Then on Boaldyn (May Day) itself you're suppose to have a fight between Summer (Sourey) & Winter (Geurey):
This, of course, was much enjoyed by Finn and Orry!
Then, on the next Sunday, we went along to a special Boaldyn event at Cregneash, where we made yet more Crosh Cuirn:
... And we also took some lovely pictures:
We are always the last people to leave an event, which was lucky for us this time as the paper's camera-person arrived on the wrong time to catch the Manx dancing and other events and only we were still lingering around. So it was that Finn was employed at the model to pose making another crosh cuirn for the papers.
Finn had been hoping to be in the papers for weeks before this, getting jealously sad whenever others appeared in there instead of him. (Indeed, knowing this, this was one of the pushes we had been using to get him to take part in the Manx dance group!) So, when the photographer approached us and we asked Finn, he was very excited. And the same too when the (very nice) pictures appeared in the paper a few days later:
In fact, this wasn't Finn's only appearance in the papers in the month. Towards the end of the month Cori took the boys with a couple of friends to a duck race (where you pay to be allocated a numbered duck amongst 100s which are dumped in a river at the same time, with the first one to the finish getting a prize). Here everyone was photographed again happily sat in the grass at Glen Maye:
The first exciting event in the month was a trip to the circus.
The coming of the circus to the Isle of Man is a major event on the Island. Seemingly everyone goes and it sells out over the week of so it's on the Island. Finn and Orry went with Cori alone, along with their granny and the cousins, and they had a brilliant time. Indeed, because granny was there, they even got some good novelty tat and a good supply of sweets during the show - brilliant!
As you will see from the pictures, they were mesmerised by the show and they had a really magical/wonderful time. And the show really was very good, as this short film shows (unfortunately with a worrying near-trip which doesn't actually reflect on the perfection of the show otherwise!):
Another great adventure was to the open day at Kentraugh Mill near Castletown. It is a fully working water-driven corn mill with wooden machinery dating from the 19th century. It was exciting place for us to see, and a very exciting place for a machine-obsessed Finn to have it explained to him and see it all working.
As you might tell from the noise in the video, it is actually today run on an engine, as the water wheel has gone. However, this has meant that the reservoir area is now a lovely little garden at the back where they were serving tea and cakes, and where we all had a great time on the swings etc. (We had the run of the fun things as Finn and Orry were, perhaps a little surprisingly, about 60 or so years young than everyone else there!)
(We find the second picture here very funny because, looking at us on the swing and our feet in particular, it looks like we've Photoshopped the picture together... we haven't - what a ridiculously dull Photoshop that would be!)
We were very pleased to see in his things which came home from school at the end of term that he had drawn his lifting a bag of corn easily on the winch and had obviously explained it in class - a great educational trip!
("Hie mee dy fakin a wheeyl ushtey" - "I went to see a water wheel")
As is the norm in these months, here is the run of silly Orry...
"Hide" and seek:
Note that this is a game where the adult has the repeat "Orry! Where are you!" a number of times before 'finding' him, and after each call, Orry will shout back "I'm here!" - just in case you weren't sure!
... And here is Orry asleep, having been left at night 'quietly' with a book ('quietly' in quotation marks because the book he chose was a musical/sound book, which made it fun to extract from under his head!):
... And here is a game which we're not too sure what it's all about, but it was certainly rather odd:
... Here is evidence of someone's silliness, in shoving the new-to-the-house hedgehog into Postman Pat's van, which create a rather ridiculous thing to find later when tidying up:
... It's not clear that anything silly was going on here, but Orry certainly looks silly/lovely here at Auntie Heidi's already in his pyjamas ready for his after-dinner drive home:
It will be seen by the bulge in Orry's hair here what his Needs-A-Haircut looks like. This is also well in evidence in these from when Orry discovered the bubble gun:
Things, inevitably for Orry, got silly after a very short while. This probably gives a good idea of how he and Cori spend their time when Finn is at school and I am at work!
As can be seen in this video, the alleyway outside the house is also often claimed by us as a space to play. Or, perhaps more accurately, the boys will claim it whenever we step foot out there. Indeed, when we're out there for any length of time, such as when watering the plants, things can get quite silly, especially where Orry is concerned...!
This pleasure in getting wet (and messy) unfortunately extends to the sea and sand...
You will note that Orry is here not in his swimming attire. Needless to say, the walk* back to the house was rather unpleasant! [* Cori walked, Orry refused to walk and so was carried by a resigned-to-being-damp mother!] Orry had been warned, but he did not seem to care at all:
A part of the reason for the wet normal clothes was that the fine/relatively-warm weather caught us a little off guard. This was aggravated by Orry's apparent resilience to cold, so things escalated swiftly. This was the same for the sand-play, which would begin nicely...
... but soon end up like this!
This extended even to the food that went down to the beach also, such as the rare treat of chips from the stall (which are only ever bought after we've been there unexpectedly long and find ourselves unprepared for food):
It was also a nice thing to introduce to the occasional after-school activity, though it inevitably pushed dinner back very late after the fun was done...
Still, it was nice for Cori to get out of the house after a long winter in the house, and relax a little (with sand!):
The improvement in the weather meant that more of our life could begin to move outside...
... Into sunny slightly-warm weather...
... With playing on Tynwald fairfield (Orry annoyingly filling his socks with rocks from the walkway!)...
... And eating lunch bought at the cafe on the field (which was a very lovely lunch-time for me at work)...
... And helping friends painting their house front... which means Cori helped, and Orry messed around with his friend, Nora, and inevitably came home semi-naked and covered in paint!
Good weather also meant that I got to work out and about in the Isle of Man again, which was lovely - especially the trips to Meayll Circle, Lag ny Keeilley and Hall Caine's writing studio:
(I do like my job!)
As a bit of light amazement relief here, you're sure to enjoy seeing the Stick Explosion which Cori was working on in May. She was commissioned to write a show for young people at the Museum of London and she needed a big finale. She saw this online, thought it was ace, and so found a way to shoe-horn it into her theme (which was not stick explosions in London!). Finn and Orry had a lot of fun helping her work out how to do it:
There is very little else to report:
There was a Viking Boat Race in Peel, which Cori took the boys to see. They didn't care too much about it, but it was something different:
Finn developed the belief that he has a "magic touch" which makes animals like him, and so he is able to stroke dogs and cats without them getting upset etc. He will announce it as he holds us all back and he goes to stroke the cat from next door (which he does in fact do very nicely and gently).
Not a picture of the Magic Touch in action, but still a picture of Finn in a state of happiness:
The same space after a visit by friends looks like this:
The big Cori news of May was her first appearance as a Manx dancer. Of course, we starting going along to the group in order to get Finn joined in, but that has yet to happen. But it meant that Cori inevitably ended up staying for the adult session which follow on from the children. A few months on and here she is with the red of the group performing in Castletown.
It was supposed to be done in the square outside the Castle, but rain drove it inside the Town Hall, where the largest available space was unfortunately the entrance way. But that just made it feel like a happening of some sort; the space entirely full of dancers, children & adults, and musicians - a lovely atmosphere.
The photos, I realise, aren't the best, and the video isn't much better, but at least it gives you an idea. Hopefully (besides the austere entrance) you'll see that Cori and everyone had a good deal of fun - I suspect that the occasional forgetting of the steps which crept in only added to the thrill/fun of it all!
And, to finish on, here are Finn and Orry to play us out, after they discovered the two harmonicas in the music box:
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