You've been framed.

Who thinks up all these rubbish titles?
Anyway, having laid the ground cover, and attached it to two sides, this was step one:

 Yesterday's work was the get up the main structure, and this is how we left it at the close of play (well, roughly - the end bit that's on the ground in this picture was actually attached, as was the slide):

 This morning saw the addition of the monkey bars...

 ...followed by the first bit of roof (I can stand up under it)

 ... and the other bit of roof (yes, there's a bit of wood missing)

 This is the view from the climbing frame, complete with little boy dying to go on it.

 At last!  Play time.

 

The view from space.

 Project for the holidays:
Build a climbing frame.  Easier said than done.  Climbing frame is the sort that I'm sure must be visible from space.  Climbing frame needed sanding down and painting.  Painting, painting, painting, painting.  I think it took about 2 1/2 lifetimes, or that's what it felt like, anyway.
I did think that maybe I should just make it like this:

 But after careful consideration, I decided that Joshua would probably struggle to get up the pole to the slide.  It was, however, very tempting.  The plan is to put a boundary around the area, lay some ground covering fabric stuff, build the frame in the middle, and add about 5 tonnes of chipped wood.
Here are some of the climbing frame bits.

 The question is, why are we building (I say we...) a climbing frame when he has so many trees?

More to come tomorrow - it's going to be finished then.  (Wishful thinking?  You bet!)

Jesus and the three little pigs

Well, it's about time for another contribution from Joshua...
Tonight, we sort of ran out of time for a story, but as I was tucking him in, he asked, "Can I tell you a story".
I agreed, and was then informed that it was actually the same story as last week, but the ending.  Here it is:

"There were two little pigs, and they settled down together ..." (ok, I'm going to have to confess, I lost track briefly here - I'm tired and the story wasn't exactly grabbing me at this point.  However, I did tune back in when this happened:)
"Then the pigs ran to the brick house and they got into the brick house and the big bad wolf came.  Then Jesus came up in the sky, and said, "What's going on?", and the big bad wolf said, "Nothing".
"Then I [this is still Joshua speaking] came along, and I said, "Something is going on"".
"That's the end of the story."
"It's a true story because Jesus was in it."

I thought it lacked a certain something, personally (like a satisfying conclusion, for one!), but did like the link between Jesus and truth.  Perhaps that's how heresies start though.
We then had prayers.  After a brief silence, Joshua said, 'Come on!' (indicating I shouldn't be silent, I should be praying) I said I'd like him to pray first, and he came up with:
"Thank you Lord Jesus that the pigs got to the brick house so they were safe, Amen"
I have to say it was a struggle to get my prayer finished without completely cracking up.

Rootedness.

I got a couple of books for my birthday.  Well, a few, actually (good old Amazon wish list!), but I'm not going to mention all of them...
One was this:

Yes, I asked for it.  (I do have a gardening blog you know...)  And thinking about it, it's basically telling you how to make plants grow.  For seeds, you're looking to make sure they shoot and root.  For other types of planting, you're doing the same thing - you plant a twig in the ground, and hope it will sprout roots.  When it's sprouted roots, it feeds, and when it feeds, it grows.  Simplistic, maybe, but pretty much how it works.  Without the roots, the twig can only last as long as its own stored energy allows.  It actually works though. 

I also got these two:

And they're about a similar thing, just in a different realm.  We move from the garden into our lives, and the same need for rootedness appears.  We can only last so long without roots, and these books (I haven't finished reading them yet) are painting a picture of a rooted life.  That's a real challenge to me.  I often remember the phrase, "if the grass is greener on the other side, start watering your own".  But the grass on the other side still looks SO GOOD.  I mean, what do they do to it to get it that lush?

But maybe the challenge for me is to have the courage to root myself where I am now.  To accept that, at least for now, my understanding of God's will is that THIS is where I belong, and I need to put down roots here.  Not just as a sort of stop-gap, but with the intention to remain.  It kinda makes sense too, because I'm more likely to be of use here if I'm assuming I'll stay, than if I'm assuming I'll go.

Work of art.

Playing catch up.

So these were actually taken a while ago (last week and before...) but I like them so they're being uploaded!

This is the walk home from school.  It's a 4 mile round trip (though obviously J only does 2 of those, as he's only doing one direction...)
We did the walk over the Christmas holidays, and he managed absolutely fine.  It probably helped having relatives and a dog to make things less boring. 
I figured that it wouldn't kill us to do it every now and again.  My hope was at least once a week, preferably twice (which would mean 8 miles walking for me).  So last week, we decided to give it a crack (earlier in the year and we'd have been making some of the journey in the dark.  This is roughly how Wednesday's journey went, starting in the nursery room itself:
Me:  Do you need a wee sweetheart?
J:  No.
Me:  We're walking home, so it will be a while before we can go to the toilet.  Are you sure you don't need a wee?
J:  No thank you.
Leave nursery, cross car park, walk towards swimming pool (last loo before the open road)
Me:  Are you sure you don't need a wee sweetheart?  It's your last chance.
(I'm sure you can see where this is going...)
J:  No.  (It was actually more of a Noooooooooooo)
Continue walking, past swimming pool, through garden and across cricket pitch.  Get to the little bridge over the stream...
J:  Daddy, I need a wee.
Me:  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH That's why I asked you.  You said you didn't need a wee - I said we were walking and you said you were sure you didn't need one.  (That should probably all be in capital letters - that's the commonly accepted way of shouting online isn't it?)
J:  But I didn't need one when you asked.
Me:  (Well, to summarise, we agreed to disagree on this point...)
Cross over bridge, find tree and have a wee.  (Wise advice offered en route and throughout the operation)

Walk past church, across farm track and into the field (don't worry, there's a footpath).  Approach the copse, begin to think what a lovely thing it is to be walking home from school across the fields...

J:  Daddy, now I need a poo.
Me:  (At this point, assume a load of capital letters - I asserted that pooing, unlike weeing, was not something we were going to be doing in the open)
J:  Ok, I'll hold it in.
Me:  Good - you're a big boy, I should hope so!

Continue across fields, down hill, over the very narrow bridge (assure J we'll bring boots next time so we can go through the stream rather than over it)

J:  I still need a poo.
Me:  Do we need to be rescued?
J:  Yes.
'phone Anna and request urgent rescue mission.  Walk up hill to the road, wait for a few minutes for car, which miraculously appears to take us home.
Oh, and you know he said he'd hold it in?

He didn't.

Happy New Year.

I don't actually have time to blog at the moment.  But it's been over a month since I last did, and I keep thinking I should, and then don't, so I thought that, even though I don't have time in the next five minutes, I'd do it anyway...  Just to get back into it.
I've done a blog on the outdoor blog, and just done one on the book blog, but nothing here for ages!
So here I am.  I am still alive, and had a lovely Christmas and New Year.  I'm now back into the 'writing the book' bit of my life, which is going ok.  I've only got two chapters to finish and one to start and finish, then I'll send it out to various people for checking (it'll probably be a tight timescale...) and re hash it.  Then it's a question of finding a publisher...  (If you would be willing and able to read and comment on it, I might be able to send you a draft - as I say, it'll be a pretty tight turnaround in all likelihood)
Teaching last term was fun, but seriously time consuming.  Way more than I'd envisaged, which of course meant another deadline move for the book.  The new one (and feel free to keep tabs on me) is to have it finished and (ideally) sent out, commented on, rehashed and ready for sending to publishers by Easter.
That's Easter this year, by the way.
Anyway, as I said to start, I don't really have time to write this blog (the last couple of days have been productive but full) so I'm going to push off again.  I'm now too late to walk to school to pick J up, so will have to drive.  (Don't worry eco warriors, it is a 2 mile walk, I'm not just popping round the corner!)
Feel free to comment on this blog - it's always nice to have people respond, even if it's only a line.  I do sometimes wonder why I do this when no comments are forthcoming.  (I know, I do it as much for me as I do for you (in fact, probably more!!))