Presenting Fantastic Mr Bertie, dressed as Fantastic Mr Fox for World Book Day. His school asked that all the children come to school for WBD dressed as a Roald Dahl character. Initially he was keen on Badger from Fantastic Mr Fox, then he got stuck for a long time on Sophie from BFG before finally deciding on said Fantastic Fox himself.
Being a literal kind of child he insisted on a bow tie and was angling for a waistcoat too, as per Quentin Blake’s illustrations. He wasn’t that keen on the tail on his costume either since FMF loses his early on in the story. I was tempted to hack it off and leave a bloodied stump. But I’m not ‘that’ mean.
“I just LOVE books” said Bertie as he climbed in to bed with us this morning. Music to my ears.
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White lies, or ‘fibs’ as my mother called them…we tell them all the time don’t we, mostly without even thinking about it. And sometimes we tell big fat black lies, willfully and knowingly. Sometimes to be cruel, sometimes because we think it’s the kindest thing to do.
As we were getting changed after swimming yesterday Bertie, out of nowhere, suddenly said, “Mummy. Everything is good with our planet isn’t it? Everything is alright with our planet?”. I didn’t really understand what he was asking, so I queried it and he just repeated the question, rather earnestly and optimistically.
How do you answer that? More specifically, how do you answer a 5 year old asking that? He knows a bit about some world issues, but in a very broad sense. So how do you begin to discuss the impact of famine, disease, political instability, lack of renewable energy sources, global warming, religious fundamentalism etc etc etc. And now MrSpud tells me the sun is ‘beginning to stir again’ and is about to start chucking out stuff that could take down the world’s electricity supplies and, scream, the internet for 20 plus years. Sheesh, the threats are coming from near and far.
So ‘is’ everything alright with our planet? Well of course not. Is everything alright in his own, little, tiny world right now? Yes it is. Ignorance is bliss, or so the saying goes. There’s no excuse for ignorance of course but, aged 5, I think he can be excused.
‘Is everything alright with our planet?’ he asked. ‘Yes’, I said…whilst crossing my fingers and envying him his innocence.
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A little light-hearted fun at bedtime…alas the emphasis on ‘fun’ was too great and they are still bouncing around now at 8.30pm which is waaaaaaay past their bedtime. All the photos are on the soft side but there we go. Here’s Diggy, making some fine tune adjustments to the Holga. Pity there’s no film in it of course…
Bertie battles with the beastly Polaroid…
The master at work. “Click!” he says triumphantly…”Good one!”
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Oh..The Gallery! Haven’t done this for a while, but then I haven’t come up for air for a while either. Tara’s theme this week is Mother Nature. I was a bit stumped as about 90% of my photos fall in to this category, but then I remembered this shot. I took it last Spring, along with many others, in a wonderful poppy field. I particularly love this one, although I never shared it for reasons I can’t remember.
I love the blurry Diggy and Bertie pottering along in the background. You can’t really see it but Bertie is hauling a couple of massive sugar beet along with him, left over from the previous year’s crop. Strange child…
Mother nature…flowers, greenery, megaboys…the holy trinity. x
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We have snow..blah…it’s really deep…blah….school is shut…blah….it’s really really annoying because I’m really really busy…blah…can’t get off the farm…blah…blah blah BLAH.
So we stayed home and the boys laughed at my pathetic attempts to light the fire. We homeschooled (geography, the Romans, literacy and maths…not bad for 3 and 5 year olds). We made stuff. We crocheted (well, me and Bertie did and Diggy just just up wool). We drew, we coloured in, we made a lot of hot chocolate and when we were all done with that we went for a Snow Day Walk on the farm and tobogganed until we were blue with cold.
And some of our number snapped some crappy photos with their iPhone.
Very cold pigs…
Very cold child (note sunhat…there is a winter hat underneath…he was just ‘trying something’)
Very cold horse water buckets…
Very cold office, where no work was done today…oh, and tobogganing child…
Another very cold child…note lack of gloves…
And then we came in and watched crap telly and all was one in the world.
Please let it not snow not snow not snow anymore. Some of us may have a significant birthday at the weekend and plans to go away without the children for the first..time…ever. The snow can go now. Thanks a lot.
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Mr Bertie, hotfooting it across Cromer beach and weaving through the pillars of the pier. Reminds me a bit of Don’t Look Now with that red top and the fleetingness of the composition. Shudder.
I love all the funny mispronunciations the boys have had in their vocabulary along the way and so wish I’d kept a list. My current favourite is ‘mooniac’ which is what Bertie calls someone who is acting a bit crazy. I’m assuming he means ‘maniac’ but mooniac is way cooler. “You mooniac!” he says. Hugely preferable to his other insult du jour, ‘poo poo head’, which is always followed by comedy guffaws and gales of laughter. Yes, very funny my boy…you mooniac. xx
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Bertie went to his Big School today for a ‘settling in’ morning. I’ve no idea what it involved other than ‘a drink, a story, playing in the dragon’s cave and then you came to get me’. That’s a big improvement on his usual response to, ‘What did you do at nursery today?’ which is, ‘Nothing’. Great. So that’s money well spent then…
Here’s a quick iphone snap of Mr B having a last minute cuddle with His Love, our neighbours’ daughter who also went for her settling in session too. Bertie loves Imogen, but Imogen loves another. It’s a complicated 4 year old love ‘thing’. But, when the chips are down, these two stick together and what better way to start school than with a reassuring hug from a friend you’ve known since you were born?
We arrived at school, they went in to the classroom and I hung around in the doorway for a bit with Imogen’s father looking, and feeling, like a spare part. It was quickly apparent we weren’t required, so we shouted goodbye and they hardly even glanced at us, murmuring something that could have been ‘bye’ but quite possibly was ‘will you just get out of here you’re embarrassing us’. So we left and that was that.
Isn’t there supposed to be a bit of crying and clinging on? Or is that just for the parents? Sniff.
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Please excuse my dark and moody processing. Just trying something. Just getting out of my comfort zone (oh WHY do I have “I went to the danger zone” from Top Gun playing through my head as I write that? Embarrassing)
Here’s Mr B, gripping on for dear life whilst scaling the scallop on Aldeburgh beach today. Looks terrifying doesn’t it? He was, ooooh, about a whole FOOT off the ground. I’d laid a safety net of course and had an ambulance on standby…
Later both boys made deposits of knee skin on the beach path whilst cycling, cried a few (hundred) tears and were consoled with fish & chips on the beach. To round things off nicely, Mr B made a second skin deposit on our garden path as we came home. There’s a leeetle bit less of my boys tonight than there was this morning. Oh well.
Taken with the Lensbaby yet again. I love the Lensbaby so much it’s like an actual baby to me. But without all the crying and whinging and wailing. SCORE!
I am really pleased with this shot. Am I allowed to say that? Ooops, I just did.
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Oh how I laughed. For the last 10 days or so I’ve been itching to get a poppy field shot. The field I snapped last year is covered in white daisies this year, but another field just a short drive away was absolutely magnificent. Probably the biggest poppy field I’ve ever seen and in a gorgeous position for an evening shoot. But I couldn’t get near enough to it without trespassing, and there was nowhere easy to park. I’d just about given up on it when I happened to meet the landowner at a party and asked permission to shoot. By the time I got there to shoot the poppies had, inevitably, gone way past their best. Weep.
Yesterday MrSpud spotted ‘something orangey red’ about 3 fields away from the house. Quick trip down the fields ET VOILA! A wonderful, wonderful poppy field….right on the doorstep. And it’s absolutely at its best right now. My photographic happiness is complete.
I bribed the boys to sit still for a photoshoot. They weren’t that keen at first…
Threats were added to the bribes…
Once they were off there was no stopping them…
I can’t imagine there are many years left of them being so unselfconsciously loving towards each other. So, for now, I’ll let my heart melt a little bit each time they kiss and cuddle each other. And take a million photos and a make a million memories. xxx
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