Tag: family fun

Blog Link-ups and Memes, Family & Parenting, Keeping the Masses Entertained, Stuff About Me20 Comments

Beginner’s Guide to Messiah

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When Adam announced that he was buying tickets for us to take the kids to a performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Sydney Opera House the day after our Christmas party I was a little unsure of the wisdom of such an endeavour. At breakfast this morning, which we were eating at midday on account of Adam and I having gone to bed at 4am, Tom very nearly confirmed all my fears by greeting the news that we were off to the city with a massive attack of the grumps, but after I threatened dire consequences for bad behaviour and … Continue reading Beginner’s Guide to Messiah

Family & Parenting, Stuff About Me, Things We Should Talk About at the Dinner Table8 Comments

I’m really rather fond of this time of year

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Here we are at the beginning of December, my house is strewn with Christmas decorations, the kids have decorated the tree, we have strings of lights ready to festoon the garden, I have all my special Christmas candles out, the Advent calendar is hanging by the dining table, there’s Christmas music loaded up on the iPod and I’ve started my annual re-read of Connie Willis’ Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. Yes, I’m an atheist celebrating a pagan mid-winter festival co-opted by the Christian church to commemorate the birth of a man who was was almost certainly not born on the … Continue reading I’m really rather fond of this time of year

Family & Parenting, Fibre & Needle Crafts, Historical reenactment8 Comments

Beorgwic was…wet

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We left home rather later than we had intended for our trip to Beorgwic, the annual event hosted by the Ancient Arts Fellowship at the Danelaw property in the Southern Highlands. As we drove south I tweeted my fear that we would be putting the tent up in the rain, what I didn’t quite anticipate was that it would also be be dark. Pitch black dark. We put the tent up in the rain and freezing cold by torchlight. I am so very glad that putting up a geteld is incredibly quick. (Many thanks to Talisien of Blue Draco for … Continue reading Beorgwic was…wet

Family & Parenting, Historical reenactment3 Comments

Clans on the Coast

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I’m sunburned. So is Adam. But for some reason the kids seem fine, at worst they have a slight rosy glow on the cheeks. Yeah, I completely forgot to take sunscreen with us today…look, it was DARK when we left the house, the sun was the last thing on my mind! We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:00am and managed to be on the road a bit before 6:00am with half a lumber yard in the back of the car. Pretending to be Vikings involves lots of wood. Made it to Nelson Bay by about 8:00am and got all … Continue reading Clans on the Coast

Family & Parenting, Stuff About Me6 Comments

Cruickshanks Cottage Farmstay

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After driving to Brisbane in one day and spending 2 days wearing ourselves and the kids out at the Abbey festival we weren’t too keen to drive straight back to Sydney. So it’s a good thing we’d arranged to stop off for a 3 night farm stay holiday near Armidale on the way home. We arrived at the Cottage at Cruickshanks at dusk on Monday (Adam and were very glad to find our hosts Anne and Mike had the wood burning combustion heater going and the cottage nice and warm for us. Anne left us to get settled in with … Continue reading Cruickshanks Cottage Farmstay

Family & Parenting, Historical reenactment3 Comments

Holiday snippets

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We’ve just got back from a trip up to Brisbane for Abbey Medieval Festival and then back via Armidale where we stayed for a few days at Cruickshanks Cottage. While we were away the following things happened: Adam took up spinning. Tom finally got his own back-strap weaving kit (he’s been waiting a whole year). I finished reading The Handmaid’s Tale and was somewhat underwhelmed. I re-read Native Tongue 3 just in case it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. It was, if not worse. We acquired a pleasing collection of stuff to add to our re-enactment gear. Tom got … Continue reading Holiday snippets

Family & Parenting, Historical reenactment5 Comments

Lithgow Ironfest

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Yesterday we hauled ourselves out of bed at 6:15am and headed off to Lithgow for a day at Ironfest with my mum in tow. The Huscarls had a paid gig there to provide a living history display so a bunch of them were camping Friday and Saturday nights but we decided it was all too hard and that we’d just come up for the day. I packed my bead making stuff but didn’t end up using it as the club trestle table hadn’t made it to the camp. When we arrived I couldn’t wait to get into my dark ages … Continue reading Lithgow Ironfest

Family & Parenting, Keeping the Masses Entertained9 Comments

Laundry and laughter

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We often get the kids to help us deal with the mountain of clean laundry that accumulates over a week (it gets washed and dried pretty much daily but the folding and ironing is rather more erratic). Everybody comes downstairs and we chuck all the clothes on Adam’s and my bed and then spend 20 minutes yelling at the kids to stop throwing themselves on top of the pile and actually fold the bloody clothes. It’s a lot quicker than if one person has to stand there and slog their way through the whole pile themselves. Tonight, just as Adam … Continue reading Laundry and laughter

Family & Parenting, Things We Should Talk About at the Dinner Table8 Comments

Merry Beach

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We’re back! We came home a couple of days earlier than planned because I managed to do something nasty to my back and was in agony. Plus the forecast for Saturday said we’d be copping at least 35 degrees C (95F) and I stop functioning in anything more than 28 degrees. So there didn’t seem to be much point in hanging around only to spend a large part of our one remaining full day going for a drive in the air-conditioned car just to keep me sane (we’d done that once already). I didn’t take very many photos, I’m terrible … Continue reading Merry Beach

Family & Parenting, Food Glorious Food2 Comments

Muuum! Stop blogging!

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After a slow start to the day we went off to my mum’s place for lunch where we finished off the last of her Christmas ham. Then I fixed her table tennis table (it needed a couple of new screws on one of the hinges) and we had a frantic search of her garage looking for the net, paddles and balls. Mum, the kids and I took turns playing one-on-one, I think the longest rally of the day that wasn’t between Mum and I was 5 hits, we all spent much more time chasing after errant balls than actually playing! … Continue reading Muuum! Stop blogging!