All that jazz

We've had some unbelievably hot days recently - and it's barely summer yet. I had my younger granddaughter over for the day and we wandered down to Roberts Park for an ice cream. 'Guiseley Jazz' were playing in the bandstand, and a few folk got up to dance to the infectious rhythm. It was heartwarming to see the older couple teaching the younger girls some of the moves. It all felt very relaxed and lovely - and the ice creams were good too. We even found a place to sit in the shade and the slight breeze made it feel bearable. Neither of us are sun/hot weather lovers. 

We paid a visit to Baba Jaga's hut, and I found she knew the legend quite well. She's bright as a button and quick on the uptake about most things. 

Before long she was in her favourite habitat - up a tree! 

Any railings or low walls we pass also get clambered on. From here we got a grandstand view of the Canada geese taking their babies for a paddle on the weir. The river is currently very low, but it will soon fill again as we have rain forecast for next week. 

The gardening project

I popped over to visit my family just before Easter, as they were about to go on holiday. My younger granddaughter was telling me she has joined her school's gardening club. They had just started a project to grow cress seeds in eggshells but, with them going away, she was worried hers wouldn't survive. She asked if I would take care of it while she was away. Of course, I said yes. What she doesn't know is that I can kill a living lettuce from the supermarket in a matter of hours. I don't have a green finger in my body! So it was with some trepidation that I transported this precious gift home and installed it on the kitchen windowsill. I've been feeding it carefully-poured teaspoons of water two or three times a day and rotating it to the light whenever I notice it keeling over. So far, so good! Though, by the time she gets home, it'll be well past its peak.  Nevertheless I am pleased with my efforts and have been sending daily updates, with a photo, to its owner. 

I suppose I could harvest it to eat in an egg sandwich - but it would feel like murder! 

Hoppy Easter

I didn't prepare an 'Easter' photo, as such, so here are the lambs I knitted for my grandgirls. Each contained a small creme egg. The girls both seemed quite pleased with them. The pattern had 'googly eyes' stuck on the faces but I decided I liked the gentler look, without eyes. They were quick to knit up and useful for using up small lengths of yarn. 

So this comes to wish ewe a woolly hoppy Easter, with sheeps of good wishes. 🐑 🐑 🐣 🐥

St Thomas à Becket Church

Heptonstall's original church, dating back to the 13th century, was badly damaged in a storm in 1847. The congregation's answer was to build a new church next to it, which is still used. The old church remains as an atmospheric ruin within its crowded graveyard, reputed to hold 100,000 burials. 

We were amused by the sign glimpsed through one of the old church windows, which says 'Churchyard Bottom'. (A bit too small to read on my photo). 'Bottom' is a common geographical term in the UK and there are apparently at least 356 actual places with Bottom in the name, including Scratchy Bottom and Happy Bottom in Dorset, Flash Bottom in Staffordshire and Slap Bottom in Hampshire. Just along the road from Heptonstall itself is Slack Bottom. 

My daughter and I spent quite a while enjoying the carved lettering on the gravestones. Part of her job is designing websites so she has a 'professional interest' in fonts. I love the hand carved shapes and the huge variation you find. 

Meanwhile, my younger granddaughter disappeared, only to be spotted halfway up a tree. 🙈 Little monkey! She's always been an adventurer. That and the fact that she's good at maths makes me doubt sometimes that she can actually be a descendent of mine! There's no way you'd ever have got me up there.

Nostalgia

 

I was idly wondering whether writers go back and reread their own novels, or diarists thrill again to their own journal entries. (We all know that famous Oscar Wilde quote: 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.')  Maybe I'm odd - or self-obsessed! - but I do occasionally like to look back at my blog, which is, after all, a record of what I've been up to for the past eighteen or so years. So I was looking back ten years, to 2016 and I found, for the 13th January, this delightful memory:

"And she's off....

We are fortunate that the town of Halifax is almost equidistant between my daughter's new home and mine - and even more fortunate that it holds the fabulous National Children's Museum: Eureka. The museum was in its infancy when my daughter was a child but is continually renewed and re-envisioned and has gone from strength to strength. My granddaughters love it - and so do we adults, as it is a wonderful place to take them when the weather precludes outdoor play. With both children still being under school age we can go during the week when it's quieter. It gets packed, as you can imagine, at weekends and holidays.

On our recent visit, E, who is four, was captivated by the workshop devoted to transport. She 'drove' a lorry, took a car through a carwash, filled up with petrol and then donned overalls to change the tyres. A future in Formula One looks assured. One-year-old M was curious at first ...  and then decided the smooth floors were perfect for getting in some walking practice. She is so proud of her new-found skills and balance.

Up...  steady...  and off she goes.....'

I loved looking back at this. Little M, the adventurer, now eleven, is still curious, brave and bright. She's a lot bigger, of course! In the meantime, she grew her hair until it reached below her waist. Last week, she had it chopped off into a very stylish, short, razor-cut bob. I believe her intention was to donate her long plaits to a charity that makes wigs for child cancer patients. 

Concentration

My family have recently returned from holiday so I had the pleasure of being able to spend some time with my youngest granddaughter. She is growing up fast (nearly 11) and I know that her desire to visit will soon wane in favour of activities with her peers (as is largely now the case with her big sister). I have a good relationship with them both, so it's not an issue for me, rather I see it as a normal and healthy development. I do, however, enjoy their company. She still enjoys board games; we had a couple of rounds of snakes and ladders, both of which she won! She also enjoyed sorting through a big tin of badges that originally came from my nephews. There are enough duplicates in the tin to make a good game of 'Snap', which required concentration and attention to detail. A trip to the local shop for food supplies, followed by a late lunch (menu decided by granddaughter), a bit of crafting, a little time spent reading - all in all, we spent a very pleasant day - and then dinner back at her house with my family, catching up with tales of their recent travels in Europe. An enjoyable time. 

Monopoly Leeds

I met my daughter and youngest grandie in Leeds at the end of the school holidays, to play 'Monopoly Leeds'. The city centre has been turned into a giant Monopoly board. Armed with a map, we explored various locations, solving puzzles and earning tokens, which could be entered into machines to win little prizes and stamps on your map. 

It was a lot of fun, though I have to say my granddaughter, who is almost ten, did far better on the puzzles than I did! We (I) did, however, walk over 13000 steps (according to my iPhone) so it was a fairly painless way to get some exercise. 

Afterwards we celebrated with coffee and ices at Haute Dolci, a café that serves only sweet creations. That in itself was an eye opener for me. The menu and ordering was via an app opened on your phone from a QR code on each table. All fine... so long as you have a smartphone and the nous to use it. I guess they have ways of serving the technologically challenged too. Happily, I could rely on my daughter to navigate all that! Once we got our ices, they were delicious. 

 

A day being Gran

When most schools went back after half-term, my youngest granddaughter (9) had a couple of extra days for 'staff training', so I was drafted in to spend one of the days with her. We decided to go to Halifax to the cinema, and on the way we called in at Manor Heath Park, one of our favourite local places. There's a small 'jungle experience' - heated greenhouses with tropical plants, huge butterflies and ponds and streams with fish and terrapins. It's all rather fun and quite educational, though these days it tends to be my granddaughter educating me, rather than the other way round! 

She guided me round the back to a walled garden that I didn't even know about. It was really attractive and peaceful and we happily explored the planting and the winding paths. M is rarely still and, given half a chance, will find a spot for dancing and jumping about. 

In one of the flower beds she discovered a small stone, painted with a picture of a blue whale. 'Look, Gran, a whale.' 'Oh, well spotted,' said I. 'Whale spotted,' she retorted, quick as a flash. I think that's the first time she's made a little joke like that with me. Obviously she's taking after me and her mum. We both love puns. 

We had a very congenial day out. The film we saw was 'Garfield, the Movie'. Of course, being deaf, I can't hear the dialogue but it wasn't hard to follow the storyline. To add to the fun, it was in 3D so we had dark glasses to wear and it appeared that things were coming out towards us from the screen. Weird but enjoyable.

All the fun of the fair

My daughter and youngest granddaughter came over to inspect progress on my apartment. The little one eventually got a bit bored by talk of decor and plans for a new bathroom, so we took pity on her and went out. We ended up at the garden centre where, as I've mentioned before on my blog, there is an old-fashioned 'Penny Arcade' full of slot machines and peepshows such as you used to find on seaside piers back in the day. £1 coin into a machine delivers a handful of old copper pennies and we managed to get ourselves quite a few more on some of the machines, by hitting the jackpot. I did quite well on the 'coin pusher' game. 

We watched Sooty's Band, a little animated puppet show featuring Sooty the bear, Sweep the dog and Soo the panda, which used to be on TV when I was a child. 

There are all sorts of weird animated scenes. M was fascinated by Frank N Stine, which eventually revealed a mermaid in the box - 'a monster of the deep'! 

As for me, I can now bear the Laughing characters. This one was 'Mick, the Jolly Gardener'. When I was child these used to make me cry! 

We all had our fortunes told by 'a gypsy'. Mine was fairly boring but the card my daughter received had us in stitches. (Obviously no-one told the gypsy that Charles is now King.) Can't wait for Thursday! Pretend to look surprised. 😂

The fire engine called

There was great excitement at the grandchildren's school fun day when the local fire crew from Todmorden arrived in their fire engine. They let the children climb in the cab and the crew space, and try on helmets and breathing apparatus. My grandgirls' grandfather was a fire fighter before he retired, which made it extra special for them. (I can remember years ago when their mum was a girl, she went with her dad to a 'Take Your Child to Work' Day! Thankfully they didn't go to a real fire but she still had a great time trying out hoses and learning about the firefighters' work at the Fire Training School.) 

I don't know if it's just me but firefighters, along with the police, seem to get younger all the time! 😂

The Ugly Bug Ball

My granddaughters' tiny village primary school is lucky enough to have access to a sports field just across the road. Their Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) used it recently to have a school 'fun day' with stalls and games, raising money for the school. One edge of the field is gradually being transformed by the children into an orchard and wildlife/wildflower trail, and it was this area that had been decorated by all manner of bugs and insects that the children had created. Bees, made from plastic milk cartons, buzzed around the trees. 

A big blue dragonfly hovered there and my youngest granddaughter was proud to show me the colourful butterfly she and her friends had created.

There was an army of bright snails: 

and an impressive cricket. The sign said they chirp faster on hot days - and it was VERY hot and humid - so I imagined the chirping was loud! 

 

Creativity at The Hepworth

One of the great things about The Hepworth is how welcoming they are to children. You can ask for a big Creativity Pack at the front desk: a folder that holds loads of paper and some good pastel crayons, plus some plastic templates in 'Barbara Hepworth' style shapes - curved and with holes in. My grandgirls love sitting and drawing and on this occasion became absorbed in capturing the scene from the window in ever more abstract ways. 

We also took time to study some of the ceramics being exhibited. M was captivated by this stoneware  'Footed Landscape' by Ian Godfrey (1942-1992), thrown on a wheel and then carved into with a penknife, depicting animals and architectural forms from ancient civilisations. 

There was a drop-in clay workshop too so we all had a go at making our own pots and shapes (even me!) It was a lot of fun. It's air-dried clay so we got to bring them home too. 

Penny Arcade

The other attraction at the garden centre was an old-fashioned Penny Arcade, full of vintage fruit machines, games and the kind of peep-show attractions that used to be a feature on the piers and seafronts of our seaside resorts. You could exchange modern coins for a handful of old copper pennies and then play the machines. The girls loved it! 

We had our fortunes told by the 'fortune-teller' (above). She told me that I had to do that job I've been putting off! (There are plenty of those, starting with the hedge that needs trimming!) 

There were all manner of early 20th century machines that showed gruesome, animated scenes or that old favourite 'The Laughing Policeman' (which used to make me cry when I was little!) 

You could waste your pennies on whizzing little metal balls around flick-lever machines to try and win a packet of sweets,

and, of course, there were the 'one-armed bandits'. Get three fruits in a row and you win the jackpot, but it rarely happens. We had more success with the machines with an arm like a crane that picked up sweets.

To end the fun, you could watch a puppet show. It reminded me that as a child I had quite a few string puppets. Spent most of my young life disentangling them but they were fun. 

Elsewhere in its vast sheds the garden centre has a few bits of old garden machinery and vehicles like this little truck. It's a great place to while away an hour or two. You can even buy plants there ! 😂