February #2: Ward hunt, camping, Glen Helen & snow

The second half of February included a poetry treasure hunt around Peel, through the Ward Library. It was good fun, though somewhat chaotically planned, with meters between most of them, and then two or three ones extremely far out. We enjoyed it though, especially some of the poems we were spotting in the locations we identified (such as this lovely one pictured). They boys also very much enjoyed the hot chocolate mix they got as reward from the library (including one made especially with Orry's allergies in mind, which was very thoughtful of them!):

We planned to go to Dhoon Glen on the next day, but it was rained off. But gladly Granny was with us, so we could just take our packed lunch to the Guide Wood at Glen Mona, where we hid in their yurt-like building to eat our lunches. It inspired us to think about camping (in the future), but it had the knock-on idea of camping at home. So it was that Finn and Orry had a very exciting night camping in the front room:

As well as being lovely place to hang out and play, they pretty much managed the sleeping there through the night too, though Orry was confused in the early morning over waking there. But Finn was sufficiently happy there to do it the night following.

A successful outing was our first ever trip (for Finn & I at least) to Glen Helen, which is yet another beautiful Manx glen:

Unfortunately, Orry has decided that he prefers to have his back photographed than his front, which rather frustrates most of our photographic intentions (see above), but we hope that this will soon get old with him (as it certainly has with us!). Also unfortunately on our trip to Glen Helen, we became split up and the slower team (Orry with Cori) never made it to the waterfall, but we all happily met up again to go to the playground, close to the Amy Johnson tree:

We also had a lot of fun when in doors, such as with blocks...

As you will see, Orry (& Finn's) sense of order is still flourishing. This, for instance, is how Orry occupied himself quietly for a few minutes on day:

Finn then saw this, thought it was a good idea, and so together they created this, which they were very proud of:

Orry also really likes giving directions, and getting to be the boss. Usually in terms of "draw me a monster. It needs a triangle head and three eyes and... etc"

Also on the Fun Inside theme, is a now-rarer playing at being a doctor:

Also, we got out the Mecano, which is s step up from Lego, but many many times more irritating and not nearly as much fun... or perhaps Finn is still too young for it. At least he & Orry are still dudes though:

After last months Big Snow excitement, we were rather un-delighted by the reappearance of snow, although it was good to actually have it in Peel itself this time; it at least made for pretty pictures, and also meant that we didn't need to put too much effort in to get our fix of Snow Excitement, before scuttling inside to get warm again!

All very lovely. Also surprisingly lovely is this picture taken inevitably too-early in the morning, when Finn came in to wake me up. Sometimes we can snatch a minute or two more sleep by letting him creep into our bed to lie beside us snuggling in warm. A small piece of happiness (& sleep):

But rather more classy are the pictures taken when the swanky camera was in the house from work recently (our own camera is effectively broken now as the connection between the camera and the lenses (and therefore auto focus) refuses to work). They are lovely things in places, and probably a good place to conclude the month on:

February #1: Ploughing, beach, whales, pancakes & tholtans

February was a busy month, so we'll have to break it into two posts. Don't worry though - most of it will be pretty pictures, such as this...

This was from our first ever ploughing match. Not being farming sorts of people, this was all a very strange world for us, but we went with friends, and there were machines involved, so the boys had a fun time.

Our enjoyment of the affair was increased when lunch came around and we retired to the barn for a feast. Joy!

And, in case you needed yet more Ploughing Match action, here is a video of the action:

The start of February is Laa'l Breeshey in the Manx calendar (St. Bridget's Day), which is seen in with a few customs (including the setting of a spare place at the table and calling out an invitation at the door in our household) warding in the start of the Spring period. The weather has been keeping pace with the season, moving from the windy cold into a strangely warm period which lasted for a week or so. It didn't get our coats off, but it did inspire us to go out for our lunch and a play on the beach - another new beach for us; The Cronk, up near Jurby:

It was a lovely place to spend a few hours wrapped up warm as the boys played in the sand, made a stone bridge across the stream, and made an island in the river too:

As some of these pictures show, we had a proper camera with us on the trip, which allowed us to take some more lovely pictures:

As you will see in that last picture, Finn has lost another of his bottom front teeth, and the tooth in his first gap is growing in already. Exciting times!

The next weekend we went to the Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch show in Douglas. The weather was lovely and it sounded like a lovely day out, which it certainly began as...

However, it appeared that seemingly every other parent in the Isle of Man had the same idea. It was rammed. It was nice to see seemingly ever one of Finn's school mates there, but neither the boys nor we were very interested in the whole aquatic life thing and the mobs of people made us all rather restless to get out once we'd done a round, taken the obligatory pictures, and run the gauntlet of trying to get out without meeting anyone we knew to chat to...

But once outside the weather changed into snow and piercing wind. Finn was excited by it, some brave father ignored it to fly his kite on the beach, but Orry (and we adults) were not impressed!

February, of course, saw Pancake Day, and the mighty races at Maughold Village. Cori had a doctor's appointment. Unluckily for her, just as the morning sickness started to lessen, she got the flu. After a week of being really horribly ill, the flu went away but settled into bronchitis - which after a few weeks of constant coughing then managed to turn into pleurisy (diagnosed when the pain was so intense one evening, Cori decided A&E was the only option because clearly she was dying...) Anyway, because of this, I was happily left with the boys on the day of the Races, so it was that we went and had great fun with Granny & the cousins:

As the pictures might show, Orry and Finn competed this year, excellently. And also as the pictures will show, Finn had a great time. He even made a 'New Best Friend' as he does, and we lost him for the rest of the event, as he ran about the church hall, inside and out having fun (just like my own 6-year-old years!)
I too competed, winning my race but rather embarrassingly: the local head teacher was winning, and the crowd cheering him and shouting his name, but then he dropped his pancake at the finish and I was left to go over the line first, in complete silence. I felt rather embarrassed by this, and I don't think that I was forgiven by anyone! However, we all enjoyed the pancakes that followed, especially Finn, who got into the newspapers with a picture of him enjoying one.
A great day out in Maughold!

Another great day out was our first ever trip to the legendary tholtan(s) at Killabregga. It was easy to see why it's so legendary:

The climb up there was quite something though, so we were sure that Granny was there to distract Finn from his apparent hatred of any sort of walking on a hill or any sort:

We had a lovely time, and it was even the perfect place to pose for a picture or two, to make the pregnancy Facebook Official, at last!

That probably gets us half way through the month, so we'll leave the rest over for another post...