Cornbury Festival 2012 (by sarah)

Thursday I was so tired - I had had a bad night of muscle spasms but was very excited about Cornbury music festival and I still had a lot of stuff to pack (like all my workshop stuff!). I ment to post these pics of the new hair before I went but forgot! If you want to see bigger versions of any of the photos just click on them :)

We ended up putting our tent up in the twilight and therefore cooking dinner in the dark - but I think Alaric enjoyed the challenge :)

I was quiet cold and woke Alaric up quiet early on Friday as I didn't realise exactly how early it was. I had restarted my iron tablets but was still suffering cramps in my leg muscles and stuff and I was bored!

It was quiet wet in contrast to last year when I got sun burnt! Not that Alaric cared it gave him an excuse to wear his cloak. It was interesting with the cloak - at Wychwood people had asked where we had bought it and were excited about it - at Cornbury we got Dickheads being very unoriginal about it. Though looking at the second pic I think the Hogwarts comment was spot on - it was just the sentiment behind it that narked.

We headed out to the Festival before it was actually open to the public so that we could work out were the workshop was going to be etc...

I took photos of funky festival things (as I always do).

These were for the top of the bins and are a funky use of empty bottles and has me thinking of some more upcycled projects :)

We had lunch back at the campsite and then headed off to run the first of the weekend workshops :) This year it was Sock Puppets which worked really well.

We then went to the Qi tent were I was expecting cocktails as it said interesting drinks in the programme but alas and alack there were none. But Alaric had fun working on my tea cosy and knitted about ten carbon atoms whilst thinking of a question to ask the 'elves'. I asked 'Where are you most likely to find naturally occuring terrestrial buckminsterfullerene (C60 also known as Bucky Balls). I got a badge for challenging them and then much to my suprise as I hadn't seen anyone else given one - I got a signed photo! I think this was for knowing the answer!

I watched Never the Bride whilst Alaric went to get Jeany from my parents.

Jean of course insisted we head straight to the Alpro stand!

I saw this cool natural lighting on the wicker man so had to take another photo!

We then saw same of Charlotte Church - she was delayed by technical difficulties and was a bit wobbly for the first song but then she was great.

We then found a very tall police man.

Then I got to watch the Waterboys :)

Jean and Daddy having a sneaky snack that wasn't camp food I'd bought with us!

We then saw the first rainbow of the weekend :)

I was really gutted actually as it was a really faint rainbow and disappeared and I headed off to get Jean some suprise bubbles for the morning but I left the camera behind and lo! Full arch with glorious storm lighting over glowing banners up in the festival grounds. It would have been a stunning photo :/

Photos of Jeany

New Hair – Tri Coloured (by sarah)

My hair is still a little damp in the photos so it will be slightly lighter and a bit more curly. I think I might stick with this for a while rather than adding the funky colours as I love the way it has turned out - a sort of Cindy Luarper cum Lulu look (if I was thinner and had straight hair that was much shorter!).

Solstice (by sarah)

It is Mid Summers Night and it is tipping it down. The rain seems to last forever even though yesterday was lovely. Now I find it really difficult to have energy if the sun is not shining so I decided to make a sun picture to share with everybody and amazingly the baby let me! Though she her self did end up covered in pen and we had a slight altercation over running off with all of mummy's pens.

Thursdays is Alaric's day in Bristol so me and the girls tend to bake stuff and watch films. Today we did bagel burgers and solar cakes complete with sun spots :)

Recipes will be on Salaric Cooking soon :)

Father Day 2012 – Science Festival (by sarah)

Jean woke me up at 8 o'clock to make Daddy breakfast in bed for Fathers Day. I was already awake thanks to creative insomnia. We made him breakfast and presented it too him (not entirely sure he was initially chuffed to be awoken early on a Sunday!).

The baby instantly stole his yogurt (it's an alpro one so she can actually eat it and she did!).

We had also made some planet/space cupcakes for him which Jean gave him :) I bet you can guess which two the baby decorated!

The we were off to the Cheltenham Science Festival for the day. Above is me and Jean pestering the guy from the Cotswold Astronomical Society.

Jean again spent an age looking through microscopes and prodding things. The main phrase I heard through out the day was, 'I see you have a budding scientist there!'

Alaric found electronics and was happy :) He also found a picture of Alan Turin and thus told a very interested (and I mean it) Jean about the origins of computing.

Mary entertained herself for a huge chunk of time with reading the science festival programme :)

I found pretty lighting to take photos of!

Jean found an entity called Keji. She got to generate her own little creature who's bounciness was based on her heart rate. Meaning she got to bounce on a trampoline :)

She then helped the Sustainable Chemists with their experiments :) Though she did inform one Chemist that she didn't want to make a rubber ball because she wanted to explode more things!

Oh yes! She also wanted to start a fire with the telescope once I explained we mustn't look directly at the sun.

We then went to The Aviator at Staverton airport for dinner which everyone loved :)

Please Touch Gallery at Center Arts (by sarah)

Today has been hectic with far to much crammed in but we are very glad we managed it all. One of the highlights was going to the Please Touch exhibit at Center Arts in Cheltenham.

This contains two pieces of my own science art - the Life Coral which has been displayed before and Sweet a textural visualisation of sugar specifically sucrose (though only as I ran out of time to knit more molecules!).

The concept of this exhibition is to allow those who are visually impaired to enjoy the art, to raise awareness and to experience art primarily through the sense of touch rather than sight.

I really liked this fabric piece

This history of art in smiley faces done by Zaphira was Mary's favorite piece :)

The children especially loved the art, Jean and Mary both go much happiness out of the gallery. Mary just because she could interact with the art work and Jean as she could explore it and no one shouted at her for touching it! (though she did get into trouble for trying to convert one of them into an archeological dig).

Jean loved the glass sculptures especially - there was a magnifier with a light for those who have some vision but not much.

My favourite was this landscape and it piece as a whole along with the science festival has led me and Alaric to want to resurrect a resin casting project we have.