Have a hearty Christmas

Plaited hearts like this are fun for all the family. 

In Denmark, you can buy packs of glossy paper already cut out
in the right shapes, ready to make up.

Here's a close-up.

But you can also make one yourself by following the video made by a
friendly craftyperson on Youtube.
click here to see how

Here it is being plaited.

And here it is, complete with handle glued on like a basket,
hanging on the tree.

They can hold very small biscuits or sweeties
- though not for long in our house.

  Short Christmas Tale

Way back when Zachary was a toddler and I'd only lived in Denmark for about three years, I tried making a heart like this for the first time. Like most Danes, Zachary's daddy had made lots of hearts when he was a child and was feeling ambitious that day. He started by making a normal heart to show me how then cut out a heart with about 8 strips in it. Wow. Of course they were very fragile, thin and fiddly. But after an hour or so he had finished it all but for the very last strip. He was having dreadful trouble with that last strip. It didn't seem to want to fit. He needn't have worried. Baby Zachary soon fixed that. Toddling over with a big smile on his face, he reached right up and helpfully ripped it off. Oops, that tore it!

Oh well, ho, ho, ho. Why make life difficult?!

You'll find loads of other amazing and intricate patterns if you search for 

'flettede julehjerter skabeloner' in Google. 

Watson came in from the garden the other day
with this lovely bespoke moss decoration
hanging from his beard. Nice one, Watson!

  Tonight he was feeling silly and decorated the floor with a serviette.
I think he's trying to tell us it's time to get out the tinsel.

Jake's big brothers (Fuld Effekt) have a new video to promote their upcoming EP

It's in Danish but not too many swear words (as far as I can hear).

And yes that's my car being borrowed again :o).

(Left to right: Claus  - can't take the credit for him or Speakr,
who does a lot of the driving - but Zac and Alex are great big brothers for Jake) 

Click below for the fun to start! 

Fuld Effekt in my car :o)

Make your own non-slip socks

You'll need:

Some socks

A paintbrush

Some rubbery glue or left-over latex (like we used)

Rolled up newspaper to stuff inside the socks to stop the glue from gluing both sides together

Make dots for your toes

But don't do what we did next..

Because if you cover large parts of the socks with glue...like this

And do several layers, it looks cool...

Really cool and when it dries it's very good for stopping kids from slipping over
BUT
The bits covered in the glue DON'T stretch.

So you end up with the heel halfway under your foot.
WHICH IS WHY

You should
MAKE LOTS OF DOTS INSTEAD
which is probably more fun for kids anyway.

Bonfire night. BE A HERO! And GREAT NEWS for hedgehog lovers

Tomorrow afternoon, spread a tarpaulin/sheet by the bonfire, move the wood and stuff onto the tarp, checking for sleepy hedgehogs. All done? Take the chance to put nice DRY newspaper in the base of the fire as you pile the wood back up. Have a GREAT NIGHT and a clear conscience that there won't be a family of hoglets in there somewhere smile emoticon.

GREAT NEWS

Our 'luxury' hog house under our kitchen window
(complete with pretty blue paddly/drinking pool)
now has a hoggy resident!
We are THRILLED to bits.

He/she is still coming out at nights and we could hear him
gnashing away on catfood behind the litter bin
while we handed out sweets and hot chocolate from my
witch's couldron to hordes of Viking Halloween guests.

I've spread out a punctured airbed on top to keep out the weather.
I intended to nail it down but hoggy is asleep during the daytime
and I'd hit my thumbs in the dark. 

This is the inhabited side, with little footprints.

This is the other side. We are not sure if anyone is in there,
because Jakob was so surprised to see the first hoggy under the hay,
that we put the lid down quickly.
We didn't want to disturb the dear little thing.

Tonight Dr Watson plans to put a piece of paper down to
see if anyone leaves any footprints.

Six hoggies (Mummy + three babies, and two middle-sized)
have been coming for food since about the end of August,
so there are plenty of potential tenants.

Watch this space tomorrow for news.

No footprints outside the right-hand side yet...

Legejunglen - GREAT for a rainy day

Free for the adults and unlimited play once you've paid for the kids.

Laura (6) and Petra (1.5) were ready for an adventure the day I
took them to the play jungle in Slangerup. 

It is huge - especially by Danish standards.

But as you can see by the shutter speed, it soon became clear that Laura would be up,
down and off to the next challenge long before Petra made it past the first hurdle
- with me following up her rear.

I'm going to post this while I walk the dog and then put up some more photos.
He's crossing his legs, and not being the most tech-savvy blogger in the worls,
I wouldn't want to add 'washing the carpets' to my list of things to do today :).

WATCH THIS SPACE

Phew, that's better. And I've cleared up the hedgehog poo outside 
ours and the neighbours' too. 
There must be an industrial application for hedgehog poo - 
it has EXTREMELY effective adhesive qualities.

Good job they are so cute.

Anyway, back to the play jungle and the first ball pit.

The biggest slide was certainly the volcano.

Laura was great at finding handholds.

Petra seemed to think she could toddle on up there - look grandma, no hands!

Wow. Halfway up!

Near the top!

And parachuting down again. Good idea to wear leggings!

And no the person who left more than a CO2 footprint wasn't us, 
but it did make us think about getting angles of trajectory right!

Come on Grandma, you can do it!
Our next post will show more fun obstacles, including this 'mangle', which I was pleased I managed to get through. Headfirst, and fairly quickly. I didn't have much choice as both kiddies had shot through it in a matter of seconds and were heading off into the interior intestinal tract of the monster playground.

Hedgehog birthday party!

Happy 25th birthday soon, Zachary!

And as we'd hoped...

...he had special guests at his party. 

They thought it started at 7.30 pm so they were a little late, but very sweet and very thirsty!

SO KEEP PUTTING OUT WATER AND CHICKEN FLAVOURED CAT FOOD AND

YOU MIGHT GET SOME VISITORS TOO

NOT MILK 

If you see black poos about, with beetle bits in, don't worry about rats. 

It's your friendly hedgehogs leaving manure for your garden.

To top it all off, Jake's hedgehog muffins were featured in the Danish hedgehog society 

member's magazine! 

www.pindsvin.dk

Parkour with Street Movement

Schedule

Here's a superman photo, though it's probably technically
taken with totally the wrong setting.

Notice the special hand holds! Cool! 

You learn to jump and land softly and safely. First by landing on a circle chalked
on the ground until you're certain of your balance. Then if you like, landing on concrete blocks.

Friendly instructors are on hand.

And all the 'obstacles' are realistic street furniture.

Here they all are, training their tummy muscles.

Upside down, without getting a rollicking for putting footprints on the wall. 

Ooh look, everyone learns from watching each other -
and the instructors demonstrate the moves slowly first, giving useful tips.


So if you fancy it, give it a go, visit http://www.streetmovement.dk/ and trot along to a course
or turn up at the Experimentariet during the autumn half-term holiday,
and join in the parkour workshop every day.

Check out the details at:
https://experimentarium.dk/

Keep checking in for more photos roughly once a week.

NEXT WEEK: pretty dresses and soldiers with muskets at Kronborg.

Due to a technical hitch, impending Scout camp and heavy workload...

...here is a photo shot of Jakob taking 

a reluctant Dr Watson the Dog for a walk. 

Normal service and the promised photos, 

will be up and running,

like Watson, 

...as SOON as possible.

In other words, by tomorrow.

Apologies all round, parkour buddies.


PS They made it across the river without getting wet! 

Last Christmas at the open air museum

I guess Father Christmas's reindeer had a cold -
he was feeling a little horse, at least. 

Here's the cosy museum shop with plenty of ideas for good quality presents from the past. 

The sails were on at the mill, which was open by chance.
Check out the website to find out exactly when the mills are open at

 www.natmus.dk/museerne/frilandsmuseet

It would have been nice if that link had been blue 

but I guess the nissers (Danish Christmas goblins that play tricks) 

have been up to mischief.

A nice view is waiting at the top.

Oops here's the nice view.

And inside, you can see how different types of wood are used for
 the teeth, wheels and central treetrunk around which the mill turns
to make the most of the wind direction.

It was really impressive to see how flour was made all those years ago.

It was also interesting to think that mel in Danish = 'flour' in English
but we have 'wholemeal bread' in English too.

There were lots of houses to explore and big barns where
you could enjoy food and drink. But they were full of people who
might not want to be on a blog. So I've only used photos
without close-ups on faces except for these lovely ladies who
might well be serving again this year. 

Yummy!

Jake warmed up with a meatball and bread...

...before polishing off a traditional pork sandwich with all the trimmings.
Well not all the trimmings because there were hearts and nissers all over the place!
This is Denmark after all!

We'll be back this year for seconds!