Hot, cold, foggy and freezing!

Seems a bit weird to be uploading photos of the beautiful frost we've been expierencing at the beginning of the week when we were sitting outside having lunch in the garden just a week before! The weather during half term was glorious. Coats off and outside in February? The pair of goldfinches that nested in our garden last year are now back and we noted the slow to bloom snowdrops are gradually popping up.

Come Monday morning, an extremely heavy fog came down. It was a real "pea souper" so I was quite concerned about P driving to work on Monday morning. In fact it took him 2 hours to reach Peterborough (lucky he leaves so early in the mornings) and when we ventured out to the Post Office around mid-day, it was still so thick we had to drive at a snail's pace! Very pretty though, especially on Tuesday when the air was so cold the frost stayed on the trees all day and made everywhere look very Narniaish. By darkness it had warmed up enough to melt and we could hear the heavy drops of water from the trees as they fell to the ground.




The thin layer of water in the swimming pool turned into a mini ice rink.

It took Ben lots of stamping on the ice to break it!

During half term, I spent most of the week redecorating Katie's room (finished piccies to follow - still need to finish some gloss work). I did do a "before" picture but it has mysteriously disappeared. Anyway, it was pink and peach before and is cream and blue now. Katie and Ben helped with the rollering of the emulsion on the walls and produced very good finishes. P spent most of the following weekend putting up the new blind, 5 shelves for Katie's model horses and various hooks for bits and bobs. There was quite a bit of huffing, puffing, and bad language - but we left him to it and he got it all done. Just the mention of possibly putting up one more hook produced a rather sour look!


We ventured out to Ayscoughfee Hall during the week to look at the gardens and museum. The last time I'd visited here was when Ben was 3 and the museum has improved hugely. Lots of interactive areas for the children (and adults) to get stuck in to - all about Lincolnshire's history. Came across a board showing local Lincolnshire words - loved "Doggerybaw" (meaning nonsense, waffling on, etc., etc). Seriously thinking of changing my blog to this name although I see there's plenty of Doggerybaw blogs out there already!

Continuing with all our projects; myths and legends, Pop Art, maps, writing stories and, of course, maths. In between all this, Ben has been exploring the planets on the DK Atlas of the Solar System CD-Rom and Katie has been adding to and learning more about her plant collection (which'll be as big as her model horse one soon).

I heard a crash at 3.30 a.m. this morning which was perfect timing for getting up to check out the eclipse of the moon last night. Sky was relatively clear but the crimson moon was nowhere to be seen. Having check out the websites today, I see the eclipse is tomorrow morning for us UK folks! Hopefully another crash in the house will wake me in time.