While my dad apparently thinks that my lack of posting for weeks on end has to do with me keeping secrets, that’s not necessarily the case.  I’ve just been insanely busy with making Christmas presents (which I suppose I did want to keep secret), attending holiday parties (no secrets there), and other odds and ends.

We had a wonderful Christmas, as always.  I spent Christmas Eve finishing up present making, while the family finished up shopping and my dad waited in line for an hour or so to get our traditional Christmas Eve crab.

After dinner we all finished up wrapping and Hanna insisted we watch Love, Actually.  I fell asleep, but I blame Hazel for that.  She literally did not go to sleep on Wednesday night, so we were up all night with her trying to keep her quiet while she ran around in circles wanting to play.

My mom decided that this was our best wrapping year ever. (My sister may or may not have been up until 6am making hand decoupaged gift cards)

Christmas morning we opened presents, which I believe was pretty fruitful for everyone.  Paul and I scored with a new camping stove and lantern (the car camping variety), which we’d been wanting since we discovered over the summer that car camping with a sometimes working backpacking stove and constantly failing flashlights is challenging.

Hazel tearing open her gift

Paul and I got each other mini-vacations in the next few months, so that’s something exciting to look forward to.  Paul got me a trip to Chico to see Devil Makes Three and spend the night in a hotel there.  I got him a night in Big Sur (which my mom opened accidentally and almost announced before I stopped her).  I also got a new camera lens that I’m extremely excited about.  It’s called a Lensbaby, and the closest thing I can compare it to is maybe a Holga?  You can do pretty crazy stuff with it, and you can add on different lens accessories (like macro and wide angle).  It takes some practice to figure out how to focus on anything, but I love the effects once you get it to work for you.

We drove back down to Sacramento in the afternoon for my grandma’s 90th birthday.  She broke her hip a few months ago, and has had a pretty rough time since, but she was in a great mood and looking good.  There was a ton of family in town (around 25 people), so there was never a dull moment.  And people in my family know their food, so there was a ton of amazing food to eat as well.

Christmas baby taken with the lensbaby

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  We are heading down to San Diego tomorrow to visit Paul’s family so blogging with be limited for the next week.

Us, through the eye of the lensbaby

We’re not opening gifts tonight here under the Big Top. As Vampira, the night shift nurse, I will be greeting Christmas morning in the NICU. That’s right, I’m working tonight, all night long. Perhaps I might see Santa making the rounds to the cribs and isolettes of the good baby girls and boys in the NICU.

But Hazey-Face could not wait until Christmas morning when Mi-Ma comes home. Oh no! She attacked the first gift that she could find under the tree. The gift in the way back. The gift that is for her from her great-aunties, Ange and Elana. She just could not wait.

If I don’t see you later, Merry, Merry Christmas and God bless us all…even little toddler terrorists like Hazel Faye.

Not everybody is lucky enough to share their home with such a grand little bear, so just in case you were wondering – yes, she really IS that soft.

I received a nice e-mail this evening – the Moving Galleries Exhibition in Melbourne has put up videos for the artwork and poetry accepted into the ‘Transformation’ exhibition.

“Moving Galleries has a video of the Transformation exhibition playing at Federation Square screens now for about 6 weeks. If you wonder down there you may happen upon it.

The great team at Burning House, the video production company responsible for making it, have gone a giant step further and produced individual videos of each of your work….. and now these mini videos are on You Tube!” from Jessie Doring, Project Manager.

So my poem Hazel is here (or below)! The link should include links to the moving galleries site where the people’s choice prize voting is underway, so visit and see what you like!

Ava, Mia, Sienna, Isla, Stella, Eva, Bella, Isabelle, Peyton, Keira, Alexis, Millie, Aaliyah, Nevaeh, Gemma, Mya, Aria, Leah, Brooklyn, Lucia, Mackenzie, Poppy, Harmony, Manaia, Scarlett, Abby, Maya, Lilly, Riley, Hazel, Savannah, Natalie, Ayla.

1999

Paris, Brittany, Megan, Rachel, Nikita, Claudia, Natasha, Brianna, Ashleigh, Monique, Michaela, Shannon, Cheyenne, Stephanie, Melissa, Jamie, Casey, Rebekah, Jessie, Michelle, Morgan, Tegan, Tiana, Renee, Julia, Kelsey, Alicia, Jennifer, Katelyn, Crystal, Tamara, Tara.

Julia Roberts, 42 is expecting her fourth child with husband Danny Moder. The couple newest addition will join twins Hazel and Phinnaeus both 5 and son Henry, 3.

Roberts is the highest paid actress in Hollywood. She was recently nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in Duplicity.

Outside, the cars are swishing through the grit-grey sludge on the road, a tarmac slush puppy – the aftermath of a night of snow and a day of bitter cold. The morning greeted me with a crisp frosting of snow on the pavements, clinging to the trees and icing the rows of boats in the harbour. It’s a proper winter’s day, and Christmas feels as iminent as it is. Cold weather like this makes me want hot, comforting food. – tonight I will eat leftover parsnip soup with toasted hazelnuts on top – while in the summer, all I really want is salad and ice cream. Which is obvious, I suppose.

But when you think about it, really not that long ago, ice was not an ingredient or a commodity available to the summertime cook. Anyone wanting to have ice in their drink, or rustle up a little granita, would have to wait for the icy grip of winter. When the use of seasonal ingredients is so fashionable, might it be a good idea to ice up my winter cookery?

This is something I’ve been thinking about recently: how to utilise the numbing ice bite in winter cookery. As well as the obvious – rich ice creams, apple granita, mulled wine sorbet – I rather like the idea of letting the frost get to salads. The first frosts tighten and sweeten winter vegetables, might not it have a similarly pleasant effect on robust winter salads? In honour of Christmas, I have devised a winter salad with this in mind. It is perhaps slightly confused, packing in as it does almost every taste in the Christmas palette. But Christmas is not about simple elegant purity of flavour – it is about abundance and rich excess. 

The salad base is provided by mandolin shredded red cabbage, shredded spinach leaves, julienned carrot and shredded goose. A dressing of mulled orange juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and (a little bit of) mustard are tossed with the vegetables before the goose is added. Sprinkled over are crispy bread crumbs, a small amount of chopped dried fruit and toasted hazelnuts, and some still hot crispy fried bacon – cunningly leaving a cold gap on top, in which sits an elegant quennelle of cranberry sorbet (topped with a curl of candied peel) slowly melting into the salad: enriching the dressing, balancing the raw bite of the cabbage and bringing the bright red taste of Chistmas.

Who needs a turkey?

I have 10 days to get my life in order and back on track. 10 days to tie up all the loose ends and close this chapter. 10 days to a brand new year. And boy, am I impatient! 2010 cannot come soon enough.

2009 has not served me well. Perhaps I am saying this based on what has happened in the last few weeks, perhaps 2009 has not been as bad as I say it is. But the fact is, I have gained little but lost much this year. I’m not going into details here because there are some things that I wish to keep to myself still, some things that are still too sore to share.

Maybe this is my wake up call. 2008 was so good, it was the best year I’ve ever had. Things were easy then, making new friends came naturally, old friends didn’t drift away, my classmates were warm, fantastic and fun people, I passed Editorial Board, didn’t constantly feel like I suck at everything. I practically sailed through 2008. There wasn’t a hitch, nothing went wrong, or rather everything went right. I concluded the year feeling like a victor, I would have been willing enough to relive the year if it were possible.

Alas, it wasn’t. So I moved onto 2009 believing that though things may not be as good, it will still be good. I truly believed that as long as you’re optimistic, things can never be too bad. Well, I’m not saying that I’m completely wrong. I wouldn’t deem 2009 the worst year I’ve ever had (I don’t think I have a worst year!) but it certainly was not good.

I have lived every school day like a routine and I hate that. I have lost several good friends in the course of the year and am on the verge of losing several more. My class is a bore to be in and lessons just become more bland everyday.

But at the same time, I did not make an effort to make each day different from the last. I (and it shames me to say this) did not make much effort to catch up with old friends. And I did not make any effort to participate in class activities. So really, it all boils down to the effort I’ve put in this year. Not to say I did not make any effort at all! I just concentrated it all on another aspect of my life: studies and Ed Board.

I don’t regret having put so much into those two because it is well worth it. And I don’t believe that putting a lot of effort into one thing limits the effort you can put into other things equally important. I believe I was just complacent. And how wrong I was to be so! Kids, if you’re reading this: never ever be complacent in your life. Take it from me. And don’t do drugs. Or smoke!

To be brutally honest, the bad parts of 2009 were all brought on by myself and all the good parts were bestowed upon me by — dare I say it — God Himself. I may not be a true believer or a regular church-goer but I believe- I believe. Hazel was the greatest gift he has given us, given me. And I believe each new day is a gift from Him too.

On a hindsight, perhaps 2009 really isn’t as bad as I have made it out to be. How could it have been- with Hazel there with me every step of the way? It may seem ridiculous to say this — at the time when she still depends on those around her to support her — but Hazel, a mere infant, supports us. She is the one who keeps my dad, my mom, my sisters, my brother-in-law and myself (and perhaps my maid too) from breaking apart day after day. I love Hazel more than anything else in the world. Perhaps because of that, she manages to eclipse just about everything bad that has happened this year. Sure, I have some reconciling to do, plans to draft, decision to make, order to bring about but I know things will work out in the end.

It has to. I am after all, still the sickeningly optimistic person that I am. =) Only this time, I know I will be the person making things work, not Lady Luck. I have learned so much this year but that is another post for another day because this post is crazy long enough already (meaning pain in the ass to proof read!). So ’till next time readers! =)

I’ve missed you Hazel.

It’s good to have you home. =)

Greta Alison (Lily)

Olive Audrey

Alex Chloe (Jack)

Bess (Ella)

Haidee Elaine & Alyssa Rose (Lucas)

Iris Vita (Harriet, Phoebe)

Vivien Rosemary (Lily)

Helena Antoinette

Lauren & Honor ( Lucia)

Olive Elizabeth (George)

Elsie-May Ellen (Bailey, Ephraim & Marita)

Polly Frances

Aurelia Grace (Isabelle)

Portia Alice

Neve Jennifer (Rylee, Fletcher)

Penny Mary (Hamish, Felicity)

Sacha Tui

Kahlan Lillias (Hayden)

Maggie Iris Rosa (Ruby)

Freyah Lily (Tahlia)

Sabrina Mary

Elsie Olivia (Joel)

Milla Juno (Bodie)

Maeve Ellen (Cormac)

Sidney (Lennox & Munro)

Hugo John

Jasper Stan (Jonty & Tilly)

George Banjo (Hugo)

Tahere Hunter

Albie Murphy

Jack & Keygan (Thomas)

Wilhelm David

Josiah James

Jag Archie

Edward Montgomery (Benji & Samuel)

Wilfred Otis (Theo)

Deaths

Rosanna Jane, Adeline Anne, Sally Elizabeth, Grace Muriel, Margaret Winifred, Ruby Evelyn, Sylvia Winifred, Adele Mary, Violet Hope, Hazel Margaret, Beatrice Mary, Helen Adeline,

Hector Leslie, George Basil, Quentin Phillip, Henry Percival, Leo Charles, Archibald Ralph, Sydney Benjamin.

While I still am not playing Christmas tunes at the shop, I have moved up a little and am listening to the Jazz Music Network and their guitar and smooth voices  station.  Almost like Christmas songs.  And after I will have put up my tree at the house and get into the spirit a tad bit more – I will play the Christmas songs.  Especially the ones that are about snow – because we don’t have any and it would be so nice!!!!

I was also playing with accessories for the holidays and here is what I have come up with:

This dress is a dark petrol velvet by Hazel and it is very festive all by itself.  I have jazzed it up with a beaded scarf by Zazou.  The scarf has a little vintage look (20ies) to it.

This scarf is also by Zazou.  It has silver threads encased in sheer black fabric.  Stunning.

The kimono shawl by Zazou.  Burnt orange silk with a Japanese inspired motif all over.

Another floating thread scarf.  The picture does not do the intense green threads any justice.

All of theses scarves will look VERY festive on any outfit.  Now or for your New Year’s party.

Vacations… now!

There was an earthquake last night. I was almost asleep and it woke me up completely. Today everybody was of talking about it, of course, especially on how animals can predict these things and react a lot earlier than us. Let me tell you something, my cats kept sleeping and so did my dog while me and my family caught the fright of our lives.  At least nothing was broken >_<

… and the countdown continues… aaah!

Shirley Booth and Don DeFore

From Good Housekeeping, December 1964:

“Shirley Booth, like the generous person she is, gives Sally Edwards credit for these tarts.

CHESS TARTS

l package piecrust mix or favorite pastry for 2 crust pie
2 eggs
1/4 c. butter or margarine
dash salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup seedless raisins
1/2 cup snipped, pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped California walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy or whipping cream
candied cherries
slivers of preserved orange peel
slivers of preserved citron
green seedless grapes

Make day before serving as follows:
1. Make up piecrust; then, on lightly floured board, roll it out 1/8-inch thick. For each petal tart shell, cut out 5) 2 1/4-inch fluted pastry rounds. Place 1 round in bottom of each of 6) 2 3/4′inch muffin-pan cups. Wet edges of rest of rounds, then press 4 of them to sides and to round in bottom of each cup, overlapping edges slightly.

2. Prick well with 4-tined fork. Refrigerate 30 minutes; bake at 450 degrees F. 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool; lift each carefully from cup; store at room temperature.

3. In saucepan beat eggs well; then add butter or margarine, salt sugar, raisins, dates. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Refrigerate this filling, covered with waxed paper.

~About an hour before serving:

1. Stir walnuts and vanilla into filling; then pile some filling in each tart shell. Whip cream; use to top tarts. In center of each mound of cream place a cherry; surround with orange peel and citron. Refrigerate.

2. Arrange tarts on pretty serving plate; pass, with tiny bunches of grapes. Makes 6.”

Jim Manago has written a book “Love Is The Reason For It All – The Shirley Booth Story”. You can read about it here. His site is very impressive with lots of photos of Shirley Booth as well as stories behind the scenes of “Hazel” and other celebrities like Whitney Blake, Karen Carpenter, and Joyce van Patten.

Don DeFore was one of my favorite actors and it was fun to read the interview with his son. It makes me like him even more to know that he was an active conservative.

For those interested in purchasing the book, Jim recommends that you go to bookfinder.com.

I would say that by now, almost EVERY store I go into has some sort of Christmas tunes tweeting from their stereos.  And while that still does not do anything for me and I pity the store clerks who had to listen to this music for the last four weeks, I must admit that I DO feel kind of festive these days.  I have seen beautifully decorated trees in my friends houses, we had had an arctic cold front come through, I baked cookies, held a Holiday market and bought some gifts.  There is a (good) chocolate Advent Calendar in my house and I am having fun creating an online one for my friends.

So, it is about time to think about the party dresses.

My first installment shall be about some outfits that would look good at any party.

This dress is by Kersh, is knee-length, looks just darling – and will work even after the holidays when put over a pair of jeans.

A delicate velvet shift dress by Anni Kuan, covered by a red cardigan by Armand&Alba.

Folklore stitch blouse by Hazel combined with Anni Kuan’s black ‘fuzz’ skirt.  Great also separately.

A classic, vintage inspired, body-hugging dress, also by Kersh.  Length below the knee.

This top is by Hazel, has a wide scoop neck and will go with slacks or a long skirt.

To commemorate the spirit, I am wearing a green/red plaid skirt today, red sweater and tights and green boots!

Title:  Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism

Author:  Georgia Byng

Paperback:  373 pages

ISBN:  0439567300

Orphan Molly Moon hates living in Hardwick House.  For starters, the orphanage is run by hairy-faced Miss Adderstone, who makes Molly clean the toilets with her toothbrush.  Mean Hazel Hackersly torments her, and to make matters worse, Molly’s best friend Rocky has just been adopted and is moving to New York City!

But when Molly stumbles upon a mysterious old book on hypnotism, her world is suddenly turned upside down.  With a dazzling flash of her bright green eyes, she discovers that she has the amazing power to make people do things — crazy things.  There’s nothing holding Molly back now, and what better place to begin her adventures than in spectacular New York City as a Broadway superstar?

What Molly doesn’t know is that a sinister stranger is following her with dastardly plans of his own.

-from the first page of Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng

Okay, this was NOT the best book to pick right after reading The Glass Castle, a book about real child abuse and neglect.  I just couldn’t help thinking about the Walls children, and whether they would have appreciated life at Hardwick, or whether Molly would have preferred being a Walls.  Hard to say, both books had hard living for children as a central theme.  Whereas the Walls experience was an inescapable reality, Molly’s is an average child’s fantasy.  “Oh, how I wish I could get back at Mom for making me eat lima beans.  She knows I hate them, that’s why she gives it to me!”  The idea of being able to get revenge for being served vegetables they hate and being force-marched to bed at 9 o’clock makes Molly Moon a fun and silly read for the 8-12 crowd.

I also made the mistake of reading it by myself.  It was actually a restart.  Mags and I had started reading it last spring and had to set it aside when we were 1/3 the way through while she went to visit her dad.  We never picked it back up, and I figured it’d be a quick book to help me hit my 75-book goal (this one makes number 68, only 7 to go )  I remember we’d laughed and laughed until tears came into our eyes and my throat was hoarse from doing the voices and cackling so much.  Without her, however, I only chuckled a couple times and found myself wishing I was sharing it with her.  Children lend their magic to some books, a magic we adults seem to have lost.

I do plan on re-reading it with Mags, all the way through.  But as it stands now, I give Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng 3 out of 5.  I read someone’s review that said how Molly was an unlikeable character, but I disagree with that.  Molly is a fairly blank character, with as little of her own personality and quirks as could be gotten away with.  This isn’t a bad thing, in this case, because what she provides is a template for kids to put themselves in her shoes.  She’s not blank as in “underdeveloped”, rather like a costume has nothing inside.  Which makes me wonder what the reviewer didn’t like about her… hmm…

It was national tree week this week (5th December), you may have noticed, there were events going on up and down the country, with Tree O’clock being by far the biggest – as an attempt to break the world record by no more than 100 people people at a single site in a single hour three teams in three sites broke the existing record by at least 1500 with the winning site in Northern Ireland managing to plant 26,422 Native trees!

And we did our bit in the park as well, well I say we, of course I mean they, I was unavoidably staying in 4 star luxury accommodation on the company dollar eating in fine restaurants and supping the finest diet coke performing important nay vital work for the economy, and helping to reduce British Airway’s end of year loss.

In preparation for my return the Rangers and the Youth Rangers coppiced a patch of Alder that had self set and had grown too crowded; They also began to plant some of the Hazel’s that would be grown instead of the Alder, Why Hazel you ask? Well Breaking Glass was a seminal hit and the real beginning of the brit pop revolution, oh you mean why Hazel trees? they are going to be used for fencing, for which Hazel is especially good (apparently)

There was also an attempt at fire.

Obviously any effort which involves the chopping down of the tree has to, by law, involve the almost immediate use by man (and I’m being specific – I don’t believe women have the same drive to set light to everything)  of fire to reduce the large sticks of wood to slightly blackened, but still generally the same size just dirtier and smellier sticks of wood; and lo this did occur! although it has to be said slightly more successfully on Saturday than on Sunday – Apparently God doesn’t like fire on the Sabbath.

And so like the prodigal son before me I returned to the fold, weary from travels I approached the Park on foot (ok I got a lift) through a great storm (and I waited till it had stopped raining) un-prepared for what lay before me (well not entirely un-prepared, Waterproof Hat, Coat, Trousers, Nice warm Fleece, Steel Toe cap boots, Packed lunch including fruit and chocolate bar, money for extra sustenance should it be required, so probably quite well prepared really given that it was only a day at the park) and I was met by the Head Ranger with the ritual greeting “Hello Dave – Put the kettle on and have a cup of tea!”. I can honestly say civilisation will never be dead whilst this place exists.

Seriously though it’s been over a month since I was at the park for anything more than a brief visit to go through paperwork – Halloween was the last night and it was great to get back! and on Sunday I had an absolute plethora of activity to choose from!

As well as tree planting it was also tree dressing weekend. Tree dressing isn’t about getting your favourite tree and putting it in a nice twinset and pearls (although if that’s what you want to do who are we to stop you); it’s about making decorations and hanging them from trees – most households in the UK will indulge in a bit of indoor tree dressing at this time of year, and tree dressing at the park allowed you to make some deccies – hang them on a tree at the park for a time and then take them home and hang them on your tree there.

The weekend had been beset by a couple of issues – not least of which was the weather, it rained a little on Sunday morning, which caused a couple of people who were going to provide entertainment during the day to cancel. The most surprising of these were the Vikings. You may remember from a previous post about woodfest me talking about out Viking rein-actors. I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to history but I’m fairly sure I remember stories of Scandinavian warriors braving the high seas to do great damage on our shores (and as far afield as Iceland and Greenland and even the USA), so imagine the shock when we heard that the 21st century facsimile of this great sea-faring nation should cancel because (and I believe this is correct) “our tent will go mouldy if it gets wet”. So much mediaeval heartache could have been avoided if that was also true in the 6th century!

The Friends group were to have a tombola, and, as such they would need some sort of shelter, one of the friends had kindly loaned a gazebo, but unlike in the summer when we could place it nicely on the meadow it needed to go on hard standing, making it difficult to pin down, and it was breezy, well fairer to say gusty, actually fair to say windy! tying one side down wasn’t going to be an issue, the were railings in exactly the right position, this did mean that one side potentially could flip into the air at any moment. I contemplated leaving it like this – I thought it added to the excitement of the day – if the breeze came along at the right moment it could cause the first unpowered human flight at Irchester Country Park and thus bring the day into record books in it’s own right. but I also thought that there may be a slight risk of a law suit in this litigious age and we found a water and an oil drum to tie the other side of the Gazebo down to. Still I think the potential for human flight is something we could explore later.

Once I got the Gazebo up the kettle beckoned once more, it’s rough tough work getting those gazebos up you know! and I contemplated the rest of the day; there were choices to be made, do I help out on the tombola or do I help plant trees…

Well whilst I sat and contemplated several members of the friends group arrived, ready to do battle with the crowds and manage the tombola – and the decision was made, tree planting it was.

Obviously the first thing that needed to be done in preparation was have a cup of tea, and prepare an insulated cup to take with me, this important step completed we loaded the Mule – this isn’t an animal but a machine; a kind of 4 wheel drive buggy; a utility vehicle with wheels about a 18inches tall and 8 inches wide and a top speed of about 15 mph, but lots of what us petrol heads call low down grunt so it’s very good at pulling weights about and moving around off road; the worst thing in as far as I am concerned is that I can’t drive it – I am destined to be a passenger – but it’s great fun even so.

We made sure we had the important equipment loaded in the mule first, keeping it upright, and in a stable position to ensure that there are no leakages (yes I’m talking about the flask of tea, what did you think I’d be talking about) and then we threw in a couple of spades, sundry other tools, gloves, and a bag of 56 trees.

I was telling someone about this the other day and they were quite incredulous when I said we had a bag of 56 trees, so, for those of you who are sitting there with that same look on your face I’ll explain:

Trees start quite small, even Oak trees, and the Hazels that we were planting were just a couple of years old at the most, the tallest was a metre high, the smallest, about 20cm, all of which were more capable of fitting inside a standard black plastic rubbish sack.

Once the mule was loaded and we were ready to go we stood around the mule for the perfunctory 5 five minutes waiting for the Ranger to complete certain other tasks which included finding Millie: Millie is a dog, I’d say a collie, Manchester terrier cross, very cute, very athletic, and wonderfully independent. This independence does lead however to her sometimes deciding that she needs a little walk – and if the humans around her aren’t willing to come with her then that’s just fine – she’s more than capable of going herself! The good news is she comes when she’s called, the bad news is she may have quite a long way to come so you have to learn a bit of patience!

Whilst waiting for Millie disaster struck! and it was clear this could have set us back some time; I needed to take my coat off as it was was getting warm in the sun, so I put my insulated mug of tea down on the seat of the Mule, and to cut a short story shorter it fell over! spilling almost a tablespoon of my tea onto the seat. What was I to do – the seat would need to be cleaned, possibly dry cleaned, an incident report would need to be completed, and more importantly than anything more tea would need to be brewed! In the end realising that I (and the others) was wearing waterproof trousers I wiped off the seat with the arm of my coat and just held on to my mug a little tighter.

And so we were off for the mornings planting, with a brief stop to collect some canes, we travelled through the park with Millie running along side the mule (even more evidence that she is at least part collie in the manner in which we were being herded) and we reached the spot in question which was near the top of the park by big foot pond. As I said at the top of this quite a bit of preparation had already taken place.

I’ve mentioned before that the park is an old Ironstone Quarry, one of the artefacts of this the creation of “hills and dales”, what this isn’t is hills and dales on the scale of Yorkshire, what this actually means is an undulating surface where a trench was dug and the spoil from the trench was piled behind it, the spoil heaps are about 5 metres apart and the trenches are 2 metres deep (about),

We were planting the trees on the spoil heaps, 6 rows of up to 10 each added up to 56 in total, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet – it was a bit wet.

Now I’ve experienced proper wet already this winter, I was in the Lake District when more rain fell in one place in the UK in one day than has ever done before and it wasn’t quite that wet, but the park is mainly clay, and when that gets wet it gets slippery, and claggy, and sticky, and lots of other things ending in y and in places enough rain had fallen to mean that when you put a spade in the ground, firstly it was quite hard to pull out again, and when you did you couldn’t help but notice the hole left behind filled with water, not a good start for a tree (unless it’s a willow or a mango possibly?)

So there was a certain amount of care needed when choosing the planting site for each tree (as well as about 3 metres from any other new planting) and the hill (sounds much nicer than spoil heap doesn’t it?) we were planting on had had, as well as the Alder, many many other trees growing on it in the past, all of which had left their root systems behind, finally, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this, the quarrymen who worked the quarry were a hard working bunch, salt of the earth, you’d never want to meet a more regular bunch of blokes in your life – they just weren’t the most efficient way of quarrying the land for Ironstone, and the proof of this is the amount of Ironstone we find left in the soil whenever we try to dig it today. when we were digging the hole for the bench in the summer we would have taken so much longer if it wasn’t for the half tonne of stone we found in the hole.

This time however I only wanted to make small holes for little trees, and hitting old roots, stones, or finding a patch so waterlogged that it immediately filled with water when I removed the spade was just annoying. But the upside was, unlike the trench in the ground was soft (chocolate mousse soft) and making holes big enough for the trees was pretty simple, straightforward, untaxing, work – and giving that by rights I should have had awful jetlag after a four day trip to the US-A incredibly invigorating!

By lunchtime (2 hours later) we’d planted about 14 trees and drunk 2 cups of tea. all in all I think that was a good morning’s work – we then rounded Millie up (more the other way around) and headed back to the office for Lunch.

When we got back to the office tree dressing had moved on a-pace, the trees outside the new Quarryman’s Rest Cafe (soon to be opened – watch this space) were looking much prettier in their bling; and the Kiddies seemed very happy to be making the decorations and hanging them, even the older ones (those in their 30’s and 40’s) seemed to enjoy it!

After sustenance of sandwiches and over heated soup (don’t ask) we decided that we ought to get back to the planting in case members of the public should arrive looking for us. Unlikely we thought after a day and a half, but you never knew.

Everyone re-mounted the Mule, then we got off and looked for Millie, then we gave up and re-mounted the Mule, then we started to drive to the top of the park, then Millie appeared in front of the Mule.

I should point out that it’s not normal for a Ranger to have a dog (or pet of any kind) with them at the Park, but this was exceptional circumstances, as Millie is actually owned by the partner of the Ranger who was currently incapacitated with a serious injury to the ankle caused by a flying idiot. When Millie ran in front of the Mule on this (and a few other occasions) it has to be said that we thought we might be sharing a little more agony than an ankle problem with Millie’s owner, we were rehearsing the conversation on the way to the top of the park – “I know you thought you’d had a bad week…” or “Millie has always been a really active dog hadn’t she…”, but Millie is a better Dog than that and the Ranger is a better driver and between them no animal or volunteer was injured on the journey (and I have to say, as far as I could tell – no tea was spilt either!)

Back to Big Foot Pond and it was time to get on with the planting, planting a tree is a fairly simple process it seems (there is a great deal to be done to get to this stage but in Blue Peter tradition that’s all stuff we completed earlier!);

First job is to dig a hole – more make a slot – wide enough to fit all of the roots of the new tree deep enough to cover the roots but not so far as go further than it in the earth before.

Then take the sapling and place it carefully in the hole – try to remember to smile for the Ranger taking the picture even when the sun is directly in your face!

Once the sapling is firmly in place then it’s time to protect the tree from the elements – and make it work out a little. first of all it’s given a green jacket which is held in place by two canes, the green jacket made up of two densities of mesh, a solid mesh at the bottom and a more open weave at the top.

The idea of this design is that the tree will reach for the light at the top of the mesh and will be protected from pests at the bottom. The final thing was to make sure that we didn’t run out of tea spoons in 2010

So we planted a teaspoon tree

I’ll try and keep you up to date on the progress on the tea spoon tree – oh and the Hazels

#best 09 December 13 What’s the best change you made to the place you live?

At first I thought I have made no changes at home. As far as home decor here under the Big Top is concerned, I am quite happy with our comfy, cozy circus tent. Plus the lack of funds do kind of put a damper on say a fresh coat of paint or some pretty new linens. Oh well. We are blessed and thankful that we do have our home when we see so many others losing theirs.

But then I realized that yes, there has been a change made to our home here. A pretty big change. Although some of you may have already known, Holly and Hazel moved out a couple of months ago. Do we miss them? No. They live just three miles down the way from us and we still see them practically everyday as we take care of Hazey-Face while her mama works. We still have to keep the breakable treasures up high and the baby locks secure because our curious, busy toddling terrorist is still here on pretty much a daily basis.

The two of them have moved out which meant that Zoë and Abby no longer had to share a bedroom. It had been hard on them over the last two years. They both love their sister and adore their niece but it was a challenge. It was a challenge for two very different girls with very different personalities, interests, friends, etc. to mesh in a small 12 x 12 space. Even with a modest walk-in closet to share there was stil guaranteed to be drama and tears…there was…a lot of tears, a lot of heavy sighs, a lot of arguing, a lot of slammed doors and a lot of pleas for just a little bit of privacy.

Who said they can’t wait for their busy toddlers to grow up so that it would be easier?

It has been a challenge but I am proud of my girls for sacrificing a little for our family. That is what families do for each other. So as Holly and Hazel enjoy their own home together, we quickly transformed their bedroom back into Zoë’s space and allowed Abby to reclaim her own corner of the Big Top. And peace is restored here under the Big Top. Well, as much peace as there can be with three teenagers living under our roof.

Again I ask, who said they can’t wait for their busy toddlers to grow up so that it would be easier? Ha! You just don’t know. But someda-ay…you will.

In the mid fifties, a Civil Defense short was created to address what can only be called The Tidiness Gap. I’m assuming a great deal of human Intel, along with U-2 flyover photos and information from defecting Russian spies was collected and analyzed before reaching one inescapable, frightening conclusion.

The Presidential cabinet meeting that convened as a result of this finding probably went something like this:

Top General: So what are these Bolshevik bastards up to?

CIA Agent: General. Mr. President. I’m not going to soft-pedal this. I’m going to give it to you straight. They’re painting their houses.

Shocked silence.

CIA Agent: Not only that, they’re raking up the leaves in their yards.

A gasp from the back of the room.

The President (shaking his head, to himself): My God. My God. It’s worse than we feared.

CIA Agent: Yes it is, sir. They’re also tidying up in their homes. Vacuuming. Dusting. Do you want me to go on?

The President: No. I’ve heard more than enough. (long pause before rising and addressing cabinet members) Gentlemen, this is unacceptable. We can not allow a Tidiness Gap!

And so the film unit of The Civil Defense department snapped into action, producing “The House in the Middle.” The short begins with an aerial shot of Anytown, USA. “One American town looks like any other when you see it from an airplane window,” notes the narrator, leaving out the observation that once hydrogen bombs have been dropped on them, they all pretty much look identical.

Since the film is intended for the outlying suburbs and towns not immediately in the kill zone of a ground zero explosion, the whole issue of large metropolitan areas being vaporized is discretely sidestepped.  The short also tends to focus on the atomic heat or “thermal wave” from a nuclear explosion, and doesn’t have a great deal to offer on the other after effects from the blast like…well, for one thing, radiation.

The short is apparently brought to us courtesy of “The National Clean up – Paint up – Fix up Bureau.”  Happily, this group wasn’t in charge of naming any other government agencies or The Air Force might be known as “The Department of Heavier Than Air Vehicles – That Go Up And Come Down – Drop Bombs and Fire Missiles – And Sometimes Have Pilots With Cool Names Like Maverick – And Iceman and Goose – Well Goose Isn’t That Cool – But Iceman Is.”

For the purposes of the short, Anytown, USA is replicated at the Nevada Proving Grounds by two miniature houses.  Despite the minimalistic representation, you’d be hard-pressed to single it out from any of hundreds of other towns in America – that is, if they didn’t look like two anomalous objects stranded in some kind of weird Daliesque landscape.  A huge melting watch wouldn’t look out of place there.

Structure-wise, the two houses are identical.  Inside, however, it’s a different story.  House #1 is noteworthy for its untidy housekeeping.  Newspapers and magazines are left lying around.  The tables are cluttered with junk.  House #2, on the other hand, is spic and span.  The trash has been thrown out and tabletops are tidy.

The narrator then walks us through the steps in a nuclear explosion. The light flash! The thermal wave! Quickly followed by the blast wave! When all is said and done, both houses on the outskirts of the atomic detonation survive, but the clutter inside House #1 catches fire, and even though the structure survived the blast, it ends up burning to the ground.

At this point, it comes as something of a shock to realize that Hazel might have been our first line of defense against nuclear attack. Perhaps the Civil Defense seal should have been replaced by The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

A final test with three houses is staged for our edification, and ultimately, what the short comes down to is a retelling of the Three Little Pigs — with the atom bomb in the role of the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing and blowing the houses down. House #1 is an eyesore with leaves and trash in the yard. House #2 (the house in the middle) is painted and has an uncluttered yard. House #3 is in rundown condition due to years of neglect.

Guess which house survives? Right. The house in the middle.

If this test had actually been a Russian sneak attack, the lucky owner of the house in the middle would have survived to take part in digging mass graves for thousands of irradiated and charred corpses. Still, when Mr. Lucky Homeowner looked at the ruble of the two houses on either side of his home, he’d be able to take a certain amount of satisfaction in the fact he was still alive.

“I tried to warn them,” he might say, and then the tumorous growth on his shoulder which had been increasing in size and finally become a second freakish head, would add, “Yes you did. You and The National Clean up – Paint up – Fix Up Bureau.”

Here’s the helpful warning in its full-length glory, produced as it actually was by the friendly folks at the Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association.  No doubt it was a big hit at their convention that year (and what a rip-roaring event that had to be). 

done

Clara, Bathsheba, Bedelia, Caroline, Celeste, Cecily, Celia, Daisy, Eloise, Eulalie, Flora, Fenella, Genevieve, Hazel, Georgina, Helene, Imogen, Juniper, Jessamine, Louella, Lillian, Magnolia, Marigold, Olive, Orlantha, Polly, Penelope, Primrose, Rose, Tallulah, Violet.

Benjamin, Barnabas, Beckett, Barry, Cassius, Dashiell, Darcy, Edmund, Fletcher, Felix, Gabriel, Gideon, Harvey, Isaac, Ira, Jay, Jonah, Lucian, Leonardo, Orlando, Oxford, Octavius, Preston, Quentin, Raphael, Samson, Theodore, Tennyson, Willoughby.

When we decided to call our daughter Clio, we forever closed the door on another favorite name – Theodore, nickname Theo.

Or did we?

For every family that decides Maya and Milo are too similar, another embraces the sound-alike names.  Or insists that Alicia and Alina are totally different names.  Perhaps it never even occurs to them that Joanna and Jackson are both related to John.  Or maybe the first time you think of the famous actress is when you introduce your daughter Grace, little sister to Kelly and others ask if you’re a fan.

Siblings’ names will be said together countless times.  The names we like often have much in common.  So how can you tell if your choices make for a compatible sibset, or if they’re much too close?  Here are ten factors to consider.

10.  The names share the same meaning. This can be a subtle way to link siblings’ names.  Think Lucy and Claire.  One means light; the other, clear.  Felix and Asher both mean happy.

Trouble comes when your family of two ends up a family of four or five or more.  Your first two are the nicely paired Hazel and Ivy, but after using Olive and Jade, your choices for #5 narrow to Loden, Fern and Moss.

9.  The names share the same origins. Name aficionados know that Jacob and James are related.  I’ve groused that naming your twin daughters Isabella and Elizabeth is like naming them Mary Anne and Marianne.  Except that it’s not really so.

Origins aside, Jack and Sean make for a compatible pair of brothers’ names.  And Charles and Caroline seem different enough to be worn without incident.   Daniel and Danielle, however, don’t work.

8. You’ve neglected 25 letters of the alphabet. Sometimes this is unintentional.  You’re naming your sons after their grandfathers – Michael and Matthew.  Or you just happen to like the names Julia and Jason.

But let’s say you choose a letter with fewer options.  I remember hearing about a family with four sons – Henry, Heath, Hugo and Hatrick.  Are they hockey fans, or was Harvey not their style?  And if you’re on the second generation sharing the same syllable, your options might be very limited.

7. The names are linked in history or pop culture. If the movie was a bust, or we’re talking minor comic book characters, this matters not at all.  (You can safely ignore “But Sami named her twins John and Alice on Days of Our Lives.”)  Some combinations might appeal – think of daughters named for two Jane Austen heroines, as in Emma and Elinor.

But then there’s Gillian Anderson’s threesome – Piper, Oscar and Felix.  Her kids might not know The Odd Couple, but it is hard to imagine that it didn’t occur to mom.  Or the truly unthinkable – siblings named Romeo and Juliet, or even, in our Twilight era, Edward and Bella.  (Though it can happen after the fact – in which case, all you can do is laugh.)

6. Your choices can lead to same nickname. Sure, you never intend to call Kathryn or Katelyn by the nickname Katie.  But it could easily happen.  And how will their sister Annie feel about having an unrelated name?

This usually occurs because of #9 or #3.  But not always – Amelia and Marianna could both shorten to Mia.  Alexander and Natasha could both go by Sasha.  The harder you have to think about it, the less it becomes a concern.

5. Your favorites share the same ending. If you like Isabel, you might also like Annabel.  Ditto names like Parker, Carter and Harper.  But sharing the same ending is another sign that your favorites might be too close for comfort.

4. They nest like a Russian matryoshka. Does one name fit neatly inside the other?  Annika and Julian share an “an” but it isn’t glaringly obvious.

But Ella and Kellen seem like too much of a set.  And, in cases like Anna and Susanna, it feels as if one sibling’s name is just an elaboration, rather than an original choice.

3. They share the same first syllable. With #10 through #4, it is easy enough to come up with examples that work, despite being close in some ways.

But #3 takes us deep into the danger zone – can you imagine sisters called Madeline and Madison or Allison and Alexis?  (Photoquilty knows of a Madeline/Madison set – plus the dog answers to Maddie!)  How ’bout Jordan and Georgia?  A Supernanny episode featured twin girls Maile and Maila – pronounced Miley and Myla.

2. The names rhyme. Yes, there have surely been twin sisters called Cara and Tara.  But most parents – and siblings – would find it a bit too matched.

And yet, this is trickier than it sounds.   Timothy and James, Jeffrey and Stephanie and, of course, Benjamin and Jennifer all end up rhyming if you use the most common diminutives.

1. A combination of the above. Jackson and Jonathan are close, but probably on the right side of the line, while Jack and John don’t pass the test.

Jeffrey and Stephanie seem less troubling than the Hollywood power couple Benjamin and Jennifer.

Sarah and Laura are pretty close, but Laura and Maura would work only on fictional characters.

And so I’d love to know:  what choices have you had to reject because they’re just too close to your an older child’s name?

1. look frannie!
matthew says and
breathes out
and we laugh
his breath visible
indoors

2. while i missed the work party awards ceremony
i received mine today
‘most adorable’
which i am half flattered by
and half left thinking
if you really knew
you would have chosen
‘punmaster’

3. when you spend so many hours
of so many days
cold
everything slows down
breath
heart
movement

4. when temperature dips
down near 30 and below
i want to unlock church doors
hack through them with a sledgehammer
to allow those on the street
in
isn’t that what these buildings existed for once
upon a time?

5. sugarlessness
begins here
a physical act
to accompany
the cutting of rope

6. a return to the three story office
flourescnt lights
the death of me

7. and what about ’sleeky monkey’,
where am i supposed to file that one?
the burial so far behind
it wouldn’t seem right
to dig that earth up again

8. the naming of what we are taking apart
and the importance of why
before reconstructing
the first steps
to writing any manifesto

9. 16month old hazel
wooly coat with pink hood ears
transforming her into lamb disguise
in my arm
at my hip
a baby bite of carrot
a baby bite of broccoli

10. all the wishes
sunk
in oceanwater
north of here

11.falling asleep
with a finger on the ‘k’ key