Week 6. Lots of crafting
Monday 27th April. I started out with my normal run, and the rest of the Monday morning routine (bit of zumba with Karen with Bunnykins, then later with both girls for shimmy & strengthen - using tin cans as resistance weights). Got in some cleaning. Then tried to engage Bunnykins in a task in the afternoon. She was already playing with her snap circuits, so we had a go at the ones relating to conduction in water and how salt improves the conductivity. We didn't spend ages on it, but it was a positive enough start to my aim to spend more time with the girls.
Tuesday afternoon I went seeking them out and realised that i would like to document them in their natural habitat a little...
Woo's favourite place is this chair by the window. Usually when I knock and come in, she's on her phone here. Sometimes she's reading a book. And sometimes just staring out the window at the people in the park.
Bunnykin's room looks like chaos, but there is order here. She is actually a well organised person. She sets out her clothes for the morning each bedtime. She has piles of books that she purposefully intends to be in those piles. Her dolls and Sullvanians live a very tidy and well organised life though again, it can sometimes appear chaotic - but it's not chaos it's just full of detail.
Woo had some coding work to do. She's not massively technically savvy or confident, so this was something she wanted me to sit with her and talk through. Normally she works very independently on the work set from school. I was very happy to sit in the special chair and chat with her about it.
She didn't want her photo taken. Again, I just wanted to capture this scene of her working away in this spot in the corner of her room. She has added photos and posters. There are all manner of little things with faces (stress balls, pencil sharpers, pen toppers, toys)... it does make me smile to sit here and look at the colours and all the things she has around her to make the place her own.
The coding had a number of stages, the final one was creating an artwork consisting of randomly placed, sized and coloured rectangles. I was impressed at how she kept persevering, but then that is her self chosen middle name 😀.
The afternoon was drizzly, but this finally seemed like an opportunity to go for a walk in the park when things were quiet. We mooched around, most of the time on the grass to avoid the few park users there were.
We went to check out an information board in the park which had this photo; it had been causing some discussion on our street WhatsApp group.
The photo above was labelled as the main gates 1912. But as you can see in the photo below, they are quite different from the gates in the photo below (no date) which shows the main gates as they are now. The other interesting clue was that the sign on the fence above says Mangotsfield Road - none of the roads around here are called this now.
We wandered around the park, looking at all the gates. Assessing the angle of view back to the clocktower and considering explanations including could this be a mistake - maybe the photo isn't of Page Park.
Wednesday I was out for my run at 7:30am. It was a beautiful morning. It doesn't look it here but the park is still really busy at this time and I tend to run in the road for a good part of the way around to avoid other joggers.
My afternoon attempts to support the girls resulted in me sitting on some precious blue-tack of Bunnykins and her getting very upset about me stealing away her blue-tack😕. I myself was a little more distressed about my trousers, which as Bunnykins said back in a much earlier post (first video on 8th May 2012 http://teamchallis.blogspot.com/2012/06/may.html) "were good friends for me". These trousers were perfect lockdown trousers - elasticated waist and all 😂.
While having a birthday chat with Tim & Deirdre (happy birthday Tim), the girls relayed the story of the gate mystery. Mark then had a sudden thought and went squirreling around in the fire proof box to find our deeds. Turns out that the road along the far side of the park used to be called Mangotsfield Road. Which then confirmed that the picture was of the main gates. A little more internet searching revealed that the gates had been remodeled in 1931 to put in "memorial gates"...which reminds me that we intended to go back out to find clues to what was being memorialized...something for this week 😀
On Thursday afternoon Bunnykins wanted to make some furniture for her Sullvanians. She decided on making a dressing table with mirrors. First job was to draw up some plans.
Woo had a science experiment to test the suitability of different beaks for different environments and foods. We all got involved and it did get a little competitive.
Bunnykins also wanted to make a little blackboard.
The dressing table:
We decided that some jewelry was needed if you have such a fine dressing table...
So we made some beads and then put the table in place.
Our companion hosts from the first year of Chernobyl Children's Life Line popped across as they had been given presents from one of the girls we hosted Dziana. Such a lovely girl. We ended up getting extra glasses for her - her eyesight was so bad - it sounds like she has gone on to do great things at school.
...though i need to get the letter translated.
Thursday night has the usual clap for carers at 8pm, always a moving moment (even with Woo banging a pan in my ear!).
On Friday Bunnykins was still enthused by the thought of all the things she could make - this time it was a bunk bed for her Sullvanians. I did the cutting with the rusty old stanley knife, but she did all the design and construction.
Cutting up packing foam to make mattresses:
Woo had been up in her room weaving a blanket from some lovely fluffy yarn I had got from a charity shop back in March.
A crafting-tastic day.
I was glad to see the weekend arrive. Mark made us pancakes as usual, but he'd got a bit of a treat in the shopping by adding in some bacon. Favourite breakfast ever 😋 - makes me think of being at Centre Parcs with Mark and the girls or with the Mummies.
Bunnykins was so pleased with her bunks, there was only one thing to do...
Make another set!
We had had delivery of the trestle table legs finally that mean we can have a variable height craft table in the work room. It can be at standing height (perfect for cutting out), or lowered to a normal table height or packed away all together.
I wanted to make some new trousers. It was such a pleasure to work in this room - with all the right tools and materials available and all the space i needed. It is such a privilege to have the space to do this and then to have actually got the work done to turn it from a garage. Mark and his Dad have worked so hard on it over the last few years. I feel so grateful for it.
Mark finished the bench that he and the girls had been fixing. He needed to replace all the slats so had chopped them down from fence posts we no longer needed. It's nice to have it back in place - another spot to appreciate the garden from.
Bunnykins was in and out of the craft room finishing off her projects. I just listened to podcasts or music and got on with my sewing, very happy to have the coming and going.
That evening Woo decided she was going to try sleeping out again. Made it to 10:30pm... maybe next time 😀
Sunday morning at 10am I have been joining in with Pippa's facebook yoga session. It's nice to have that bit of familiar routine. But I miss glancing over to grin at Ben during a funny position or when I am stifling a fart 😂...I guess on the upside I don't need to do any stifling.
On another note - an unexpected side effect of all this lockdown is my feet are in better condition than they've been for a long time. Not spending time in shoes and socks has left the skin on my feet much nicer. Though I am sure my feet have probably spread terribly and I will never be able to wear my shoes ever again (ok maybe that's a bit dramatic).
After that it was back to the trousers...still a bit to finish off but I was pleased with how it had gone.
Bunnykins had been going to Pippa's mindfulness and yoga sessions for kids. It's such a shame that it can't continue as I think right now we all need some mindfulness. But Pippa had so kindly decided to gift all her students with a mindfulness kit. Bunnykins was surprised and delighted. It was such a lovely and kind thing.
Woo used to go to Pippa's class and I had one of her little box of mindfulness kits in the present drawer - that made me think that it might be useful for Woo also. (Bear was chuffed)
Bunnykins got her constructions finished, so I wanted a few pictures of them in place.
I didn't realise, but she'd also made a shelf unit (for her trophies) out of some old bendy straws.
Reflecting on this week, just makes me more grateful. I feel very comfortable in my house. And I love having the craft room. I am so pleased and grateful we started on that project and eventually got it done.
I am not really missing the outside world, but I am missing the people in it. 💗
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