Last Friday afternoon, Oscar got into his first confrontation.
I picked him up from nursery at 3.00 p.m. as usual. Then we wandered round to the school to pick up the girls.
Mole was in the playground, and he and Oscar zoomed off to play some elaborate game with some cones that the teacher had left out after P.E.
It was all going swimmingly until a bigger boy, who should still have been in class, wandered over. He has a reputation as a trouble maker, and Mole’s mother and I kept a weather eye out, unsure as to what the boy was doing. He started to pick up the cones. We relaxed a little, assuming that the teacher had sent him to pack up.
Then I noticed that Oscar was right up in the child’s face, talking very earnestly. I paid closer attention, but nothing else happened except that the bigger boy looked faintly bemused.
Children started pouring out of classrooms and I called Oscar to walk round to pick up Tallulah. As we were going round the corner I tuned in to what Oscar was saying. I thought he had been singing, but no. He was hollering:
Buggerhead!
Bugger HEAD
You are a BUGGERHEAD!
I asked him to stop swearing and reminded him that swearing was not allowed.
He looked at me very earnestly and said:
But mama. That boy was being horrible to Mole. So I just had to stand up and say to him: YOU ARE A BUGGERHEAD! Because he was hurting my friend.
I never realised before what a peculiarly aching sensation the mixture of pride, shame and amusement was.
The buggerhead thing made me laugh, because it is his entirely new invention. It reminded me so much of that sketch in Alan Partridge where he has the political debate. If you forward it to about eight minutes you’ll find it:
Jennifer and Mrs Toni brought Hayleigh for her 2 year old photography session. Oh, I did say she was 2, yes of course, a lot of playing, running around, picking flowers, giving mom all kinda love and just having fun. Thank you Jennifer we so loved photographing Hayleigh, she is a beautiful child and it was just a picture perfect day!! Happy Birthday Hayleigh!!!
From the car park at Peak Hill, walk out to the cliff top at Peak Hill and then along the coast to High Peak. Remember to look back for superb views over Sidmouth and beyond to the white cliffs at Beer Head. As you descend steeply from Peak Hill, take in the ruggedly beautiful Ladram stacks. These pinnacles provide homes for cormorants, terns and various species of gull.
From Ladram the route is more level but still offers superb views of the coast and inland. Pass beyond Brandy Head – its name hinting of previous smuggling activity – and Danger Point, before reaching the mouth of the Otter. Before following the estuary inland, you’ll pass a Second World War Pill Box that has been converted to a bat hibernaculum. The estuary is good for bird watching, and there is a bird hide nestling in the woods above the river. You may wish to stop at Otterton Mill to have a late cheese platter or a soup.
After reaching White Bridge, follow the Otter upstream through open farmland with the striking river cliffs to your right hand side topped with natural woodland. Leave the river at a footbridge near the village of Colaton Raleigh and join a narrow road at Burnthouse Farm. Follow it for a few hundred yards northwards before turning right on to Passaford Lane. This ancient sunken Devon track way, climbs steeply eventually passing through woodland and up onto Mutters Moor, an area of ancient lowland heath.
You may be lucky enough to spot a Dartford Warbler here. The moor was named after Sam Mutter, a celebrated smuggler who sailed out of Sidmouth. He is reputed to have taken his contraband into Exeter by wagon hidden under turfs and faggots cut from the heath. The walk from here is level and returns you to the car park at Peak Hill.
In case of emergency, call Dee on 07970 814568
Peak Hill, Sidmouth (Postcode for Sat Nav:EX10 0NW), Lime Kiln Budleigh Salterton (Postcode for Sat Navs: EX9 6JD). Toilets Ladram Bay & Otterton
5 Orange Potatoes has made a habit of exploring this wonderful natural world and in the Nest Making post, has photos of the various nests they have found. They also encourage young ones (and us!) to make our own nests to hang in the trees. How perfect for this Spring!
photo, 5 Orange Potatoes
P.S. 5 Orange Potatoes are now on Etsy! Come see the shop of handmade felties inspired by nature’s fauna and flora
I forgot to mention, as I said thank you in person, that my mum donated to the EveryChild fund
Please keep the donations and squares coming in! I have almost finished sewing the new squares onto the blanket and then I will post pictures.
Remember you can follow Planet Blanket on here by subscribing, on Facebook, Twitter and Ravelry. All the links can be found on the right hand side of the page! Thankyou!!!
I wrote this a long time ago, in another place… The 25 Skills Every Mother Needs: 1) Lying convincingly: An absolute MUST, this skill has multiple applications, from protecting your child’s innocence ( “Mummy was helping Daddy to mend the zip on his trousers”) to just getting your own way without a fuss (“All toy shops close at two o’clock, it’s the law”).
2) Doing homework in a way that sounds like a really clever child: God bless computers, now at least you don’t have to do the handwriting to match.
3) Changing a pooey nappy (diaper) anywhere: On a bus, at the opera, in a supermarket …Always carry the equipment and an absolute conviction that you are allowed to “do that here”. Develop speed.
4) Psychiatry: It’s really important to listen to your child and to help them to see that most worries have a practical solution. Don’t blow off their concerns but don’t make the child a wuss either… For instance, a bullied child doesn’t need lessons in self-esteem as much as they need lessons in boxing. Or running.
5) Medical Diagnosis/Care: This takes experience (it helps if you are a hypochondriac, or a medical professional). Actually, asking your own Mother for help/advice is good. It might be her one chance to be something other than an interfering old bag.
6) Making home-made Play-Doh: Google the recipe.
7) Having a silent orgasm: Nobody wants the kids to wake up in time to damage themselves mentally forever AND to watch the clean-up operation that nobody does in films. Convey your pleasure by pulling a series of grateful faces and grabbing the sheets with your fists.
Opening your bowels, wiping your bottom, washing your hands and being out of the bathroom in 30 seconds: Another “must learn” skill…Unless you want your child to watch you crapping, or to be out there setting fire to the cat.
9) Effective bribery: Know what they want and use this skill sparingly for best effect.
10) Talking in riddles (to other adults): Nothing is more fun than talking “over your child’s head”. Make eye contact with the other adult and use the most surreal method of telling them stuff you don’t want your kid to know.
11) Reading stories whilst secretly leaving out half the pages: Bedtimes would be so much later without it but bright kids do tend to catch on. “There once was a very hungry caterpillar, who turned into a beautiful butterfly. The end.”.
12) Checking the history of your child’s internet usage: Someone has to do it but be prepared to be shocked. My child had been watching a short art movie called “Hardcore Detention” for instance. Hmmm.
13) Teaching the facts of life, whilst not spoiling your child’s image of you as being a virgin: “How did you get ME then? By doing THAT with Daddy?!”…”No darling, I bought you in a shop and frankly I wish I gone for a more expensive baby now.” Is what I said.
14) Eating half chewed/sucked sweets (candy): Men can’t do it. Thing is, toddlers decide they don’t want to finish whatever is in their mouths at the most inopportune moments and you don’t always have a tissue.
15) Making vegetables seem like a treat: “Leave those if you like, Mummy wants to eat them anyway”.
16) Reading stories in various accents and voices: Kids don’t know your accents are crap and never be afraid to change what they say either. I’ve almost made my kids VOMIT with laughter by making lovely little characters, um, less polite than normal.
17) Not laughing when your child is being naughty in a really funny way: I can’t do this.
18) Humiliating your child in front of his/her friends: I’m brilliant at this though.
19) Making sure your teenage child has condoms, whilst simultaneously conveying that you don’t want them to have sex: “There are condoms in this drawer for anyone who needs them. I haven’t counted them either” and then FROWN.
20) Giving praise without adding some pressure: DO say “This painting is wonderful!” DON’T add “If you really practice you might be a famous artist! I could have done that but I was TOO LAZY!”.
21) Cleaning your child with spit: And a hankie.
22) Learning about/watching popular kids’ TV shows: Helps you to communicate with your child. Also, you’ll thank yourself if later in life you get a boyfriend 20+ years younger than you, as it means you can chat to him about them too.
23) Choosing, buying and wrapping a present, plus choosing a card AND getting a child to write it, all in transit to another child’s party, located 15 mins from your house: Need I say more. I’m afraid I have had a LOT of practice at this.
24) Being the Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas: Awww. It isn’t hard.
25) Dealing with tantrums: Walk away and don’t look back. They’ll soon come running. Or refer to number 9).
I always enjoy reading ‘Lord of the Flies‘, and I’ve read it a good few times now. A lot of people I know really dislike the book because they were forced to read it in school, and dissecting a piece of work under classroom conditions doesn’t always show something in it’s best light. But I think this is one of the first books I ever really fell in love with. I don’t think I got the significance of everything when I first read it, and probably still don’t. Golding’s language is so sparing and poetic, it’s a strange contradiction, like a blunt subtlety.
“A single drop of water that had escaped Piggy’s fingers now flashed on the delicate curve like a star.”
Isn’t that just beautifully written?
Well, it gets me in the guts. The way Golding portrays children just makes perfect sense, it feels so incredibly natural. It doesn’t seem forced. When I read the book for the first time as a teenager, I wasn’t so far away from the age of the protagonists, and I instantly recognised, in a distant way, that hierarchical system children adopt amongst themselves. It has a lot of the subtleties that adult societies house, but it’s far more basic and crass. The whole thing whiffs of Herbert Spencer’s ‘survival of the fittest‘ shtick, which Golding communicates so effortlessly.
So yeah, I really adore this little book. Plus I’m a sucker for a talking pig’s head on a stick.
“You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?“
Jennifer and Mrs Toni brought Hayleigh for her 2 year old photography session. Oh, I did say she was 2, yes of course, a lot of playing, running around, picking flowers, giving mom all kinda love and just having fun. Thank you Jennifer we so loved photographing Hayleigh, she is a beautiful child and it was just a picture perfect day!! Happy Birthday Hayleigh!!!
Opening your bowels, wiping your bottom, washing your hands and being out of the bathroom in 30 seconds: Another “must learn” skill…Unless you want your child to watch you crapping, or to be out there setting fire to the cat.