The Olympic Park at Stratford.

 The first two photos were taken last October.
The second three were taken this week.
Its looking a lot less like a building site!

Cake and patchwork.

 While Brian was baking and icing this cake . . .















I was busy at the sewing machine, making this mug rug for my friend's birthday present.
Most of the fabric I bought in Guadeloupe.

Hamy

 Last Sunday I was asked to do the 'All Age Time' in church. I decided to tell the story of Hamy who belongs to a little girl who sucks her thumb.
These are the photos I used and this is where the story starts.
When the little girl was born, Grandma's good friend, Verona, came to visit.
She brought a present. It was a little white fluffy dog.
Verona's daughters were friends of the little girl's mother.
The little dog had a label that said his name was Hamish, but the little girl couldn't say that name so she called him Hamy.
Hamy went everywhere with the little girl. Here he is  walk to the park when the little girl was two years old.
 Here he is in Paris. He is on his way to Guadeloupe in the French West Indies. He stayed there for a year, then he came back to London.










The little girl liked to take him to bed and hold him
when she sucked her thumb.
This is in the new house before the new beds came.











Grandma took this photo in June 2012. Hamy is
wearing the little girl's Diamond Jubilee sun glasses.
The little girl is now eight years old.












Last week she sat up straight and said to Grandma, " Do you know what Grandma, Hamy doesn't belong to me!" Grandma was very surprised and wondered what she was talking about. Of course Hamy belongs to the little girl - he's been everywhere with her, for all her life.
"No", the little girl continued, " Mummy told me that God gave Hamy to me to look after. I am Hamy's steward."
Grandma realised that this is what the Bible says in Psalm 24.1
' The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.'
This made me think about the possessions of which I am very fond - my promarkers, my camera, even my London freedom pass. They all belong to God. I am the steward. That means I have to look after them and use them wisely to do good things to help people.
We finished the all age time by saying together the prayer that comes at the end of our service every week.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory , the splendour and the majesty;
for everything in heaven, and on earth is yours.
All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.
Lord Jesus Christ, for our sake you became poor.
We offer our lives and our gifts to enrich the life of your world.
Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore.

Two notes: The baby in the first picture is not the little girl, its her sister. I couldn't find one of the little girl with Verona.
Its not the same Hamy in every picture! He kept getting lost, and Grandpa bought six or seven in the card shop! We thought there was one left, but so far haven't found it.

Nature Study.

 Inspired by Heather's blog, I decided to use my promarkers to draw a shrub in the garden.
This is the second attempt to upload the photos with words . . . so there are fewer words this time!

Make your own Easter Eggs!

 First of all, you need to make a small hole at each end of the egg.

















Then you blow in one end.
















 and the egg comes out at the other end.

















In goes the chocolate . . .

and in the background someone is waiting to lick the spoon!

Early writing.

 JoJo found this strip of old window putty in the garden., and wrote the letters of his name with it.
Look at Heather's blog on teaching writing in her series on Homeschooling.
At this point, JoJo is 4years and 2 months. Notice how it fits in with the idea of first of all learning something with actual objects.
These letters were entirely his idea, and part of his playing.
http://beautysglance.wordpress.com/
This is the link to Heather's blog.

Hillls

One of the things I enjoy most about my trips to Scotland are the views of hills.
First there is the view from my cousin's guest room window.
It looks right over Glasgow to Ben Lomond.
 This time I was lucky enough to spend a day at North Berwick. This is the Law. If you can zoom in you'll see the whale bone arch on the top.
 These are the hills to the south of Peebles. This is looking south up Manor Valley where we lived for a while.

And these are the Pentland Hills to the south of Edinburgh.
In Edinburgh itself, Arthur's Seat was looking resplendant, covered in yellow gorse. Sadly I didn't get a photo of it.








I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
the maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over  you -
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and for evermore.
Psalm 121