Weird Science

What a treat tonight we went to the Sheffield University Researchers night. It was an open evening part of the city's festival of the mind.
There were different areas within the uni building with experiments going on and hands on exploration of the equipment.

 We listened to a talk on liquid Nitrogen and saw the fastest ice cream being made in the world! Yes we did get to taste it too yum delish!
 A balloon got exploded by the gas and the kids felt just how cold the mist coming off it actually was.

 There was an exploding flame in a tube filmed so we could see it travelling along

 Amazing polymer balls made mostly of water that we couldn't see in the water but could feel!

 The Marmite to peanut butter trick! It still tastes like Marmite though!

 A substance similar to cornflour/water mix that is used in body armour. He showed us how it protected by putting some on a 'victims' hand then whacking it with a hammer! No fingers were broken

We were shown how nerves send messages around the body and loads of other exciting stuff that really sparked my kids interest in science experiments

Bowser Castle!

Lol yes we did go to Bowser castle (really Bolsover Castle) but we have always called it Bowser so we pretended to be Mario, Luigi etc on the way!

Although I have lived within 10 miles of this castle most of my life I had never been before so it was a real treat to see the castle on the hillside viewed from the motorway nearby up close for the first time.

It had lovely grounds, our favourite was the huge beech tree in the centre and we could imagine King Charles bringing his wife here showing off along the front!

 Of course we had to try out the horses in the stables!! I even had my chaps on for the occassion

It really is impressive and got more so as we explored. Built in the 17th century for pleasure its very pretty and was obviously to impress the upper crust of the time.

The little things that often go unnoticed

Often we concentrate on the more concrete things that we can measure, how they read and write, what level that sort of stuff and I think sometimes we miss the little things that are really important, the play between the stuff that we sometimes start believing is more important so I'm glad occasionally my daughters remind me with little photo 'post its' on my camera. Here's some of my favourites
 (my children took all these photos)

A toys beach party

A mermaid of shells on Grandmas carpet 

 

Play mobile fun the girls can spend hours playing with these brilliant figures, of course my little pony sometimes gets a look in

A road of lolly sticks

A fairy house

and a family of plasticine!

York Digging

 We had a fab day at York dig. A home ed event to have a go at being an archaeologist for the day. We took the opportunity of the car being in the garage to go on the train from our beautiful station to York's.
It must be just as lovely for visitors to Sheffield to come out to our amazing water sculpture as it was for us to come out into the marvellous architecture of York train station.

York dig is in the heart of York, we had a bit of a mad dash for the bus when we arrived after a leisurely train ride sharing the journey with a fellow home edder. We just made the central bus and got to the dig in time to meet the group. We sat for a talk about archeolgy and what has been found at York and then they let us loose in the specially designed digging area.

The girls enjoyed finding bones and a potty that turned out to be a cooking pot! We had a dig in four different areas representing war time , medieval, roman, and viking times.

We then got a chance to identify objects in trays that had been found around York.

In our break for lunch we set off to explore a bit of York, the old Tudor street, the market and little passageways between. It is such a lovely town centre a nice mix of old and new.

















We had our lunch in the square listening to buskers playing the flute and then shared a fresh lemonade with friends!

There was a sweet smelling stall with lots of different scented candles to have a sniff at!

We strolled back for the afternoon session which was a talk by a Viking about how they lived. Long after the tour had finished we were still in the museum eploring the exhibits making mosaics, drawing and recording findings. I love museums for this reason we can spend the whole day in one! When it was finally closing time we went and sat in the grounds of the minster listening to the bell chimes and soaking up the sunshine.
We called in on a cafe for a big bun before catching the bus back to the station and heading back chatting with friendly commuters on the train.

Country life...almost

I haven't posted for a long time because we're in the process of sorting our house for sale so we can move out to the countryside. Its been a really busy few months and we're temporarily settled in a rented house on the egde of Sheffield. The house is not great but it overlooks fields and its like dipping a toe into rural life having no close by shops and a sporadic bus service so it takes a bit of planning! The pic above is one of the many walks we've been on nearby. Its mostly farm land with footpaths cutting through but there is the odd woodland and meadow spot and its giving us a great idea of where we would like to settle permanently.

I wish I had kept up with the blog a bit more because I've looked back and enjoyed jogging my memory on things we've done so I may add some belated posts now I have a bit of time. I'm having a lovely lazy Sunday today its our choosing day which I've mentioned before. We started it some time ago and it has grown into a special loved day of the week. I've been writing my yoga book which I hope to publish sometime soon with the help from a lovely friend and the girls have had a film, computer time, a playdough cafe, face painting, top trumps, Grand prix watching, sunday dinner making and now Harry Potter play!

I've had a go at taking short burst pics of them 'expelliarmus'ing each other on the trampoline! It looks fun I shall put them up in a bit