My image of a West Coast Easter.

Took the boys out to Shanty Town for the Easter Egg hunt this morning. The actual egg hunting was a bit of a disaster, I ended up accepting a sneaky handful of tiny foil wrapped chocs from a friend and discretely hiding them nearby and encouraging the boys to look right there RIGHT NOW. Anyway, the highlight for me was the lovely gentleman who closes the doors and rides back and forth on the steam train (he probably does more important things than that, but thats what I notice) telling me that the Weka made off with many of the smaller eggs hidden around the place. There are quite a few fluffy weka chicks around at the moment so since then I've had this delightful image in my head of a Mama weka racing guiltily through the bush - you know how they do - with a beak full of choccies for her nest full of littles. Sigh. Got to be a children's story in that.

The highlight for the boys was getting a ride in the carriage pulled by Clydesdales. Although Oscar had maybe had enough excitement by then, and the sheep skin seat cover put him in zone out mode.

Leo and I worked on a joint sewing project a few days ago. We made a cape for his best friend who visited earlier in the week. L's friend is mad on Knights - so we went through my fabric stash and found suitable bits and pieces.

Leo did the rough cutting and decided on the placement of the patches - we used his best cape as a pattern. The whole thing was finished by the time Oscar woke from his nap, very satisfying!

I was inspired by last weekends sewing bee organised by Sandra (www.lettersfromwetville.blogspot.com) to make dress-ups for Christchurch Kindies.

I've also started two messenger bags - one for an adult - pohutakawa image, and the other for child - dinosaur themed. They are proving bit frustrating at this stage, too many decisions to make.

Slow Technology

Since I came across the words "slow technology" I have been coming up with what it might mean - but not actually finding out. I decided it should be "good" - slow technology should include new inventions which make life better, not just for one person for the moment, but for people - and the environment - and the future. I thought an example of slow technology might be a exercycle which I could use for exercise, while thinking my thoughts - or listening to music - which saves the awesome power of my clycling legs for future power needs. I'm sure such a thing exists, I may even have seen one. I also thought there might be a link with "old" technology, "low" technology if you like. Stuff that achieves a job - slowly - while also providing exercise and meditative time (push mowing the lawn, horse and cart, vaginal birth (no just kidding, that aint technology)) and in the past accidentally but now surely with more purpose NOT wasting precious energy and filling our world with broken bits of plastic.
So what do the creators of the phrase say it means?
"We present slow technology: a design agenda for technology aimed at reflection and moments of mental rest rather than efficiency in performance" from 'Slow Technology Designing for Reflection' by Lars Hallnas and Johan Resstrom. Now that to me sounded pretty much along the lines I was thinking. But a few sentences in and frankly the whole thing was pretty much over my head - and I threw my hands up in admission of defeat when I got to this example:
"Imagine an electronic doorbell that plays short fragments of a very
long melody each time we press the doorbell button. To fully grasp the
doorbell through its behaviour, we have to stop and reflect for a
moment each time it rings and only over time we can grasp the whole melody. It is technology that claims time. Is this “slow” doorbell a
better doorbell than the ordinary one playing the same two or three
tones over and over again? The difference in aesthetics between the
two doorbells is a difference in philosophy of design; the “slow”
doorbell is not designed to be “just” an efficient signalling mechanism
for non-reflective use, but rather an artefact that through its
expression
and slow appearance puts reflective “use” in focus. It is a doorbell
designed for reflection in a world of expressions using time and
presence as key parameters."
Hmmmmmmm not getting it.

More thought required, to be revisited.

Oh another example came up in my search from a different source: real snail mail http://www.realsnailmail.net/profiles.php love it lots :-)

in which Leo learns to finger-knit and clonks himself in the head with a hammer and the Cobden Easter Bunny makes an appearance

Today has been the most relaxed day of the holidays so far. We have had two sets of visitors from out of town, lots of trips and visits so it was a relief to sleep in, take Oscar very late to preschool and do some ordinary hanging out getting things done with Leo. First he had helped me clean out the container draw and the baking draw - both of which get out of control in about a week but which only get cleaned out once a term if they're lucky. Then we sat down and did a bit of finger knitting. To start with it looked totally impossible on his little fingers, but after a few stitches he was away and is now adorned with lots of little lumpy blue fluffy bling (can bling be fluffy?). The yarn he chose was slub yarn - thick and thin - that I had dyed blotchy blues yonks ago.
After lunch we wandered down to pick up Oscar and met the Cobden Bunny - as we always do when heading in that direction. He is currently the Cobden Easter Bunny in honour of the fact that he lives in Cobden, is a bunny and it is Easter. Anyway he's a bit of a sad story although amazing as he is still lolloping around after all these months. The first time we saw him (he is a beautiful lop eared fellow with pale brown splotches on white) we went door knocking thinking someone must be missing him. When we got the the 'right' house the woman there - surrounded by kids, the older of which go to school with Leo - told us "yeah it got out, it's not a nice rabbit, we don't care if it dies". There are a lot of dogs in this neighbourhood, but the Cobden bunny persists. The bunny lead to some interesting discussions with Leo about 'The Easter Bunny' who Leo fervently believes in. One of our recent visitors who is also 7 totally bewildered Leo by telling him that he won't play any games or dress ups that involve magic or ghosts because "God thinks magic is a bit icky". So - on the way to preschool it went something like this, Leo: "I believe in the Eater Bunny, but I don't believe in God because who made God so he could make the universe?" Me: "So who made the Easter Bunny?" Leo: "Well, when the world formed, proteins clumped together into living organisms which one day turned into the Easter Bunny - but not until after the dinosaurs". So glad we got all that cleared up!
Leo's day took a turn for the worse in the late afternoon when he was making some alterations to his rubber band gun (a wood work project) and became intensely frustrated to the point where he flung the hammer (child sized but still ghastly) up and back and got himself a sharp blow on the back of his head with the claw. Yikes. B immediately got him lying on his front in bed while we discussed the possiblity of neading an A & E excursion. There was blood, there was a very nasty looking gash about 1cm by 0.5cm - seemingly to the bone - how much flesh is there on the back of a little boys head? didn't go poking around to see how deep. We decided on a Granparental consult (Ma and Pa both have a medical background) and were reassured that the spot he hit is just about the toughest part of the skull and that as long as he stays alert and not vomiting all should be well, nasty long lasting bruising excepted. Every time I have seen Leo use that hammer - starting from about aged 2 (yes I know!!) I have cringed at the image of the claw coming towards his face and he lifts it, never expected this though! Hopefully a succinct and effective life long lesson in anger management and hammer safety.

In search of a shadow

I've been very much enjoying Mr O's newish to the planet take on the world. We drove out to 9 mile beach last night, making use of the low tide to harvest a few bags of mussels. The boys were having a lovely time with their long stretched out shadows on the beach as the sun went down. After watching the sunset Oscar spun slowly around several times before asking - tone indicating deep concern "I can't find my shadow". I reassured him that none of us could keep our shadows after the sun had gone down, and got him to check - but he came back with "but the sea still has a shadow" I thought that was completely left field until I realised he thought the wet tide line on the shore was the seas shadow - obvious really. He was happy again once the big orange balloon of a moon made an appearance.
He has also coined the phase "good boysing" which means he's doings something that he would generally expect to be praised for e.g. Me 'what are you up to Oscar?" Oscar "I'm good boysing!" (so far used when washing hands and putting dishes on bench).
Then tonight - while we had guests - he sent the room into quizzicle silence by announcing "My friends are big, my poos are big, and YOU are BIGGER!"

Slow Technology - now there is a new concept for me. Is it weaving, knitting, mowing the lawn with a push mower? Maybe, maybe not. It claims to be a reaction against the social and cultural values which stress us out and reduce satisfaction by insisting that everything must be speedy and crammed "grabbed, snatched, squeezed" in order for us not to waste a single second of our valuable time. I will find out more, and I will blether on about it.

Leo cooks up a storm - stuffed peppers and lemon delicious pudding

I have spent my afternoon taking photos - I have far too many. I did want a record of Leo attempting to cook his first meal, but took far more than I intended because he literally wouldn't let me do a speck of cooking. I felt obliged to stick around what with hot elements and sharp knives around, apart from excessive photography I also drank four cups of coffee throughout.
So - first there was gathering the ingredients.

We harvested lemons, basil, parsley and tomatoes - Leo rejected the Bill's prize peppers as they were green and the recipe picture clearly demanded red. The rest I harvested from Fresh Choice.
First a lot of chopping...

The chopping took an incredibly long time. He tried with the chefs knife but my nerves couldn't handle seeing his little fingers on the side of the blade so it was all with a little paring knife. His focus certainly outstriped mine.

Moving right along - rice (very tricky to drain when you're 7).

And frying..

Grating...

Mixing and stuffing...

One dish ready for the oven.... TaDa!!

On to desert.
More grating.......

Measuring....

Squeezing....

Beating...

More mixing..

And finally into the water bath and oven.

Wow - what a mission. And thanks to Oscar for sleeping for so long :-)
All veggies eaten, 'lemon delicious' lemony and delicious.