Pottery

This week I started my pottery classes - I'm taking classes locally for beginners :)

Its a 10 week course and this week we learned how to create 'pinchpots' which is the oldest form of pot making - and one of the most difficult (we were told afterwards lol). We could decide what to make and some people are making piggybanks - others are making garlic pots, vases etc etc. I'm just making a pot for my writing desk and it will probably have a tilted neck and it has rosettes on it. Like little emblems attached to it.

The class went well and I know one of the girls in my class - she was actually Susannahs grade 1 teacher!!!

Next week we are making welcome signs. One week we will make sushi dishes, another week snowmen, another week plates...I can't remember what else. By the end of the course we will be proficient on the wheel. All pieces will be fired and glazed before we leave.

It was fun :)

Guinea pigs galore......

The Zoo now has this amazing Guinea pigs exhibit with like a million guinea pigs!!!!! They are all in there running about and hiding in things and under things and then the keepers come along and throw food in and all of a sudden the piggies start squealing and come running out and all huddle together to feed!!! It's adorable!!! There are fully grown piggies and teeny tiny babies!!! The Keeper held a tiny baby up for Sam to stroke! We couldn't believe quite how many piggies there were!!

The year of the frog.....

I thought these guys were the strangest frogs in the 'year of the frog' exhibit.....

Lucy takes a wander........

Lemurs...

Kind of cute I guess....although I'm still put off by the fact that they wipe their butts on the walls and then lick the walls clean afterwards.....yuck :( And they just look so sad :( kind of depressing creatures really!

Red Pandas...

These cuties are just adorable...they remind me of Edinburgh Zoo where I first saw them. I just wanted to bring them home with me :) Aren't they adorable?

Day at the Zoo......

The weather forecast today was GORGEOUS! There was no WAY we were going to waste it, so I planned to take Sam to the zoo - we were going to go last week when Lloyd was home, but it rained on the Friday and we ended up driving on passed the zoo and going to the glow golf instead! So we decided to go to the zoo today instead!

While I was sat in bed drinking my coffee this morning, the phone rang and it was Lloyd phoning from work! He said that he had finished the work he needed to do and so he was coming home and was coming to the zoo with us!!! Yay!!

So off we went to the zoo for the day :) The weather was soooo lovely with this really strong WARM breeze that was just so nice. By the time we were on our way home, the car was saying it was 27c outside!!!! Of course it's been so much cooler lately and we've had a few frosts already so the leaves have started to change and the colours everywhere are so pretty - the leaves were falling from the trees and it's very pretty everywhere! I wore my Fall boots and after an hour or so my feet were HOT :( I think I should have worn my sandals and my cropped pants instead!!!! ;)

Family chalk drawings......by Abigail and Sam!

Grandma Terry and Grandad Chris by Abigail:


Grandma Spicer and Grandpa Spicer by Abigail:


Daddy by Sam:

Busy busy Bumblebee......

Checking the bird boxes

At the weekend we took down some of the bird boxes and looked inside of them. It was really interesting to see the different styles of nests and different birds that had used them over the Summer to raise their young....

Sadly in one we found a dead nestling that had been abandoned. Poor little thing! It was nice to see that Lloyds handywork had been appreciated though and the boxes were used - we plan to make lots more over winter and have them all through the woods - we have loved feeding our bird families this year and watching all the babies grow through the Summer - they were so sweet to watch and although some of them have ow left to fly South, some of them have stayed around and may end up staying through the Winter! We just keep buying more feeders :)

Riding in circles.....

Sam got a new bike at the beginning of Summer but didn't really use it at all the whole Summer long! Now Fall has arrived and we have cleared out the workshop and he has room to ride it around the workshop in circles he LOVES this 'racetrack' feel of riding round and round in circles and he will spend hours just riding around in circles while Lloyd is working out in the workshop! He is doing so great on his new bike!

Sam gets messy!

Sam having some slimy fun with cornflour! He loved it - we mixed in some drops of blue food colouring...then a little while later we added in some red! Then a bit later on he noticed that it had all turned white again! He thought this was MAGIC because the colour had GONE!!!! Sam loved that he could roll the solid into balls in his hands and then let it trickle through his fingers like a sticky liquid :)

Home from school....

Back in the old routine......school is in full swing again and is going well. Abigail is loving it. Today she came home with her first invitation to a birthday party - it's actually to the boy next doors party! Hhhmmmm we should watch out - another 30 years and they could have 5 kids together ;) More importantly I should tell her to watch out that he isn't looking up her skirt - the way Lloyd was looking up mine when I was in class with him - mind you I was at LEAST 8 when that was happening so I guess we do have another year for THAT ;)

Lloyd's week off is almost over - he keeps saying sadly that he has to go back to work on Monday :( I'm kind of glad in way as if he stays home much longer I won't be able to fit in my size pants for long!!! We keep going out to eat and he keeps making me coffee with cream!!!! And I'm so lazy when he's home! Go back to work Lloyd so that I can DO something ;) And eat less!!!!! ;) I like being a size 8!!!!! I like my size 7's even more and I have my eye on those size 6's thank you very much!!!! :) All these trips to Smittys for breakfast are not helping!!!!

But it has been lovely having him home! The sooner he retires the better! At least then we will have a pool that I can swim in each morning and work off the coffee creamer in ;)

A craving quenched.....

Freckled lemonade...I keep seeing the commercials and it's been almost a year since I had some in Vancouver! So today we stopped off at Red Robins so I could have a glass! Yum!

Have to say the service sucked!!!! And we won't go back for a LONG time - until I NEED more freckled lemonade ;) But that stuff is LOVELY :) Still lemonade (traditional still lemonade to those of you in England) with chunks of strawberries in it. Yummy!!!

And some of me too ;)

Lloyd snapped some of me too ;) I was NOT very good at glow golf!!! Lets just say that more than a few times the ball had a little help getting into the hole ;)