Unfortunately, the service was very slow and we were starving.  It did leave some time to take pictures, though.

And Molly managed to get some knitting done, so it wasn’t time entirely wasted.

The coast at Botany Bay is just amazing.  The chalk cliffs at the back of the beach are stunning.

We discovered that there were lots of little hand and foot holds that enable easy climbing.  The kids decided the sand made a nice, soft place to land and spent quite a bit of time climbing up so they could leap down again and again.

The chalk did prove to be quite soft, not quite what you’d like for real climbing, but it was fun to scramble around a bit.  I’ve been going fairly regularly to the indoor climbing centre in Nottingham, which is fun but not quite the same as being outside on real rock.

We’d heard quite a bit about the geology of chalk in Terry Pratchett’s novels for kids about Tiffany Aiken.  If you haven’t read The Wee Free Men (Discworld) and enjoy smart, incisive fantasies, I highly recommend it. The others in the series are excellent as well. Apparently, the witches in Terry Pratchett’s world cannot perform magic on the chalk since it is not true rock, but Tiffany gets her power from the flints embedded in the chalk matrix. Seeing the flint in Botany Bay and Ramsgate and on houses and walls all through Kent, I really got an understanding of this sort of geology.

It does make an attractive wall finish.  We brought a few pieces of flint and chalk home to add to the growing rock and fossil collection.

This doll was gifted to Alice and the socks were for Sebastian.

After the knitting group, we set off for a music festival in the Peak District. As part of the celebration, there was a green parade. The kids enjoyed the festive atmosphere, marching all around the stage and through the camping area.

I was a bit disappointed with the music at the festival. England seems to be enjoying a renaissance of 80’s / punk culture. Overall, though, the festival was very nice. There was a friendly atmosphere, loads of kids, and the weather was beautiful. We enjoyed the storytelling by our friend Rachel who we’ve seen perform several times before.

Sage found a comfortable spot to listen:

You might think that three people wouldn’t be able to fit in one sleeping bag, but I hope you didn’t bet too much on it.

On Sunday, we packed up and went for a walk at Dovedale.

The kids were fascinated with these logs studded with coins. Perhaps they were left as offerings for the wood folk?

We climbed up through the archway to Reynard’s Cave.

This time I remembered to bring the headlamps and we explored the dark tunnel which was very exciting.

The trail is very popular, especially on a bank holiday weekend, and there was a queue at the stepping stones.

Despite the steady drizzle, it was an enjoyable walk and a nice way to end the weekend.

Meet Rosemary, River’s new porcine companion.

She is named for the herb that Molly included with her stuffing.

Nice tail!

She also finished some wrist warmers for Sage. You might notice Sage is wearing her soccer cleats. We’ve been playing quite a bit soccer in the front garden. The kids noticed that they got more traction and could run a little faster with spikes on their feet.

I came up with this solution:

We have a large stash of Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran that I hope someday will turn into a sweater. So now I have a merino/silk/cashmere ankle strap. I’m not sure how it’ll stand up to the mud and rain it will eventually encounter, but it only took a few minutes to make and meantime I’m surely the most styling cyclist around!

The girls’ aunt Deana made these beautiful aprons. The fabric is decorated with a pattern of little gnomes and toadstools. I can’t really find the words to describe these wonderful creations. The necessary copious superlatives escape me. Amazing work, Deana!

River was so inspired on opening the box that she went into her closet and found the pants and shirt that Deana had made for her last year, the leg warmers Molly knit, the sweater made by Susan, and the headband she herself made. It was an entire ensemble of handmade clothing. She looked a bit like a gnome or a faery herself.

Opening the pockets of the aprons, the kids found these cute little creatures:

We spent a bunch of time today making homes for the squirrel and the bluebird.

Also in the box was some suitable entertainment for faery families. I’m particularly excited about this game, Faery’s Tale, which is “a game of imagination and make-believe in which you cooperatively tell a story – creating you own fairy tales.”

Essentially, you create your own faery character exploring an imaginative, adventurous world populated with pixies, brownies, sprites, goblins, trolls and more. The game emphasizes that “despite the wondrous powers of the faeries, their heroism springs not from fey magics or incredible gifts, but from courage, kindness, and friendship.” It sounds amazing! We’ve just begun reading the background information. So far, I’m very impressed.

Another game in a relatively similar vein is Munchkin, whose byline is “Kill the monsters, steal the treasure, stab your buddy!” Well, maybe it is a wee bit more cynical than the idealistic Faery’s Tale.

It appears to be a simplified dungeon adventure game, but it claims to have stripped out all of “that stupid roleplaying stuff” that can bog down some other games. When you go out adventuring in this game, you might pull on your “Boots of Butt-Kicking”, and wield the “Staff of Napalm” or the “Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment.”

And finally, the box also included an expansion to one of our long-time favorite games, Carcasonne. We’re hoping to make a pilgrimage to the south of France this summer to see the medieval city for ourselves.

Carcasonne Princess and Dragon adds a new level of dynamic play to the game. Princesses can remove opponents’ knights from the castle, and a dragon can swiftly lay waste to anything in its path. While this ability to change the landscape so drastically adds a new twist to the game, it needs to be handled a bit delicately with younger players, or those who are overly competitive. Or both. An especially popular new rule involves the fairy whose presence not only can earn you extra points but protects from dragon attacks! All in all, a welcome addition to an already amazing game.

Thanks Cass and Deana and Evie and Henry! We love you!

Here are all the parts laid out before we started:

Herbie is very cleverly designed; the solder joints hold the structure together as well as complete circuits. I had a bit of help from River. She held some of the trickier parts while I soldered them together. Here she is putting a resistor through the circuit board.

You might notice that she is wearing a new hat? I just finished it the day before. Knitting projects that can be completed in one day are always satisfying. It is based on this pattern for a roll brim hat, but adjusted to compensate for heavier yarn on thick needles.

Here is the completed Herbie:

Herbie’s eyes are photo-receptors which allow the mouse to follow lights. The whiskers and the tail are also sensors. If Herbie bumps into something, the whiskers or tail complete a circuit causing him to back up for a couple seconds before going forward again. It is fascinating to watch the behavior this relatively simple algorithm generates. Chester and Jumbles thought it was pretty neat, too!

I suspect that we’re all a bit exhausted from the trip. I’m reminded of our trip to Acadia, Maine last September. When we first arrived, Danielle said “There are so many great things to do here. There’s no way we’ll be able to do them all.” We assumed that she meant we’d have make some choices about which things we wanted to do most, but she continued: “We’ll just have to do two things every day!” I certainly had that feeling on this trip. Every time I decided to do something, there were two or three other things that I was missing.

I didn’t manage to take any pictures. Fortunately, though, I left the camera out a few times and someone snapped a few shots. Sometimes I wish I brought the camera with me everywhere and was better about taking photos, but often it’s hard to be in the moment from behind a lens. On this trip, though, I was just so busy that I completely forgot about the camera.

We had a nice visit with Molly’s parents. Molly finished the sweater she’s been working on for Gail. It’s made from some really nice bamboo yarn. Somehow this next picture got stuck in here after the paragraph that mentions yarn. Hmm…

We spent some nice times visiting with friends. These wonderful folks are moving to Hawaii in a couple months. I’m confident that it’ll be a great experience for their family, but it’s also a little bittersweet since it’s unclear when we’ll see each other again. It’s hard to see so much change happening so quickly in our community. I think that I imagined that the world wouldn’t change much in the time we were away.

The kids enjoyed seeing their friends, too. In some ways, it seemed almost as if we had never been gone. It was great to see most of the same families at chorus. Here’s a crew of them on the stairs at the party they organized.

I think this is about as cute as they come:

It felt very nice to be home. In many ways, it was very easy, familiar, and comfortable. There are so many wonderful people, both family and friends, that I would have liked to have spent more time visiting. One of the nicest things was just having people drop over for dinner. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed those casual visits. I also enjoyed getting out of the house to socialize; Among other things, I got to have margaritas at Mama Iguana’s with Kyle, dance at Bill and Danielle’s party, play capoeira, and hang out at the Dirty Truth. I wish there were more hours in the day, for there were so many things that I would have liked to have done. I guess we’ll need another vacation to recover from that trip…

I decided to do the color stripes in a fibonacci pattern. If you’re mathematically included, you might notice that the rows go 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 and then descend again onto the flap. If you’re not looking so carefully, you might just think it a coincidence that the color pattern seems particularly harmonious.

The fibonacci seris appears often in nature. The golden ratio, sea shell shapes, branching plants, flower petal and seeds, leaves and petal arrangements, on pineapples and in apples, pine cones and leaf arrangements are all familiar examples of the fibonacci series. It’s not surprising that it looks pleasing to the eye. I found this post about geek knitting and the fibonacci series to be interesting reading.

I sewed on a bunch of pockets. You can see the outside ones in the picture here. The one on the left side is intended as a pen holder. There are two more pockets on the inside.