Life with Olivia

I uploaded my photos and then we lost internet connection. Mum asked what had I done! I didn’t do anything!

Today’s word is apple and I didn’t think we had any apples at all. But then I remembered we did. We had two! So I took this photo and then I ate it!

I also took this photo of the stoneage scene I keep writing about. It’s all finished now!

Mum took this one from a different angle.

Mum says that when all the schools have gone back we can go Kents Cavern for part of my stone age project because it will be quieter then.

I’m really sorry I didn’t comment on anyone’s yesterday! I got really busy in the garden chopping up sticks and branches. I want to make some dampers and cook them over a fire in the garden. I was in my vegetable garden aswell and I picked my first cucumber! The sweetcorn are all growing. There’s 8. I picked some carrots and onions too!

I spent most of yesterday out in the garden but I can’t really remember what I did there!
I also spent a long time playing Walking With Cavemen games on the computer and I read lots of Secret Water too.
I had to keep stirring the blackberry sun jam. I got to lick the spoon every time aswell! It’s so yummy!

It took ages to get a photo of the jam dripping because I kept missing it!
Mum made a backberry pie that was absolutely delicious!

Today’s photo prompt is bloom. It’s a weed growing in a crack in the patio. Mum says it’s too pretty to pull up though so we’ve left it there!

One of the scavenger hunt items is spider so I took this photo aswell today.

LOL!!! It’s really a fake spider that I trick Adam with! He’s scared of them and he’s much bigger and older than me!

We went in town today and I got Kids National Geographic. It’s got a free space mission interactive CD rom with it so I’ll have a look at that later. I also got some more clay so I can add more bits to the stone age scene. It’s just started raining so I think we got back just in time!
Oh and I got my cash card for my new bank account in the post! It’s so cool!
Bye!

We started making more bits for the stone age scene until we ran out of clay!

Then we went blackberry picking again. We got loads more berries than last time so that’s really good!

Today’s photo prompt word is fat. I took a photo of the fattest and oldest book we have in the house! It’s our old family Bible. My nanny gave it to my mum to look after when they moved to Spain. There’s a old note pinned inside. I think it was written by my great great great grandfather but mum’s not sure how many ‘greats’ there should be! The date he wrote was January 25th 1880 so that makes it Victorian! He had really nice writing but it’s a bit hard to read!

Now we’re going to make fruit leather out of the blackberries. I think it’s something that stone age people would have done to keep berries for longer. We’re going to make some sun jam too, and dry some to make a powder for drinks later in the year. I think there might be enough to have some to drink now aswell!

The workshop yesterday was really good! I made a little cave out of clay. I want to do a project on the Stone Ages now. So when we got home we looked up lots of things on the internet and looked through lots of our books. There’s so many things I want to do. So mum said I can just do that over the summer and I don’t have to do boring workbooks at all! Yay!!!

We picked some elderberries the other day so I took them off the stalk and left them out in the sun to dry because we’re going to make a dye out of them!

Me and mum have joind a Scavenger Hunt Flickr group aswell. One of the things we have to find this month is a suit of armour. So when we were at the museum yesterday I took a photo of this picture of a Roman soldier in his armour!

Today’s photo prompt is “Foil”. So here’s a photo of the foil covering the rhubarb crumble that mum made last night. It was so big we couldn’t finish it all! It was really yummy! I can’t wait to finish it later today.

Got to go. I want to clean my trainers. They’re new and I got them for my birthday. I’ve got to put the elderberries outside again and I want to check out some more stuff on the stone ages!

I went to group yesterday. I met up with my boyfriend! I haven’t seen him for ages! He brought his new camera that he got for Christmas. He let me have a go and take lots of photos and videos. It was really cool and simple to use. I really want one now!

We went to the library after because I wanted to get some books to learn how to crochet. They didn’t have any but Liz has ordered lots for me.

I had drama after that. J and M came again so that was good!

We were supposed to go to a EFFA meeting after that but we were too tired.

Today I have done hundreds of workbooks. The fractions were really hard! But I got the hang of it and I got them all right in the end!

The Bangladesh Bit:

Rice is grown in small fields. Most of the time these paddy fields are flooded with water.

Most Bangladeshi people live in the countryside in 60,000 villages.

Most of Bangladesh is inside the tropics:the temperature stays high throughout the year.

Bangladesh has a monsoon climate. Monsoon means seasonal wind. During one season the winds blow off the land and there is little rainfall. In late May or early June, the winds blow from the southwest. It has crossed the Indian Ocean and carries lots of rain. Then it rains really heavily - the monsoon rains!

Bangladesh is just over half the size of the UK. But there are twice as many people living in Bagladesh!

Bye for now.

Yesterday I made a cake.
I got the recipe from my Nan but I don’t know where she got it from. It’s really easy.
It goes like this:
1 mug All Bran
1 mug fruit (I used dried currants this time)
1/2 mug sugar
1 mug soya milk

Mix and soak, leave for 1 hour

Add 1 mug self-raising flour

1 1/4 hours at 250-300 degrees

Except I had to put foil on to stop it burning and it still didn’t take even an hour to cook. So don’t forget to keep checking it!

I finished making my purse yesterday aswell!

We finished making a star out of tissue paper and sticks. I think it looks really good!

I did some worksheets on time. I found it difficult at first but then I got the hang of it.
I read some things about Martin Luther King because it’s his special day tomorrow.
I’m really upset at the moment because I can’t find some of my favourite DVDs. I’ve lost Princess Diaries 1 and 2, Robin Hood and Bugsy Malone and Madagascar. I don’t know where they are but mum says no one has broken in to steal them.
The Bangladesh Bit:
More than a third of the population is under 15 years old.
In country areas, men usually wear a ‘lungi’ which is a kind of skirt. They don’t often wear shoes.
Most women wear a ’saree’ which is a wide strip of cotton or silk that is wrapped round the body and draped over one shoulder.
Some of the other crops are rice, sugar cane, tea, and tobacco.
The main industry is making things out of jute.

I can’t really remember what I did yesterday. I know I started my Bible project and some more knitting. I did some of my workbooks too.

Mum really, really scared me this afternoon. She found a moon phase thing that I wanted to put on my blog. But when she put the code in everything disappeared!

I really thought she had completley destroyed my blog!! But she emailed Lin and she sorted it all out for me!!! Lin is my absolutely best friend now!!

We went into town to get some shopping. I want to make a cake at the weekend so we needed to get the ingredients.

I also got the next Bugs issue. This week it’s a Emerald Beetle. I got a display box aswell with it.

I did some more of my knitting. This time it’s a purse that I’m knitting. Mum’s had to help with the increasing because I think it’s much harder than decreasing.

I got a box to keep all my Geomags in so I’m going to sort it all out in a minute. Then I’m going to try and make a tomato tart. Mum usually does it and it’s one of my favourites.

The Bangladesh Bit:

The population is 133 million. It is the most crowded country in the world!

The highest mountain is Keokradong. It is 1230m high.

The longest river is Surma-Meghna. It is 669km long.

The other big cities are called Chittagong, Kulna and Rajshahi.

More than 2500mm of rain falls each year. Most of it falls during the monsoon, which is between June and October.

I made potato and onion soup today. I did it all by myself! And it was delicious!

The recipe is:
225g onions chopped small
1 head celery chopped (but I only used 3 stalks)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
850ml stock
225g potatoes
2 bay leaves (large ones)
celery salt (optional but I didn’t use any!)

1) Cook onions and celery in oil for 10-15 minutes with lid on pan.
2) Add stock, potatoes, scrubbed and cut up, and bay leaves. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.
3)Sieve, add celery salt, and reheat. Garnish with chopped chives or parsley if liked.

I didn’t do that last bit. After it had cooked, I got mum’s hand blender and used that but left some of the potato lumps in. It tasted really good!
I got the recipe fromVegan Cooking, Recipes for Beginners by Eva Batt.
I made a ring then we went to drama.

I was really happy to see some of my friends again. And J and M have started aswell!
They found it fun so I hope they keep coming.
Then they came back to our house and we started watching Madagascar. Lin really liked my soup!
The Bangladesh Bit:

It is hard to get clean water. People need wells that go deep under the ground. Most people can’t afford to build wells so they have to drink dirty water from rivers that have diseases.

One of the main crops is jute. It is a woody herb that is used to make string, matting, carpets, sacks and other things. (We’ve got a bag made out of jute.)

Bangladesh is quite a new country. It was formed in 1971. Between 1947 and 1971 it was part of Pakistan. Before that it was in the British Empire.

The Tropic of Cancer goes right through the middle of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is in the delta of two big rivers called the Ganges and Brahmaputra.

I woke up with my head the wrong end of my bed this morning! I don’t know how it happened!
I made mum a cup of tea this morning so that she could read me some of Our Island Story. The next chapter is John Lackland-The Story of Prince Arthur. I really like this book!
I drew a really good picture of a tiger for my Bangladesh project. I’m really pleased with it. Lin and J and M came round in the afternoon for an hour. We started watching Time Bandits. I think it is so funny!
After they’d gone I finished my tiger picture. I made a collage and I’m absolutely pleased with it!!
Here is a picture of it:

And here is a close up of the tiger. But I don’t know what I’m going to call it!

The Bangladesh Bit:
The national bird is a Doel (or the magpie robin)
The national animal is the Royal Bengal Tiger (that’s why I did a picture of it!)
Bangladeshi people eat with their right hand because it’s polite.
Some buses get too full and the passengers have to sit on the roof.
The most common form of transport is a rickshaw. It’s like a 3 wheeled bike. A man pedals it and the passengers sit behind him under a colourful canopy.

I’m going to bed now so see you later!!

I’ve lost 3 teeth! One just before Christmas, one just after Christmas and one a couple of days ago. I have been waiting patiently for the tooth fairy to come but she hasnt been coming!! I have been putting my teeth under my pillow every night! Mum said she was probably helping Santa at Christmas time. But last night she finally came!! I got £3 and I was hoping for £3!

I finished my maths workbook today! But mum said she’s still got plenty for me!

We were looking at my great great uncle Pip’s papers and photos this morning so I can use them when I’m doing my new history workbook.

We found lots of family things from the wars (first and second world wars) It’s all really interesting. But we can’t find the ration books yet.

We went into town and we saw Night At The Museum at the new cinema in Exeter. I have been waiting so long to see it!!It’s really really funny! I like the bit where Dexter (the cheeky monkey!) and Larry (the night guard) kept slapping each others faces! I really like the new cinema too!

We got some really cool artbooks in Waterstones and lots of books about Bangladesh at the library.

I played some more with my Geomags but not as long as I normally do. I’m up to the second book in The Wishing Chair. I really like it. I read it at night when I can’t get to sleep. I use my torch that I got for Christmas!

The Bangladesh Bit:

How to speak Bangla

ei je…..hello

ta-ta…..goodbye

doya kore…..please

dhonnobad…..thank you