Animal Man

 We went to the allotments for a really interesting event called the Animal Man. We got to meet lots of fascinating animals a tarantula, a couple of lizards, a corn snake, a frog, an owl, a cute non-spiky hedgehog, and even a type of bear called a kinkajou. My favourites were the hedgehog and the kinkajou. Nuha liked the tarantula and the kinkajou but I hated the tarantula. 

Hedgehog

Owl

Nuha holding the kinkajou

Me and the kinkajou

Nuha with the tarantula

Nuha holding the corn snake

Me and the corn snake

Leopard gecko

Bearded lizard

Aisha 

Story: Northern Lights

I love writing stories and I wanted to share one that I wrote the other day. I hope you enjoy it. 

 Northern Lights

The snow was still, the frost made a disco light. And then it all happened. An oval saucer, with a ring like a planets, landed. Causing an avalanche, kindling chaos, and radiating a green glow. And that's when the story started.

                                                                                             8 Years later

Trudging through the snow, I came to what was obviously the answer. 8 Years ago the farmer Soden said he saw a spaceship, people didn’t believe him, but I did. So here I am, standing with the answer, a spaceship.

‘’Must've made the glow.’’ I thought. 

‘’Must have must have.’’ Mimicked a voice. I jumped, taken aback by the imitation of my voice. Suddenly green heads with eyes on antennae and bodies and arms the shape of balls popped out of a cave.

I shrieked, surprised at my discovery. Discovery! So Soden was right! Instead of announcing it as I thought I would, I thought that I would keep it a secret. For now, at least. In the mean time we chatted about my plans and we agreed that they would fly me home. So that night I was awakened and taken to there spaceship. It was amazing. I asked them why they don’t go home, but immediately regretted it, afraid that I would hurt their feelings. But it did not. Instead they answered it with this. 

‘’We like it here, and were thinking of staying here, permanently.’’ 

When I got home I wrote this story, the one which you're reading now.

Nuha

Learning To Canter

For riding this week we are finally learning to canter. A canter is almost the fastest pace of a horse, second only to a gallop. It is a three-beat pace, which means that there are three footfalls in it. To canter you put your outside leg (which is the leg closer to the fence of the arena) behind the girth (a girth is the strap around the horses belly that holds the saddle on), squeeze with both legs, and say "canter on".

Me cantering

Nuha cantering

   I feel like we are progressing well. In just a few months we have gone from walking on a lead rope, then walking and trotting by ourselves, to sitting trot, and walking and trotting without stirrups(we do this to improve our balance), then cantering. 

   It's supposed to be much more comfortable than a bumpy trot, but since Nuha fell of on her first canter I'm not sure she would agree. Despite the weather being grizzly we are really enjoying our recent lessons. This week I rode Lady (who is my favourite horse) and Nuha rode Kristoff.

Nuha and Kris

Lady and I

Aisha

Biscuits And Scones

Baking is one of my favourite pastimes and I am usually begging for some time in the kitchen. Recently I've baked something I love making time and time again, scones. It's from an amazing recipe on BBC Goodfood (link) and it's delicious. However, every time I've made them the scone batter does tend to get a bit sticky at the end so before you start shaping the scones put some flour in them. The recipe says to make eight scones but I've found that sixteen works just as well, plus you can serve more people them.

Ingredients

Batter

Raw scones

Finished product

But scones are not the only thing that I've recently baked. I just got an amazing book jam-packed with delicious biscuit recipes.

                                          

 I've only tried out a few so far but they are amazing.

 Biscuits in the oven

Freshly baked

Raspberry biscuits

Chocolate biscuits

Aisha

DIY Dolls

We recently got a set of plain wooden figurines that we have started painting. So far we've only done one family but there's plenty more to be painted. Since we have so many more figures, we will be expanding to make a whole dolls' village!  

Aisha

Tacking Up For the First Time

This week at the stables, I helped tack up a horse, where I had to put the saddle and bridle on. I also groomed him, which is one of my favourite activities. I also got to groom Billy, one of my favourite horses, and Mini, the cutest tiniest Shetland. Our horse care instructor is great and we are learning so much from her.  During our riding lesson, we practiced an obstacle course which our horses handled really well. 

A saddle and bridle

Grooming brushes

                          

Me grooming Mini

"Grooming time Kristoff!"

"Look at the camera. Please?"

    

"Walk on."

"Don't touch the poles."

"Good boy, Pablo."

As usual, I can't wait until next time. 

Nuha