I’ve not posted in my blog for a few months. We’ve had a difficult start to the year and it’s been difficult to find words for anything. Then along came corona virus and lockdown. Schools are shut and we’re all forced into home educating our children. I don’t know about your house but mine is chaos. Kids aren’t doing nearly as much work as I’d like them to but I’m not in the best place to chow at them to make them do it right now.
As a result we’re still learning but just not always the stuff on the curriculum. It’s fun and impulsive and right now it’s exactly what we need.
We had a garden full of dandelions which led to some discussion with Toby (4) about the flowers and bees. He asked if people could eat them and that’s how we came to try dandelion honey!
Dandelions are really nutritious and versatile. They contain lots of vitamins and minerals. It is thought that they can help reduce inflammation and aid blood sugar control. It is also suggested that it could reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. There are lots of studies that have shown many positives of dandelion consumption but I’m not here to tell you they will or won’t help fight one disease or another.
Back to the honey, it’s delicious. It has a slight floral flavour but it’s not overpowering. It tastes surprisingly like regular honey.
The littlies love picking the flowers, it’s even better because we know where they’ve grown and that we’ve never exposed them to any chemicals so they’re completely chemical free. Toby is currently in foundation so we use activities like these to practise counting and to discuss the importance of flowers, nectar, bees etc.
Toby had great fun stirring the mixture and weighing out the many different items in the kitchen that he could find.
After we had made it (it took around 14 hours as you start it in the evening and then leave it to infuse overnight. But there’s nothing overly tricky. Toby had some honey on bread for his lunch and enjoyed every bite.
I didn’t realise how dry his bread looked but that’s how he likes it 🤣
I’ve added a recipe card that can be saved if you are interested in trying this recipe too.
We’re self isolating at the moment and also home educating all 3 school age children due to the schools closing down. I work in school and I’m now not rota’d in until June which gives me 12 weeks at home to stay away as far away from the rest of the world as I can.
We’re trying to keep it inexpensive, I’m fully aware that so many people are being completely financially destroyed by this virus and it’s made me appreciate even more what we have at the moment.
I like these bookmarks because they’re quick and easy, and hopefully will encourage the kids to read so they can use them.
Here’s how we made them!
Start with squares of paper – your main piece should be around 15cm squared! Fold the first piece of paper in half bringing two corner points together. Fold the top corner down to meet the bottom point. Repeat with the other side. Open the folds back out. Fold the top piece of the bottom points up along the creases. This is what you should have now. Bring one of your sides back down and tuck inside the fold you just made. Like this. I Repeat with the other side. It should look like this. This is the completed basic corner bookmark. Now you need to turn it into your chosen character, theme, etc. This one is going to be a chick. We cut and rounded the edges. Next we drew on the eyes and cut out the basic shapes to stick on to our chick. Voila! Our finished chick! A bit of a clearer picture since we made a yellow chick and have a yellow tablecloth 🤣
There are so many different things you could possibly make with yours. We spent about half an hour on this craft and made these.
Toby (4y) started out making a sunflower one. This turned into a monster sunflower. He is very proud and so am I! Of course some help/supervision is required for cutting out but he enjoyed letting his imagination run free. Kaesey made an Easter bunny which was really simple.. And a spring flower. (Might be better on the other side but will still work this way too).
We have 2 huskies, well maybe 1.5, our first was sold to us as a husky but her face shape slightly differs to our KC registered husky. She obviously has some husky in her but I doubt anywhere near full.
Star was 10 weeks when we saw an advertisement – £150 because we haven’t the time for her. We snapped her up. Spirit joined us just over a year later at 5 months old. He had been bought 3 months earlier by someone who completely underestimated what it would mean raising a husky. She gave him to us free of charge. They would’ve made beautiful pups but we felt that the only reasons we could come up with for breeding were selfish ones so we had them fixed. They bring so much joy, and also some not so much joy into our lives. Here are some reasons you should have a husky in your life.
1. Husky puppies are the cutest
We don’t have any photographs of Spirit before we got him and that makes me a bit sad, but my goodness did Star make up for it. I fell in love with both of them the day I met them.
10 week old Star
5 month old Spirit
Around 3 month old Star
10 Week old Star
2. They love kids and vice versa
Our kids absolutely adore our two, and they adore the kids in return. I would never trust a dog 100% but our girly come as close as you could probably get I reckon. Huskies are very sociable and love people in general, anytime we have guests – adults or children, they are first at the door to greet them. Spirit is a little bit more temperamental, his first 5 months he started to rule the house he was living in. He was food aggressive when he came, and wasn’t very pleasant at all but with a bit of tough love he’s an amazing dog now with a bit of an attitude. Our 4 year old bosses him around all the time and there’s not so much as a growl.
Sharing a bed with the baby of the house
Deep in thought together
The 4 year old yet has to master the art of a good old head rub
3. They take you on the best adventures.
Huskies can go for miles, we like to take ours to new places to go exploring and they never get tired of it. All you have to do is mention the ‘W word’ and they’re howling and running around excited. Whilst we have a 4 year old who cannot keep up, our exploring walks are backed up with longer walks with just my partner as they need a lot of exercise. We also have a large garden for them to run around in. We’ve visited some pretty amazing places in Yorkshire with our pair which I’ll write about another time.
Beverley Westwood
Brimham Rocks
Goathland, North Yorkshire Moors
Withernsea Beach
Withernsea Beach
Danes Dyke Beach, Flamborough
4. smile and the world smiles with you
Huskies like to smile, and it never gets boring walking into a room and seeing them beaming at you. Spirit is often found grinning away and it has my heart every. single. time!
5. they can sleep in any position
One thing I see regularly is huskies sleeping in the funniest positions and ours are no different. I have a whole bunch of pictures of mine asleep because it never fails to make me chuckle. Their characters are just amazing. Here’s a few of mine…
6. they stop the kids getting lazy
When walking with a husky it has become apparent that they will tire the kids out faster than you can tire a husky out. If your kids are as energetic as mine you will know this is a good thing. So get your kids involved in walking the dogs!!
7. they make good neighbourhood watch dogs
If ours could talk they could tell you everything that goes on outside the house. They love to sit in the window and watch the world go by, shouting at any other canine that dares to pass our home. We often get people stopping to admire them through the window which definitely helps the dogs feel even more special and important.
8. free fur forever
Huskies moult twice a year. Hahahaha! I said it with a straight face. I am fairly certain mine moult for around 2 – 3 months each, one after the other after the other after the other after the other. We seem to be in permanent moult mode. Which is fine if you make pram hoods, or want a husky fur duvet (I’m on to something there aren’t I?). As a rule we don’t allow our huskies upstairs, only because that’s where the 4 year old sleeps and we can’t close his bedroom door, but their fur gets EVERYWHERE regardless.
10 minutes of brushing later and we had ourselves a new dog!
9. they never answer back
Okay so that’s a lie, whilst our girl basically does whatever she’s asked our boy likes to push the boundaries. He likes to think he’s in charge and when asked to do something will argue back with you like a teenage boy! He does do as he’s told eventually when he remembers who’s boss in the house though and we just class it as a funny part of his character.
“You can’t tell me what to do!!”
The sandpit Spirit knows he’s not allowed in, but goes in nonetheless!
10. you can win any fancy dress competition with a husky
This really needs no explanation!
11. your neighbours will love you
Huskies like to howl, and if you have two of them they like to howl together. Once one starts the other soon follows and it is the most beautiful song in the world. Of course we don’t do this much because we do have neighbours, but you can be sure if there’s a problem in the middle of the night we will all know about it! Luckily we don’t get any complaints (at least to our faces) about ours!
Have I convinced you a husky is for you? Do you have huskies and find any part of my post relatable? I can’t imagine never having ours in our life now.
The Yorkshire Mum 