Tinsley Towers

If you live in the UK and have been watching the news, you would have heard about a famous Sheffield landmark, the Tinsley Cooling Towers, being demolished in the early hours of today.

Being new to the area, we weren't really aware of their history, but it was the landmark that the children would see and know they were in Sheffield and were nearly home.
Yesterday tea time, they were travelling south down the M1 to spend the week with their dad and grandparents. D took this photo and sent it to me by text.

The towers were situated right next to the motorway, so this change to the Sheffield landscape will be really obvious. Meadowhall doesn't have quite the same appeal somehow.

China in Sheffield

Yesterday, we finally got to the China in Sheffield Exhibition at the Graves Gallery.

D especially was fascinated and intrigued as to how they were able to do such intricate carving on ivory. The detail was absolutely stunning.

After seeing all the ivory, it was quite a surprise to come across this-a whole city carved from polycartons. It's given D some ideas as to what to do with the empty milk cartons.

We now have some research to do on the background of the exhibition. Think we will go through all the information when the boys come home.

Amanita crocea

Otherwise known as Orange Grizette! This is what we found during our walk in the woods yesterday evening.

When we got home we did some research to find out what it was and discovered that it is edible. The boys wanted to go back and pick it so we could cook it. The boys won't eat "normal" mushrooms, so why they would eat this, I don't know.

J said he would because it has a "nutty flavour".

China in Sheffield

With all the interest in China at the moment with the Olympics, Sheffield Museums and Library have arranged various activities.

At Central Library today, there were Chinese stories and crafts. They also saw some pictures of the most intricate ivory carvings you can imagine. We decided we would go and see the exhibition in the afternoon.

Here is D with the Chinese Dragon that he created.

Even though it is breathing fire, it doesn't look very fierce.

We were going to have a look at the exhibition in the Graves Gallery, but J wanted to have lunch first. However, the boys got distracted by this....

They just had to join everyone else and get wet!

It was a lovely warm day so they had fun chasing each other through the fountains. Then it was time for a picnic lunch. By this time, it didn't seem very appropriate going into the gallery, so that has been postponed to another day.

I had to go to The Moor afterwards and you can imagine the boys reaction as we were greeted by this sight

This is all in aid of Yorkshire Water highlighting the importance of every drop of water. We were given water saver pouches to put into the toilet cisterns to reduce the amount of water used when flushing the toilet.

We are going to make another trip into Sheffield to go and see the exhibition. J has ordered lots of books from the library, so we can make the most of the trip into town.

Long Stitch Pictures

At the weekend, when we were sorting out the front room, we discovered a lot of projects that were only half completed or needed to be started. We have decided we are going to make a concerted effort to get them done and clear some much needed space.

A couple who live nearby have been very kind to the boys. At the weekend the husband gave the boys some model vehicles still in their boxes which the boys think are really special, so they wanted to make a card to say thank you.

Also, the wife has just been in hospital, so they wanted to make something to cheer her up. We thought these pictures would be an ideal way to do both.

Two of the pictures had already been stitched, but the others needed to the long stitch to be completed. The boys have really got into long stitch. They have found it easy to master and find it satisfying as it sews up quickly.

Once the stitching was completed they had to be made up.

Glue was spread around the inside edges and a ribbon hanger was inserted.
The stitching was put into place in the aperture and then the card was folded over.
The cards were then placed between heavy books to hold into place until the glue had dried.

On this ladybird, the eyes, mouth, antennae and legs were added over the top of the stitching.

D has a bookmark still to complete. J is back to stitching his long stitch cat. This stitching seems to be addictive.

Painted Pebble

D has worked on this over a couple of days. It's taught him patience as he has had to wait for the different layers to dry before he could move on to the next one.

The first stage was to paint the pebble white to give him a good base to work on. Next he did the yellow layer, then the blue, then the red and then he did the green seaweed.

Once all the painting had been completed and had dried, he added the two fish transfers. He did this so carefully and patiently, he hasn't got any holes in them.
I am looking forward to seeing what he does with the other pebbles.

Family Fun Day - Hillsborough Park

This morning we intended to go to Hillsborough, have brunch, go to pet shop and do a bit of shopping before returning home.

However, our plans changed. As we were walking from the craft shop to the cafe, we were handed a leaflet about family fun day being held at the park that day. As there was a climbing wall there, the boys wanted to go.

After we'd had breakfast and done our shopping we headed to the park.

One of the first activities we heard being announced was the 1km run. Both of the boys wanted to enter.

The queue for the climbing wall was too long to be able to do that before registration for the race, so the boys went to play in the park.

At 12, they registered and then went to play a "golf" game until the start of the race. They had to hit the ball to a velcro target and score points. J managed to get a score of 8, which was the highest at that time.

The boys with their running numbers Warm up in progress with Diane Modahl who was starting the race. She was a British Commonwealth gold medal winner in 1990
And they are off!

J coming over the finish line. Didn't manage to get a picture of D, he came in a group and I didn't see him until he was too late. I was so proud of J, running isn't his thing and I hadn't expected him to take part. Not only did he give it a go, he enjoyed it and would like to do it again.

With their medals and certificates.
Diane Modahl was kind enough to sign autographs. She signed both the boys certificates and numbers.

The next activity was the tree climbing. If you have read previous posts you will know that the boys love climbing trees. However, this is climbing trees like they have never done before.

They were harnessed up, walked along a raised rope, right up into the tree canopy, the jump and go along a zip line until they reach ground level.

This is J when he has completed the course, loved every minute of it and well worth the half hour wait in the queue.


They went up quite a height-a long way back down
After this was the water slide. D managed to coat himself in mud. Apparently he tripped as he was finishing. Guess who has to do the washing? lol

By this time, it was too late to be able to get on the other things they had wanted to do, so they had a play on the bouncy castle before the quiz. Both the boys did well, they got 18 and 19 out of 20.

The boys loved every minute of today and are hoping it is coming to the park in our village so they can go again.

This evening we all sat and enjoyed "Land of the lost jaguar". D was delighted as it showed how a tarantula eats it's food. Now he knows how Nipper does it!