What a wonderful couple of days we have had!

Yesterday was our first needlecraft gathering here at home. I was a little worried before hand - I suspect it's only natural that when people are coming to your home you want them to feel relaxed and have a good time. Thankfully it went really well. Everyone seemed to have a good time. There were eight children in all and they all got along wonderfully, playing, chatting and doing their needlecraft. We enjoyed a shared lunch and lots of conversation. A couple of the children asked as they were leaving when the next one would be. I'm delighted that they enjoyed themselves and would like to do it again. Hopefully we will meet up again in four weeks time.

This morning we read Racism - What's That Got To Do With Me? by Antony Lishak. I liked the book. It presented lots of short scenarios such as one school child not being invited to a birthday party because of the colour of her skin, a footballer feeling uneasy on the pitch because of 'monkey' taunts and one man saying that he doesn't consider himself racist but does believe that all people should live together with people of the same coloured skin. We discussed each scenario and I think both Lily and Hermione were genuinely concerned, particularly so when the story involved children.

We looked at this photograph of a divided beach and wondered how we would feel if we went to the coast with some of our friends but were unable to all play together.

This afternoon we went to Whitworth Hall Country Park. I love it there and as I only just came across the place last autumn I feel as if I am still discovering it each time I visit, having not yet seen it in all seasons.

First we looked at the deer. It' s quite a large wild herd. There were a number of babies there today which were incredibly cute but we didn't go too close to them.

When I finally managed to get Miles away from the deers we went to the walled garden. This is my favourite part of the park. It is full of fantastic plants and fruit trees. We saw a whole array of fruits growing - apples, pears, cherries, strawberries, greengages, plums, red currants, white currants, grapes (both in the glasshouse and outside), loganberries, figs (in the glasshouse) and peaches (in the glasshouse). As well as flowers the borders are full of fragrant herbs.

We looked at the grapes in the glasshouse....

...then on to the rows of outdoor vines....

...where the grapes were only just beginning to form...

Having not seen loganberries since I was a child in my Nana's garden I succumbed and tried one, sadly it didn't live up to my memories but was quite tasty all the same.

Just time to smell a few more big old fashioned roses before heading round to the play area and then on to home.

On the way home I had one of my best yet home ed moments. The conversation went like this -

Lily - why can't babies talk?

Soo - they must learn to, just like you and Hermione are learning to read

Hermione - I'm not learning to read

Soo - well what were you doing with mummy this morning?

Hermione - reading books, we read them for fun not for learning

That just topped off for me what has been a wonderful couple of days.