Among the trees... » snow http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk blog of the Vegan Family House Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:26:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 fox in the snow http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/02/20/fox-in-the-snow/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/02/20/fox-in-the-snow/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:08:44 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/?p=1764 Lots more has fallen – we are ankle deep again…

snow falling

just as I was taking photos this fox came and had a good look into the garden. We do see them quite often here, but not usually when holding a camera :)

fox

fox

fox

off he goes

then, while eating my porridge by the window this morning I noticed I had an onlooker!

sitting watching

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/02/20/fox-in-the-snow/feed/ 15 among the snowdrops http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/30/among-the-snowdrops/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/30/among-the-snowdrops/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:49:51 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/?p=1731 snowdrop in the snow

more snow… some little bits I’ve been meaning to mention spread among the lovely signs of spring to come :)

snowdrops

Wayne Dyer’s new program: Excuses Begone! – been enjoying listening to that – he is always so motivational and uplifting.

a clump of double ones

The Bristol Dyslexia Centre has some interesting stuff on it’s site including some free educational games taken from the Nessy learning program.

a side view

Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome: Different Sensory Experiences, Different Perceptual Worlds

Olga Bogdashina has written a wonderful book here – helpful in very practical ways and quite refreshingly non-patronising in it’s manner of looking at autism and the associated sensory and perceptual issues. There is evidence that these may be at the core of ASDs and what is actually physiological has been treated as purely psychological for far too long by the so called experts. A fascinating read :D

Amazon.co.uk  or  Amazon.com

floor of the forest

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/30/among-the-snowdrops/feed/ 10 snow http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/07/snow/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/07/snow/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:50:02 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/07/snow/ Had a touch more snow overnight!! Many more photos here on facebook for all to see :)

moon over field

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/07/snow/feed/ 19 bloggage, food and snow http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/06/bloggage-food-and-snow/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/06/bloggage-food-and-snow/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:40:14 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/06/bloggage-food-and-snow/ First off the Home Baked blog is having a monthly baking challenge – read about it here and see January’s theme here. I’m the guest judge this month – v exciting :D

Then we have a new blog on the sidebar – Vegan Kid - lots of gorgeous looking food there too…

Then, thanks to the Skint Vegan blog I found an amazing bargain food site – Approved Food, sellers of clearance food and drink (close to or just by the sell by date) where I got various goodies such as 5 bottles of Mayola for £1 and 4 bags of soya mince for 99p :D

It snowed heavily all morning here (we were doing a 6 mile hike in the woods at the time – quite an experience in such weather) leaving great beauty all around :)

white out over the loch

it’s a great expanse of layered up ice and snow that - looks like really flat land!

after the storm

pines and birches in the background

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2010/01/06/bloggage-food-and-snow/feed/ 2 tomato and rice soup http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/29/tomato-and-rice-soup/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/29/tomato-and-rice-soup/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:42:43 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/29/tomato-and-rice-soup/ out in the snow but still hot!!

recipe here on frugal - snow and ice continuing, rarely known it so cold!

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/29/tomato-and-rice-soup/feed/ 4 snow and trees http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/23/snow-and-trees/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/23/snow-and-trees/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:52:49 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/23/snow-and-trees/ A stroll round the garden yesterday:

rosehip

snowy trees and the base of Davie's new bridge

pond and trees

noble fir

Toby and the whomping birch

Scots Pine

well coated birches

rope swing

view from the rope swing

Wonderful things that help us through the Scottish winter: hot water bottles filled from the big kettle on the wood stove each night, so cosy for the feet and full spectrum light bulbs, good for the mood in the dark times :D

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2009/12/23/snow-and-trees/feed/ 9 candles, bread, pie, soup and dogs http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/12/05/candles-bread-pie-soup-and-dogs/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/12/05/candles-bread-pie-soup-and-dogs/#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:02:40 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/?p=1264 been some baking and candle making…

yellow star candle

tree candle and bread

Had joiners here fitting some new doors and windows – they needed the outside lights on which makes everything look different:

floodlit garden

nice weather for sheperdess pie

yum

Toby and his girlfriends

Nicola’s golden vegetable soup (a weightwatchers recipe):

very delish

the boys

Tilly, all excited to be taken in and fed :)

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/12/05/candles-bread-pie-soup-and-dogs/feed/ 0 February 2008 http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/02/28/february-2008/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/02/28/february-2008/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:00:47 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/?p=230

totally lost the archives for this month but they exist in photographic form on flickr if you want to take a peek There was a fab trip to stay with Cat in Glasgow, paper making with HE group, solar powered boat, chinese food, snow and DS English and Maths… little bits below

Mono in glasgow - met Michaela and had lunch

window in GoMA

arty

Scotland st. school museum, Glasgow

big breakfast in Stereo, Glasgow

triceratops at the Hunterian, Glasgow

Homer Simpson toasties

tree in the sand

solar powered boat in the pond

snow angel

snow on the veranda

paper making efforts from the HE craft group

chitting potatoes

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/02/28/february-2008/feed/ 0 Culloden http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/01/31/culloden/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/01/31/culloden/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:10:29 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/?p=118

Home ed group trip to Culloden Moor today – site of the last battle fought on British soil. They have just opened their new state of the art visitor centre and it was great. There is an amazing room called the immersion theatre where there’s cinema-type screens on four walls and you’re in the middle of the battle. Another dark walkway takes you through the march of the night before… listening to what people are saying. Likewise there’s a war council you can sit in on. An amazing screen thing where you get an aerial view of the day, all the troops movements. Felt a little sad for the old visitor centre, about to be demolished. It’s old film was a bit dry and boring, but you know, you came out really understanding the politics of the situation. That information is all on the walls and within the technology of the new centre but you could miss much of it quite easily. Bit of a ‘education today’ analogy could be played with here… but it would be unfair to Culloden as there were many huge improvements in the exhibition too. Not least was the Jacobite who took us round, showing us where everything was, gave a weapons demonstration and got the children organised into a Highland charge It kept snowing quite heavily which was a shame as the children had arranged to visit friends in Inverness, and we had to cancel that to return home in case of bad roads… mouseover:

lots of these stones mark where people died or were buried

We all thought our guide was a Hanoverian but no – not all the Jacobites were Highlanders and were recognisable by the white cockade in their hat

getting ready for the Highland charge

aerial view screen - not a great pic but you can make out the government lines anti-scottish drawing, showing post-Culloden govt. retribution

gun

 night march corridor

chairs and moor pic

all signs were in gaelic too

really like this one - we got to use the education room

Have finished How I live Now – was really good, an easy read but profound. Continuing to work through the penguins from the book people, am now on Notes on a Scandal – very gripping and quite creepy, characters very well realised… not to mention the school descriptions and comment… off back to it now.

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]]> http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2008/01/31/culloden/feed/ 0 Cairngorms http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2006/01/28/cairngorms/ http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/2006/01/28/cairngorms/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:19:53 +0000 Lucy http://blog.veganfamily.co.uk/?p=141

Had a quiet day in the castle (just love writing that!) yesterday. Actually did some more orthodox education stuff. I made up some dot to dots for Charlotte counting up in 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7s, went and did some shopping. Daniel bought ‘New Scientist’ Magazine and factoided us for the rest of the day. Davie and Toby arrived in the evening to join us for the weekend. Candy established her dominance over Tobes very quickly by stealing all his food and his bed!

Today we planned a trip to Landmark as Michaela loves the Bungee jump thing and Daniel the MicroWorld science bit. However all the outside parts were closed for building work so we had lunch and then did MicroWorld for free. Decided to set off for Aviemore and the Cairngorms. Saw some reindeer on the slopes of the mountain – they were reintroduced in recent years, obviously very used to humans as we walked right up to them. Kids were thrilled. I really love the Highlands, quite fancy living there. However there’s not much work for Davie there so…hmm… Travelled up to the top of the Cairngorm Mountain on the funicular railway – shopped in the highest shop in UK (think it still is anyway) and had tea in Scotland’s highest restaurant. Good little exhibition about the mountain range up there too. I love the atmosphere up there on the mountain – somehow calm but upbeat at once, also very cold! It always seems to be snowing up there. Came home (to castle and had a Thai takeaway for dinner… yum… thighs not getting any smaller this weekend! The girls came with me and both got most favorable predictions in their fortune cookies

Below: a ticks head in MicroWorld; reindeer; mountains from car park; a WW2 German plane (don’t know why it was hanging in the funicular station but will maybe find out on interent later); Charlotte on the train listening to the audio on the Cairngorm environment; more mountains and then a time guide to how Cairngorm has developed – amazing to think that it was once desert and also tropical forest; Daniel, Davie and Michaela on the viewing terrace.

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