little village. We found a nice and apparently rather popular pasty shop and had our first pasty since we arrived in England. To be honest though, neither one of us liked it very much. Maybe it is like Marmite, you must grow up with it to like it. On the other hand, I must admit that I didn´t get a very good chance to make it grow on me because when I had eaten it half way, a bird managed to shit right on it. A perfect shot, well done. ;)

At 1 o´clock we realized that low tide had started and it was actually possible to walk over to Saint Michaels mount, so we did.

The water is gone, lets go over to Saint Michaels Mount:

It is an impressive place and I would have loved to take a tour of the house but we decided to skip it because of the kids. Both of them started to get tired and were a bit cranky. We therefore just walked around and had coffee in the sun, which was nice too.

Afterwards we went to Mousehole, the kids took a power nap in the car and when we arrived life was all peace again. We strolled around for a bit and finally we found a nice ice cream shop. S. got all excited, entered the store, looked at the lady and said: "Strawberry ice cream, please!" Her first order on her own ever! It was so cute, especially since "strawberry" is a really tongue twister for her.

After Mousehole, we started to head back home but not without stopping by at the most western part of England. I thought it would just be a coastline, some cliffs and possibly a sign saying that we are as far west as we can get but no, it was the tackiest place I have seen in England EVER. It is commercialized to a point that it becomes ridiculous. First of all you pay 3 pounds for parking, then you enter through a gate and it almost looks like you have arrived at an outlet mall or a theme park. You have to walk passed several stores, a movie theather with a monster show (why?) and the like until you finally reach the the coastline. Here they have set up a sign saying something like "you are as far west as you can get" and if you wish to take a picture with the sign in it please consider the professional photographer taking it for you. Of course, you can then buy it... We strolled around for a bit and had fun making jokes about the place but that was it, no more no less. I would honestly not recommend anyone to go. There are so many nicer places than this further east.

As far west as you can get

Later in the evening, after we had returned to the hotel, we decided to take a swim in the pool. Super! I wish I had a pool just downstairs in my own house. Sitting in the bubble pool, swimming a bit and maybe having a little drink. Wouldn´t that be awesome?

The next day we went hiking along the northern cornish coast. We parked the car at one of the National trust sites (Carnewas) and walked along-side with the Bedruthan steps and back.

Walk alongside with the Bedruthan steps, which are made by a giant:

Can you find M. and I.?

Hiking is really exhausting:

By the time we returned it was low tide again and we could go down to the beach. You have to master a really steep staircase to get down but it is well worth it. The beach is amazing and the kids had superfun. It was warm enough to take their pants off and they loved running around in the sand, dipping their feed in the water (which was coooold) and building sandcastles.

I. at the beach

S. is getting her feet wet

When we got home in the evening, we decided to watch the sunset from the cliffs outside our hotel. It was a nice idea in theory but I must say, sunsets were more romantic pre-kids (the picture below gives you a hint why) :)

Watching (or not watching) the sunset!

The next day was already our last and it was time to say good bye to Cornwall! Hopefully we will see you again!

On the way home we took a pitstop at yet another beach. Very rocky this time and M. and S. went crab fishing (unfortunately without success but at least they had fun):