A lot happened...

even though you didn't see anything on here.

Apart from the usual reasons for not posting I am having a bit of trouble with the camera I recently bought (second hand). It's quite alright for outdoor photo's, but indoor ones often go blurred or everyone has red eyes, even though I use the special function for 'no red eyes'. It kind of takes the fun out of taking pictures. So I'm hoping that one way or another Santa will find the fundings to get us a good and slightly better camera. I've had a little word with him and he says he's going to have a think about it.

Having said that, not all went wrong. Here's an update:

We don't go to a lot of home ed groups anymore. Our children have come to an age where they arrange their own activities in and outside home ed circles. However, Myrna and I like to go to the Art Group sessions once a month. There's always some really good things to do and then there's of course the all important socializing...

Myrna wet-felted this rainbow picture at Art Group...

I have the least pictures of Myrna as a baby, but I'm making up for it now. I only rarely get the chance to catch the other two on camera, but Myrna and I still do a lot of things together. Here she is getting ready for a big solo performance (seven songs!!) in Dalston Church in one of the Cumbrian Young Performers Concerts.

Myrna's boyfriend Austin has a very peaceful influence in our household ;). Normally our three cats can't come anywhere near to each other without fighting, but when Austin is around, they'll all want to be close to him and then even fall asleep!

Myrna and Tasha, looking ready to party...

Board games are the new pastime when the Scotgang is over on a Wednesday. Here some of them are playing Carcassonne, with Ken playing his heart out, too.

Owen's best friend John was made to look like a Japanese warrior (???)

We still go and see our friends who foster cats every now and then. A few weeks ago they phoned that they had two litters of kittens, so Myrna and I were there in a heartbeat. Unfortunately most pictures didn't come out, but I'm sure these two will give you an impression of their absolute cuteness.

This little fellow wanted to be with Myrna all the time and slid from her shoulder into her hoody, where he seemed to enjoy himself.

Anna Lynn regularly babysits her friend's two little ones. I like it when she takes them to our house. So does Austin! Any excuse to get the building blocks out...

And even though Austin says he's scared of little children, the feeling doesn't seem to be mutual. Here's Anna Lynn's goddaughter - nearly nine months old - using Austin to pull herself up to stand on her own two feet.

A rare change to get a photo of Owen. Here he is on the Remembrance Parade. I'm sure you won't have any problem finding the most handsome cadet in the picture :).

Not only the human members of the family are over the moon when one of oma's packages arrives from Holland! Here's a big thank you from Mushu, Mum!

Asha loves to be in Owen's room. When his door is closed, she'll lie in front of it, begging to be let in. Who can resist?

Our next door neighbour had bought new carpets and wanted to take her old ones to the landfill. She thought they looked too scruffy to pass them on to someone else. Luckily, I caught her just in time! We put one down in the living room and the other one fitted nicely in front of Owen's bed.

As you can see, it's well appreciated and it really looks as if it's made for us! Looking at this picture, I realize how many pieces of furniture etc. were given to us. We would have an almightly bare house if it wasn't for generous people!

And this was taken yesterday, on Anna Lynn's 19th birthday. This is the only picture she allowed me to take....

Well, that should've brought you up to speed, more or less. Hopefully it won't last this long till the next post!

Zomer 2008 Summer

This year Summer happened on September 1st, for at least four whole hours! So of course I ran out and took some photo's of the outside world on this historical day.


I left last year's two Halloween pumpkins to rot in a corner of the garden and look what they've given me in return! I've counted at least twelve flowers in it and if the birds leave them alone we'll have a lot more than two pumpkins in a few weeks time!




The tiny rose bushes I planted in the Spring have done really well, despite the lack of sunshine, and turn out loads of lovely flowers in this nice deep red colour. And - thanks to the lavender?! - no wee beasties at all, yeah!


The lavender, in the meantime, was growing so wild that I cut it down and hung a nice big bunch by the front door. Just making sure that everybody coming in is calm and relaxed...




The clematis hasn't had much chance to grow and flower, but it's making a brave and beautiful effort.

Het leven gaat door - Life goes on

This week was for the finishing touches to the extension. Literally. I touched up all the missed or damaged bits of paintwork and I painted the walk-in cupboard. Total hours spent painting in the new extension: 64!!


On one side of that cupboard we'll make shelves and rails for clothes and then there's still plenty space for Owen's Warhammer stuff, his Donald Duck magazine collection, and other valuable souvenirs of a youth well spent, such as boxes of Playmobil, Lego and K-nex. They're now up in the attic, but I'm sure when they're more at hand it'll get used again...
So the room is actually finished now and ready to be lived in. This huge table is very dear to me, as it's about as old as I am. It was made by a good friend of the family - Uncle Henk, we call him - when I was only little. Yes, a long, long time ago. The table is not only huge, but also solid. And it has a formica top - easy to clean! - and two extensions. It doesn't really fit into our living/dining room, so I am utterly pleased that it's found a new use!
And while I'm cleaning up and all that, I have live music to keep the spirits up!

Another item that is being put back into use is Owen's hammock, in the hardwood stand. It takes up a lot of space and even in this big room there's only one way it will fit. But Owen will be over the moon to have it back and I doubt if he'll sleep in his bed when this is available.

Ken is being a good Daddy and sacrifices some of his precious time to test-sleep the hammock and make sure it's safe and sound for Owen. Aahhh.
For the sake of completeness, a picture from the other side of the room. I've bought blue jeans coloured curtains today and with a bit of luck they'll be up before Monday. Then the room is ready to be personalized by Owen :). I doubt if you'll see anymore pictures of it after this...

To round it off, we made use of the one morning this week when it wasn't raining and we did the garden, so at least the garden matches the house again. Wow, who would've thought I'd end up in a neat looking house with a neat looking garden!!

And yes, we also do other things... Earlier this week, on Tuesday, we picked Jacen up. Austin was also staying here for a couple of days and the three of them were getting along just fine, having lots of fun at LaserQuest (walking into town together), playing Guitar Hero on the X-Box, playing real guitar and other games, watching films in the cinema and at home, hanging out in the caravan...

And I know what we'll be doing after we've had a few more days of sunshine! Picking brambles! Look at these! And there's loads and loads of them in our other bit of garden, just across the road. We can see them from our front window. We'd been thinking about cutting them down, but I'm so glad we didn't. Yum!!

Communicerende vaten - A few barrels full

When the garage was still only a garage there were ten huge water barrels on the roof. They were linked to each other through a simple but ingenious system of hose pipes. The idea was to make as much use as possible from our lovely Cumbrian - read: wet - climate, so that we would have a vast supply of rain water for the garden, for washing vehicles, etc.
By the time we moved in here the system wasn't working due to a leak somewhere. And obviously, the barrels had to be taken off to make space for the extension.
The house owner took half of them home to set up his own system and we kept the rest.
After they'd finished the extension the builders put the barrels on big cement bricks, fed the rainpipe into the first, reconnected the bits of hosepipe, with a length of hosepipe going into the drain.

This is how it looked when the builders where finished.

As it's officially part of the drainage system, the building inspector had to approve it before he could sign the whole project off. He didn't approve. He thought it was a bit too 'flimsy'. Too much risk of the hosepipe being knocked off. And he wanted a fixed overflow outlet from the last barrel into the drain.
So yesterday the house owner came and helped us set up the system in a better way.

We closed all the taps at the bottom of the barrels and disconnected the hose. The house owner had brought ready sets from B&Q with flexible pipe and connectors. He drilled holes in the top of the barrels, put holders into the holes and then glued the flexible pipe into the holders.

If you look closely you can see - below - the black bits of pipe that connect the barrels at the top. He's now fixing the overflow outlet (also ready package from B&Q)

Overflow outlet in place...

Cut into the drainpipe (obviously a bit lower than the overflow outlet)...

Slide the connecting bit from the B&Q package in (which is slightly more difficult than it looks)...

... and the system is ready for inspection! I have no doubt it'll pass now, as it's definitely not flimsy anymore and the stuff of B&Q is made to standard.

Luckily, there was an educational part to this all. It took a while, but after some gentle hints from Ken the children - and I - found out the difference between the original and the new system. I'm sure you all know, but just in case:

When the barrels were connected through the hose at the bottom - and all the taps were open - the water leveled itself out between the barrels. So the water level would be the same in all five barrels. But with the connection now being at the top the first barrel fills up first and then overflows into the second and when that's full it goes into the third, etcetera. When all five are full it goes into the drainpipe, same as before. The taps are still there (but closed, obviously), so we can tap from which ever barrel is full.

I need to see it working before I can grasp it and the weather gods are accommodating my need to learn, as it's pouring down with rain at the moment.

First thing tomorrow morning I'll go and see. I'll keep you posted!

The Final Stretch - De Laatste Loodjes

The Monday after we packed the garage again, the electricians came back to put the lights and the machine to open the garage door back in. Only... they couldn't find the wiring... It had disappeared under the plaster board. We found that the different trades like to exchange nasty comments about each other and this time they had a field day!



The scaffolding and lots of rain water hadn't done the path around the house a lot of good, so the landlord had asked the builders to re-pave it.



It was a pleasure to watch the men at work ;)). Look what we saved for a rainy day... And it really was a rainy day! I suppose it's one way to keep one's shirt dry...



Luckily, the result looked nice, too.






And while the guttering was put in place outside...




The last work was done to the bathroom inside. The huge tiles weren't easy to handle, but once in place they actually looked quite nice!



Here's what it looked like after grouting, and after the plumbers had fitted the shower and the radiator...



... and the toilet and the wash basin. Unfortunately the wash basin was fitted right up against the wall on the right, which didn't look very nice and would make it very hard to clean.



Fortunately, Paul the Perfectionist came up with the plan to put an extra tile in (well, part of a tile) and fill the space to make it look like a corner unit. That looks better!



Luckily, Aldi were doing a special on bathroom stuff, so I got all kind of cheap but nice looking accessories, including the shower curtain. By this time the doors were out again for us to paint the skirting boards and frames.



Also courtesy of Aldi (two or three years ago) this flexible tube with spotlights, ideal for this room.



All the painting and lifting had taken its toll from my hands, so a historical moment occurred when Ken picked up the paint brush and took over from me. Doesn't he look as if he's enjoying himself? But even though he said - beforehand - he can't paint to save his life, he did a pretty good job!

We're nearing the end. Only the finishing touches to do. And then of course the re-arranging of the rest of the house...