Therizinosaur Time Capsule

Well I managed to get something in for the Therizinosaur Time Capsule on the Art Evolved website. My contribution does look like a Skeksis from the Dark Crystal :/ but never mind! (For those who haven't read the previous entries on this Therizinosaurs are dinosaurs and ART evolved is a site on palaeo-art).

This is the second one I have entered and I am still only getting around to giving them the planning sketches :/ Something I hope to solve with the next one which is why I already have the book pages marked out and have not put the art stuff away!

This time capsule also coincides with ART Evolves first birthday I am really happy to have found them before they cross that threshold - not sure why but it just feels important!

When I find my camera lead I will also complete the live blogging of the art work on Salaric Art and Craft - I have even made a palaeo-art section on there along with a my drawings/paintings.

Van calamity

Last Sunday, we attempted to go to Cheltenham in the van, as Sarah had a WoPoWriMo launch meetup to attend.

We're used to having to deal with ice on the hills leading out of our valley, as water from the farm fields tends to run off into the road; so if it gets cold, it turns into sheets of ice. There were a few patches of ice on the way up, but nothing like what I've managed in the past, so imagine my surprise when I turned a sharp bend onto a sheet of ice that spanned the entire road. The van promptly lost traction, so I stopped and attempted to gently reverse back around the corner to try a different route.

Sadly, the steering had no effect, quickly followed by the brakes; the van began a slow, graceful, unstoppable pirouette until it ended up like this, with the nose wedged into the bank:

That's looking down the hill from above. As you can see, I'd already done a bit of salt-spreading by the time that photo was taken; before I spread the salt, the ice was so slick that I couldn't actually stay standing if I got out the driver's side, I had to climb across Jean and get out the other side.

Sarah had a deadline, so headed off on foot to try and catch a bus, leaving me with Jean to try and free the van. I could reverse it as the rear wheels just span, despite me shoving some road salt underneath. I tried letting the rear tyres down, in the hope that a larger surface area in contact with the ground would help me get traction, but no luck.

So I proceeded to salt the ice sheet; if I could find somebody with a tractor of a 4x4, perhaps they could pull the van from above and get it free of the bank, then I could complete the turn and head off down hill. The salt began to melt the ice, and then salty water started to flow underneath the ice sheet, creating pretty patterns; and allowing me to wack it with my folding shovel to break it, at which point I found out it was a good half inch thick, even after being partly dissolved from beneath:

But the one tractor-owner I knew the number of wasn't answering, and another that a passer-by knew couldn't help, so I continued to try and get it free myself. I gave up on being able to drive backwards, so I took the folding shovel (it's actually a military surplus trenching tool. Good job I carry a military surplus trenching tool in the van, isn't it?) and dug the bank away to release it.

After making sure the ice was well gritted. I didn't want to be downhill of a tonne of van, working away at the one thing holding it in place, while it was on a slick icy surface.

After much digging (indeed, it was now two hours after getting stuck in the first place), with the steering wheel on full lock to the left and the rear wheels spinning, I managed to get the van out forwards, and set off down the hill. Surprisingly, the front of the van wasn't ruined, as I'd thought it might be:

Jean was surprisingly patient for a four year old strapped into a stranded vehicle while I worked away; I figured she'd be safer strapped in than running around on the ice with me, even if another car came and hit the van.

Burnt Face Man

I am actually married to Burnt Face Man it would appear!

Though the initially burns after the cooling water treatments didn't look too bad - half way through yesturday Alaric started to look really rough with some sort of ichor type stuff oozing from various places on his face.

So we made a sojourn out to get a cooling cream - mainly it is his hand that's hurting him though and hampering typing.

I am now wondering if I should have called him an ambulance when it happened as perhapse they would have given him more treatment and he'd be looking less rough :/ The other thing is I am alittle concerned about infection getting in but am hoping the cream will help with that.

Home Schooling

With the school still shut due to the snow I thought I'd best take matters into my own hands and so have spent the last few days home schooling Jean.

I do an hour on each of the subjects I have chosen but tend to split that hour up into three with the focus on subjects. The time table stands at:

Writing and Word Structure

Number, shape and measurements

Art, craft, cooking and technology - or - Music and Drama

Reading and story time - or - World Studies

We also have P.E. each day which is when ever the time is right and has mainly consisted off going out in the snow and sledging or building snow castles and lasts as long as Jean wants to be outside!

Of course there is also break time and lunch involved in there somewhere.

Jean's told Alaric I make a good teacher except that a real teacher wouldn't shout :/

We have also been putting her in school uniform for this as she is more likely to site still as we are 'playing' school! Al is the headmaster she decided too

I sort of hope I'm covering everything to be honest - my main concern now is that she hasn't seen any other children to play with since my friend Buko visited just before this lot of on going snow!

A Snowy Birthday

This year my birthday has been a bit of a flop again - most people I invited for a gaming weekend were still too tied up with xmas or had no money left to come up because of Christmas etc...

So I rearranged things and thought I'd get to see the new 'hot stuff' guy I've found who plays music that's a cross over of say Nick Cave and The White Strips with Claire and a few others but then the snow caused most other people to cancel and in the end I canceled as Claire had an opp on Monday that I couldn't let her risk missing.

So my birthday weekend was out of the window - then worse we had run out of fuel for the fire and the water wasn't working - some very nice and helpful people from the village came and rescued us and we had bottled water (for drinking melted snow for everything else!) and fuel!

And lo!

With heat down stairs our water came back - I wonder why!

Anyway so my actual birthday Monday I spent home schooling Jean (school is still closed due to snow) and tidying downstairs which due to being were food is but warmth wasn't had become a shambles!

Al had wanted to take me out to dinner with Jean but snow forbade it and due to work commitments and Barbara's washing machine in the stable deciding to jet water everywhere - the yummy home made dinner was very late indeed.

Jean stayed up to sing me Happy Birthday and have some cake - which was infact our Christmas cake remastered - ie I stuck some candles on it!

She'd bought me two lovely presents - an enamald butterfly in purple and turquoise and a purfum bottle in glass and silver metal enamald black with 'diamonds' on it - very art deco - Al said she went straight for those things in the shop! She knows my tastes well

She also gave me a purple box of purple glittery and lavander gauzy hair accessories

Most of Al's presents he had giving me when it started snowing as they were all things to help keep me warm - reusable lavander and wheatgerm heat pads and a heated blanket. The difference these have made to me is unbelievable and I'm very happy he didn't wait to give them too me!

He also got me a book on Secret Societies to help me with The Punk storyline