More Rhinos

This weekend went by so quickly, I can't believe we are at Monday morning again.

We had a guest this weekend. G had invited his mum to come and stay.

As it was the heritage open days weekend and she had never been to the Tudor House museum before and it was one of the 4 events on in the city (poor show really Southampton for such a big city) we combined a little visit with tracking down the rhinos at this end of town which we hadn't seen yet.

The museum is just visible at the top of this photo along with Rosie the rhino.

She is definitely one of my favourites, so colourful.

I have been to the museum a couple of times but I don't recall seeing this ship figurehead before.

It dates from the 1800's and paint traces show she would originally have had a blue jacket and yellow shawl and hatband so she would have been dressed as a sailor from that period.

Another extremely colourful rhino, this one is outside the ruins of Holyrood Church. Love this photo, everyone is looking at the camera and looking happy!

This chap is stood on a mound looking out towards the Isle of Wight car ferry terminal.

It was very busy around this end of town at the weekend because the Southampton boat show had just started.

Another firm favourite. You can probably guess that this one is sponsored by the Dock board. We loved the rhinos being hoisted up by cranes.

There are still more to find and we are planning one more trip into town this weekend coming because the final day they will be on show is next Sunday.

Coral

I was going to blog about some of my recent bargain buys but yesterday I wore one of my favourite things and decided to take photos of that instead.

I can't remember where I got it but I have a feeling it was a jumble sale buy.

I LOVE THIS TOP.

It's perfect for wearing over the top of a plain white long sleeved t-shirt on slightly cooler days.

It's perfect for wearing with jeans.

I love the shade of green and the pattern which reminds me of coral.

I love the slightly fluffy bobble trim along the bottom hem.

I love the two tiny flower buttons I sewed on to replace the plain buttons which were missing.

I love that I get to wear one of my favourite green necklaces with it.

All Creatures Great and Small

Tuesday was the first day of school for S and she was very happy to be going back again. She practically skipped down the landing to her room at bedtime happy in the thought that the next day she would be seeing all her friends again.

She is now in Year 4 with a teacher who is new to the school and all was fine and dandy during these first days back.

T went back on Wednesday. I had to return to work on Wednesday and as T had a late start, not needing to be at school until 11.30, I had to leave him to ready himself. I didn't feel particularly comfortable about this but T had no such issues.
This photo was taken at the end of the school day rather than the start but it's still a record of his beginning Year 9.

Knowing that he can sometimes leave getting organised to the very last minute (sometimes second!) I left him a list of what he needed to do and when he needed to be ready by as I could easily envisage him frantically looking so something crucial with a minute to the time he had to leave and me getting a phone call at work. 
When I got home from work I found this very hastily scribbled note from him which he did just as he was going out the door. I thought it was very sweet of him, it's little things like this I hold on to when he's being a 'teenager.'

Those two are the Great creatures and now to two Small ones.
Don't scroll down if you don't like mice or bats.



Yesterday morning I went to a jumble sale where I scored a huge bag of clothes for S and another good haul for my sister. I have had so many good finds recently I must get around to doing a post, or two, about them.
In the afternoon we wandered down to the local nature reserve for their late summer fair. It was their 25th anniversary celebration and we were expecting a bigger than normal fair but it actually turned out to be smaller than normal.

We spent a little time talking to someone who runs a wildlife rescue centre.

There was a tiny little mouse in a big glass case who was constantly on the move, running around and in between all the foliage and corn stalks, each time returning to the blue dish full of food.

There were lots of people gathering around her to look at this baby bat. She really was the sweetest little thing and so soft which we found out when we got to delicately stroke her back.

A day indoors is on the cards for today. It's currently pouring down with rain and is forecast to be like this on and off for most of the day. Still it means there is plenty of time to get those first pieces of homework done.

Goodbye School Holiday, Hello September

A final round up of our last week of the summer holiday.

Tuesday of last week we went to Salisbury. T had travelled up the day before and stayed overnight with his Grandma. G and S went straight to his mum's whilst I had a wander around the town centre and my little trip to Lakeland.

When we came home and I went to the church to take my dad some flowers T took himself off to the local co-op to buy some food to make our tea and also a bunch of white roses for me. As if I hadn't cried enough already, his thoughtfulness was so very sweet.

Wednesday and Thursday were fairly quiet. One of S's best friends has recently left their Junior school as her family had moved house and so they hadn't seen each other for a couple of months. S was excited to find out she had been invited to J's new house for a sleepover. I took S to her friend on Wednesday afternoon and she came home again late afternoon the following day. Tired but happy.
T enjoyed having me and G to himself. We played Kung Fu panda on the Kinect until T could hardly breathe because he was laughing so much.


We had planned to go swimming on Friday but as the venue was outdoors and the weather was overcast we changed our plan and headed down to Southsea instead.

Our first stop was the amusement arcades where the children had the best time ever, as demonstrated by this happy smiling face.

Out of the 2p machines they both managed to get a lollipop

and by working together they also managed this little haul of goodies. Happy children.

No-one wanted to go on any rides but we did watch others and hear the them scream!

Sunday morning we went to the car boot and I got some really fab things, more of which I will pop in another post, but here is my least expensive buy at 10p, a dotty top for me.

S and I finished off her giant sized sun catcher today. We used a hula hoop as the frame and stuck different shapes of coloured tissue paper to a backing of greaseproof paper. A length of ribbon was taped on the back to hang it up from her bedroom window.

In between the sticking we did some baking using the tub of blackberries G's mum gave us last week. We made a blackberry and yogurt loaf, a perfect way to greet the new month.