School's out for Summer!

This year we have a whopping 7 weeks off. And the sun has come out of hiding in time for day one! Brilliant.

Summer plans include:

Camp Bestival
6 days camping at Eweleaze
A book writing workshop for the older small person
A parent and child cooking class with friends
The Olympics! We are going to see one event, a swimming one.
Lunch at Rainforest Cafe with a 20.12% discount (clever)
Hopefully a trip to see Horrible Histories Live
Hopefully cinema outings to see The Lorax and Brave
5 days visiting my parents in Wales

I also want to do some decorating. I'd like the girls to do the library reading challenge and I hope to be able to convince Lucy that it would be fun to work on some of her Brownie badges at home with me, namely Writing and Booklover. We'll see. I am going to be working a bit too, but it's different work so it doesn't feel like I'm not on holiday!

Warner Brothers Studio Tour - The Making Of Harry Potter

Yesterday was seriously one of the best days of my life.

We booked a spot on the Harry Potter studio tour as Lucy's birthday treat back in March. We wanted a specific date and even that far in advance, the earliest tour they had available spaces on was 4.30pm! It was VERY hard to keep it a secret from Lucy, but I knew that if someone had become ill and we'd had to not go (we have a history of this kind of thing), it would have broken her little heart.. as well as mine. Plus, the bonus of keeping the trip secret was that we got to see this face as we pulled into the car park and reality dawned on her!

Worth every penny of the £83 we paid for our family ticket, plus all the pain of trying not to just TELL HER for nearly 4 months :) (incidentally, I actually think £83 for 4 of us was pretty good value for what there was to see).

So, we printed out our tickets at the self service machine, and went inside to queue. We only had to wait for around 15 minutes - the doors to the tour open every 12 minutes. Once inside the tour we were treated to a little speech, some video clips about how the film makers stumbled across the book and fell in love with it (tear to my eye #1), and then we were ushered in to a very comfortable cinema for a short introduction from Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. And then we were off to the Great Hall! I thought Millie's eyes would pop out of her head..

The tour was absolutely amazing. I can't even put into words how fantastic it was to see all those sets, props and costumes right there infront of our very eyes. It was busy, but never too busy - they manage the timed ticket allocations very well. There were SO many things to photograph. I dread to think how many times I appeared in the background of other people's snaps!

One thing that struck me, and it's probably pretty obvious because people always say this, was just how small everything was. There film maker types are very clever. The detail that goes into things is outstanding and so much of it totally passed me by when watching the films. Things like Ron's slightly tatty handknitted blanket..

And even the glaringly obvious things, like the mismatched chairs around the long dining table at The Burrows, which blatantly say "we're poor and nothing coordinates but we're warm and friendly and that's what matters". You take so much for granted when watching the films but the film makers put SO much effort into making it all believable.

There was just so much to see. So many costumes..

And props..

Many, many amazingly detailed sets..

Photo opportunities galore..

Butterbeer on sale (it was vile, I tried so hard to like it, mainly because I'd spent £5.90 on 2 cups full, but it really wasn't very nice. The foam was tasty, like melted marshmallows, but the actual drink was a sort of cream soda flavoured drink, possibly sugar free, or maybe it was just that it clashes horribly with the sickly sweet foam, I'm not sure. And visually it just reminded me of a certain scene in American Pie, which is offputting to say the least. Still, I am glad I tried it!)

Halfway through the tour there's the opportunity for some professional 'green screen' photos which we just had to take advantage of. I don't normally let anyone photograph me but as a massive Harry Potter fan, this was just too good to avoid! First we had a photo of our weird little family in the Ford Anglia (actually just sat on some green benches)

The girls both wanted a broomstick lesson. I really thought Millie would change her mind at the last minute - she's the sort of child that begs to go on a carousel and then cries and has to get off before it even starts moving. But she was SO excited about riding a broomstick and spent the entire time grinning and doing all the little tricks that were asked of her. Of course we had to buy all the photos, but they were a very reasonable £18 for 3, so I didn't begrudge paying that at all.

The best bit of the tour, for me, was the model of Hogwarts. Tears in eyes #2. It was just SO beautiful and detailed and, combined with the music, it was a very moving experience. I'd seen photos before, and I took dozens while we were there, but NOTHING can really prepare you for how wonderful it really is. Even if you don't like Harry Potter (are you actually mad?!), the castle model will blow you away. It goes through a cycle of night and day, changing from it's daytime pink..

to a stunning night time vision, when lots of little lights come on in the windows, and you'd give ANYTHING to be able to transport yourself inside.

Even Lucy said "it's getting to me a little bit!" and we had to have a cuddle halfway round :)  The cashier in the gift shop told us that although it took 40 days for a team of them to put it together, that was just the moving and assembling. If it had been down to 1 person to build and assemble the entire thing, it would have taken 74 YEARS!

The final highlight was the shop. This was one of the things I'd been looking forward to the most. There was just so much stuff and it was all brilliant! Some things were clearly way out of our price range, like the Nimbus 2000 (£199.95) and the Firebolt (£249.95) - they'd sold 4 this week!, and the jewellery and costume replicas. Other things were much more affordable. We came home with a wand for each girl (Millie chose Hermione's, Lucy opted for Luna's, on the understanding that at £25 a pop they WILL be keeping them safely in the boxes when not in use and they WILL look after them!). They also got a sports bag each (Gryffindor for Lucy, Ravenclaw for Millie). I got confused, as is the norm, and ended up not buying a t-shirt, even though I really wanted one. I'll just have to go back one day ;)  I did buy the tour book (£10) and this very funky fridge magnet (£5.95)

Apparently they're going to run the tour for as long as people want to pay to see it, so I think EVERYONE should go along :)  The girls both said it was the best day of their lives, and they were absolutely exhausted by the time we left at 8.30pm!

Best day ever :)

An almost-birthday

Next week my baby girl turns eight. EIGHT! I remember eight quite well and can't quite believe I'm going to have my own eight year old to take charge of. For every part of me that's aching for her baby and toddler days, though, there's an even bigger part of me that's SO proud of who she's become, and looking forward to many more birthdays to come. She truly is my little sunshine. She's so happy and bright. Her school report last week blew me away. Her weakest subject is PE, which made me laugh - she's so her mother's daughter. I try and tell myself not to have too many expectations for her because I don't want her to feel pressurised and I certainly don't want to end up disappointed if she ends up following a completely different path to the one I'd anticipated for her. However, I can really see her doing well with languages and history and definitely English. If my daughter is a well known author in 30 years time I wouldn't be a bit surprised. But if she chooses not to, that's alright too. Because if she ever lost that sparkle and love of life, that would be the biggest tragedy of all.

Anyway, I digress. Lucy requested a Lalaloopsy cake for her family birthday party, and this is what she got.

Jelly Wiggle Jiggle and Sahara Mirage, picking apples

A triple decker Victoria sponge, sandwiched together with raspberry jam and pink buttercream, and decorated with copious amounts of sugarpaste. And, of course, four little Mini Lalaloopsy dolls bought especially for the occasion, which were removed once the cake was cut, washed (I'd used blobs of buttercream to stick them in place), and played with pretty much all afternoon.

Once the cake was assembled and iced in blue, which was the stressful part, the fun bit began. The beauty of this cake is that you don't have to worry about getting the base icing smooth, you can just cover any dodgy bits with little green hills and trees and sunsets!

Suzette La Sweet and Cherry Pie Crust, picnicking on a cloud

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The birthday girl was very taken with her cake, even though there were so many scones, sandwiches, sausage rolls, cherries and so on that she really didn't have much room to do more than pick at her slice. I'm sure she'll make up for lost time on that front :)

Happy almost birthday to my little Lucy Lou. Don't ever change.

Life seems to be getting on top of me at the moment, but the light at the end of the tunnel is..

*whispers* I think I will be adding 2 chicken friends to the flock this Summer!

Veggie progress

Oh dear. I remember thinking last year that it was a slow, disappointing start to the growing season, and being alarmed when I saw photos from a similar point in 2010 and seeing just how much more advanced everything was. This year I'm feeling the same way about June and July 2011 :(  OK, so I can tell it wasn't a great year, but by this point we had ripe cherries and 2 days later we were picking courgettes. Not a hope of that yet in 2012!

Things that appear to be doing well
Blueberries
Sunset and Broadholme Beauty apples
Gooseberries
Onions - I'm sure we don't have anywhere near as many as we planted in the Autumn, but many of them are HUGE
Rhubarb - drowing in the stuff. I plan to try and dehydrate a load over the Summer for use in crumbles in the Winter
Tomatoes - seem to be healthier plants than last year
Runner beans  - looking good so far
Broad beans, although not as good as other allotmenters as I didn't tame them with wires
Red cabbages
Redcurrants - lots and lots growing, waiting for them to ripen

Things that are  NOT doing well
Butternut squash, they look very sad
Carrots and beetroot - finally, FINALLY got some to germinate. It was about my 4th attempt!
Raspberries. Tons of new growth, hardly any fruiting canes this year. I pruned a bit too much last November.
Blackcurrants - bushes gone wild, not much fruit, need a good prune
Strawberries at home - chickens ate them so they're very slow
Artichoke, it died. Again.
Dwarf french beans - slugs just find them too tasty
Plum and cherry - not much fruit this year
All the other apples and pears - no fruit at all :(
Rocket - it just bolts straight away! Lettuce didn't even grow.

Jury's still out
Potatoes
Courgette
The orange squashes, name escapes me, last year they were smaller than satsumas when ripened!
Cucumbers
Sweetcorn, looks very small and yellow
Green cabbages and cauliflowers - small, some didn't survive the hot weather and slug attack
Elephant garlic and shallots - they flowered
Garlic - they got rust (although we did dig one up today and the bulb looks gorgeous)
Red onions - VERY teeny
Telephone peas - growing taller

I hadn't actually realised how much I'm growing! I've grown a lot of the above from seed but I'm a busy lady at the moment so feel less guilty about just buying plants. It's still cheaper than just buying the veg from Tesco, right? :)  I placed an order from Vegetable Plants Direct and am awaiting 5 broccoli plants, some beetroot (I ordered thse before I realised that my beetroot is actually growing from seed at last, but I only ordered £1.50 worth so I don't mind at all), a chocolate brown tomato, a yellow tomato, Hallow'een pumpkin, a squash that tastes and looks like Butternut but is bigger and green skinned, and a third cucumber plant. I'm not convinced it's not a little late to be planting stuff out but it's worth a go. We might have another Indian Summer :)