First, we took a trip down the street to the nursery.  River’s friend Alex came along for the ride.

It is great to see all the colors bursting forth in the spring.  River planted a few more strawberry plants in her garden.  She’s specializing this year!

I’ve been enjoying settling in and having some space for my things.  The cabasa for my berimbau and Herbie the Mousebot seem to get along nicely on this shelf.

I spent quite a bit of time here, both working and relaxing while the kids were in school.

Here they are doing their reading homework and catching some afternoon rays.  There hasn’t been so much homework done recently and I haven’t been in the office much since half-term break began last weekend.

We have been busy doing some other things, like painting pottery.

But we’ve also had a lot of down time.  They work very hard at school in an enormous range of activities and it’s nice for them to have some time that is more relaxed.

Today, they managed to rearrange their bedrooms so that they are now sharing once again.  Their combined room is very cosy and I think they’ll enjoy it for a while at least.  Sage suggested that it would be like having a sleepover every night?

We went blackberry picking together in a field near the canal before they left.

There were many, many ripe berries and we’ve eaten a pie and blackberry pudding as well as fresh fruit.

It seems likely that these cygnets were the same birds we saw earlier this spring.

It is certainly a beautiful time of year here in England.  The wheat has turned a golden brown color and the round bails have started to appear in some of the fields.

Our friends and neighbors here will certainly be missed!  Unfortunately, as Petra noted today, we are getting good at saying goodbye.

Here’s River’s garden so far. It’s mostly primroses, but there are a couple strawberries in the middle. There are a few bulbs in there somewhere. I think she’s planning to plant sunflowers against the rock wall after it has warmed up a bit. Think spring!

The gale died down a bit during the day today and the kids spent some nice time playing outside with our neighbor. We brought apples over to feed the horses. They seemed to appreciate the food and company.

The last rays of the setting sun were incandescent behind the old Dovecote.

There are a few mallards who’ve been trying to join the flock.  The adult ducks occasionally try to chase them off, but it’s clear they know they’ve found a good spot.  I’m curious to see how long they’ll stick around.

We went for a walk around the grounds of Elvaston Castle this afternoon. There are a number of nice walks there.

Sage spent some time practicing riding her bike today. She was so excited the first time she did it by herself. She kept yelling “I’m riding, I’m riding!” Molly tried to take a video of her, but it didn’t turn out so well. Maybe we’ll try again soon.

When I was putting the hardware on for the climbing wall, I realized I’d put them all in the wrong side and knocked them back out. I lifted up the wall and picked up all the pieces, but one was missing. Right underneath was a vole hole. I couldn’t find it anywhere else, so I guessed it must have fallen into the hole. Well, the hole kept going and going and going. I had to dig more than a foot down before the hole leveled out and I found the piece I was missing.

Enough ranting. Our house is great. The location is great. We’ve spent a bunch of time strolling around the paths around the house. Collecting apples to make pie and feeding the cores to the horses across the street. Watching the canal boats pass by. There is a lock just a few minutes down the canal path and it is fascinating to see the gates open and close, the water fill and drain, and the boats go up and down. What a brilliantly simple system. We are planning to hire a boat and spend a long weekend cruising the water. Anyone want to join us?

This boat has potted plants, including tomatoes onboard. I don’t think you can quite make it out in the picture, but there are little frogs wearing party hats on the roof.


The fields here are mostly wheat and hay and it’s harvest time. The landscape here is beautiful; rolling fields covered with golden wheat stalks. Old stone walls and houses, some of them covered with thatch. The history of the place is so long, but at the same time so close to the present.

We’ve explored some of the local parks, which all seem pretty well endowed with play equipment. The kids have met some of the neighbors, Isabella (7) and Isaac (9), who seem to be quite nice and enjoy playing together. I’m looking forward to meeting some of the local home educating families. There are a couple of events happening in the next few weeks. I imagine it’ll take some time to meet people, though.

Folk here seem pretty interested in sport – here’s a shot of a friendly cricket match. I still have no idea how to play! Molly and the kids seem to have found a Tae Kwon Do school. The kids are planning to attend their first class on Friday.