Cranham Feast 2013 (by sarah)

I forgot my camera on the Saturday - boo hiss - Alaric I believe took some photos on his phone but I do not yet have them to pop on the blog!

Saturday we arrived and I set up face painting which I was doing for the whole afternoon inbetween talking to friends and the like 🙂 Jeany took part in the Boundary Race but was sad she came last - the fact that she was talked into doing the race by the first aider who was dealing with her ouchy chest (she tried to summersault on the bouncy castle and had a collision) didn't seem to mean anything to her - we pointed out she'd raced whilst injured and after Christmas Daddy should be able to start running again so they can train for next year!

Sunday we got all the kids sports stuff ready - softy play kit, rackets, balls of various sizes, skipping ropes, hula hoops and more and drove to the cricket pitch were I felt bad about having to get cricket peeps to move cars off of were the kids sports and games were going to be. Then we walked to the church for the flower festival and musical interlude,

Mary sat down expectantly on the seats awaiting the music but got bored about half way through and was grumpy that mummy and daddy were on different rows and insisted on going from one to the other until Al gave up and took the girls outside to run around. Music was lovely with flute, organ, oboe? and sax, I bumped into a friend I had not seen for ages but as she was the flutist it was a quick hi!

Scarecrows featured heavily in the flower festival this year - I wish I'd found a few more to photograph but it is a busy weekend for us 🙂

The Banner and belt (which has been missing for a few decades!) were waiting for Al at the Church entrance, And the flowers inside were amazing - I didn't photograph as much as I wanted as chatting meant I ran out time - bad Sarah.

Alaric has carried the Feast Banner for the last few years - this year we had three cubs (one of which was Jean) and they had a procession from the church to the field were the service was being held and then a later one up to the cricket field.

I was a bit worried as to fit all the sports stuff in we had taken our car crate out of the boot and so we had no rug to sit upon during the service but a nice man (not sure who he was) had put out a series of blankets so we sat on the most purple one - as in me and Mary as Al and Jean had to be up with the banner. Mary was taking it all soooo seriously - NOT!

It was an animal service so of course there were animals! Everywhere! And me and Mary got loving kisses off of a black doggie and Mary wouldn't believe me that they were DONKEYS and not horses. Then she loudly named all the animals and ones that weren't there but she thought should have been and then she pretended to be a cat. I don't think anyone noticed in all the baaring and barking! I hope no one noticed she'd broken my top too and announced loudly that Mummy has boobies,

There was a silver band and we sang the Cranham Feast hymn for the second time which was nice. There was someone important taking the service but I'm really lame and knowing what's what with sorts of thing sand only remember that the lovely sheep were his.

Mary found the village sheep and as she had done the day before attempted to climb into the pen with them - she almost got over the top on Saturday.

We then amassed and began to parade up the hill to the cricket ground - Al's cousins and uncle tried to help me with Mary up the hill but she was being a moo!

We then put games out for the kids to play so they weren't noisy during the handbell ringing.

I really like listening to handbells - I used to do handbells in junior school - not that I was any good!

The animals processed as well and spent the afternoon at the Cricket Club were cricket was a foot. This was interesting whilst trying to run the children's sports!

It was actually quite funny 🙂

And lastly we finished with hula hooping and football.

And that's that for another year!

Shelters in the Woods (by sarah)

Last night we went to the woods and built shelters with the cubs for their last meeting of term, it was a huge success and everyone including Mary seemed to enjoy it.

I have also been finishing off some songs and putting them on Bandcamp. I am tending towards the arty side here as in one of them I wanted to sound like discordant fragments that stick in you mind and that sort of thing! Over the last few days I've uploaded four new songs.

Weaving the Clay (by sarah)

Wednesday saw mine and Alaric's 9th Wedding Anniversary, the theme is willow and pottery and though we haven't done anything with this theme yet we will. It's weird to think we have been married this long, been together for over a decade now and still we are just us.

We spent the evening at Cranham County Scout Head Quarters with lots of kids - no it wasn't a re-run of the wedding it was the Water and Fire BBQ and water fight for all three sections of the village scouts of which Alaric runs the cubs. We had a great time and the girls more so and though my nose got burnt and we had forgotten about our anniversary until Al's phone bleeped and told us, it was a good one 🙂

Here are the photos 🙂

The girls ready for a water fight and fun!

Jean had been soooo excited for days we went along early to help set up and her and Mary played Pooh Sticks until the other kids arrived.

Mary attempted to take part in the water fight and even managed to squirt some water though she didn't get the whole shooting other people thing!

Apart from the assault course over the stream there was a mudslide set up - Jean didn't quiet get the whole slide part of it at first 🙂

Eventually she got the idea 🙂

Mary loved exploring with little cried of 'water!'

I spent an age blowing bubbles for the kids to catch or shoot, Mary was the biggest fan of this activity though it was pretty popular all round 🙂

I cooked the veggi food (hence the burnt nose!) Mary sat on a bench quietly awaiting her dinner for ages!

She conned Daddy into feeding her 🙂

Jeany found cakes without colourings 🙂

It was a good day.

In the Woods (by sarah)

We went into the woods with cubs to talk about climate change and so that they could get muddy in the stream 🙂

Mary adored the adventure running around trying to get over gates and finding dappled sunshine on the forest floor - of course she also tried to go into someones house when we came upon it!

This is not a brilliant pic but - I found a moss pig! It was on what is known as The Winni the Pooh tree and I just really think this bit looks like a pig (piglet?).

And of course the muddiest of all the children was Jean who had decided to go out in crocks and pale yellow trousers instead of wellies and water proofs like she was supposed to!

I only just managed the walk but it was completely without stick and did involve chasing a certain toddler for about an hour!

Oh What A Soggy Day (by sarah)

This evening I went to cubs with Alaric - they were doing archery at the campsite in Cranham. I wondered around at first finding the late comers but soon ended up instructing the archery like the good ol' days back at Thriftwood (though not as the archery leader as my qualification must be well expired). It started raining and got heavier and heavier but it was good fun. I did however miss the chance to photograph Jeany as I was showing her how to do it instead!

It was great fun and I have really missed stuff like this. I took photos of the campsite before the session began 🙂

Mary loved exploring though was a bit grumpy we weren't having a campfire.

Jean and Mary helped put the kit away which was really sweet. We were all drenched by the end of it 🙂