Hair Dye for HesFes

My daughters have been dyeing their hair for years, Tish mostly red and Monkey mostly bright multicolours. In fact at one stage I think even Lewis dyed his black. I am very conservative about my hair, having worn it long most of my life and never done anything radical to it. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have been to the hairdresser in my entire life.

But in the spirit of wild and recklessness I decided to take the plunge for HesFes.

This is my normal mid-brown, nondescript colour:

 I allowed the Meister (who is fourteen going on twenty five) to put some peroxide on my hair, (we did her hair turquoise after it was bleached). This was just so the colour would show up a bit more but I didn't want to lighten the whole lot:

 And then Monkey did the deed, no turning back now:

Voila:

 

I had to go to work like this and was subjected to a few curious looks and sarcastic comments. It looked completely fabulous for about four or five days but has now faded to a soft blue. I made the mistake of sitting in the sun and actually washing my hair a couple of times. I think however that I have caught the bug and will be picking a different shade when this one washes out.

Not a half-arsed book review

I have three book reviews sitting half done in the draft folder and not much inspiration to finish them (not that they were bad books, I've just been feeling a bit meh), and then we are off to HESFES on Saturday, so this is just a quick hi and bye post. We have spent most of my spare time in the last couple of weeks getting stuff sorted out for Monkey's grand adventure in the real world (Year of the Monkey) in less than two months. She went to a getting-to-know-you party in London at the weekends to meet some of the other Monkeys, and might even have some housemates organised. She now has lots of plain t-shirts, a dish for macaroni cheese, a wok (£3 bargain charity shop find), a cheese grater, wooden spoons, her own nail scissors and tweezers, the very important notebook that we are going to make a felted cover for, and, most excitingly, nude coloured underwear! 

One issue that did remain was the safe transportation of the Monkey Quilt:

 So this morning I have made it a bag:

 and she is all set to leave home.

Bunny Love

Who doesn't love bunnies

 The bunnies have been busy

hopping around the garden, and the living room, and the bedroom,
getting all excited about their trip to HesFes

 Monkey thinks they are getting a bit out of hand, 
but I think the more the merrier:

(Knitted roughly to the March Hare Pin Brooch pattern)

(Linking back to Fibre Arts Friday, please visit the other fibre creations)

HESFES bunnies

Hesfes this year was another triumph (last year's post). Last year I posted loads of photos from the cabaret so this year I thought I would include all the other random stuff that went on. 

HESFES bunnies made their first of, I hope, many appearances. Knitted to this pattern, I made a dozen and hid them randomly around the site and to hopefully be discovered, taken home and cherished.

I made fruit salad for breakfast. This is kind of symbolic because my memory of our first home ed gathering, an EO event at Featherstone Castle, was of having fruit salad for breakfast, something that had never previously occurred to me.

So, as an event for all ages, here are some of the things that the attendees got up to.

The very tiny people in the toddler tent:

other random small people making stuff in the cowshed:

the workshops 3 marquee was home to the recycled clothing workshop:

the bee tent was open two days and people got kitted up for a close encounter with the bees:

the grown ups spent time listening to Fiona who seemed to be chatting away most lunchtimes about home ed stuff:

and again, large groups regularly congregated in the main marquee for all sorts of strange performances:

And here is the Boy doing his debut performance:

HESFES 2013

We are off on Thursday to HESFES 2013. The multi-talented Ridley Birks Boy will be performing this year (pictured here caught in a rare moment without a musical instrument in his hands) and it was a bit of a last minute decision to go. We had such a brilliant time last year but things had seemed to be conspiring against a return visit to Suffolk. Creature is busy volunteering at the 24/7 Festival so will be joining us a few days late, so I won't even have her to worry about. I hope to find a moment this week to review Angela Carter's 'Wise Children' but to get myself in holiday mode I spent the day creating a banner for our campsite; it is made with felted letters appliquéd onto a piece of muslin fabric. I hope everyone in blogland is enjoying wherever and however you spend your holiday time that you are all making the most of the brilliant weather.
postscript: as I re-read last year's 'we are going to Hesfes' post I found that I mentioned reaching 40,000 blog views, and that gave me cause to feel very smug, because this year I have just passed 80,000 ...woo hoo!

HESFES - long self-indulgent holiday post

Being at home with your children can be a difficult choice, it is easy to feel isolated, not so much physically isolated but more mentally, because you hold these weird opinions that are not shared by others around you, or society in general. When you tell people you home educate they treat you as if you are crazy, so home educators have always needed a way to get together for mutual support and information. Nowadays they gather at campsites all over the country, but in the past there very few, mostly small, local gatherings ... but then in 1998 came HESFES. It is ten years since the last time I went with my kids. 

It is run by Andy ... and here he is:

I won't embarrass him by making this a post to sing his praises but will just try and give you a flavour of why people want to go and spend a week sitting in a field with a bunch of wild children. We were saved this year by the sunshine. There had been a river running through the site the previous day, but by the end of the week even the largest of the muddy patches was completely dried. About 1500 or so people descended on the Mid Suffolk Showground to spend the week chatting about home education, their kids, the evils of school, how to deal with the LEA and to debate serious stuff ... but also to sing and dance, to make crafty things, to learn something new, to play games, to listen to poetry and write poetry, to listen to music and make music, to sit around the fire, to have mass water-gun fights, to make new friends and chill with old ones, to watch films in a solar powered cinema (Groovy Movie) ... and generally pretend the outside world doesn't exist for a while.

Firstly you need a tent and a little patch of grass to pitch it on ...

then you need some means of brewing your tea ...

and a fearlessness in the face of arachnid invaders (this is close up, the spiders were *really* tiny) ...

 

it's more fun if you have a toddler to chase round the field ...

and a teenager in a cool hat ...

much of the time can be spent just walking up and down the field to get fresh milk or going for a shower or to sit at the cafe and watch the world go by or just for the hell of it...

but sometimes people will gather in one of the marquees...

and dress up in silly clothes (this is Andy again, being the compere)...

...to perform in the now legendary HESFES Children's Cabaret.

This is Bea doing jazz tap-dance:

This is Oliver and Casey doing Hallelujah:

This is Charlie and Georgie doing the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch:

This is Harrison playing some weird japanese music on a weird japanese instrument:

This is Mags singing Pink:

and this is the appreciative and enthusiastic audience:

Thursday night we had the most excellent performance from John Hegley and Diego Brown and the Good Fairy ...

then as we wandered back towards the tent we stopped off instead in the Groovy Movie tent to watch Hettie Hatstar, here she is singing a song about giving birth to a clanger:-) ...

then on the last night (after the obligatory and awesome performance by the HESFES band of Another Brick in the Wall, will link to a video when someone puts one up on Youtube) we sat around the fire until the wee small hours and tried to outdo the teenagers but failed again ...

but even the most determined partiers flake out in the end ...

Within ten minutes of leaving the kids were all asleep in the back of the car. I arrived home with my hesfes shawl completed, one book read, a new friendship bracelet, a tiny wire-and-bead basket and a blister on my foot from Zumba class ... and having had a wonderful holiday. Can't wait for next year.

What's an elephant?

 " 'It's a kind of badger.'
She hadn't maintained forest credibility for forty years by ever admitting ignorance."

Granny Weatherwax knows what's what on the Discworld, when it comes to magic as well as elephants, and in Equal Rites she tangles with the wizard elite at Unseen University to get a place for her protégé Esk. In this story Terry Pratchett turns his attention to gender inequality in the magical sphere and tackles it with his inimitable sense of humour. We emptied the car of it's vast collection of audiobooks in anticipation of getting rid of it and I have been listening while painting.

I reached a couple of milestones yesterday, passing 40,000 page views on this blog and finishing the first 100 hexipuffs.  I have been waiting several years to make a return trip to HES FES next month so my other project yesterday was to make a camp blanket for our holiday. A few weeks ago Creature's dad sent her several boxes of cuddly toys, random junk, rubbish and outgrown clothing; one box went straight in the bin and two others went to the charity shop. I did however salvage these two pairs of fleece pyjamas:

 ... and turned them into this lovely patchwork blanket, just perfect for cuddling up outside the tent to watch the sunset.

jumperish holiday

The second half of my week off I ventured alone in the opposite direction to mum and dad's down in Devon. We had a very relaxing few days, mainly pondering the Guardian crossword together. Claire arrived Friday with Matt and Siobhan on their way to a cottage in Cornwall, and Bart and Vieanne came over for a family dinner. It was all very civilized ... until dad offered to let me take photos of the jumpers I knit for them, and then for some reason he got a little silly:

After he had finished with his senior moment they let me take a sensible one as well:I spent the time in devon working on the jumper that I started for Creature back at the beginning of July, and it is finished. I am so pleased with it, I added random stripes to enhance the already variegated yarn. It is just in time for HES FES starting on Saturday, a little something to keep her cosy on those damp and chilly evenings in the teen tent. I am missing out AGAIN because Andy had to change venue and moved the week ... maybe next year!
I also, at dad's suggestion, took a photo of this lovely family portrait that has been up in their living room forever. That's (left to right) me, Bart, Claire and Giles. Not sure about the boy's outfits but mine and Claire's dresses were definitely home made by my mum (and that sofa had really scratchy material).

HES FES

Tomorrow I will be driving down to HES FES, the Home Educators Summer Festival. It is a wonderful event that has been run by the wonderful Andy for the last twelve years. The few times we went years ago I loved being surrounded by like-minded people and wild children who made me feel that the way we lived was not so outrageous as it sometimes seemed. M is spending the week ... I am coming home to go to work. Maybe next year:-)