Little House in the Big Woods

Does anyone else remember reading these books? I loved all the Laura Ingalls-Wilder books and have dreamed ever since of living in a log cabin in the woods. My only qualm has been the lack of running water. Silly isn't it, darkness, cold, damp and isolation ( oh it sounds heavenly when you put it like that ) never bothered me. I have a romantic notion of hip baths in front of the fire and lots of warm cuddles afterwards but the thought of not being able to flush a toilet filled me with dread. However, I have put a fair bit of research into the ideas surrounding compost toilets and think I could manage to build one and cope with it. My main concern now is a spider biting my bum...I know it's not Australia and most of the time I can ignore the little darlings as I have slowly trained myself to respect their place in our world. So long as they are not running towards me with a pick axe and hob nailed boots I am content to let them scurry along or doze in the corner. However, living in the woods the spiders do tend to be bigger, scarier and hairier than in town so I know from my personal experiences staying with friends and family in such places that I would have to get used to their larger cousins.

Still, what I wouldn't give to be able to open the door to nature and let the children play without the constant worry of traffic and pollution and people...who knows maybe I might even get my husband back as I am sure all the noise and toxins we are forced to live with aggravate his condition and inhibit any chance of a full recovery. It is silly but I dream in greens and browns of every imaginable hue. Oh to grow my own veg, watch the chickens scrabble in the dust and maybe even a pig or 2...( yes I know I have just described my grandparents place but I don't think we would all fit in their tiny spare room, unfortunately )

Heaven take thy soul, and England keep my bones...

...the older I get the more I appreciate our beautiful country. We have such a diverse landscape, beautiful rolling hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, moorland, woodlands and coasts. We are often so busy looking over the fence and imagining greener pastures that we forget how lucky we really are. I want to fully embrace this beauty and live in harmony with it. I want to teach my children all the things my father taught us about the creatures we share this beautiful land with and respect for all who share it. I want freedom from earthly materialistic gain and I want space to see....life it happens instead of it passing us by while we are busy making plans for something else.

So if any friendly farmers or woodland folk out there would like rent us some land to possibly build a hobbit house or park a caravan on I would be very obliged...(I know I know but one can always dream).

 Fun in the spring sunshine after toddler group today.

Say cheese

 Enjoying the delights of Capstone in the snow.

 I was trying to take pictures of the different bird tracks in the snow...needless to say my phone's camera was sadly not up to the job.

 Frozen lake @ Capstone.

 Some of the lakes displaced locals.......

 Little Robin Red Breast (he was a chunky little fellow)

 Foresty frolics with some lovely like minded free range home edders.

 Craft corner.

 Quick lets make a break for it......

So I finally convinced the Ginger Ninja to give me a quick brush up on some IT basics and can now (hopefully)  upload some photos of the last week or so. I think it will look more like a weather comparison when you consider the sub-zero snow filled days that were with us only a short time ago and the balmy days we have experienced so far this week (yes I know it is only Tuesday).

Chaos is the word of the day. Trying to sort out shelving and HE stuffs, trying being the operative word here as it never seems to get anywhere just gets moved from one place to another. We enjoyed the snow last week although it did mean a change to our plans. I am trying to get to grips with blogging on a regular basis and will eventually remember to bring the cable down to upload photos. We are busy being tired at Chaos HQ and trying to find a new routine as monkey is not sleeping until very late (and I mean late, like midnight kinda late) which means the rhythm of family life is severely disrupted and we are trying to find a new tune.

New clothes xxxxx

Today was quite productive. Yay me. Had Monkey in with me all night and she slept from just after 10pm until 10 to 6 this morning......which is the longest block of unbroken sleep we have had in weeks. I also started a course today...yes another one, I do love to learn. So as well as British sign language level 1 I am also learning how to support learning in children, which is obviously geared towards learning in schools and supports the national curriculum. Afterwards I popped into a shop I never usually go in and found a beautiful dress in the sale for £10....it must have been fate.

Oh the irony...but it is interesting and I hope it will be useful in the future, plus of course as a home ed parent it helps to know your enemy. lol. I promise I will work out how to add photos etc soon, and how to put up the links to some of the blogs I follow, very interesting reading and I feel that I know them ( a little bit anyway ) which is weird but I guess that is the way it goes when you are invited into someone's life with the aid of technology.