Gulp!

I have joined a reading group online called areteclassical. The first book is Beowulf. I have a bilingual text and I will be starting over the next few days. I will report back once I have made a start.

There are even strange letters in the alphabet!

Eek!

areogel

We are thinking of getting some aerogel. If anyone out there has a good place to buy matchbox sized bits in England, please comment.

Brush up your German

If you click on 'Marksteine' on the right hand side of this page, you will see there is a webring with quite a few different German blogs devoted to Home Ed.

Schulpflicht and Schulzwang mean compulsory schooling.

Unerzogen and eine schulfreie Kindheit mean home schooled/unschooled and childhood without school respectively.

A great slogan: Der Schulzwang wird fallen wie die Berliner Mauer...Compulsory schooling will collapse like the Berlin Wall.

That's enough vocab for today!!

Don't worry if the sentences are too long and overwhelming, just skip to the start of the next paragraph, or read the slogans at the side.

Best wishes to the other rusty German speakers out there.

Meditation time

I had forgotten what it feels like to sit and be wishing the time wouldn't pass so fast. I keep hoping the beeper won't go off to mark the end of the time I have given myself.

Meditation observations

The irregular wind pressuring as it passes

In 3D space the birds make points of noise

I suddenly breathe out to send away a tiny fly

The warmth of my left hand resting on my right hand

The continuous movement of my heartbeat

Karting

From left: L, T and H. J, my brother, and S, my husband are not in the picture, but they were there being responsible adults. J must have been holding the camera!
Whizzing round the track. I wish they could go every week. They get such a lot of fun out of it.

Number 59

Very close to our house is a small field generally used for sheep. This year some young cattle have been put out on it. I stood by the gate to have a bit of a non verbal chat with them. One literally scampered over to see what I was like. He or she licked my hand quite a bit and had a good explore with his/her head through the bars of the gate.

I tried to tickle him/her but gentle scratching must have felt like a mosquito or something. He/she just flicked his/her skin the way they do. So I tried to remember what farmers do. I think they sort of pat them firmly, so I tried this and it seemed to be ok, no more flicking of the skin.

The tag on the ears had a long number ending in 59, so until I make up a name for my new acquaintance that will have to do.

I look forward to visiting the field again tomorrow. Today they were all chewing the cud a long way from the gate, so I just watched them all from a distance.

It will be stormy today

My peonies are in full bloom and each year this sends a message to the weather to rain hard. It is so hard to see them put forth such fabulous petals only to see them be sodden so soon after. How can I learn to let it happen and not mind so much?

I have got a brand new belkin n52te game controller. Its very useful for navigating around vista witch is a surprise.
the last belkin item we bought was a wifi router. oops. it was terrible. the interface was obscure and then the aerial broke off but this is much better and more solidly put together.
also, with this blog I am trying to emulate Dans writing style so lots of random links. comment if you hate this.

6 Things That Make Me Happy

1. Smelling the hair on my sons' heads.

2. Feeling a cat purring as I stroke him/her.

3. Smelling the damp air after rain.

4. Laughing with my brother J.

5. Feeling the damp sand under my feet.

6. Dancing until the sweat runs down me.

New Game in our House

Penny Arcade Adventures - I like the formal language and the visuals. No idea of the plot yet. What are those robots up to? This may all turn out very badly....

Buddhism for Mothers and flower arranging

Buddhism for Mothers: by Sarah Napthali.

"it is your own experience that fuels your learning. The lessons that your own life is teaching you are the most reliable and the most useful. It's your journey."

"Mothers of small children are on their own."

I remember splitting myself in two and one part of me would mother the other suffering part of me when the children were small. I also remember realising that mothers tend not to need challenges like climbing Everest, they have already done the loneliness and the mental ongoingness. No climb of Everest takes 5+ years!!

Flower arranging: I had a cleaning lady over 10 years ago who collected flowers from our garden every week and would leave me an arrangement. She inspired me to start going out with my scissors and little vase of water.

I could do a new flower arrangement every day and each one would be different. I have small vases which I use and I love each variation. I listen to each plant to see if it is saying yes or no to being cut in this way. That sounds odd, but I get a distinct no from some plants. A day at the Abbey Sutton Courtenay led by Barbara Vellacott taught me this.

Wander round the garden

A wild area where the weeds just grow like a cloud of fine flowers when the opportunity allows them to. This area of the garden used to be covered with brambles and so was a real haven for rabbits, munkjac deer and rats too. Then the wildife started digging holes in the school playing field next door so I had to put the children's ankles first. I was mortified!
Some bright tips of new growth on a fir tree/christmas tree in our back garden. Since then the tips have grown to 1.5 inches at least. And there is some spectacular bindweed now. To think I used to panic about it. Now I realise that as long as I cut it off at the root before the flowers have gone to seed there is nothing much to worry about.

My lovely healthy weeds, growing up the stem of the rose by our back door. The rose leaves have never looked so glossy and large as this year. Maybe it is because of the snow in February?

Boing

Our new trampoline is up. We all got on at once! T decided to gently toss his glasses over the side into the grass. We had to walk round carefully looking for them because he couldn't see to find them! H was the bounciest out of all of us.

It is still again

Now the wind has dropped I can take photos of the hanging wisteria. It is bursting with floweriness.
This unusual plant has extra plump berries this year. It has become a much more healthy plant over the past few years. It used to be rather spindly and unsure of itself.
The Queen Anne's Lace in the long grass where the daffodils and bluebells were. One of the places to hide easter eggs. In our garden there are so many places to hide things it becomes a hotter/colder game instead of a simple search.

My parents came to visit

My father I is smiling, I had asked him to look serious, so he immediately started to laugh!
My mother A, also looking very smart as they had just been to a funeral of an old friend.
My mother A, flicking through a book of beautiful Caspar David Friedrich reproductions. There are some lovely drawings of boats at moorings, half the sails stowed away, the tender floating behind.

I introduced my mother to Facebook too. Now I need to introduce her to herself on this blog. Busy day! Lol!

Did you know...? ...How do you know that?

I was chatting with H. He is very tolerant of my different topics of conversation. More like sound bites really. He was gaming and I was speed reading a bit of commentary on Taming of the Shrew.

All of a sudden the writer mentioned something which prompted me to ask H "Did you know that in Shakespeare's day all the actors were male, but different ages, from teenage upwards?"

"Yes" he replied. So then I asked the second classic question "How do you know that?" It turns out he found out at school. I'm really glad he has all these snippets of information in his head.

His information to me is along the lines of how to do a Ninja Defuse and various insults towards his shockingly untalented online teammates. Goodness knows what they say about him.

White Cats - Black Cats

A year ago our lovely cat Snowy died. And practically to the minute a black cat walked into our house. She has been meowing a lot, sitting on my knee, exploring right up to the top floor and doing a good impression of a cat who wants a new home.

I am not being fooled, she is sleek, well-fed, healthy, has no fight injuries and has a pink glittery collar. I did feel between her shoulder blades to see if she has been micro-chipped. No chip, but she still looks like a cat with loving humans who take her to the vet and give her worm pills!

Anyway, RIP Snowy! Our sofa looks empty without you.

French Home Ed Blogs

I have finally found some French HE blogs. Hooray. I can feel my brain stretch each time I read French.

Time to talk

At the weekend I had visitors. We discussed autonomous home education and other things. So many experiences in common, are we clones?? It is a comforting surprise to hear other people use similar words to me, describing similar events and decisions. So what we are living through is not something I am dreaming up to annoy my relatives and the more conservative humans around me, but a well-worn and interesting path.

The photo is of the flower arrangement I made before our meeting. The mug says 'Great Expectations'. It was a toss up between that and 'A Room of One's Own'. Not so relevant I thought.

The striped lawn in the background is my husband's creation.

Oh dear, how could she give in like this?

Kath. Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun:

But sun it is not, when you say it is not;

And the moon changes even as your mind.

What you will have it named, even that it is;

And so it shall be so for Katharine.

Hor. Petruchio, go thy ways; the field is won.

Since I have never read this before I am sad that Katharine has given in so gracefully. Mind you, not being allowed to sleep properly, eat properly, discuss anything logically would break anyone's will. This is a neat lesson in breaking down techniques. Even a dangerous journey and strange clothes have been used here too.

I will have to read on.....I just read a little chunk at a time as it is dense. Has this time at home with H had such an effect on my mind that I can now read Shakespeare and get it? Yes!

Am I gloomy or cheerful?

I just can't tell today. H and I went for 20 minutes to a home ed meetup. We sat in the car as this was the extent of the participation he was ok about and had agreed on yesterday. I used my mobile to check the exact start time.

So there we sat in my car in the car park. I had a ball game with me so we played catch between the front seats. It was surprisingly fun. I escaped several times to go to the loo, speak to 3 adults and one boy I know already. H spoke to no one apart from me. He smiled a lot and said he enjoyed the 'picnic in a car'. I enjoyed the breeze, leaning against the car to eat my sandwich. It was like the old couples sitting in their cars by the beach. I've always thought how peaceful they look, all snug with mugs of hot tea!

The difference between this and what I would want is enormous. Why won't H engage with the activities, the other children, the adults? He is such good fun to debate things with. So I am gloomy and cheerful at the same time.

Social chit chat

H, T and friend H are in the other room. They chat on and on in that free way people do when they don't have to do anything in particular. Two computer systems are running, two different games are being played. Some talk is coming into the room from players round the world with headsets. If it gets irritating we mute them.

My role is to prepare the table for lunch and be peaceful in the kitchen. It's relaxing to know we have the whole afternoon to spend as we please. There is only one deadline, leaving at 5pm for karting.

Camping

It's basically waiting in one place in the map, in one area, for the whole of the game, until you get the chance to kill one of the opposite team.

Here is a picture of the view along the barrel of one of the many different guns in this game. The graphics are so clear. Here H is lurking in the grass. The game he's in right now is set in the Middle East and it is called Ambush. The sun is shining, the palm trees never get any damage from all the mayhem round them, the crashed cars burn brightly.

When I think how these games could be written: sickness, decomposition, torture, corruption, they are such a sanitised fantasy. Thank goodness for that. There are no children, females, older people, animals. You respawn, ie come to life again, at the start of each round.

There are glitches in the games, players can jump from roof top to roof top, have weapons which hover in the air, even move through vertical panels which are meant to be solid. (I am thinking of the pipes section in one map). I like the glitch which lets players stay in mid air above a three pronged missile launcher. Happy days.

Sometimes we can hear the French players chatting, but it's just too fast for me to follow. The accents are the same as when I lived in France years ago.

Books, beautiful books

This is T after our visit to Mostly Books in Abingdon. He was asking for an anti-boredom budget. After discussing old pcs from ebay we hit on books instead.

Here is today's haul, T is reading the 5th book! It is Skulduggery Pleasant, The Faceless Ones.

I am in act 4 of the Shrew and of course I'm also reading something else at the same time: Guerilla Gardening. The cover is so beautiful I could eat it.

There is a website guerillagardening.com where I may join and get a name and number. Apparently no one is referred to using their surname unless they are dead. ??killed on active duty or peaceful old age?? I'll have to read it to find out.