Standing dutifully in the kitchen by the laundry cupboard, silently folding clothes, I overheard this gem of a conversation between Heidi and her dad… Hannah just had to join in…
Heidi: (standing halfway up the stairs leaning over the railings - an altogether safe distance away...) Dad? Can I be honest with you?
Len: You should always be honest with me!
Heidi: Are you sure? *cheeky smile*
Len: Yes, you know you can tell me anything you want…
Heidi: Well, if you’re sure you’re sure…
Len: I’m sure I’m sure…
Heidi: *silly giggle & feigned shyness* Oh, never mind…
Len: NO!!! You have to tell me now!!
Heidi: I have too? Well, ok, you asked for it.... *clears throat* Well, dad… I think it’s about time you started wearing a bra!!! *collapses on stairs laughing*
Hannah: (enters the conversation) *dead pan* Well, now I know what to get him for Christmas…
She wrote:
Hi Amber,
Hope all is well in the UK; have checked in from time to time looking for pics of the new Scottish farm-I’m so wistful and envious! I can only imagine how busy you are and I know you’ve mentioned shutting your blog down but if you must go, may we please have a little tour and narrative of your new place and life? Your fans are waiting.
April in Asheville, NC
I wrote:
You are so sweet to write. I have NOT decided to stop my blog… in fact I was writing a blog post in my head this morning, but it seems so hard to get back into the groove. I guess I feel like I have missed out so much of the story to date that it is hard to jump back in. I have had several emails like yours and phone calls from friends in Belgium and little offline messages… all looking for me to start up again. So, you all win!!
I will hopefully post sometime this afternoon…
I even found out that my friends in Belgium think I am blogging… just elsewhere! Come on guys, I would never do that to you *evil grin*
So here I be. Blogging. I’m horrified that it is the 31st October and my last post was on the 8th September. I have had no real intention of quitting Amber… Bamberboo, but… I guess what’s been stopping me is the fact that I have missed out so many chunks of my life over the last 4 months and every post I have started to write has either sounded like a stuffy run down of my ‘list of events’ or a long ‘To Do’ list. Boring.
So at the suggestion of Alison (who is visiting us this week with her 2 kids and Allan)… I am just going to dive back in and you’ll have to catch up yourselves.
If there is anyone still out there, now is your chance to catch up with BamberBoo Land. Is there anything you feel in the dark about? Anything I’ve left out? Any questions or picture requests before I trundle forward with my life and blog? Leave a comment and let me know if anyone is there. Throw me a bone (or a doughnut) guys and help me get back on track!!
If you have a flickr account, choose a photo that you want to exhibit, if you don’t have a flickr account… GET ONE! Then go to dumpr.net and select the museumr. Create your exhibition piece and then submit it to Dumpr Museumr. Voila!! You too will have your art on the wall!!
Now, If you thought this post was going to be about something else… Go wash out your brain!! ‘Nuff said 
We have broadband here at the farm but, well, it is very… narrow at the moment. BT have been trying to sort the problem for about 2 months now but for now I have to put up with narrowband. I have a slew of pictures from the summer to upload but, due to the file sizes, it takes forever to get them online. I got around 50 pictures up today from our friend’s pirate birthday party - Enjoy!
click photo for slideshow
Remember fly paper? Those uber-sticky ribbons of glue laden paper hanging from your grandma’s kitchen ceiling? They were gross with all those dead little flies trapped in the gooey gunge… but they were effective, weren’t they? And if you had nothing else to do, you could lean back in your chair and watch the entrapment and death of those durned flies!!!
Well, the flies were out in force today; there must have been a million in my kitchen alone. I can handle a few flies, but these little buggers were really rippin’ ma knittin’!! So, I warmed the rolled up trap in my hands and spiralled the sticky ribbon out of it’s casing. Looking for a good place to hang it, I opted for the handle on the back kitchen door near the trash. The door is rarely used but I warned the kids to stay away from just in case. The flies began to die…
Now, pan forward about 4 hours… the kids have had dinner and I’m sitting at the computer (like I do) and Hannah and Rosie come running through:
“Help Momma!! Rosie’s stuck!!”
....Daniel sitting down with his first reading book he has ever brought home for homework; him reading it to me only to pause and giggle once in a while after a sentence saying “heeeeeeeheee, I don’t know how I’m doin’ that, heeeeee” But I am!
My little picture taking obsession started about 3 years ago when I got my first 4 mega pixels sony Cybershot. I took my swanky, little, silver, swivling-Carl-Zeiss-lensed, digital wonder everywhere with me and snapped, and snapped, and snapped. Mostly, I shot the kids but I started turning the lens on all other objects too. I think blogging helped me get addicted to photography as much as anything, wanting to capture an image of everything to go with what I was writing down.
Although very much an amature, I have been happy to see my pictures improving over the years, but I also get more and more frustrated with my lack of basic photography knowledge. Digital is great… You can get amazing results with out knowing what your really doing. But I want to learn how to do it right. With Rosie at ‘big school’ now, I have been looking into attended some photography classes in the evenings and hopefully I can improve in this craft even more.
I was very excited when a design company contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if they could use a photo of mine in a redesign of a site. I got even more excited when they agreed to credit the photo to me on the site and ‘wiggly’ excited when someone for the organisation wrote to me and agreed to use the photo solely for the web site - it was all sounding so offical. Then, I got ‘happy dance’ exited when I was sent a link for the redesigned site and saw my first picture ‘published’!!! The site is here. The olive branch at the top was the olive tree I bought for Len and that we planted in our back garden in Belguim! If you scroll down to the bottom of page, you will see my credit for the photo!
Yay! Go me!!
Off to Edinburgh for the day with David and Susan and we will be seeing the Tattoo tonight.
Our friends arrived from Belgium on Sunday to a magnificently tidy house *Amber takes a bow*. HHD&R were over the moon to see their friends, who really have been like family to us over the last 6 years in Belgium. Most of the afternoon was spent in the stream and exploring the farm and trying to work up the courage to touch a cow over the fence - then in the evening we had to get ready for the first day of school!
I think I will dedicate my full ‘next’ post to the topic of school, describe where they were last year in school, how and what challenges they face this year, what’s going on in my head and heart about it all and probe a little into where each of the kids are at in their educational developement… but for now, this was yesterday (well, Monday)… the first day of school. The two kids in the middle are my friends’ kids and fellow farm-mates:
After getting them settled into their new classes yesterday, then spending most of the morning sharing a long peaceful breakfast with Susan and organising permission for places on the school bus with the education department - I picked Rosie up at noon (which will happen until the 2nd week of Sept when she will go full time) and Susan and I planned our after school schedule for the kids this week.
Today, the activity was quad-biking!! A farm about 15 minutes from here has been turned into an out door activity center with an excellent quad track for kids. We rented 5 bikes for 45 minutes and I wouldn’t be stretching it to say that it was a highlight of their summer! I have pictures (duh!!) to upload (tomorrow!!) that will hopefully show you the intense concentration, the joy of speeding through HUGE mud puddles, the effort expended and the skill they achieved in mere 45 minute period of time.
This was Daniel’s second visit to the quad bike centre. I loved watching his little six year old frame intuitively leaning with the bike on the curves of the road and stand and squat over the rough bumps with such skill, and the older kids really picked it up quickly. We only had a few very minor um, shall we call them crashes bumps, but no damage was sustained by children or quads! I am sure this will become something of regular little splurge. It really does beat the heck out of spending similar money on taking that many kids to the movies!!
It was salt and vinegar laden fish and chips, wrapped in paper, for dinner and then the kids were put through the shower, much like a herd of sheep being dipped, to remove the splattered mud specks before bed. Something tells me they will all sleep well tonight.
Tomorrow, we climb Loudoun Hill!!
Pictures as promised:
click for slideshow
And while you sit there at your computer know that I will be busting my backside getting the house ready for our guest who arrive in *shriek* 3 hours!!
From this point on, you are just to assume that life in Bamberboo Land is full and overflowing, and slightly crazy. The wall papering is NOT finished because… because, I have not had time to finish it. It is on the schedule for tomorrow, if the six kids in my charge will allow me to do it!
Saturday was spent in a mad dash to Costco for general supplies and a birthday cake for Hannah’s party.... Sunday was the party - and can I just say The Farm is a brilliant place for party games like Sardines and Treasure Hunts. Len’s neice, Karen, and my neice, Bethan, stayed over for a couple nights and with the weather still on The People’s side for a change this year I hardly saw the kids on Monday and Tuesday. Rumour has it ‘the fort’ has wall to wall carpeting now (thanks to the carpet fitters off-cuts) and it has a small TV now too. The power supply is questionable, but it is said that with the right kind of effort The Imagination is enough to make the TV and the imaginary remote work!
My sister, Annette, arrived from Ireland yesterday with her three kids and one of their friends so we spent the day with them at Mammy’s house… which turned into an overnighter for the kids. I popped home for the kids hiking gear and then this morning, Mom, Annette and I took the kids (my 4, Annette’s 3 + friend) to Queen’s View for a little hike (pictures to follow… yes, with the wallpaper pictures! Oh yeah, and the Edinburgh pictures from last month...)
This the first hike I ever did in Scotland when I was 14 years old - and I did it quite a few more times as a teen. It was wonderful taking my own kids there today and sharing it with them. The children, even Rosie, were amazing for the whole walk (which I think was nearly 4 miles) (the first 2 being mostly up hill) and I only had to say once that if they complained about this exercise then they wouldn’t be watching any tv, playing the computer/xbox/gameboys etc for a month!! I know, I sound mean very mean!! This is a little map of the walk.
We took the route that appears to be at the top of the map starting from the A809 and we ended at “The Whangie” The Whangie is a geological fault, 50 feet deep and 300 feet long, probably the result of glacial movement and is beautiful series of jutting rocks from the ground. We rested there (well Annette and I rested while the kids climbed the rock and found little caves to crawl into - I miss unlimited energy like that) then we headed back down to the car park where Mammy had a BBQ waiting for us!
After lunch, HHD & R (Hannah, Heidi, Daniel & Rosie) begged me to take them to Loch Lomond (Which we could see from up the hill) to “cool off”. I assumed they meant taking off their hiking boots and dipping their feet in the ‘baltic’ water - but no. Oblivious to onlookers, my children stripped down to the bare bones of clothing and went swimming in Loch Lomond!! A sure sign that they have 50% of their father’s blood running through their veins! They had my permission to go in but they had to promise not to whine ("even once") when they got out and there were no towels to dry off with! They were good to their word!
We got home at 7 this evening and they we’re excited find that Calder and Bethan were staying overnight tonight an tomorrow night!
I came home excited to find that I have a bedroom (partially wallpapered.. but that’s another story) to sleep in tonight!!
Friday Annette and kids are here at The Farm with us… and then, did I tell you? Our friends are coming from Belgium on Sunday… for a week!! Oh yeah, and school starts on MONDAY!!
*contented sigh* This summer has been what summers should be!
