Snow ice cream

It snowed last night.  Springy got very excited about it as it was the first snow she has seen this year and indeed this winter (which has been relatively mild in comparison to the past 2 years).  This morning she got out into the garden at 8 a.m. in order to gather the snow, that was already melting, and to make snow icecream (which she has had a recipe for since Christmas).  She is getting much more independent in terms of culinary skills.  A few weeks ago her daddy C showed her how to make a very delicious cheese omelette; he supervised her but she did the actual cooking - it was to professional chef standard and I had a tiny bit of it.  Yum!

This afternoon we picked up our 'new' car - it's secondhand and 8 years old but has less mileage than our current 10-year old vehicle.  Also, it has a steering wheel that you can turn (unlike the Merc which is more like going for a gym workout as the steering column is in a bad way to the point that it is painful to turn a corner); it has air conditioning (the Merc has this too although it's called opening a window); and the interior lights don't act as a feature at night (unlike the Merc which has interior lights that come on and off as you are driving at night in a rather scary way); it doesn't have a 'safe mode' (unlike the Merc which has a so-called safe mode that means either your engine cuts out altogether or cuts the speed down to 30 mph, even if you are on the fast lane of the motorway); its water stays put (unlike the Merc which involves a water check every time you set off, even on the same day, as the reservoir leaks badly)...so fingers crossed it will not try and let itself down.

Winter Reads

Schoolroom in the Parlour by Rebecca Caudill
The Children of Green Knowe

End of Brownies

Springy has been discovering that the snow today is not as it was yesterday and is different to the snow a few weeks ago. It's crumbly and not sticking for snowman making.  Why have a laboratory when you can have a garden and the weather?

We got back earlier from our daily walk. The Moon was almost full to the east and a golden egg yolk sun dropping down in the west turned to a strata of red, pink and orange. The temperature was bracing and underfoot was slippy - great fun and very beautiful.

 The other news this week was we ditched Brownies. Springy is glad and so am I. There was an unpleasant atmosphere there and it was having a negative influence on Springy. They did do some nice things too but some of the attitudes and behaviours from some of the girls was affecting Springy.

Paper Snowflakes

Springy had a friend round on a playdate yesterday.  We did some paper snowflakes just using folded circles.  Today I found this fabulous site which has some very difficult patterns on but they are great fun to make:

http://www.marcels-kid-crafts.com/make-snowflake.html

Springy had a brilliant birthday week.  She was invited on stage by MP, a folk singer, and got Happy Birthdayed by around 2,000 people.  Springy also got to play the bells (jingle ones) on stage with the band.  On her actual birthday she went to a dog groomers with Lily and spent 2 hours learning about dog grooming.  Lily came out looking rather neat and sophisticated (although I prefer her scruffy look) and although Springy doesn't want to be a dog groomer now, it put her off, it was still a very successful treat.

A nephew and a cousin

My brother and his wife gave birth to a 7lb 7oz baby boy around 5 a.m.  I am so pleased for them.

We woke up to the above good news and about 4 inches of snow.Our dog  is outside having an amazing time, leaping about, knocking snow off flower pots and so on.

12.11.10 - Springy  has created Hamster World in her bedroom with toilet and kitchen roll tubes, several cardboard boxes and lots of sawdust. (We don't have a hamster nor will we but she's trying very hard to hint).

She also has her own restaurant and has made a fat ball with peanuts and sunflower seeds for the garden birds.   We got some lard and softened it a little in our hands and then cracked open some monkey nuts and some sunflower seeds to add into it.  We've hung it up in the front garden in the hopes that we will see some of our winter visitors as they feast.

Narwhals

We watched the new David Attenborough BBC series today (on the BBC website) and discussed bits as we were viewing it. The episode was called The Great Melt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hn4hs

A puppy called Lily

This month has been beautiful so far. Imbolc was snowy which the folklore says means a good year ahead. Springy went out to play in the snow which was a bit wet, rather than the useful type of snow that you can make snowballs out of but still...snow is snow and it was fun.

Springy started a dance class - ballet and modern - which she loves. She's there for 1 and a half hours which I would have thought would have worn her out but it hasn't quite yet. The first time she went, we stayed to check she was all right and she was beaming away with her smiles. I got all tearful. She's now been to her second class and the dance teacher wants to move her to the next class. I'm so glad I waited until she was 7 for starting ballet because I think it's a much better age to start with formalised movement.

We have a lovely CD that we're listening to at the moment. It's called Fairy Moon: Songs of the Ring and is by Maria Sangiolo. Springy's favourite song is Meanie Mary.

http://www.mariasangiolo.com/

We got ourselves a puppy who was born 20th November 2008. She's a Shih Tzu and we have called her Lily. She's adorable - a lot of work but we've been learning how to care for a puppy and so far seem to be doing the right things. Today we introduced her to our chickens and yesterday she met the guineapigs.

She gets fed 4x per day at the moment because she's still ver little. We feed her at about 7.30am (sometimes 8am), midday, 4pm and 7.30pm (or quarter to 8). We're making sure she gets exercise. She cannot go out in full yet because she has only had one of her vaccinations (which I'm still unsure about but Parvo virus is a risk factor and nasty so I guess it's necessary to vaccinate) but we've been running with her on a leash in the garden and she mostly follows. We've found that knowing where we are going to helps.