Here comes the son

When I was swapping from thick winter duvet to much thinner summer duvet last night I found a pair of pink fluffy socks under a pillow. This must mean that at some time since I changed the sheets last Sunday I must have gone to bed wearing socks due to the cold. It's inconceivable after a weekend of glorious sun that this could be, but apparently so.

I've spent the weekend with my son. The last couple of weeks he's been at Cub camp and at his Dad's so it's great to have him to myself.

Saturday started with a trip to his school spring fête. Then we went to Armley Mills where his Dad had an art exhibition opening.

These are some of his Dad's works:









The rest of Armley Mills is well worth a visit, showcasing Leeds' industrial heritage




Interspersed with some quirky artworks like these wax shoes




Afterwards we headed to Headingley for our first visit to Shaky Jakes which makes amazing milkshake. He had aero mint and I had Dime bar. They were incredible







Sunday dawned blazing hot so we headed to Nostell Priory which is a lovely National Trust property. I am trying to save money for the next few months so we made a picnic




Before visiting the beautiful Palladian house and gardens.










My favourite part of the day was when we both lay in dappled shade reading Dodie Smith novels: me, 'I Capture the Castle', him 'The Starlight Barking'.

His favourite part of the afternoon was doing a Deadly 60 wildlife CSI trail to work out the clues as to which animal had raided a nest




Little darling, I'm glad the ice has melted. Here comes the son.

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Overworlds Underworlds

Over the next few months I'll be writing about the Olympics a lot. I'm one of the people who is totally over-excited about them being held in my country. When we were awarded them years ago I swore I'd do everything I could to take my son. What I didn't realise is just how great the Olympics will be culturally and for communities.

Yesterday, my son and I went to Overworlds Underworlds which is an art installation festival funded via the Cultural Olympiad. It was on all weekend but I only got to attend the final day. It was a really absorbing and engaging mixture of music, dance and visual art.

Recently the first exhibit has caused some controversy in Leeds with one lady on the local news memorably saying she might like it when it was finished. It is finished. It's meant to look like that.





I was far less convinced by the statue than by the brilliant street dance that this company presented without warning in Leeds' main shopping street








The highlight of the afternoon for me was Harrogate Brass band doing a flash mob performance of Lionel Ritchie's 'Dancing on the Ceiling' outside WH Smith before leading a huge smiling crowd through the shopping streets like a modern day set of Pied Pipers




And we were corralled by a bunch of steam punk types:


The feeling of marching through a town full of confused Sunday shoppers was great as we were led from the Overworld of Leeds city centre to the Underworld of the Dark Arches.

There were a variety of art installations and performance pieces in the suitably gloomy Dark Arches including a ghostly cabaret




And some sculptures that were very reminiscent of scary mid-80s dark stop animation cartoons







One of the most visually arresting pieces was a lighting show which illuminated the River Aire as it surged under the Victorian railway arches. My son felt it represented the River Styx and it was certainly a new perspective on a familiar sight





Outside in the sun was a gothic band of skeletal musicians and some fire breathers adding spectacle and entertaining the slightly freaked kiddies.












A great afternoon out for my son and I and, as I noted on my timeline, for practically the entire twitterati of Leeds.


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Dallas does Sheffield

Today was bank holiday Monday. Cleverly socialism gives us this day off to nurse hangovers. As someone who has never ever had a hangover ever, not even a weeny one, I knew that I'd be fresh and able to have an enjoyable day with my son and friends. We applied for tickets for BBC Bang Goes the Theory live which was being held in Sheffield.




The stage show was great: lots of groany jokes and some fairly stupendous explosions. We had seen a few of the experiments when we went in Manchester before Christmas but a big rocket is going to be a hit with a 9 year old boy (and a 40 year old Mum) whatever. This time nearly the whole team were there: Jem Stansfield, Dallas Campbell and Dr Yan.








The real strength of these BBC roadshows is that they let kids learn complicated scientific concepts in a fun interactive way. Afterwards my son got to learn the basics of jet propulsion by playing with a beach ball




And how our optic nerves and brains process information via the use of some 3D glasses with a missing lens and a pendulum




There was also a free site outside where you got to make your own electricity via pedal power and deep freeze bubbles on dry ice.








Also there were a lot of sports science experiments. I can stay in the air during a jump for .365 seconds. I'm 40. I think that's pretty good. My son was better.




Oh, we got to meet Dallas Campbell too. Something for the kids, something for the mums...




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50 things to do before you are 11¾

This blog is based around an urge to give my son the sort of childhood that kids had before the advent of computer games; all day children's TV and too many cars on the road to be able to play out. I know a lot of parents who have similar aspirations and want their kids to have an actual childhood. This urge has been reflected in National Trust's 50 things to do before you are 11¾which sets kids the challenge to get out and do the stuff we used to do when kid's TV was only on for two hours per day and we were allowed to roam free.
To date, my son has been able to get to 31and we are going to try to get to the round 50 by the end of the summer holidays.
This is the list:
The 50 Things to Do Before you're 11 ¾
1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you're flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what's in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

Ironically kids can log on to www.50things.org.uk and create a diary of their adventures. I guess that's just a modern scrapbook, isn't it?


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The long and winding path

My mother had a very different experience of raising me than I have of bringing up my son. In his entire life he's never been truly naughty and the worst thing he ever did was eating a couple of pieces of chocolate hiding in the yard when he was about three. I was significantly more of a challenge. Indeed, the stories of the adventurous and inquisitive scrapes I got into when little can take up most of an evening. The most famous one is about me, aged about 6, saying I could walk from my grandparents' house in the wilds of rural Dorset to the local village a couple of miles distant. Unwisely my grandparents said I couldn't. So I did.
Today, being Easter Sunday, we started off with an egg hunt in the garden. My son wasn't allowed sweets or chocolate until he was nearly at school and it makes me laugh to remember this looking at the haul he found lurking in the garden this morning.








After a really unseemly quantity of chocolate we decided to go for a walk. The Purbeck Hills are always visible from my parents' house but generally I don't think about climbing up the big hill. Once I had hauled myself up the 70 steps to the top I could see all of the Isle of Purbeck spread around me. I could also see the distance from the little hamlet my grandparents once lived in and the trek I'd done along winding lanes alone, to prove I could. A top the Purbeck hills there was glorious sun and a clear path to Swanage so my son and I did the 5 mile walk from Corfe to Swanage. And very lovely it was too.












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Fun with my son

I've just realised that I've missed out a couple of the fun days out I've had this Easter. All I can say is that I always forget to do my homework on my holidays. Also I wonder what I did with my time before he was born. We get to go to great places and usually only because he's a kid.

On Monday we went to the Hepworth Gallery and got to make sculptures based on Barbara Hepworth's work.




Mine


My son's



We also got to see what Hepworth created







And my son got to get tactile with a sculpture (supervised and with gloves on)







That day we also went to Conisbrough Castle which has a fabulous Norman keep and was the birthplace of Richard of York (readers of this blog will be aware of my obsession with the House of York in the Cousins' War)





A few days later and we are hundreds of miles south and enjoying the beach at Studland . We took part in an Easter egg hunt and got the traditional reward.











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