Duck and Santa and Hannukah

Last Sunday we went to Castle Espie. Castle Espie is the WWT Centre in Comber. It is filled with all kinds of captive bred ducks and i was once told by a head of reserves here that it was a 'zoo'. It's a zoo Steph, he intoned, when i said it was great. For kids. Kids don't care if you've enticed a godwit from two miles away to feed in the front of your window. What they care about is a duck is eating from my hand!!! Castle Espie has undergone severe renovation to become a really really cool place for families. The cafe is a bit expensive, but the rest of the place is incredible. Loads of space for the kids to run, ducks to harrass, hidey holes and mud and woods to get lost in. Oisin and Lucy being Steiner kids took to it like a well, duck to water. Or pig to mud, which would be a better analogy. Because they got stuck in the mud while walking around the place. Here's Ghin feeding some duck from China. I think it's China, anyways.


When i first went to CE, i was horrified becuase i could not tell one duck from another. Oh my god, i thought, what am i doing working for the RSPB? All these things look alike. Seven years on, the good news is that they all do NOT look alike, however, i cannot remember their names. I can identify the Hawaiian goose, the greylag goose and a couple of ducks - like the white headed and ferregounous. I think that's how it's spelt. And the Mandarin duck. But that doesn't really count because i knew what that looked like, on account of the handbags that were sold in Singapore which had Mandarin ducks on them. And of course Brent geese. It was most gratifying to be able to ID these and other wadery type birds without the aid of binoculars and a bird book. Although you'd think that i would be able to do this at the very least at this stage.


Here is Ghin 'feeding' the ducks. This consists of mostly chucking the grain on to their heads and showering them with seed.






Here you can see him emptying the entire packet into the water where it will now do no good at all. He has developed the WORST temper now. Whenever he wants something he just screams and yells. I blame myself, i do. Just incase anybody wants to point any finger of blame. I've pointed it already. So there!


Brothers feeding the ducks.




Here's my beautiful boy. Butter wouldn't melt. The other day we were listening to a CD and i said, this was given to me by my boyfriend - a long time ago in Singapore. Oisin then said, wow mom, does that mean i would have been fully Chinese? Hmmmm...maybe that wasn't the best thing to tell him. But listening to that CD brought back to me another life. It was like opening a door on a past which i had forgotten was there and it was lovely, remembering myself young and filled with possibility, in a different way, and not ever imagining this life here. Memories like those i could never regret. Memories like those are sweet and beautiful. Like Woolf's To a Lighthouse...a summer of impressions and half sketched memories, more a feeling than anything definite...


Here's the hide - and Ghin with Oisin at it...


Just included this to show you what a scamp Ghin has become. Just full of mischeif and the most wicked sense of humour.




Look at him pretending to be a monster.


In the wattle hut with its unfinished curragh. That's Lucy the goosy. She has no socks! She had to remove them because her shoes got stuck in the mud and she was walking in socks in the mud.




That's the hut. It's supposed to be a traditional construction. Earthern floors and a roof that will see off the worst Irish mizzling.


A pair of whoopers passes the windows. They were honking loudly.


Ghin in the hut.




It was such a timeless image i thought. It could be the lough 3,000 years ago. And maybe by the time climate change has come upon us, it could be us 3,000 years from now.


Ah yes, the day Santa came to the nursery. Ghin refused to take part in the Christmas concert, prefering instead to be the spectator and stuff himself with the food that was really meant for parents. If you ask Ghin to smile, this is what he does.


Peter, looking a bit more cheery that he was the last time i photoed him. But isn't that really sweet?




Ghin and dad share a joke...




More food, gimme more food.


Give you more food...




Here's mummy




The songlist, which he didn't sing from at all.








The look on the face is when Santa arrived. You know how they say that half of the kids are terrified and the other are delighted. Ghin was right in the middle.


There's Santa. It was a pretty good Santa.




Just look at that face...








I was really surprised that he sat on Santa's knee. I thought he was going to throw a wobbly.


And pose!


For Hanukah, Oisin made Hanukah cookies. At the school, they're learning about the Creation. And how to look after the things that have been created in this world. And they start with the Bible - In the beginning was the Word...and Oisin can say this in Hebrew. Yes, they learn Hebrew. He has learnt the Hebrew alphabet and he has learnt many Hebrew songs. He has also learnt how to make Hannukah cookies now. And he was teaching this to us a couple of nights ago. The recipe was probably traditional, but the shapes, less so. You'll see what i mean soon.


Ghin of course had to help. Helping is notional, he mostly spends his time messing. Although he did managed to do a few disabled looking cookies. We listened to Enya as we baked. It was one of the most relaxing and wonderful evenings i've had in recent memory. Oisin knew the recipe off by heart and he was in charge of the cooking and baking and everything. I only helped him.


That's the Advent wreath in the foreground, by the way. And we lit the candles as well. It was bliss.


Christmas tree shape!


Dalek shape! Doogle shape. Higgle piggle shape.




More dough...


Finished product!

It's the Xmas party at work tomorrow and sometimes i think that life can be measured in Christmas parties.

Yesterday we were at the Christmas concert in school and Oisin's class played the recorders so well! Not a single false note. They really are an incredible class. Most of them have been there since age 4 and they are a testament to what the Steiner education system can acheive. Confident, rascally scamps who are confident, sociable and growing to be themselves.

I didn't take any photos cos i had forgotten my camera in the car, but just couldn't bring myself to get it.

It was really cold yesterday. Everyone is talking about the cold weather