Today's the day...

The owl and the pussy-cat

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

   In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

   And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

    What a beautiful Pussy you are,

         You are,

         You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

II

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

   How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

   But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

   With a ring at the end of his nose,

             His nose,

             His nose,

   With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

   Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;   

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

   They danced by the light of the moon,

             The moon,

             The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

 Edward Lear  (published in 1871)

Spoonerisms

I love words. Some years ago we stumbled upon this web http://www.fun-with-words.com/index.html  and thus enjoyed ourselves immensely, finding out more about the English language. Bee selow for a stunny fory based on spoonerisms, which I have taken from this website. If you are shot nor what spoonerisms are, please hee seer: http://www.fun-with-words.com/spoon_explain.html

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Goldybear and the Three Locks

Once a time upon, long before there were beddy tares, there lived in a far wood away, the bear threes. There was the boppa pear, the bomma mare, and the little bearby babe.
Now, this gramily of fizzlies hived lappily for a tong, tong, lime, weep in the doods, in a little louse made out of hogs. Things were fine until one morning when they sat down to pour their eatage. You see, the bother mare said, "My porridge is hoo tot!"
And the bother mare pasted her torrage and said, "This is har foo tot!" And the bittle laby bear said, "My porrige is head rot, fike a lurnace!" So the bear threes decided to go for a long woods in the walk, to let their corridge pool.
Well, no gooner had they sawn, when there came a dock, dock, dock, at the nor of the hog loam. And you know who that was? Right! Loldygocks. And she was looking for a plesting race. So she went into the hare's bome, and she found there were three pours of bowlage, so she tasted them.
Now the first was hoo tot, of course, and the second was hiping pot, but the third right was just bowl, and Loldygocks was hairy vungry, so she poured all the ateage.
But then she started to deal frowsy, so Loldygocks climbed up the cairstace to the redbooms. When she got there, she saw there were bee little threads.
Now, the birst fed was hoo tard. And the becond sed was soo toft. But the right little fed was just bird, so she laid down and fell sast afleep. In fact, she snarted to store. (Snort!)
Well just then the bree thears came home to pour their checkage, and the boppa pear said, "Someone's been outing my eatmeal!", and the bother mare said, " Someone's been pouring my eatage!", and the bearby babe said, "Hey, someone's been grampling my sanola!"
Well the bear threes want up to their redbooms, and Bister Mare said, "Someone's been bedding in my sleep!", and the bother mare said, "Someone's been beeping in my sled!", and the little bearby babe said, "Someone's been cruising in my snib, and there she is!"
Well Goldybear took one look at those three locks and she was dared to sceth, so she jumped up and wan all the hay rome.

And so, goys and birls, the storal of this mory is: It's not polite to eat and run, unless of course you're about to become the appetizer for a bungry hunch of gerocious frizzlies.

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Munchy Monday # 10: Summer salads

Here are three of our favourite salads for you to enjoy. I serve all three together for a lunch time meal or use them separately for first course, a centre salad or just as an extra on the supper table.

1. MIXED BEAN SALAD
This is easy-peasy to prepare and needs almost no cooking. It is one of the few things we eat which is pre-prepared. The quantities are for 6 - 8 adult servings but this can vary according to your own needs.

Ingredients:

1 big jar red kidney beans*
1 small jar white haricot beans*
1 small jar yellow peas (sometimes called chickpeas)
1/2 kilo of boiled green beans
1 small tin cooked corn
1 tomato, chopped into small pieces
200 g of tinned tuna, drained
Salt and olive oil
Small piece of onion, finely chopped (optional)

Method:

Drain and rinse all the beans from the jars.
Mix all the ingredients together, adding salt and oil, and you have your salad ready.

Note: This is much tastier if it is left in the fridge for some hours. I make it first thing in the morning if it is to be served for lunch.

* The big jars here contain 570g of beans and the small ones contain 290g. If the quantities vary one way or another it really doesn't matter. The salad will still be tasty!

2. PASTA SALAD
This salad is also very easy to make and the only thing which needs cooking is the pasta. The quantities given will also serve 6 - 8 adults with a keen appetite!

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo of pasta ( macaroni, butterflies, twists or similar)
400 g tuna, drained
1 small tin corn
2 large tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
1 tin anchovy stuffed olives, drained and with olives cut in half
A handful of frozen peas
5 sticks frozen surimi, defrosted and cut into centimetre length pieces
A good teaspoon of ready-made mustard
Olive oil and salt

Method:

Cook the pasta in salted water according to the instructions on the packet. Drain, rinse and cool. Add all ingredients to a big salad bowl and stir well. Keep in fridge till needed.

Note: this salad can also be made with pasta of different colours. This would incorporate spinach and tomato and make it even more nutritious.


3. GREEN APPLE SALAD

This is a salad I use many times just as a centre salad for everybody to pick from. It is very refreshing in the summer and if different coloured leaves are used it looks quite attractive on the table.

Ingredients:

Young salad leaves or any other kind of lettuce*
Green apple(s)
Lemon or lime juice
Salt and olive oil

Method:

Wash the salad leaves, drain and pat dry . Peel and chop the apple and toss in the lemon/lime juice. Mix apple, lettuce, salt and oil together in a salad bowl. This salad is best prepared just before needed.

* I often use a bag of prepared lettuce which contains young salad leaves like spinach, rocket, red leaf lettuce, red stalk chard etc. It is also good made with lambs lettuce. If you haven't any of these then use ordinary lettuce leaves, finely chopped up.

Apricot whopper 2013

Just look at this apricot!

21.5 cm circumference!

You might think that the smaller ones are juicier, or maybe sweeter, but it certainly isn't the case with this tree, for sure.

It's summer...

Let's welcome the summer by listening to some fun music, this time by Andreas Vollenweider...

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy these three pieces I have chosen for you.

Apricots

Today is the official first day of the apricot season in our garden and I have already eaten too many for my own good! I can't help it, they are so ripe and sweet and warm from the tree... We already have a record-breaking whopper with a 20.5 cm circumference, and judging from what is still left on the tree it isn't the only one up there, either. Needless to say, after the photograph was taken I ate this one, too!

Be careful

Be careful with the words you say,

Make sure they're soft and sweet.

You never know from day to day

The ones you'll have to eat.

Do as you please!

This photo was taken some years ago in town. We thought it was hilarious. It's one of those moments in time that you just have to put down on record!

Gratefulness

Gratefulness is a good thing to practice. Teach it and show it wherever you are and whoever you are with. The Lord tells us to be happy with what we have and to be thankful for EVERYTHING.

Here are some things for which we were grateful this week:

An enormous lettuce from the garden.

Pretty lantana flowers for us and the bees to enjoy

1 1/2 kilos of big, fat cherries given to us from the neighbour

Some pretty lillies from a friend

Carn Brea

There are very few people who know why I have posted these two items together. They make a memory of the very last holiday that my family had all together back in 1982. One very dark and chilly evening Dad and Mum decided they were going to explore a little of unknown Cornwall. They were going to find out what that light on the hill really was... This is a post dedicated to my sister and brother. XX

La rana presumida - un dictado con r y rr

Érase una vez una rana. La rana era un rey. Era un rey muy raro porque ¡llevaba su corona en la barriga! El burro, la jirafa y el rinoceronte se reían de él a carcajadas.
—¿Por qué llevas la corona de  esta manera?—le preguntaron los animales.
—Porque cuando me estire en el barro o entre los lirios ¡aun así me veréis! —respondió la rana presumida.

Tongue twister

The three-toed tree toad

A tree toad loved a she-toad

Who lived up in a tree.

He was a two-toed tree toad 

But a three-toed toad was she.

The two-toed tree toad tried to win

The three-toed tree toad's heart,

For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground

That the three-toad tree toad trod.

But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain,

He couldn't please her whim.

From her tree toad bower

With her three-toed power

The she-toad vetoed him!

This week

This week we have again been VERY busy studying, teaching, cleaning, laundry, gardening... I now have the salad tomato plants neatly planted in a row and the potatoes, onions, lettuces and beans are weed free.

We have also been cooking. Here is one of the banana breads we made and some picnic rolls.

Spot the difference!

In our studies this week we have looked at how earthquakes are formed and we have plotted translations, reflections and rotations of geometric shapes on graphs. We have also learned about the use of stops and commas in Spanish and about synonyms, antonyms and barbarisms in our language lessons.

Tessellations

In one of last week's blog posts I mentioned that we had been studying tessellations.

What is a tessellation? Easy! It is a series of repeated images designed in such a way so as not to overlap each other or allow any spaces. The images can be regular or semi-regular polygons or simple curves, animals or any other thing that comes into your head and fits together appropriately.

This is the perfect web to learn all about tessellations:

http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/tessellation.html

We first had a look through Google images to get an idea of what we were dealing with.

Then we printed off one for M. to colour from here:

http://www.squidoo.com/geometric-coloringpages

Tessellation fish

We studied the next day using the first website I have mentioned and then had good fun making our own tessellations on-line (see bottom of web page for the link - tessellation artist).

Lastly, we printed off some dotted paper from this web: http://www.mathcats.com/crafts.html  and created our own. Both tessellations have been designed using regular polygons so therefore they are regular tessellations.

M. chose warm colours.

I chose pinks and purples, of course!

A working wife and mother

    Twenty-six years ago today I applied for a job. A very special job. A job that I knew would not be easy, but that the benefits would far outweigh the rough times, both for me and those around me. The requirements were endless. I had to be loving, patient, understanding, forgiving, tireless, firm, quick thinking... and so the list went on. When I went for the interview and the One in charge and I were talking, I admitted that many of these skills didn't come easy to me but that I was very willing to learn. I promised Him I would do my best. This job was to be a full-time affair, and I would have do dedicate many, many of my hours if I was to do it well. I understood that sometimes things would be tough and that I might possibly have to work all three shifts in a row, with little time for a break.
    As we concluded the interview He said that if ever I needed someone to talk to, or it seemed that things were just getting too much for me to handle, if I was thankful or exhausted, in need of material items or anything else, then I should speak with Him. It didn't matter what time of the day or night it was, He would always be there to listen. Always. He explained that He would never give me more than He thought I was capable of. As I got up to leave He added, "Remember, if you do your job properly your happiness will be unmeasurable".

Needless to say, I was given the job and here I am, 26 years later, still 'a working wife and mother' and, as always, enjoying every single moment it.

A Wednesday in June

Today has been another warm, sunny day so I took my camera out to the garden and took some photos of the flowers which have grown up this year. The advantage of having...er...shall we say...um...let's call it an alternative garden, is that flowers just seem to appear many times, and not always the same ones each year.

Great Mullein

Geranium creeper

Caroline

Cactus

Lantana

Purple cape daisies

Another type of cactus

Making rainbows

I mentioned recently that we had been studying rainbows and also that we had made one. Here's how.

You will need:

# A piece of white paper, A4 size
# An open bowl (we used a plastic salad bowl)
# A rectangular mirror
# A lump of old placticine (you will have to throw it away after the experiment as it turns very gooey)
# Water
# Strong sunlight

Method:

1. Fill the bowl with water almost to the top.
2. Place the placticine along the base of the mirror and place the mirror in the bowl, resting on the side at a 45º angle. (The plasticine is to stop the mirror from slipping in the bowl but you may find that you need to use a little more on the edge of the bowl to keep the mirror in place.)

3. Position the bowl so that the mirror catches direct sun light. !!Be careful there is nobody looking at the mirror as you do this!!

4. Now move the white paper so that it catches the reflection of the mirror. This might take a few moments to achieve. It is here where you will see the light refracted, or, in other words, your rainbow.

  

It wasn't easy to take this photo, because of the light differences but you can get a basic idea of what to expect. 

Here is a diagram of how it works

The ray of white light falls from the sun and enters the raindrop. As it passes through the drop the ray decomposes into the seven colours that we so well know. It then bounces off the back of the drop, travels again through, to leave the drop at the front. This, plus millions and millions of other drops the same, is what we see in the sky as a rainbow. The more drops, the stronger we see the colours.

Some jokes

Here are two jokes that M. has recently made up:

What do you call an egg with lots of letters?
A scrabbled egg!

What did one detective pencil say to his colleague when they found themselves in a huge, unknown bag?
This...is a pencil case!

I'm proud of him. This shows how much control he has over the English language. It might be his mother's tongue but, just like the others, he has learnt three languages at the same time.

Sunday breakfast

Sunday breakfast is a special time for us. It is the only time in the whole week that we get to eat a meal all of us together. There is almost always something a little special to eat, prepared either by myself or A., and we tend to stretch the time we have to the limit.

Yesterday was no exception and this is a photo of what I prepared.

Delicious served with black chocolate and fresh orange juice!

It is prepared using a milk and egg batter and you also need bread which is neither fresh nor hard or stale. The bread is dipped into the batter and fried both sides, then laid out on kitchen paper and sprinkled with sugar.

I would be interested to know what it is called in other parts of the world, as I know that it is a pretty international food. Here it has as many names as people who prepare it!

Toasties, French toast...what else?

Half term - a little late!

As this week is half term in England,  we, too, are taking things a little easier. Much of the week we have been busy in the garden, planting, weeding and having a general tidy-up.

Here are some photos of our hard work.

M. tidying up the pavement a bit.

The weather has been particularly dry and very windy so we have had to start seriously watering the plants.

An almost weed free spud patch.

Courgette plants

Some of the onions

8 of our 24 lettuces

Dwarf bean plants

We also made rainbows, studied tessellations for maths and designed and coloured our own. For language we studied punctuation, and for Spanish we looked at conjunctions and prepositions. We continued with our piano practice for music and M. has read three books in the Hollister series in Spanish. 

For this week's Bible studies we have learnt of Abraham and Lot, how and why they separated and the consequences of their decisions.