A lovely long weekend

We got back today from our little summer holiday to a Pagan camp that Douglas and I have been going to for years. Douglas has some very good friends there who are the security for the festival.

The weather was scorching, so most of the time we spent hunting for shade. The camp can get pretty lively sometimes, but I think the high temperatures subdued everyone a bit.

Sadly many people still think Paganism is all about devil worship, abusing children, and naked sexual orgies, (nothing, by the way could be further from the truth) so the camp organisers ask for no photos to be taken of anyone without express permission, so I have only got a couple of photos to show you.

Just imagine a very happy group of about 300 people, from newborn to old and doddery camping in two fields with beautiful countryside round them. Some look "normal" in everyday sun wear, some look very hippy, and some with very little on at all! Its a place where we can do our own thing, meet with fellow minded people, play drums, have fun, drink and chat (oh, and drink more) until you are ready to fall into your tent in exhausted happiness, all without fear of getting funny looks or asked a load of strange questions by those who dont understand.

On Sunday we build a Straw Man - also known as John Barleycorn (think of the film, the Wicker Man without sacrifice element) The group build the Straw man together, then just the women build a disproportaionate sized willy, which is an ancient fertility symbol!

Once built, the Wicker Man gets paraded round camp, then sent back to the site of the fire. Everyone gathers, a ritual to "close" the camp and the Wicker Man is burnt as a tribute to the God. For more info, have a look on wikkipediea for Wicker Man, and John Barleycorn, or ask!!

Just remember.. nothing but straw, hay, wood and time are sacrificed on this fire.

Here is the Wicker man on the ground before he was paraded round camp. His Willy is much in evidence but I hope you can make out his legs below, and his head above!! :-)

Billy look-a-like

I found this picture today, and it looks so much like Billy that I just could not resist posting it for you all to have a giggle over :-)

An apology (especially for Malcom at work)

I have just been told Rotherham is not a suburb of Sheffield.. its a town in its' own right.

Sorry Rotherham, and sorry Malc ;-)

Its quiet..

Its all gone quiet :( they are on their way to their dads now...

Humans are missing them, cats.. quite pleased I think ;-)

Sunday together

Today had a lazy start.. I think everyone had surfaced by about 10.30am, so I took M to Tescos to buy a few bits and peices for the evening meal.

All of us played a bit on line, read, Xboxed and chatted until lunch, then shortly after (well at about 4pm) Simon and his girlfirend Sarah came round, and everyone apart from me settled down to a game of poker :-) I head lots of "wooooooooooooo" noises, and lots of laughter, oh and some chomping when I made them choc chip cookies :-)

Douglas made a cottage pie (From Real Cottages) earlier today, so the poker players had that with peas and sweetcorn, and I had Lasagne, (made from real vegetables!!) Oh I also did some yummy garlic bread for myself.

Pudding was a choice of cookie, ice cream, rhubarb or apple bar (strudel) so there was plenty to go around. Our older nephew (A) seems to have a bit of a chocolate and ice cream addiction, and seemed to think the ice cream belonged to him.. we put him right on that lol.... it was Haagen Daaz - possibly the best ice cream in the world, so everyone was keen to have some.

Simon, Sarah and A have now gone off to a gig in town. Uncle Simon and Honourary Aunty Sarah will take good care of A, and post him home at about 11, unless I get a call to pick him up earlier.

Michael and I are up here - D is downstairs watching Dexter, a TV series unsuitable for young nephews!

Tomorrow, we have to get them packed, and ensure everything of theirs (apart of course from their very cool ipods and nintendo game!! lol) before they go to their dads on the train tomorrow lunch time.

We will miss not having small willing slaves to help lay the table, put dishes away and generally be useful!! ;-) But.. it will be much quieter!! hahaahaa

A day out!

D's Sis and Partner went home on Friday lunch time, leaving us with the two boys till Monday lunch time! Now we are all four kids together, we can start having real Kid fun wooooooooot! (as runescapers will know, it now genrally means hooray, having started off with a different meaning)

We took the car to a Science Park within reasonable driving distance called Magna. Its in a suburb of Sheffield called Rotherham. Sheffield, many years ago had a thriving steel industry, but sadly as it became cheaper to make it elsewhere, the foundries closed, leaving just a few still going today.

Magna Science Park is in an old foundry - its a truely massive place. We purchased lunch en route at a supermarket (Pork pie for D, sausage rolls for the boys, cheese and onion rolls for me, made nicer with hommus, carrot sticks, grapes, pineapple juice and water. yum!) as lunch at theme park type places always empties your purse more than it should.

We went in, and looked up - the top of the building seemed a very very long way away. The boys were impressed by someone abseilling down from high up, and M (the younger one) decided it looked quite scary. This was a special event, not open to anyone who just fancied a go.

Magna is split up into the elements, Earth Air Fire and Water. This is in the Earth section, but it was a hydraulic air pump, so this photo shows M being pumped up on a small platform by his big brother.


We enjoyed exploring each element, with interactive games and experiments in each section, the best bits were fire and water - M was absolutley desperate to do the water bit.. and revelled in getting totally soaked!



The Fire bit was pretty good too.. especially the fire whirlwind, which, although it didnt last long was pretty "cool" and helped to dry soggy nephew out a bit :-) Non soggy nephew is pictured.. he thought it was pretty cool too!



We were there for about 3 hours, D drove home. The older two kids (me and D) were pretty tired, so collapsed in a heap whilst the younger two (wish permission) vanished up to plug their brains into the internet. M decided he too, wanted to Blog, so he spent quite a while writing his first few bits up. A few more years and he will become a "blogger of note"!!

How could I resist?

I just took these.. This is billy lying next to the keyboard of our other computer... hes not a pink cat.. ;-) I think the sun is reflecting the pink of my top onto him and the computer behind.






This is lilly sitting on the floor next to me waiting for me to stroke her some more. Yes I know its a strange angle.. but its a nice photo of her!