Hey Blog! I’m rather late uploading this post but it’s all about art, and this time it’s by one of the most famous artists, and it’s got light displays as well!

On Friday 17^th, we went to Leicester to see an exhibition on one of the greats of the art world, a painter who did his own style that is famous for bold colour and if he had lived in the present day, would have been in his element painting for Ukraine – Vincent Van Gogh!

Van Gogh, or Vincent as he wanted to be called (“In future, I want to be known as I sign my pictures, that is namely Vincent and not Van Gogh, as they do know how to pronounce it here”), was a painter alive from 1853 to 1890, born in the Netherlands, but he lived a large part of his life in France. His paintings are spectacular and often have swirls of colour, and a lot of light and dark. Living in the 1800s, he knew some of the great impressionist artists, but formed a slightly different branch of his own, with lots of colour (even though he said, “The way to paint is with lots of drawing and little colour, the way not to paint is with little drawing and lots of colour”). He also included natural subjects, including skies, stars, himself, and sunflowers. Though he received little attention during his lifetime, he is now one of the world’s most renowned artists, and one of his paintings would cost about the same as an entire island!

At the moment, there are a few venues across the UK hosting a celebration of his art. We decided to visit one with a friend’s family, but they were ill on the date we had booked. Hopefully we can go with them on another date, but we haven’t planned that yet. The venues – we went to one in Leicester – have a large amount of information on Vincent’s life, from his birth to suicide, and on the most revolutionary revelation – Van Gogh, the master of colour, was probably colourblind! The huge piles of pigment were most likely his way of seeing something that he couldn’t see clearly. But the star of the show was the big display, the place where Vincent’s greatest paintings were projected onto the walls. This was in the big hall, which was in the middle of the route round, and had chairs for visitors to sit on during the c.30 minute show, which was on loop, in which paintings moved, and lights danced on the floor. We also took some pictures:

We watched the show for almost 60 minutes, so once repeated. After this, we left, as the only things after this were a colouring activity – make a copy of a painting, using your own colours – and the VR experience. We didn’t do this, as we will possibly do it another time. However, we did go round to Leicester Museum as we had a good few hours before the train. Hopefully we can arrange that date and go again, as I’d really like to do so!

Hey Blog! This blog is about the annual Scout cooking competition!

This competition was a Scouts one. Every year the Belper district has a Ready Steady Cook! Challenge, with two parts to it. First is a troop stage, when two or three teams from each troop compete till the leaders decide who should go on to the district round, where the best team wins the trophy. This trophy is a chopping board! My troop, 1^st Belper, won last year, though I was not on the team – the team I was on did not make it past the judges’ test. However, this year we did!

We only made the main meal in the first stage but there were only two teams taking part in the initial stage so it wasn’t too hard to win. The main was so good, the judges (scout leaders) let us in to the district round, which was yesterday!

The meal specifications were a three-course meal for two people, Asian-inspired, that cost less than ten pounds. We decided to cook sweet-and-sour chicken noodles, with prawn sesame toast for a starter, and eight treasures rice for a pudding. For those wondering what eight treasures rice is, it is a Chinese rice pudding, normally served hot but passible to serve cold, with eight different kinds of dried fruit as a filling. Made like a Christmas Pud, most people who came round to our table thought it like a Chinese version of the classic pudding; it is very good as I generally don’t like cold rice puddings, but I kept going back again and again for this one!

The pudding could be made in advance – by me, in this case, as we had the recipe – but the starter and main had to be made there on the day. We had also practiced the starter, so I took charge of that. It wasn’t too difficult, but with only 1 and a half hours to do the entire thing, it was a task. The other two on my team tackled the main. The sauce had to be cooked first, and then added to the chicken and noodles. Luckily, there were a couple of no-shows on the day, so we were able to commandeer a spare table and serve on that, as our table was supremely messy after cooking! Here is a photo of the meal:

The judges gave some excellent comments, but I think the most important fact was that our meal disappeared faster than anybody else’s! This could be due to the fact that we had more of it than anybody else’s, or that ours was better! My pudding disappeared fastest of the lot. The judging takes a surprisingly short time, but while the all-important conference was happening, people got to taste their own and other’s food. When the verdict came, we hadn’t won – Duffield Scouts had won – but Mum has just seen a post on the Facebook page for Scouts from the local Scout District Commissioner saying, “That pudding was amazing!” so I don’t mind!

Hey Blog! This one’s a bit late, as my grandparents were here last week, so I left the blog to this week. However, for the third time on Home Ed in a Shed, we’ve got a camp to write about!

Every year, my Scout troop does a camp in January, known as the “Chilly Challenge”. This is meant to be deliberately cruel very cold and challenge yourself to spending a night out in a chilly environment. I have taken part in it once or twice before, but this was at a new campsite I’ve never been to, north of us on the roads towards Chesterfield. We found it in the dark, but weren’t sure anyone was there as we couldn’t see anyone’s lights. However, at last we explored up the slope and found the rest of the Scouts setting up tents.

If you go camping, with Scouts or otherwise, I recommend SETTING UP YOUR TENT IN DAYLIGHT. It is a pig of a job to do when you can’t see properly, and if you don’t know your tent is even worse. I also recommend bringing one bag of everything, which I usually do anyway. Including a thick warm blanket to keep warm and block the sun out when you’ve only had three hours sleep (and if necessary to block out your tentmate’s snores!). Either way, we managed to put the tent up, and then all went to collect firewood. This was really the only chance to see the site, as we were not there in daylight for long enough to fully observe it. We did not go everywhere, but managed to pick up enough for a decent fire, and then sat round it on camping chairs and some of us told silly stories.

All of us had had dinner before we arrived so supper was hot chocolate with a single slice of unbuttered cheap white bread. There are also cupasoups at Scouts but these are a good few years out of date so they taste a bit old and none of the Scouts want them. We must have stayed up till 10 or 11 at night, more likely the latter, and then went to the tents just as an owl began hooting. You could tell this was a Tawny male, as it goes Hooo, Hooo. The female tawny owl goes Kee-wick, which, if put before the male’s call, goes, as even Shakespeare put it – “the Tawny Owl goes to-wit, to-woo” or something like that! Most women say you can tell which is the male and the female by what they say to each other – the lady says “twit!” and the other says “to you!”.

In the morning, we all got up – some at different times. I am generally one of the first up on a camp, at which point I pack up my sleeping bag, roll mat, and everything else, and then go out and wait for my Scout leader to tell the others to get up you lazybones (he doesn’t say that!) and for breakfast. This time, it was bacon cobs (also known as baps, burgers, or oven-bottom-muffins) and then shortly afterwards it was time for striking (packing up) tents. However, we didn’t go home until one of the people who manage the district Scout organisation came round and handed out the exclusive Chilly Challenge badges. Mine is already on my uniform!

As to whether I would do it again YES, I would. Definitely. And I will, next year!

Hey Blog! This week is about a celebration and tradition that has been going around for about a thousand years, and maybe a bit more. This week, I come a-wassailing!

The tradition of wassailing is very ancient, performed by people carrying flaming torches who march shouting through an apple orchard. But it isn’t as crazy as that really, nor so stupid. It’s a festival in which participants seek to, as this wassail we went to said, “wake the trees with noise and fire” and bless them so they give a greater crop next year. We attended one at Wessington, or more specifically at the Amber Valley Vineyard three days ago. Here they have planted a small apple orchard to make cider, and it was through this that the highlight of the evening came.

The first thing we did was go to the drinks table (typical!) where the adults were all rationed a cup of mulled cider free with the tickets. Unfortunately, the children were not allowed this (Pity – in the mediaeval period children were allowed alcoholic drinks, admittedly very weak ones, but still…) so I had to have a cup of hot chocolate instead. We then watched the T’owd (said Toad) Man Morris Dancers do some crazy dancing. It may sound like some badly spelt half-frog-half-man people who dance around in a pond, but no – T’owd man is a carving in the Wirksworth church, said to be the world’s oldest representation of a miner. Wirksworth is the town where these dancers are from, and t’owd is the local word for old: the nearby village to where I live is called Ambergate, but has the old name of T’owdmoor, meaning the old moor. They’re quite right even if they did mean the amphibians – Mum goes out on a toad patrol in the spring to rescue the animals from cars!

Either way, these dancers were very good. Morris Dancing includes people skipping around each other holding sticks and then hitting another person’s stick like swords. I am considering whether to go and take part in this kind of dancing, as it certainly looked like my style – more than ballet or tap dancing…! I also felt at this point that the entire atmosphere, from the bonfire, which had just been lit, to the dancing, to the fake horse’s skull, to the shouting, to the costumes, all matched PERFECTLY The Dark is Rising, the book I reviewed two weeks ago! Next we went over to the bonfire. It was perfectly laid, and the top sticks fell at just the right place to keep it burning – I wish I could lay a fire like that! We watched the flames for a while, and I tried to hold them – I think I succeeded! However, shortly afterwards, it was time for the big event – the wassailing! We all went forward to the apple grove…

Where they were handing out flaming torches. Apparently, this year, there is a national shortage of flaming torches – something to do with the warehouse’s roof collapsing – so we were lucky to have them! I managed to get one, and then the march started. The tradition involves carrying these torches through the orchard, shouting as you do so, and giving the trees toast soaked in cider. Maybe this is where the saying “Raise a toast” comes from: the expression is often said at the winter festival and this is the time when you raise the toast to the boughs of the apple tree! More likely not though. Either way, when the trees were all blessed, it was time to go home. However, it was a very enjoyable evening!

Hey Blog! This week is a mix of things, including a walk, one of my favourite TV programs, and a bird I’ve longed to see but never seen (yet…).

Yesterday Mum found out (see, parents do have complex nets of spies searching the countryside, don’t they!) that there were hawfinches to be seen in Cromford. Cromford is a really nice town up the Derwent valley. It has Sir Richard Arkwright’s mills, the first cotton mills in the world and the birthplace of both the industrial revolution and the factory system; the best bookshop in the world (in my opinion, it has an amazing café and both indoor and outdoor seating at the top, all hidden behind a door of books; rooms full of books that go all around the place with three stories; it seems to be built on a foundation of books!); and is the north end of the Cromford canal, which Arkwright haggled over when it was being built so he got a bumper share of the profits! Either way, this morning, we went up on the train to Cromford and went round to have a look.

We were reported to on the bridge over the river that the Hawfinches had been there this morning, but had vanished, most likely because of the children who were running around underneath the trees where the birds were (could someone please tell them to move it when there are Hawfinches around?). We decided to go over to the bench which had been suggested to get a bit closer so we could see if they decided to come back.

Did we see them? No, of course not. They’ve done this before, for which reason we call them Haw-haw-hawfiches – they laugh at us every time as they aren’t in sight. Actually, Hawfinches don’t make a laughing sound, they make a sound more like a cheep. However, we did have a very nice walk back along the Cromford Canal. The canal was iced over, and it looked like a bird had walked over it – if a bird was four times as big as a golden eagle and could freeze water as it stepped on it. Which it could if it was a magic bird, I suppose. However, I’ve never seen one, nor has anyone else, so I’m putting the water patterns down to Jack Frost (who I’ve also never seen, nor has anyone else) – OK, OK, let’s just say they were scientifical patterns the water made as it froze. Actually, the bird is a lot more exiting though…

It doesn’t take long to get home along the canal, though that is probably due to the fact that I have very long legs, inherited from my Dad, which speed me along. We did not see all that much, except a Dipper, a few Little Grebes, some Mallards, and a Coot. However, we are going to round off the day by taking dinner upstairs and watching Winterwatch, the winter wildlife program. There are three seasons of the Watches: Springwatch, Autumnwatch, and Winterwatch. They are presented by Chris Packham, among others. They always aim to bring you “the very best of British wildlife”. Now I’d better go upstairs…

Hey Blog! Second post in a day, and this one is a continuation of my serialised version of…

The story of the box

The silk merchant’s storage box

The Caliph now had lots more jewels, and the wedding present he himself had given was seven handsome rolls of silk. He had told the silk merchant that he would make the value up to him when he got back and when he did, gave him three bags of gems and the box that they had been given in. The silk merchant thanked him, and went off on his camel train through Asia, and at last reached China, going back the way he had formerly come some time later. He repeated this journey many times, and, upon one time, feeling quite older than he was when the box had first been given to him, he failed to journey, but sent his son, who was his heir for the camels, goods and in fact, all parts of the trade, off to China. When he was there, he heard that his father had formally retired, and that his father’s trading wealth had passed to him. He hurriedly sold his goods, thinking his father ill, and by the time he was packing his camels, the box was forgotten. It lay in the house that he had rented for his stay, and the landlord didn’t notice. Six years went by, before a guest said, “That looks like a nice box, and I could have sworn that I’ve seen it before. I’d like it for my trinket selling…”

“Your name?” said the landlord. “I seem to recall it was left here by a previous visitor.”

“You wouldn’t know me. I’m the son of that merchant that stayed here every summer. I’ve only been in this land once before and now I’m looking for a house here.”

“Well, I guess you can take the box. It cost me nothing, so it should cost you nothing!”

So the box, once lost in China, was recovered for a new purpose, and its adventures continued. It collected a few tea-stains, some scratches, and lost its key, which was left in the purse of a guest and forgotten about.

Hey Blog! This week is a subject for those who have a little time on their hands – and in their head – and it’s all about phylos sophia or Lovers of Knowledge: Philosophy!

I study philosophy with an excellent tutor called Jake. His business is known as Humanatees (the mascot is a manatee), and it teaches humanities. Last autumn, he started the first KS3 Philosophy course, this one on the Meaning of Life (the biggest subject EVER!). I joined in, so for six weeks we learnt about wacky, weird, and wonderful philosophers who had ideas ranging from “live like a dog” to “ask yourself whether you should kill yourself or have a cup of coffee”. This week, I started a new course, all about female philosophers, but it is my response to the last course that I am writing in for you today. Here it is:

What is the meaning of life?

Universally, I understand that the Meaning of Life must be subjective; all of the philosophers we’ve looked at have had different ideas; but my philosophy is not subjective – well, not necessarily.

1. Be focused on something you care about, something that has the inspiration to encourage you to protect, remake and love it. This could be a project, your friends/family, but not your job. The only point of a job is to make money; if you love it then it’s an occupation.
2. Don’t be too focused though. Find some relaxing “me” time. Be idle. Do creative thinking, as this kind of thinking can lead to a new focus, of philosophy. Without stepping back you will become the focus, and not be able to climb out of it.
3. Be passionate. Love something, enjoy it, kind of similar to point 1, but this is when you’ve finished it. Hold it to your heart. Revel in the joy it gives you, and keep it safe.
4. However, be sensible in what you give your love to, as some things break, or disappear, or don’t return your love. Be cautious before choosing, but once chosen, don’t waver. Think before you act.
5. Do big talk. Concentrate on big maters like Life and Death, climate change, and the Meaning of Life; think about these things so that you know what the world is like. It’s important you understand your place in the universe.
6. Sometimes, though, big things are too much. Relax into the small things; what your friends are doing, where you’re going at the weekend. Be calm, don’t hurry. More hurry, the less time to the end. Do small talk.
7. You can see now, we have pairs: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. They balance each other out. To conclude, my Meaning of Life is…

Be Balanced.

How do you like it? I think it’s quite good. But please don’t blame me if it goes wrong while you’re following it – you chose to do it in the first place!

Hey Blog! It’s the first post of 2023 – I hope you’ve had a great year so far and that the future will hold just as wonderful surprises. It’s Twelfth Night tonight, the last of the twelve days of Christmas and (in the past) the climax of the Christmas celebrations. This is a very important date in the calendar of one particular book that I got for Christmas: by Susan Cooper, it’s The Dark is Rising.

The Dark is Rising is the second book in a five-book sequence, which takes its name from this book, and covers the first quest of the then-11-year-old ‘Old One’ Will Stanton. It starts on Midwinter’s Eve, the eve of Will’s 11^th birthday, when everything seems to be behaving a bit funny towards him. The radio, the birds, the family pets… Then, the farmer down the lane gives Will a circle of iron, quartered by a cross, and tells him to guard it. Next morning, when he wakes up, his world shifts, and he appears a few centuries back in his past. Going to a smithy standing near where the farm would stand in his own time, he encounters two mysterious figures – a black horse and black rider, who is very suspect; and a shabby old terrified man called the Walker. He is also introduced to a white horse, who is shoed with strangely shaped horseshoes – the quartered circle. This sign seems to be everywhere…

Eventually, he finds a pair of doors, which seem to materialise in front of him. These take him into a room with a fire and a candle stand, the latter of which has just one candle missing from the circle. The two people sitting near it, Merriman Lyon and an enigmatic woman known as The Lady, then reveal to him he is not an ordinary human boy – he is the last of the Old Ones, a group of immortal magicians, who can flow across and through time and are duty-bound to defend the Light. Will, as the last of them, completes the circle, and inherits the position of Sign-Seeker. This charges him to find the six Signs, Iron (he’s already got it), Bronze, Wood, Stone, Fire, and Water. Then, he has to keep them safe from the Dark (hence the name of the book) until they can be joined, at which point the circle of the Old Ones will be complete and the second of the four Things of Power will be safe and found.

Does he complete the quest? You’ll have to read the book (I say this every time…) but I can say that it has a very good ending on Twelfth Night “That which was once Christmas Day and once, long ago before that, was the high winter festival of our old year” when the Wild Hunt rides, and as Merriman says, “Nothing may outface the Wild Hunt”. All through the story run themes of ancient magic, love, desperation, and over all, a desire for goodness and freedom: exactly what the Light represents. I think that the structure of the story follows a similar pattern to The Box of Delights, and the magic in it seems to be a collaboration between Doctor Who and A Wizard of Earthsea. Underpinning it all is the fabric of ancient British mythology.

The setting is constantly changing as a result of the changing time that the Old Ones experience, but there’s a love for the land and a LOT of snow. As for originality it has got to be one of the best: all books reference to others, but to make something original you weave them together in a totally new way and add threads of your own: that’s originality. It’s definitely in the top set of books I’ve read for quite a while, bringing together time, folklore, and a touch of ancient magic!

Hey Blog! It’s the last post of 2022, and my, it has been a year! Everything seems to have been confuzeled after the pandemic, and with a war, a climate crisis, economic turmoil and political hell, we have some big problems. However, there have also been sparks of joy, providing a relief from the darkness.

Last New Year’s Day I found a wooden box sitting by the side of the road. I had been wanting a large wooden box to put what mum calls junk (reference to About Me and My Shed) into, and this did the trick! I decided I would refurbish it over the course of the year. This involved sanding it down and varnishing it. I started off hand-sanding, and I believe the term for this is “DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME” – it is long, boring, and tiring. So eventually I borrowed Dad’s power-sander and used that. This only happened in November, and then, earlier this month, I decided the time had come for the varnishing. This was only a few days before Sophie came, so I had to tidy it up as I was doing the varnishing in our playroom. However, twice I have varnished it in my shed since then, and am now finished. So the year’s work is completed – in exactly one year!

One of my friend’s Mums suggested I write a story about the box. Therefore, I wrote a short set of stories detailing its supposed history. I am going to serialise this, and here is the first part:

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The story of the box

By Kit Bailey

The Sultan’s jewel box

There was, in the Middle East, a certain Sultan who was rich in a great many ways. He had, in plenty, gemstones of many grades and sizes, and he had all the carpenters of the region come before him to show their work so that he might pick out one to do some woodwork. One, he noticed, had a very particular style, and being also a fine carpenter with a good eye, the Sultan chose him to make chests for to store his wealth. This carpenter accordingly made fourteen caskets, all with different sizes, woods and patterns, and at this the Sultan was so delighted that he made the said carpenter Chief Carpenter for all his palace. The chests the new Chief Carpenter had made were used by the Sultan’s treasurer to store his jewels in, and many a year passed with the precious stones safely inside the box.

In time, the Sultan’s son succeeded him, and then his grandson. For fifty years the gems inside the box had not seen the light of day, until some strange circumstances made the original sultan’s grandson open the box.

For all his wealth, there was one thing the new young Sultan did not have, and that was a wife. So when a Caliph of a neighbouring kingdom came for a visit, and brought his beautiful daughter, the Sultan was enraptured, and offered three boxfuls of jewels in return for the daughter’s hand in marriage. The Caliph duly agreed, and on the wedding day the bride and the jewels were exchanged, and the Sultan and Caliph’s daughter were married, and lived happily. However this was only the start of the box’s adventures, one of the lucky, chosen three chests that left the palace for a new life.

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Look out in the coming weeks for the next instalments, but till then…

Happy New Year!

Hey Blog! It’s CHRISTMAS! 2022, and my second year of Home Ed in a Shed. You’ve been privy to most of my goings on for more than a year, but that doesn’t mean the fun ever lessens. This week I’m going through three things – the Great British Bake Off, making Dad’s Christmas present, and Christmas itself!

Last spring, in The Great Bailey Sewing Bee, I talked about watching the Great British Sewing Bee, and being inspired to make a bag (you may be pleased to know I have now finished all the badges to sew on it). The aforementioned program was designed as a spin-off of the Great British Bake Off, which we have now discovered too. The two programs are similar, but instead of making stuff with fabric which you can wear, Bake Off is about making stuff with food which you can eat. We have decided the Sewing Bee is slightly better, but still…

This program has also been an inspiration. Dad always says he doesn’t want “stuff”, just edible presents. This year I decided to make Pretzels for him, using the BBC recipe (https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pretzels_71296) by Paul Hollywood, one of the judges on Bake Off! My big sister Sophie is here for Christmas this year, and so when Mum and Dad went out on one of their mysterious Christmas errands, me and Soph made the pretzels. They looked just like the real thing! When Dad came back, we whipped off the cloth and revealed them. They were DELICIOUS! We had them (and the copious amount of cheese we got in for Christmas) for lunch, and then …

… then I left my laptop on and disappeared to read a book, so Mum decided to upload my blog just as it was. Happy Christmas!

I DIDN’T WRITE THAT!

Then I decided to say that I can’t think of much more to write so please tune in next week.

Merry Christmas!