Rocket and Romans

I was doing a spot of weeding on our patch this morning when I noticed what looks like tiny feathery thistles in some of the rocket. Quick search on Google confirmed my fear - it's bolted. Thankfully the flowers are edible but they are much stronger. Way too peppery for the children unfortunately.



I don't want to waste it. It's just the odd one that's seeded. It's still really good right now but presumably won't last. So, Rocket Salad for lunch and Rocket Soup for dinner.



This is what I threw in the pot.

One and a half cups of vegetable stock
One and a half cups of rice milk
Two potatoes
One onion
A splash of soya cream
An armful of spinach, rocket and wild garlic.

I didn't cook the greens, I just added them at the very end and whizzed it all up. Delicious with Lemon and Poppy Seed Cornbread.



We visited Arbeia at the weekend. It was virtually deserted - no doubt at least in part due to the wet and foggy weather.



It's a 'free' museum with a small but exceptionally well equipped hands on space for youngsters and those who are young at heart! Being the only people there we could really get to see and do everything which was great.

The main part of the activities area is a mock archaeological dig where the children can dig for bones, pottery and broken tiles. Craig felt that although it is smaller it is comparable with The Dig at York. I've not been to the York one so couldn't possibly say.





In addition to digging we also wrote our names in wax tablets..



.. made an arch..



..made mosaics..



..copied the roman alphabet..



..sorted a big box of things into the appropriate compartments on the tray..



..did brass rubbings..



and reconstructed a broken bowl.



When we finished in the activities area we braved the weather and headed over to the reconstructed buildings for a look around. Some of the rooms were fascinating but they were all quite dark and didn't photograph well.



The fort is open to the public and Craig and Hermione headed up to the top while Miles and I watched some snails.

We've done a couple of related activities this week and have a few more planned.

We made a roman snakes and ladders with roman numerals and roman dice.



We monitored the sun and shadows and observed how the shadows move as the day goes by.



Tomorrow we hope to discover one of the ways in which the romans told the time when it was dark.