Here's a very determined tree, also on the trail up Hanging Rock:

Looks like it's been hanging on there for quite some time as well.

A group of self seeded flowers in the garden. Sometimes nature does it so much better than I do!

That's so pretty.

Another from Hanging Rock - it was a fun weekend...

The end of the line, Southminster station. You would end up in the North Sea otherwise.

The 'lightning show' at the Museum of Science in Boston. The electrical discharges come from the large Vandegraaf generators. They make a loud 'crack' and you can smell ozone in the air too. My boys like this photo due to the apparent origin of the lightning, lol. (science note: the guy inside the 'Faraday cage' was completely safe - the extremely high charge runs to earth via the external metal frame)

Fields on Dengie Marsh in Essex

That's a brilliant photo Mike. Could anyone go in the Faraday cage, or was it just staff?

Part of the gardens at Scotney Castle in Kent

Why o you people insist on making me so homesick?! That is gorgeous Christina.

It's a lovely place Ren. The castle you see used to be occupied but is now just a sort of folly, ruined in places, still with some of the moat round it. It was replaced by a big Victorian mansion which you can go round, which overlooks the valley where the gardens and the old castle are. You go down a circular path and just keep getting these tantalising views of the old castle on the way down.

Great photos!

Haven't been able to take photos lately as we've had visitors this week. The boy has been studying the discovery and settlement of Australia and his art activity for the week was to make a diorama of a early building of the colony in a show box. Honestly it sounded beyond boring to me so we invited a few other kids in his year over and made bigger models - they're about 3 feet high They did three houses plus two tents .. had a Union jack flying, a boat, bush music playing in the background like Botany Bay and so on. Kids LOVED it ... much more fun bashing nails than gluing matchsticks.
Didn't have many pics without kids in it! (just pretend the buildings aren't in the background!)

Love the cat on the doorstep, Chavs!
And Hanging Rock looks like a great place to explore .. and have a picnic.

Copago, I remember learning 'Botany Bay' and similar folk songs/sea shanties in primary school. Sounds like an ideal way to do homework too. Especially if you can make it a competition.
Christinap, very glad you liked the photo. No, only Museum staff were allowed inside the Faraday cage. But earlier, they used a much smaller generator and passed the charge along a group of children holding hands. The last one in line felt the (mild) shock. I'm sure they deliberately chose a couple of girls with long hair to take part as that long hair literally stood on end! I have a couple of pics of this too but the faces are clearly visible so I won't post them here.

Copago, that looks like way more fun than making little things in a box, but how did they get them to school?

Mike, shame about the faces, I'd like to have seen those girls with their hair standing on end.

Thanks, Copago. Your house building looks so much fun, and it makes a great picture; love the colour of the ground too!

We love FunTrivia so much here that we've issued a national postage stamp in Terry's likeness.

Love it!

That's a hoot, Chavs - someone needs to send the link to Terry!

Copago: The best lessons are usually the "hands-on" type. But tell me, did they name any famous explorers who might be buried in that church graveyard? lol

Mike: you can always "air brush"/blend the actual faces if you have some sort of photo editor. Or just paste buggy-eyed happy faces on top of the real ones lol

"The best lessons are usually the "hands-on" type"

Yep! Honestly if we had sat there and done a little matchstick house I would have hurried him along to get it done and get out but this was way more fun for everyone .. a lot of work but.

We didn't have to get the to school, Christina We do school at home anyway becuase we live so far from the actual school. There was three other kids here from Conor's class and they came from 160 and 250kms away. The other part of the week's work was to do a discussion on how each different group of people had it hard when they first came here (convicts, free settlers, guards and so on) so they did a powerpoint presentation of all the houses and talked in turn over the top of it and emailed that into the teacher. I am going to try and save the houses .. pop them into a shed somewhere for future projects. Sorry, got a bit carried away there :p

This was the Governors cottage .. complete with clay governor and dog out the front under the verandah with the tin boat on the left. It did have a sail but it was so windy it didn't last long!

Wonderful,Jill. That's what teaching and learning is all about!

Thanks for explaining that. I never thought about you being that far away from an actual school. Do you find it hard to motivate Conor for remote learning?

The houses are brilliant, good idea to save them for the future.

Artistically planted trees on Dengie Marsh in Essex

It can be hard, Christina - which is why I try to spice it up with things like this It's also hard motivating ME as well some days!