A quieter week

So following an adventurous week with family last week was a little quieter, which has it's advantages.

That way Dada!

Sunday we went to Godrevy to walk a little further around the headland than we'd been before, which was lovely. We enjoyed seeing the wild ponies grazing around there too and we even managed to see a seal! There are apparently usually loads there but never any when we go, so to see one was a significant improvement!

Ponies, sea and a lighthouse

Also at Godrevy Isaac had his first ice cream! He's had tastes of ice cream before, but between his early dairy problems and the coldness of it he's never been that interested. It was a pretty hot day and we could all do with some cooling down so we got an ice cream. Isaac managed to eat pretty much the whole of his ice cream with only a little help from Mama and Dada, it wasn't what we were expecting!

Monday I had a bright idea and I'm now using IFTTT (If This Then That) to aggregate all of my online activity into a Google Drive spreadsheet, making it easy for me to see at a glance when I come to write this weekly summary. If you haven't come across IFTTT, I wrote an article on it some time ago for geek-speak.co.uk. Other than that it was a quiet day.

Tuesday Canonical/Ubuntu announced the Ubuntu Edge campaign on IndieGogo, and I just had to dream about being able to get involved!

That evening we went to the library to return, renew and checkout books; Tuesday is their late opening day, which means we can get there after I finish work and not feel that we have to rush!

Whilst we were there Isaac decided he would help the staff and rearrange some of the children's books. I took plenty of pictures and Google+ animated it for me!

Thursday the weather turned quite dramatically although it wasn't as stormy as other parts of the country had it. That didn't come until Sunday.

Friday I signed/shared a petition asking for Stricter Controls Over Bumblebee Imports, relating to how some imported bees are bringing parasites into the country and negatively affecting our native populations.

More importantly (!) Friday was our 5th Anniversary! We celebrated at a lovely Italian restaurant in Penzance.

Saturday morning I was at the village Farmers Market, trying to flog some beautiful books. Isaac and I then made the most of the break in the weather to do a bit of gardening, but was rudely interrupted by the ice cream man...

Photo by +Lucy Lumm

That afternoon despite the weather starting to look a little dodgy we decided to head to Praa Sands to walk a little further along the coastal path than we have previously. It looked like it might rain, but we decided it wouldn't be too bad.

When we got there the weather was glorious. The water was so warm we both regretted not having our costumes! Thank goodness we always carry essentials in the car: bucket and spade, beach shelter and blanket!

Only, it was the wrong type of sand for building sandcastles... too dry:

So instead we had lots of fun walking in the sea!

Whew, well it took me until Wednesday to write it all up, better get started on this weeks report!

A fabulous week with family

When I originally started writing this post I got very excited that I'd managed two weeks in a row, but unfortunately life happened and it's taken me from Saturday until now to finish it. Oh well, I tried...

This week, from Saturday to Saturday we had Lucy's sister and brother-in-law (also known as Aunty Siân and Uncle Rich) come and stay with us; I took the Monday and Friday off to spend some quality time with them and we had a fantastic week!

via Instagram

Saturday started by preparing for our guests, after a long and hot journey we weren't sure what they'd want to do, but thankfully they choose wisely: a trip to the beach.

We went to Carbis Bay and had tea on the beach (our usual pasta). Despite being late it was still plenty hot enough to get in the water. Later on Isaac found a pre-dug hole and played in it with his aunty and uncle, telling them when to run in and when to get back out.

Crotched bike at Heartlands

Sunday we took Uncle Rich to see Heartlands, which was a project his company had worked on, and Isaac showed off his walking in the Red River (Instagram video).

It was a very hot day and we really felt for the guy wearing Victorian dress driving a horse-drawn omnibus. After that Rich had to travel back to Bath for the evening, so the rest of us chilled out in the garden with some help from the paddling pool. This was interesting given the back door is still broken...

Once the evening cooled down we went for a walk through the village.

Monday, my day off, we went to St Ives. We crammed in lots that day, including a train ride, a meal out, cream tea and a trip to the Barbara Hepworth garden (a new one for Lucy, Isaac and I). I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Over the next few days I was back at work and Lucy and Isaac stayed at home to allow our guests to explore on their own. They were on holiday after all! I'm not sure I can remember what we did on Tuesday evening, but I do know that Isaac took his first unsupported steps between the two of us:

Wednesday evening we joined Siân and Rich in Mousehole for a little stroll. The tide was right out, so Isaac made the most of the revealed beach:

Google+ generated this animation

via Instagram

That evening Isaac decided he'd rather co-sleep with his aunty and uncle, which made for a pretty cute photo opportunity!

Thursday our guests treated us to a lovely home-made lasagne, despite having spent all day at the beach. Whilst they were busy sweating in the kitchen us three got out of their way and went to one of the parks in the village, although it was far too hot to be outside without any shade... whew!

Friday I took another day off and we all headed off to Kynance Cove. Siân and Rich had discovered it earlier in the week, which was exciting as we had never been! Unfortunately the tides weren't on our side and we started out squeezed on the beach - but that was fine as we spent lots of time in the water.

Isaac also practised his walking even more, and really enjoyed walking in and out of the sea! (Google+ animation supplied to prove it)

Despite the wind and the slightly chilly seas it was really nice to spend lots of time in the water.

The plus side of arriving at high-tide was the slow reveal of the next part of the cove. In fact we got a little impatient and walked through chest-height water to get around to it.

I carried Isaac round on my shoulders, something he loves doing anyway!

Because the tide was still separating several parts of the cove it was like being on a tropical island! There were also bits of beach you could only get to either by walking around the cliffs through water or by walking through caves; very exciting!

Friday ended with a rather disastrous attempt at a barbecue, but we did our best to enjoy ourselves anyway!

Saturday we had American pancakes for our breakfast and said our goodbyes as our guests headed home. But did we rest? Oh no, we headed down to Penzance for a nice stroll and a go in the big park!

Right... it's taken me so long to type this one that I'd better get working on writing the next weekly summary!

What a lovely week!

It's time for a weekly catch-up! Surprised I'm following through? Me too... That being said it's been too good a week not to share ;-)

So last Friday after I finished work we went to St Ives for the evening for some fish and chips (or pizza in Lucy's case). It was a great evening that finished with us overlooking Porthmeor beach:

On Saturday we travelled further up the county to see St Nectan's Glen, something I blogged about on the BackRods Blog. If you can't look right now, in short it's amazing.

Here's an animated gif kindly generated by Google+ of Lucy and Isaac in front of the waterfall!

On Sunday we went to Trengwainton Gardens, a lovely National Trust garden in Madron near Penzance. We had a picnic lunch (picture below) and then a lovely stroll around the gardens. Isaac was particularly impressed by all of the bamboo, pointing it out to us as we walked around. The weather was so hot we felt like we were in another country!

"Picnic under the flowering dogwood at Trengwainton" Instagram @cyberneticiandave

Unfortunately towards the end of Sunday our inside back door decided it would be fun to smash into a million pieces so since then we've been avoiding using the door in case the remaining glass decides to also jump out. This would have to happen when the weather is hot and we might actually want to go out in the garden. Still, Lucy has been making up for it by visiting both of the parks in the village (we're so blessed to have two) most days this week!

Monday called for a trip to the beach, complete with Lucy and I swimming in the sea (not at the same time). Photographic proof was required, as this is not a regular occurrence, especially for Lucy, unfortunately no such proof exists for me.

When I wasn't helping Isaac splash in or walk through the little pool that had formed on the beach I was cooking our tea; it's not unusual for us to make some pasta on the beach after work using a little gas ring, but we've never seen it quite so busy. Lots of others barbecuing etc, but no one else eating freshly cooked pasta... we're unique...

Tuesday was a slightly quieter day, some shopping and a little walk around the village in the evening. No photos for you of those special moments...

Wednesday we got back on the adventures and a trip to Penzance after work. We had a stroll up and down the promenade and threw pebbles in the sea. Isaac had so much fun doing that he wasn't keen on finishing our stroll, but eventually he followed us up the stony bank and rode on Dada's shoulders the rest of the way.

Apart from the pebbles another Isaac highlight was looking at the lighthouse (that may not be) and saying "flash flash".

Thursday involved collecting a load of firewood, thanks to freegle, a bit more shopping and chilling out at home.

And finally today, we went back to Penzance after our tea to play in the lovely park there looking out to sea.

So all in all, a good week. Next week we have visitors and I've got a couple of days off, so that should be good. The weather is forecast to continue too! :-)

What is blogging?

I have to be honest, I tend to try and use my blog (or rather blogs, I have a few that I maintain about as well as this one...) for big thoughtful posts. I tend to write short essays on deep topics, "articles" or reviews and things like that; but that sort of writing takes time, it takes time to think about what to write and how to write it.

A blog, short for web log, is a public form of journalling.... Dear diary, today I ate a sandwich... etc. But I write short updates about my life on Facebook, share geeky things on Google+ and publish pictures through both Facebook and Instagram.

I like having a blog, for those times I do have something to share, but perhaps I'm not making the most of it...

So here's what I'd like to do:
This blog becomes about me, I'll start trying to journal interesting events in my life, projects I'm doing (unless they're software-related in which case the TwinkleBob blog might be the place to do that), books, geeky stuff and perhaps a weekly update of my activity elsewhere across the interweb.

The BackRods blog I would like to become much more a journal of our family and our adventures in autonomous education, as well as the articles on our parenting choices (which is how it is primarily used at the moment). Again a summary of relevant updates from across the rest of the web might be nice.

The Mission Cornwall blog becomes the place to share all of my/our updates on deep faith related matters as well as adventures in serving God in this beautiful part of the country. Not that all faith-related stuff will leave this blog, but if it relates to both of us or specifically to our calling then that'll be the place it'll go.

And of course there'll be geeky/tech related reviews and articles on geek-speak.co.uk...

Let's see how this goes!