Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

Saturday, 27 July 2013

Camping, bikes and all-terrain boards

Dd on her "new" bike bought at the car boot sale where we had a weekend camp.



And some more photos from our camping trip several weeks ago.






And here, ds2 gives the all-terrain board an airing in the park.

Must be summer.




Tuesday, 20 July 2010

We are back...

What the Home Educators Summer Festival (HESFES) means to us...

Practising circus skills:



Developing stunt skills (strapped with bungee cords to a water carrier!):

Creating marvellous things out of balsa wood:

Secret rendevous in children's tents:




Sharing campfires every night:



Making and listening to music:


Sweatshirts nearly as loud as the music:




Watching movies at the Groovie Movie tent:


Dusting off those big hats and old (2005) HESFES t-shirts:


Making hula hoops:

Remembering old skills:

Making new friends:

And joining up with old ones:

Searching for the Home Education crock of gold at the end of that rainbow that appears every year (and trying to forget about the stomach bugs, scary toilets, home-made arrows shot in eyes, children's minor punch ups, the tears, tantrums and nits):

Staying up way past bedtime:
And finally...
recovering from a busy week:

Thursday, 21 January 2010

Going going gone...

One of my best friends is leaving tomorrow to go to live in Australia. It seems such a long way away and such a big goodbye.

We met at the Health Centre, introduced by one of the health visitors because our sons were born on the same day and we lived in the same street. It was 8 years ago. Most days we would walk with prams (and me with toddler too) to and from shops, just for something to do, someone to chat to. We would have girlie nights in, share some wine (sometimes too much) and talk about stuff, just stuff. Her kids went on to school. Mine didn't. But we kept up. Sometimes having to skirt around the 'education' conversations to maintain our friendship. We still had enough in common. And then, over a year ago, she announced that they were emigrating. So our girlie nights were full of talk of visas and money and house selling. It was painful for me to see her excitement at leaving.

Where I live is such a transient place. People come. People go. Sometimes they stay long enough to make an impression. But very few people stay for long. When you get to my age you don't make friends that easily. Well not those sorts of friends.

Of course we'll keep in touch, a bit. Facebook is handy and I've downloaded skype. But it isn't the same. No doubt she'll post photos of her new house, the beautiful beach, swimming pools, barbecues at Christmas, and I'll be envious of the adventure compared with my very very dull life. But we wont see each other again. There wont be any point telling her that I'm decorating the conservatory, or clearing out the shed, or that ds2 has done this or that, or that I've slipped on my promise not to eat chocolate. Because she wont be there to see it or share it with me, and besides nothing much here changes anyway.