August Break Day 4 : Orange

Hello, and welcome to Day 3 of my participation in Susannah Conway's project, The August Break.
Today's theme is Orange.

Orange was in fact yesterday's theme, but I was just too tired to blog last night. When I'd seen the theme "orange" on the list I really had no idea what I could blog about. I don't especially like orange and couldn't think of anything orange at home really.

I thought of a few orange things we have, like Little Man's newest as-yet-unopened loom band packs ....

... some bargaintastic flowers I had picked up for 61p. Yes! 61p!!

.... a fox hat that I had crocheted for Little Miss when she had to go to Brownies dressed as a woodland animal ....

But it was all a bit random, which is fine, just not what I wanted,

The Little People had announced that they would like do baking please, and go strawberry picking as well please - and inspiration struck - as well as picking strawberries we could pick carrots too, and then make carrot cake. And carrots are Orange - hurrah !

We picked absolutely LOADS of carrots. We'll be eating carrots for years ....

The strawberries were amazing, so soft and sweet and juicy .... somehow they taste so much nicer like this, warmed by the sun instead of chilled by the fridge. They just sort of squidge in your mouth and all that juicy strawberryness make your taste buds tingle ....

I've blogged about this Pick Your Own place before, you can read about it here, but I fear that this may be the last time I post about it. The owners are selling it and the site is earmarked for housing. I totally get it, that it may not be the most profitable business, and maybe the owner wants to retire, but it will be a sad loss for our community, and for the wildlife that the area supports.

However I am really thankful that my children did get to have such fun times here, and they are of an age where they will remember it too. When I see them blowing dandelion clocks, eating strawberries straight from the plant, playing hide and seek in the cornfields, I feel like all is good with my world.

I see them scampering through long grass and strolling past rows of fruit and vegetables in abundance, all healthful and natural, I have the theme tunes of The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie going through my head :) Look at them. Best buddies. Nope, they never argue or bicker or shout at each other, nope, not at all, never ever ..... ;)

One of their favourite parts of going strawberry picking is that this particular farm has a giGANTic tyre swing which is of course a must-do activity for any self-respecting Little Person. Yesterday the tree from which it hangs was creaking, and groaning, and making the most alarming snapping sounds.... perhaps it's nearing the end of its natural life as a tyre-swing-holder-upper, for no doubt it will soon be gone :(

We paid up for our haul (possibly the largest amount of money ever spent on carrots in one go by anybody anywhere) and popped across the road to Holme Grange, the craft village that we so love. Again, I blogged about Holme Grange before here and here. 

During the summer months they do this scarecrow trail..... the shopkeepers each decorate a scarecrow and also display, somewhere inside or in the window of their shop, a picture of a scarecrow with a name. The children get a quiz sheet and have to visit every shop and match the shop with their scarecrow's name.

.... and at the end they get a really big sweetie lolly ....

It's a great idea as obviously you have to visit (and thereby get to know about) every single little shop. Some shops were a bit scary - full of ceramics and glassware and really not the sort of place you want to be with your children running about .... but then, as a bonus, we found this little courtyard that had hitherto remained unnoticed by us .... it was decked out in lovely bunting and had lots of benches for weary parents, and little play-houses for Tiny Little People, as well as massive chalkboards for noughts and crosses .... 

Anyway, back to the scarecrow trail. The scarecrows were all based on Disney characters. Do you want to build a snowman .....?

Snow White .... slightly mad face ....

.... and Cinderella - wearing loom bands!

Two Woodys .... the weird looking one ....

.... and the slightly less weird looking one ....

.... Spiderman scaling the wall ....

.... Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc ....

.... Pinocchio ......

.... Jake, of Jake and the Neverland Pirates (yes, this was new to me too but I was reliably informed) .... Little Man managed to pull Jake's hair off. Slight embarrassment and much hilarity ....

.... Peter Pan .... yes, Little Man is pulling the straw out, I am shrieking "leave it alone" ....

.... Maleficent, clearly the most ambitious and therefore the worst for breakage potential, Little Man was making her papier-mache arm wave her papier-mache stick around. It remained intact. Just ....

.... we awarded the prize for the most odd looking to Cruella de Ville. That one was just Weird ....

.... Minnie Mouse holding Little Tomboy's hand ....

.... and last but not least, Mickey Mouse himself ....

I took loads of pictures of their summer blooms, everything looks so lush and rich with colour, unlike my garden which is slowly withering away. 

Wow, aren't the colours fabulous :)

Looking back at the pictures of the scarecrows, most of them, with possibly the exception of Mickey Mouse, look a bit (very) creepy to me, but the Little People had great fun. Little Man actually thanked me a for a lovely day out, yay! And he was right, it had been really lovely, in that way that some days catch you unawares and go far better than you could ever have planned,

When we'd been paying for our fruit and veg, I had spotted a very dusty pile of boxes behind the counter, all full of used empty jars. They were 10p each, with money going to charity. 10p each! 10 of them for £1! Total bargain! When we got home Little Tomboy set to sprucing them up a bit with a good wash ....

Here they are all sparkly and clean ....

.... there are 4 really unusual square shaped ones ....

....  and some that have an interesting tapered shape ....

One of them is having a cosy cover made tomorrow for the lavendar posy for the lavendar-cutter's wife :)

The final job for the day then, was to use our orange carrots to make some orange carrot-cake. I'd never made carrot cake before, and used this recipe. Well, what can I say. Total 110% success. It tasted aMAZing.

So there you have it. Lots that was not orange, but lots that was :)