Babes in the wood

After toiling at his desk for hours, Big J agreed to go on a walk with me in the afternoon yesterday, the Bank Holiday. The plan was to use one of his new books and follow a trail from that. So, we headed to

The Cat Inn in West Hoathly with the goal of walking through the grounds of Gravetye Manor

which was the home of William Robinson
whose gardens have been featured in this year's Chelsea Flower Show.

From an excellent beginning, things went rapidly down-hill and we found ourselves lost in a forest just before tea, MILES from our car and the village. We broke so many rules, but we did have water with us and a mobile phone. It was however a fantastic few hours of walking in gorgeous surroundings and we had a great time together. There has not been too much of that of late.

Next time we will do a bit more research and maybe it will go better!

Small world

My girls are home from their weekend in London with their father, who is now heading back to Japan. They had yet to meet the visiting girls and when they did, we discovered something truly amazing. Anna was in the SAME CLASS as my Han-solo in kindergarten. They were in 'Violet'!! So here are two girls from the same area in Japan, never to meet after kindy, now playing badminton on an English lawn together 10 years later....
I am going to try and dig out some photos this week to see if we can find the two of them together somewhere.

Something lovely

This morning I was doing something I love, reading some of my favourite blogs. Through a link I found Hawthorne and her amazing work to help the people affected by the Japanese Tsunami. Wonderful woman.

While I write, our two Japanese students are still asleep. They arrived yesterday, from Guildford!! They are here for half term. This is our second year of having students from the same school. It was such fun last year. My girls love, love, love having Japanese girls their age to hang out with. I love that we can have kids to stay who otherwise would not be going home. In my early days at school in Australia, I knew NO ONE, so 'relied on the kindness of strangers' (to paraphrase Blanche from A Street Car Named Desire), (classmates really), to take me in. At uni I was spoiled in Japan by various families and now it is my turn to take care of other young students.

First real rain in months

The South East is dry. The front bed under the living room window is baked hard with great cracks in it. I have been watering (with a watering can) but today we have had some good length showers and with luck they will continue through the night to get down into the earth. I just love the smell of rain on dry soil.

Anne loved her mobile holder and someone else at worked asked me to make her one!! Feels good.

The Book Club choice

We are to read 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas'.

This day

This is what I have been working on today:

Adding the flowers to Anne's phone holder. And the lining. It is a bit wonky which is a little disappointing, but it is made with no pattern and a lot of effort, so I do hope she is happy.

Sun shining, birds in the garden, it has been lovely. Some celariac seeds have been planted, some geraniums and some beet sprouts. Lemon and poppy seed cakes in the oven....

My big girl

is stuggling a bit with maths today. She usually doesn't. I think she is tired. (A 24k walk and cluster migraines probably haven't helped this last week). Maths is done online in a sort of Manga competition format. Anyone on the site competes with other 'players', i.e kids in their own class and around the world. Tonight it is all too much, and she is getting down about being 12th in the class....Time for bed a big hug and maybe a chat with her teacher in the morning.