Taking my girls out with their scooters is something that they really love to do. We are lucky enough to have micro-scooters for the kids which are so easy for the little ones to ride. Our smallest has been confident on her hand me down scooter since before she was 2!
I made a change to my usual camera and took my images with my little canon 400d, which was my very first Dslr and the one i now keep as a backup. I often carry it in my bag wen we are out and about as it take up much less space than its big brother and is much lighter! It takes some getting used to everything being a little bit smaller. But I am a firm believer in the theory that you don’t need the highest end of camera to take great pictures. The best camera is the one you have with you!!
We had a quick 20 minutes in between pick ups of the older ones and we headed to a rainy park and got the scooters out to burn off a bit of energy and let the woofer have a bit of a run. The girls has decided to wear my Doris designs skirts that i use for photoshoots. All my girls love these skirts and i can’t blame them, they are beautiful and most of the time they are off limits but now and again the girls grab them and wear them for the day. Often its a party or other such thing but sometimes its just the everyday.
Always good to have a bit of extraordinary in the ordinary? right 😉
One of my favourite books when i was growing up was The Lorax, used to love the line ‘I am the Lorax and i speak for the trees’ It was one of those books that i can still remember reading as a kid. Recently the kids got the DVD version of the film that came out last year. They totally love it., it has big numbers in it and some big hollywood names voicing the characters. But what i love is that the message is still the same. Unless. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not – Dr. Seuss.
Now speaking of trees….As we live in a city sometimes trees can be a bit scarce. Well to be fair this city in itself isnt too bad. There are quite a lot of green areas. But in our own back yard its a bit different.
We don’t have a huge garden, when we moved in it had been fairly well landscaped with a family in mind and the only tree in the garden was a small, shocked, apple tree that had been hacked and trimmed within an inch of its life and its pretty much still trying to recover.
But the house that backed onto our neighbour was owned by an elderly lady and it had two beautiful, rambling and stunning pink blossom trees. Im sure there is a proper name for them but all i know that every spring we would all look forward to the bottom of the garden being accented with pink. The branches leaned over into our garden in such a generous way. Like the tree knew i would appreciate it. 🙂
I cannot count how many pictures i have of this tree. It was so pretty i used to go out and photograph it a lot….playing with settings, lenses and filters.
The girls would bounce up and down on the trampoline which was under the tree and grab the blooms, giggling and threading the pretty green leaves through their hair.
At the end of spring it would slowly loose all its blooms onto the tramp and the deck and we would have a pretty pink blanket.
Truly such a lovely tree, it bought us pleasure every year. We watched it, enjoyed it, interacted with it. It was part of our seasons.
Sadly the lady who lived in the house passed away and the house was sold and a few weeks ago we heard that high pitched squeal of a chainsaw and our beautiful neighbour tree was gone. 🙁
Just like that…
and being honest with you, and i do understand the reasons why the new owners have got rid of the tree, but i really miss it. Now its like looking at a picture and constantly wondering whats missing and then going ”oh yes…”
Even the kids have missed it. We miss our adopted pink tree. It had been largely uncared for by its owner but for years we loved it. It was part of our story and history in our garden.
thanks pink tree 🙂
Im going to finish with a clip from the movie, we all love this song. Watch out for ‘you greedy dirtbag!’ My giveaway this week is a copy of The Lorax on DVD. It really is a lovely family movie. So to be in with a chance head over to rafflecopter below and follow the instructions and be sure to check back next week to find out if its coming your way!!
Last weeks winner of the Captain Calamari developmental toy was Helen Dickenson Anette! Congratulations. Please get in touch to claim your prize 🙂
Sometimes you dont need to be hitting the country side to be enjoying a bit of the outside. Often, because we live in a city there can be some very unexpected places where you can connect with the outdoors!
I had to take one of my girls into the city for a piano exam the other week and as i was concerned that we had to park and get there we set off early and arrived about half an hour before her slot for her exam. Half and hour wait in the waiting room for a piano exam with two wriggly, lively and not asleep as planned, toddlers was not going to happen.
So we wondered further down the road to The Bluecoat chambers, which is an incredible building in the city, which i believe was an old school and is now home to uber trendy craft shops and a museum. We wondered in and used the ‘facilities’ and then went for a nose around their sensory garden area where they have some sweet little exhibits made by local school kids and habitats for insects. Flower beds and cute little baby saplings, no doubt planted to be the dominating great city trees of the future.
Was lovely to see this little garden in the city. It was a welcome distraction and took enough time that my stay in the waiting room with the little ones went quickly and without too much hassle.
A week ago we went down to Nymans House to be part of a group of bloggers who have a real interest in giving our kids a passion for being outside. Enjoying nature, being kids, being wild. Tapping into that childhood that we had, freely available without the fears and distractions that exist now. The fear of strangers, the traffic, the dangers. The distractions of the screens….the s-c-r-e-e-ns. It just gets into everything doesn’t it. So early as well, you can check out babies less than a year old doing the Apple swipe on mummy or Daddy’s phone. They just pick it up so quickly and it becomes part of the norm for them. Plugged in before they are 12 months. Is a natural childhood possible anymore? It is scary stuff!
As we were chatting about the boundaries that our kids face now and by contrast how easy it was for us as kids to get out into the wild. Made me think about how easy it was for me as a kid, we lived in front of a large wood and used to disappear all day and our parents would ring a bell to get us all back. That would never happen for my children where we live now. N-E-V-E-R and that is sad and it is a loss to their childhood and to us as well as parents. What parent wouldn’t want their kids to be out of the house, exploring the wild all day and not tearing each other apart inside and arguing over who goes on the wii
hands up?? 😉
The nice folk at National Trust had put on some seriously cool activities for the kids. In the afternoon they got to hang out with gnarly outdoors man and musician Rob Cowen. A guy who has a real passion for re-discovering nature and connecting with the outdoors. He showed the kids how to build a den, which they all got really enthusiastic about and lined up ready for a lie down in once it was put together…along with all of the adults as well!
Ever meet one of those people whose passion for a subject just draws people in? Rob is one of those guys. He cares enough about getting re-connected with simplicity of having an adventure in the outdoors that he has written a book called Skimming Stones – a book inspiring us to have an adventure, get out into the wild…and for the practical ones out there it is a full on ‘how to’ book. Things like how to build a den, make a kite, forage for food, catch a fish..and no its not saying trot down to your local outdoors store and buy a shed load of north face equipment..it is mostly things that you can find and use in the wild. Minimal spend to your pocket, maximum benefit to your soul.
We have been inspired to try and work through the 12 sections in the book, there is even talk of starting up a skimming stones blog! Getting our kids to work through the 12 challenges and coming back to share how it went and what we got from it. Which im thinking is going to be a whole lot more than a fish…!
Go on, google the book and see what comes up, it has been reviewed by some heavyweights in the media with massive positive feedback. I have yet to have a proper read of it as my OH (who is a bit of a mountain guy it has to be said) has had his head in it, even planning some ‘den’ building activities already!
So head on over to project wild thing and take the pledge to get outside as much as you spend on screens! Then jump into the rafflecopter this week for my giveaway which is, I am thrilled to say is a SIGNED copy of the book Skimming Stones. You’ll notice on the rafflecopter that you can get 10 extra entries for liking the Rob’s facebook page and following him on twitter. So please make sure to do those ones!!
We went away this weekend to be part of the team of bloggers who are working with the national trust to encourage our kids to get outside and enjoy their childhood OUTSIDE!! You know away from the consoles, the TV screens and the computers and instant messengers and be in nature. It was a really inspiring weekend and we came back fuelled with ideas. I am going to do a longer post on motivational monday on what we got up to. But meantime you can check out the website here and check out their pledge and hey maybe sign yourself up!
So before we came back north we took the kids out in nature to see what we could find. It was fun, especially a certain little girl jumping in some mahoosive puddles!! I had my lovely macro lens on the camera so it was an up, close and personal look at the outside!
A week ago we went down to 
