Our house

This is our house. It is a Victorian shop converted into a town house. It has four bedrooms. The garage is my workshop. I'll post some "Nosey" photos of inside the house later. It is just over a hundred years old. It was renovated about 6 years ago, so we get the benefit of unusually large rooms for an English house and nice new plaster on the walls.

This is the Pub that is just up the road from us. The photo was taken from across the street from our house. It is called The Royal Oak, and is what we would call in England, "Our local!" Although I have only been in there twice. Since the smoking ban in public buildings it is a lot nicer to go into pubs.

This is a view up the road from outside our front door. The reason I wanted to show this is because you can see the church we go to (You will probably have to double click on it to bigulate it!) The church is the in middle of the picture and is quite small and tucked into a row of terraced houses. It has a shop front type sign on it. The big building a couple of doors up that you can see is a garage where I get my car fixed. So you can see it is quite a packed in little community! The best bit is we don't have to get into our car to get to church!

Lego and cards

I had thought of doing a blog just for Sam's lego creations, as he makes things then takes them apart and makes other things. Anyway, here is a creation and a couple of Becky's cards.

Becky the entrepreneur!

Not sure where to put this, I had intended for this to become a geographical area blog, but I suppose our family is part of this geography!

Since Christmas we have been looking at ways to bring in a bit of extra cash. We had explored one avenue, but that was closed to us, so I thought that rather than go and stack shelves at the local supermarket, I'd try and make things out of wood to sell. I have sold a few things before, but never committed to it as a business.

This week I have been ringing round and checking the legal implications and all seems ok. Yesterday was the first day I could get on and I woke up feeling awful!

Also yesterday, Becky came down saying she really wanted to make some money. Apparently as she was going to sleep she had a brain wave of selling some of her hand made cards. Last night her God father came round to see us. Becky wasted no time in asking him whether he had any birthdays coming up that he had to buy cards for! She then agreed the sale price disappeared upstairs and made the cards!

In' it marvelous! I spend ages planning and checking and she turns up and makes some money just like that!

I am pleased because it is part of the anonymous home ed philosophy that children should be able to explore what they want to.

I already have a customer for my first order, but, as I say, I haven't been able to get in the workshop. I tried to get a couple of bits done yesterday but, whatever I thought in my mind I should do to do it right, I did the opposite in a n absent minded way and thought this is getting me nowhere!

(In writing this post I have realised that I have been frequently using the wrong spelling of two words! waist instead of waste and all so instead of also. Thank you for your patience! Or is that Patients?!)

What is a pantomime?

There are many Pantomimes. It is a tradition at Christmas that professional performers and armature's alike put on pantos. Here is one that was shot for TV, Jack and the Bean Stalk, It gives an idea of what to expect, but the only real way to enjoy a panto is either be in it or watch it live and get caught up in the atmosphere. However, If you ask CJ, the only way to enjoy it is to be somewhere else!

It seems that when it comes to telling fairy stories America got Disney and England got Pantomimes!

Someone has already done the work for us and the video clips run in sequence so you should get to "enjoy!" the whole thing!

Diggerland

This is Diggerland. It is one of Sam's favourite places. We've been there a couple of times for Sam's birthdays. It is only a few minutes from where we live. What's great is that adults get to play too! There are as many retired people as kids there!

Shorne Country park

Shorne Country park is ten minutes drive from our house. It is a great place to go for a walk in the countryside. These photos were taken last Autumn. Unfortunately I was not able to get there when I wanted so the leaves have lost a lot of their bright colours!

This is Becky (she is 12!)

Becky Loves babies. She makes great greetings cards and had her ears pierced on her 12th birthday.

This is Sam (he's 6!)

Sam Loves Lego. He spends all day making things out of it. He will see something and copy it.

Meet the wife

Here you can just get a glimpse of our castle. As you know we all have them here. It's a bit small, but it's home!! (Really it's Leeds Castle in Kent).

The baby isn't ours, we were holding it for a friend! CJ (the wife) is a wonderful person. She lives with me and still manages to smile now and then! I haven't got many photos of her. She either seems to take them or be standing behind me when I take them of the kids. I have a lot of her relaxing watching tv from when I tested the different functions on the camera, but I'm not sure she'd want you to see them!

Starting at the epicentre - me!

I thought the best way to break out of my box is to start inside it!

Here are a few photos of me and my interests.

These are some photos of me in Panto

K
King Rat, Knife thrower and Brownie!

These are photos of some things I have made out of wood and showed at an exhibition.