What I Did In The Holidays

Start of term, our writing task. . The highlight for me had been going with my Mum to a rather posh Garden Party. I was 6, and had to present some flowers to the important guest of honour. All summer, I'd practised presenting [not dropping] said flowers,  smiling and curtseying to The Lady.

I wrote about the garden, and the cakes, and then wrote "I gave a bokay to a Lady" My teacher didn't know what a bokay was. She interrogated me at length about this word. I tried to explain to her, I even showed her how to curtsey. She asked the class, and none of them knew about bokays. "Angela, I think this is an imaginary word you have made up." Everyone laughed at me. I cried tears of frustration. I thought everybody knew about bokays, after all, the Queen has them. When Mum collected me from school, she explained about the bouquet. But I was a miserable wreck, and felt the Most Important Day in my holidays had been belittled. But that was 1961, now I am happier talking about holidays!

On Monday morning we went to Felbrigg Hall [NT] and did their splendid Easter Trail. Bob borrowed a mobility scooter and he was able to accompany the Jess and Ro on the whole trail. The scooters are a free service and very well organised. The girls played games on the grass, built dens, found clues, and made music in the woods. The trail cost £3.50 each, but they received a quality chocolate egg at the end. 

Monday afternoon we made Easter cards, and then made and decorated pizzas. The girls had a sleepover.
Tuesday we did more crafts - painting rabbits, and making baskets for egg collection. Jess had asked Grandad to make a sign for her door on a piece of bark she'd found. It was rather soggy, and when Grandad explained, she was happy to have a sign on a better piece of wood. He made Rosie one too.

Then on Thursday I went with the family to BeWILDerwood. Bob and I took Rosie to this theme park back in 2023, for an evening event, I had never been in the daytime before. It was great fun with treetop walkways, zipwires, mazes, slides, and other energetic activities. Plus gentler stuff - facepainting, crafts, story time, puppets, a boat ride and facepainting. And another Easter Trail to follow. We were there from 11am till 4pm, and really enjoyed ourselves. 

Overall verdict: all good, 5*venues.

The NT day was good - three of us have membership, and Jess is under 5, so we only had to pay for the Easter Egg Trail. The snacks from the food caravan were very generously sized - the girls shared their chocolate brownie, and I took half my pasty home for later. Facilities for the less mobile were excellent, and all the staff were so friendly and helpful. 
BeWILDerwood was a little more expensive [but we spent 5 hours there]  Unlike Felbrigg, where we saw lots of people clearly doing Granny-Duties, at the theme park, there were far more parents-with-children. I suspect that is because there is a lot of walking, and terrain is a bit bumpy for mobility scooters. [Bob was busy anyway, so didn't come with us]
That said, it is very well laid out, with lots of places to sit down if your little legs [young or old] get tired, and plenty of clean, well maintained loos dotted about the site [no need for surreptitious Tree Wees!] The food cabins do not charge excessive prices [we took a picnic, but bought hot drinks when it turned chilly] There were picnic benches and well labelled litter bins.  

Again the young staff were engaged and relentlessly cheerful. They were word perfect in recounting the stories of the Twiggles and the Boggles, and Cedric the Easter Bunny. 
As we left, the girls each got bags of sweets for completing their worksheets. We were all very tired but happy.

Those are some of the things I did in the Easter Holidays, and we were grateful for the opportunity to spend time with the family. I hope you had a good Easter too...

Easter Sunday

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

 

Easter Eggs

 My French hen has a sister! 

Floral Frusta Frustrations...

A frustum [plural frusta or frustums] is the solid shape formed when you cut the top off a cone, or a pyramid, with its top parallel to its base. The other way up it looks like a paper cup or a flower pot. This was my challenge...

We usually decorate the chapel windowsills for Easter Sunday. But for complicated reasons, it seems I will be doing this on my own on Saturday morning. 

I took the decision not to spend hours wrestling with cut flowers in small jars, but to buy some pretty pot plants from the local nursery. Afterwards we can add gift cards, and distribute them to the nick and seedy of the village [oops, that should probably say sick and needy!] 
But plastic plant pots are not terribly attractive and need to be covered. This was when I realised that cutting a piece of stiff paper to wrap a frustum was not an easy task! I worked it all out mathematically then realised it was not practical to attempt to draw a circle 72cm in diameter.

I found two empty flowerpots of the right size, and rolled them round on a piece of old wrapping paper, marking their edges as they rolled. This gave me 2 templates. I used these to make the final wraps. And yes, dear reader, I did use one of the wallpaper books!

It was called 'Linen' and had dozens of shades of paper, with a linen-like texture. I chose shades of cream and gold, and made 10 templates. They are simply fastened at the back with two paper clips. I have prepared the other parts of the display, and so all is ready to go in place on Saturday morning.

I also used some fabric from the Great Stash to make runners for each sill, to protect the woodwork from any dampness.

All that is left now is to print off the gift cards which will go with each plant on Sunday,

I love Easter, a glorious celebration of the resurrection, our eternal hope, and a reminder of God's eternal love. It is right that the building where we worship reflects that joy.

Do you have any special Easter Decor?
Bonnets, bunnies, lambs, flowers....

Coming Clean

 Here is Frøya [sometimes spelt Freja or Freya] Her name comes from Old Norse and means The Lady. She is the goddess of love, beauty and magic. Many generations of Scandinavian women attribute their healthy skin and glowing complexions to a particular brand of soap named in her honour. It is expensive, but for the next 24 hours, in a continental supermarket near you, this beauty product will be available at the bargain price of £10 for a pack of three tablets. 

So if you are at the shops today, keep a look out for Lidl Frøya Soap. Remember, it's only on offer until midnight. 

HOW Many???

Last year I went with Bob to collect some materials for a Men's Shed project, from a local decorating supplies firm. By the door was a large bucket with a sign saying "FREE!" It would have been rude not to check it out. It had some 2m lengths of wallpaper. I grabbed a couple of William Morris designs. A week later, I gave one to a friend who needed to cover a large gift box. In January, we went back again, and I took just one piece. I went to the counter to wait for Bob. "Can I help you?"
    "I'm with him - but can just I say thank you, for these lovely free samples of wallpaper"
"We will be getting rid of the big sample books soon, would you like some?"        
    "Yes please!"
"Give me your phone number and I will call you- I will be really pleased if you can use them, we usually just throw them in the skip outside"
And so a couple of weeks ago, she rang, and I went early next morning [they open at 7.30am for trade customers] I left Bob at home, preparing breakfast. The woman remembered me, and said the books were behind the counter. 

I said I would like to make a charity donation, and while she was getting them, I put a couple of quid inside the pink elephant box for the blind children.
"Here you are, where's your car?" The woman, plus another assistant helped me carry the sample books out to my car. There were TWENTY of them. She insisted that any I left would go in the skip, and I couldn't let that happen, could I? Bob was a little taken aback when I got home. "HOW many? Ang, will you use them all?"

We lugged them into the lounge, and stood them up against the sofa. A real mixture - patterns, plains, textures, stripes... Most from a French company, Casadéco, one from Crown.

I enjoyed going through them as I sipped my coffee, muttering "Ooh look! Isn't this cute? I can make use of this one..."

Later in the day, I took the Nursery Patterns Book, and made an Easter Card and a new baby card for my latest nibling.

I used a rabbit design, mounting the pictures on the co-ordinating golden polka dot paper. There are lots of great patterns in this book [animals, trucks, dinosaurs...] which will make good cards for children. I am planning to use one of the other books to mount displays for the Easter windowsills at Chapel.

And Bob is right - twenty is rather a lot. I took some to my good friend Val a few days later. Val has been a friend since 1981, when we lived in the Medway and Bob was student minister at her church. Teacher, Girls Brigade Officer, crafter - we have heaps in common and have been firm friends for 45 years. She still lives in the Medway with her husband Philip [like Bob, former employee of Marconi, and into woodworking etc] They were on holiday in Norfolk, it was lovely to catch up [now we are both mothers of two grown up daughters and we have grandchildren] I gave Val the books, and she gave me a jigsaw and a striped teeshirt! [Thank you Val, it fits a treat]
I gave three more to my young friends who are home schooled. And when I told the story to my old school friend [who is sadly back in our local hospital again] she laughed, and said "Please can I have one when I get home?" So that is one third of the hoard distributed... and I have so many ideas in my head for papercrafts! Look at these gorgeous pictures from the Casadéco website...