Weird things found on the street: Found Art
I’ve been having one of my magpie days. Emptying out my pockets and the pushchair today yielded leaves the colour of fire, tin bottle tops, and this – muddy plastic packaging from a toy tool set. Looks kinda like a piece of installation art, don’t you think?
Previous weird stuff found on the street: Bernard.
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Knock Knock
My whole house smells of lilies today, and that’s because a knock on my door on Saturday morning bought me these. A huge thank you to the Flower Council of Holland who are giving away bouquets every day for 100 days and decided that I should receive some. Flowers make me a special kind of happy and waking up every morning to see a few more blooms opening has been an absolute joy. Thank you to lovely Jack at Cow PR for getting in touch and making my day.
Read MoreDefence Mechanisms
(click it to big it)
which one are you?
(scribbled on very much a hedgehog day, while I wait for my new front door to be fitted and before I go and get my limpet from nursery)
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Rainy day stories and a big bag of children’s books to win
Me and the boy are starting to settle into a new winter routine. Busy mornings at pre-school for him, and study for me, and then home early afternoon to crash. Afternoons spent kicking leaves are becoming slightly less fun, more soggy than crunchy, aside from the odd bright day, with temperatures dropping and more rain and dark dark dark coming quicker and gloomier. But truth is, although I’m missing more time outside, I’m loving our afternoons, (for the most part, don’t quote me on that one on a day I’m begging for bedtime. Ahem.) Curtains get closed early and our sofa is now a permanent nest with cushions and blankets. Kai is usually content to play on whatever adventure he’s dreamed up that day (mostly involving transforming robots and lasers at the moment, I have to say), and I knit, or clean, or work a little and we chat our lovely secret, in-joke chat and make each other laugh and fend off the grumps with snacks and painting and other indoory things. There’s definitely a touch of hibernation-mode kicking in – even I’m going to bed earlier. There’s something about winter, inbuilt in us, that breeds sitting, and hunkering down, and, oh and stories. Yes. It is definitely a time for books, too.
The people from the new Tesco Magazine Kids’ Book Club got in touch lately to tell me about their new site and share news, specifically, of the Kids’ Book Club videos that they’re starting to preview. On them, a host of famous celebs such as Alison Steadman, Caroline Quentin, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal, read aloud some of the best new kids’ books, accompanied by the books’ gorgeous illustrations. The first videos are up now, with lots more planned, and cover the whole spectrum of toddler, pre-school and primary-aged children, from picture books, right up to chapter books for older kids. As well as videos and reviews, the site shares news of new books, exclusive author content and parents’ resources. Honestly, it’s brilliant. And I’m not usually quick to endorse things.
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