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I didnt sleep well last night, a mixture of the air being very hot, and humid, and Asha deciding she wanted to be in our bed.

Anyway, when I finally fell asleep at around 6 am, my body slept heavily, but i woke up early to the sound of Asha playing with Daddy.

Steve had to go and help our landlord this morning, but before he went, we all sat down and did Asha’s violin practice. She is currently learning how to hold the bow, the violin and how to bow. Three VERY important skills in violin playing!

After she did this, we talked about music for a while, and then she played. This evening, she sat and supervised me practicing my Clarinet. It is the first time for a very long time I have had it out, and I have found some beginners books to work through, to help get me going with it all again.

Asha had great fun, winding up my metronome and clapped along with me, to my tunes, when I couldnt get the beat. After laughing at me, as I struggled to get going, with my clarinet, she failed to get a squeak out of it.. But then I knew she would. Is that naughty??

Between Music, she has been playing with her toys, watching the birds on the trees, and doing make and do.. Oh the joys.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfuCpt2jzeU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8YRyFFNEZY&feature=related

Once I can remeber how to embed these i will..

Amazing.

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The trusted hound of Prince Llewellyn the Great of Wales.

Llewellyn the Great (in Welsh, Llewellyn Fawr) was a prince of north Wales who united all of Gwynedd. He was born in 1173, probably in either Dolbadarn or Dolwyddelan castle, and died in 1240, of a stroke, in Aberconwy.

Llewellyn was married to Joan Plantaganet, the natural daughter of King John of England, with whom he had a son Daffydd. He was also married to a Welshwoman named Tannsgwyl Roch, with whom he had another son, Llewellyn, and a daughter, Helen.

He is also thought to have built the castle at Criccieth, on the Llyn Peninsula, around 1230.Having been left to guard his master’s infant son, the hound,  Gellert killed a wolf that attempted to attack the child Daffyd. Llewellyn, returning home to find the baby missing and Gellert’s muzzle stained with blood, assumed that the dog had destroyed his son, and stabbed it. He later found the child unharmed beneath the overturned cradle, with the wolf’s corpse beside him. The remorseful prince caused Gellert to be honourably buried on Mt. Snowden, and he named the place Beddgelert (Grave of Gellert).

If anyone fancies correcting this or adding to it, please comment it!

The Grave of Gellert..

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Asha has been feeding the birds with fat balls for a few months now, and we asked a few people for bird stuff for her for her birthday,  And this is the resulting pictures today from them!

And we must not forget the one on the fatballs in the tree now.

It was fantastic to watch.

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On Monday we went to chester zoo with some friends. We often go to our local zoo, and over the years we have taken 100’s of photographs of the animals in chester zoo, so we didnt take many this time, instead wanting to spend time with the company we had, and to spend time enjoying the new surroundings.

Asha had a fantastic time, but we did get a few good snaps of her being Asha.

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For Asha’s birthday we went up snowdon on the train.  With granny and grandad.  Luckily for us, it was a beautiful clear day, and when we got to the top Steve took a picture of Asha on the top.

Asha on top of wales

The train which runs up snowdon runs on “Dr. Roman Abt, had patented a rack and pinion system that was being used reliably in the Swiss Alps.”  source: http://www.snowdonrailway.co.uk

“Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa, pronounced [?? ?w?ðva]) is the highest mountain in Wales and is Great Britain’s highest mountain south of the Scottish Highlands. It is also higher than anywhere in Ireland. It has been described as “probably the busiest mountain in Britain.”[1] It is located in Snowdonia National Park (Welsh: Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri), in Gwynedd. The summit is known as Yr Wyddfa, Welsh for “the tumulus”[2]) and lies at an altitude of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level.”

source :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdon

on the train up snowdon

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One of the swans Asha was feeding at lake Padarn

One of the swans.

Asha playing near the stream where we ate a rather late lunch.

Playing on her birthday.

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Yep she was 5 today, and we had a wonderful day on snowdon.

We got up fairly late for Asha (7.45) and had a selection of presents in bed.. including Old Bear, a Diablo,  an air ambulance helicopter, and a toy caravan!

We then had a cooked breakfast, and after feeding the birds, with the new bird feeder, went to meet granny and grandad to get the train up snowdon.

The weather today was glorious, and the scenery was magnificant, wales at its best. After our trip up, we went and opened presents from granny and grandad by the river, and daddy had to go waterproof dipping (yep a coat fell in the river) . After a while the midgies came out, so we took refuge at Lake Padarn, and fed the ducks, and swans, followed by a trip to Petes eats, and birthday cake.

A great time was had by Asha.. who is now asleep, very happy.

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I know, I know, its been a while since my last post. So much has happened, I really don’t know where to start.

I went on writers block, which hasn’t helped I guess.

Home Edd camp in Wales, went well, though I didnt find enough time to talk to people. Asha didnt like the mud at the festival after, and generally I have been very busy with her education and general winging.

She has been refusing to settle at night for months now and even now is climbing all over me as i type this. :d

She can almost swim, read and write now. She is getting a violin for her 5th birthday and is a happy (if not spoilt) child… But that is o.k. by me.

She has recently been using the words “frustrated, annoyed, angry, happy and curious” a lot in her vocabulary, especially when she cant get her own way :d

Guess that is it for now.

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I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee,
Won’t my mommy be so proud of me?
I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee.
Oo!  Ee!  It stung me!

I’m squishing up my baby bumblebee,
Won’t my mommy be so proud of me?
I’m bringing home my baby bumblebee.
Oo!  Ee!  It’s all over me!

I’m licking off my baby bumblebee,
Won’t my mommy be so proud of me?
I’m licking off my baby bumblebee.
Oo!  Ee!  It tastes yuckky!

I’m throwing up my baby bumblebee,
Won’t my mommy be so proud of me?
I’m throwing up my baby bumblebee.
Oo!  Ee!  What a mess by me!

I’m cleaning up my baby bumblebee,
Won’t my mommy be so proud of me?
I’m cleaning up my baby bumblebee.
I think I’ll go and get another!

Asha ended up in tears distraught after it, but i wanted to save the words for the future.

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The may day celebrations were at the end of a week of great fun, there had been loads of environmental projects, den building, bug hotels, and crafts.

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I am really looking forwards to this. Between the bottle rockets, bat houses, bird boxes, musical instruments, theater tents, pottery workshops, May day events, and everything else, it will be FANTASTIC.

http://www.walesenvironmentalhomeeducationcamp.com/

Vicki xx

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bird watching, playing with dolls, scooby do, drawing rockets with daddy.. all in a day!

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Its the end of march all ready!

And what have we been doing? So far this month, we have been to Portmerion 2 times, whilst it is still free, the first time it was just the three of us, the second we went on a CLAS trip, which co-incided with a friends birthday.

We have been on numerous play dates, and returned to gymnastics after a long period of just not being well enough on a Monday. We have returned to the library, and been doing awareness work on disability.  We have been feeding the birds, and trying to learn our bird songs.

We have collected leaves, and flowers to try and press. We have watched the robins, meadow pipits, gold finches and other birds in the garden.

We have enjoyed a couple of trips to caernarfon, and a few more to Portmadog. We have learned that the Police arent always the good folk (our caravan was seized with no notice for causing an obstruction… ummmm)

We have enjoyed videos, been to see lambs, played with friends, been paddling in llanberis, nearly mastered skate boarding, and done painting, drawing, glueing, reading, writing, and laughing in abundance.

Been going to Gwerin every two weeks, and CLAS every week still. I have been to a party with friends at the Play Barn in Caernarfon, and walks with daddy.

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Having a bad fortnight. I have lost three friends in such time.

M posted this on facebook .  Thankyou.

Madam Butterfly

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I am on catch up, and I know this post is long overdue.. so here is asha with her snowperson.

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Most people would put a picture up of there crocus comeing through, we went for the pollen….

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Well spring has arrived and so we have had our first trip to the Welsh Mountain zoo for 2009.

It was lovely to be back outside with all the kids and parents, wandering around watching the little monkeys, the goats and the baby rabbits.

Asha at the moment has a real thing about rabbits, and was fascinated when we were talking about how they talk to each other.. stamping there feet.. she is spending a lot of time doing this action right now… Stomp stomp stomp!

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Penblwydd hapus i chi
Penblwydd hapus i chi
Penblwydd hapus i Steve
Penblwydd hapus i chi.

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Never smile at a crocodile
No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile
Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin
He’s imagining how well you’d fit within his skin
Never smile at a crocodile
Never dip your hat and stop to talk awhile
Never run, walk away, say good-night, not good-day
Clear the aisle but never smile at Mister Crocodile
You may very well be well bred
Lots ot etiquette in your head
But there’s always some special case, time or place
To forget etiquette
For instance:
Never smile at a crocodile
No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile
Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin
He’s imagining how well you’d fit within his skin
Never smile at a crocodile
Never dip your hat and stop to talk awhile
Never run, walk away, say good-night, not good-day
Clear the aisle but never smile at Mister Crocodile

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