This list is in some form of order of priority. The names reflect the chosen Tudor names. Items marked with a [D] are done, [G] are already got, items marked with a [B] need to bo bought, [O] are ordered.

We need, with items in bold obligatory:
Amys: 2 shifts, kirtle or petticote with short sleeves [O], foresleeves, partlet [O], coif, forehead cloths, jacket or gown [O], 2 aprons, woollen hat, straw hat [G], netherhose, shoes, belt [G], belt knife [G], pocket, inner pocket, bowl [G], spoon [G], mug [G], stool [G], basket [G], second coif, third shift, snips [G].

Hettie: 2 shifts, kirtle or petticote with short sleeves, biggin, gown, 2 aprons, muckinders, clout covers, tights for netherhose [O], shoes, foresleeves, bowl [G], spoon [G], cup [G], basket [G], poppet [D], more aprons/bibs, hat, toys [G], second biggin, 2 more aprons, third shift.

Hal: 2 shirts, sleevless petticote, biggin, cote, 2 aprons, muckinders, tights for netherhose [O], white pants [G], shoes, hat, belt, more aprons bowl [G], spoon [G], cup [G], basket [G], poppet, toys, second biggin, third aprons, third shirt.

General: jugs [G], washing bowl, towels, clouts, bags to put things in, herb soap balls, blankets, sheepskin, plate, linen squares

Station dependent
School (middle class): Amys foresleeeves, frilled collars and cuffs on shifts, counting cloth, jetons, box, measuring sticks, arches, book, ink, quills, ink pot, spectacles, Hettie foresleeves become more important
Cooks (working class): 2 wool aprons, pot holders, plain collar and cuffs on shifts.
Other (working class): plain collar and cuffs on shifts

Sewing to do list, hopefully in rough order of priority, crossed through once absolutely complete:
( list )

Thanks to crazyscot for the meme.

Up-goer Five on xkcd, the inspiration for this.
The Up-goer Five text editor.

I look at water-in-the-sky. I want to know how it works. If I can learn how it works better, other people I work with can tell better when things like rain, cold-hard-rain and ground-water-in-the-sky might come. I use boxes which say how hot and wet the air is, how far up the water-in-the-sky is and how much sun there is. I work with other people who whisper-to-computers. They use what my boxes say to make pretend-sky in the computers. The pretend-sky-in-the-computers tells them when the rain will come, but sometimes it is wrong. I tell them how it is wrong and we try to make it better. Other people I work with look at the pretend-sky-in-the-computers and tell everyone when the sun, rain, cold-hard-rain and ground-water-in-the-sky will come. Most of the time they are right but sometimes they get it wrong and everyone is sad and tell us off. They forget when we were right. They don't forget when we were wrong. This makes us sad.


Can you tell what water-in-the-sky, cold-hard-rain, ground-water-in-the-sky and pretend-sky-in-the-computers are?

So, I should probably quantify this a bit. Various people have various sets of rules for this meme. I know I need flexibility so I am not going to say I can't amend challenges in hindsight or that I have to have planned them all from the beginning (some might be spur of the moment because the opportunity just comes up). I am not going to say I have to blog about them all or take photos or even publish them. I do not want this to be a chore, but fun and expanding, so only a few will be regular for the entire time (but maybe some ones which are good for me will become a habit) and only a few will be difficult, some will be really easy. Part of this is about getting round to doing things I would like to do, part is about getting round to doing things I ought to do and part is about personal development. I can't really do this without support or at least cooperation from family and friends.

Anyway, a more sensibly ordered, trackable list will appear at some point soon.

1/101 completed: C1 Railfest on 4th June 2012. Myself, Ganesh and the children went up for the day. It was at the National Railway Museum in York and we took the train to get there (naturally). It was a lovely day, a little bit of drizzle in the morning, but mostly it was dry, not too sunny, not too hot. We went on um 7 steam trains (some of them twice, three times, four times) of various sizes - from tiny little ride ons, less little ride ons and up through the gauges to proper standard gauge. We saw model trains from tiny-tiny upwards, and saw engines of all ages. Ganesh went into the cabs of quite a few, while I stayed with reluctant children.

I'm contemplating doing 101 challenges in 1001 days. Most of my friends started this when I was pregnant with Alex, and I thought I really wouldn't have time and would have a big enough challenge with coping with a new baby.
Now... I have a 3.5 year old and a 21 month old.

Well, the incentive is a big challenge. To get comfortable enough in a swimming pool to take my children (well, with the help of another confident and competent adult) swimming without transferring my fear of water to them. But can I think of 100 other items to challenge myself with? So far I'm up to 50 and will post them on a subsequent post, lest this one gets too long.

Sensible, practical (given my family commitments) and interesting suggestions welcome.

Here are some examples of things I have already done and would have included if I hadn't include:
Giving milk (30 pints) but not blood (although I have overcome my needlephobia enough for this, the phlebotomists generally say that my veins are too difficult and they typically don't manage to get a complete vial let alone a pint.)
Going on a special trip on a steam train (champagne breakfast and fancy dinner on Tornado, going over Shap).
Husky dog sledging.
Hot air ballooning.
A trip on a sailing barge.
A trip on a narrow boat.

And here are some things I would like to do, but do not think are sensible targets before the end of 1001 days:
Items which involve long distance foreign holidays, though doable with small children, we want to save up until the children will get more out of them: see the northern lights, visit Canada or America.
Have a go at reenactment (eg Kentwell.)
Learn the oboe or lap harp.
Go on a helicopter - too expensive? Would like to do this over a glacier in Iceland.
Go on a sleeper train (I could do this without the children, but actually, we'd like to do it with them.)

http://urchin.earth.li/aegean/baby/
juggling a toddler and a little one

Some people might wonder why I haven't mentioned the weather recently. Really, it's not like nobody else is mentioning it!

Snow is something some of my peers study in great detail. They have little cameras which take photos of individual flakes and have studied how they form. Snow morphology is the name of this field. Ice crystals are essentially hexagonal prisms and, depending on the temperature and humidity, they'll grow short and fat or long and thin, simple or complex. So, if you catch a flake and look at it closely, you can learn about what conditions it has been in.

It's been a while since I last posted - and even longer since I last did an "Alex update". Part of the delay is due to my starting work 2 months ago, and life being rather busy since.
Alex is nearly 14 months old now! Looking back on the last post about him, there's a lot of change. Let's see...

Oh dear, I first mention that he's 9kg heavy. Well, several colds, ear infections, chest infections and bronchiolitis later, he dropped to 8.5kg before Christmas, though we think he's gained quite a bit over Christmas. He's not heavy enough to turn the car seat around (min weight 9kg), though we'll try to prolong his rear facing a while (max weight 13kg in this car seat). In supermarket trolleys, I have to watch he doesn't try to eat it (which wouldn't be good for his teeth if I stopped or banged something suddently, not to speak of the horrors of what grime is on it), and watch out if he tries to take something out of the trolley and drop it on the floor. Though he likes to reach out and touch things, he doesn't yet grab them, but that will come! Progress around a supermarket can still be slow with him though, he smiles and waves at complete strangers and I often have to stop and respond to people telling me he's gorgeous or handsome or "going to be a wow with the ladies". Elderly gentlemen like to shake his hand, elderly ladies just coo. Sometimes he's shy and buries his head in my front, sometime he just looks at them with a serious, studying expression - he went through a period of not responding to strangers at all - but now he's back to his grinning at anyone giving him a compliment or smile.

He doesn't clap and wave as much any more, it's as if he's "done that". His latest is to point. Pointing has been a firm favourite for a couple of months, but has changed into an imperious point, usually up, and exclamation of "da!" (an escalating repeated imperative) requiring us to pick him up and let him interact with whatever it was he was pointing to. This is usually either our wind chime or an elephant on a spring given to him by Caroline, though all the hanging Christmas decorations were popular. We also get requested to spin the wooden spiral hanging over the stairs, though we don't let him touch it. If we don't pick him up, then wails result. We don't pick him up every time, though. (The demand to be carried and temper if refused has increased since Christmas when Granny and Uncle David and we would have time to accede to his requests frequently.) Vocally, he hasn't really any definite words yet, but does say "abla", "gah", "da" and some liquid rr and mm sounds.

He's still requesting to stand frequently, and not yet sitting or standing himself up. He cruises around, holding onto furniture, legs, walls, whatever he will, not always sensibly! He carries things in one hand, while cruising leaning on his forearm, and will clap standing up, leaning on his forearms. We await the day when he moves and forgets to hold on. He can get quite far when we're not paying him our full attention, especially to get at something interesting or forbidden. The top stair gate is installed, the bottom one ready but we don't need it yet.

He's feeding himself with spoon or fork, but prefers us to load them for him, though will try it himself occasionally. He realises that a full tummy happens sooner with our help.

He loves pressing buttons - on the TV, on books which make music or "Rrrroarrrrrrr!" On his pretend phones, on our laptops! (He has interacted with IRC a few times already.) He also likes to stack blocks, take apart duplo and has recently started to place duplo blocks together (though the hit rate to begin with was severely limited by trying to put them together backwards, or at totally the wrong angles.)

Hopefully my next update will not be so delayed.

Memeishness

( Answering some questions )

One word is quite restrictive

100 years ago, at a Boy Scout Rally at Crystal Palace, a group of courageous girls slipped in. In days when showing their ankles or merely putting their arms above their heads was frowned on, they wanted to do exciting things like going for hikes and climbing trees. They asked Robert Baden-Powell for something for the girls and Girl Guiding was started, and a very daring prospect it was too. It's still great fun, giving girls exciting opportunities that they might not otherwise have.

BBC news article
BBC audio slideshow
Centenary Website

Since the last entry...

Alex has cut three more teeth - the last two at the same time, and he was pretty grumpy with it.
He's been babbling, practising his consonants and today so far he has three times, separately, said "mama". Okay, so he didn't actually direct it at me, but it's progress!
There's not a lot of progress on the bum shuffling, but he turns around a lot when sitting down. He really enjoys standing up (supported) on our knees or anywhere else he can, straightening his body and legs. It make it pretty hard to hold him at times. He can't "stand" for long, his knees buckling quite quickly, then straightening again, but he's taking more and more of his own weight each time and for longer.
He figured out how to clap on Thursday and has been doing that a lot all weekend. He also learned he could suck his big toe. The third new thing on Thursday wasn't so good - a full blown nightmare. He screamed and screamed for several minutes, eyes open and staring but clearly not awake and not recognising me. He didn't look like himself either, just strange and unreal. It was quite perturbing. I cuddled him and told him mummy was here and eventually he awoke, still crying, and slowly calmed down, then fell asleep in my arms.

We also camped out one night in the back garden as a trial run for going to a Scout site for a birthday party this weekend. Should be fun, I hope the weather is good!