The Jam is Infected!!!!!! Arghhhhhhh!

Hi all, Caspian is back!

It has been a very busy few days, from maths, to science, to art history, to foraging, to jam making. Phew, I am exhausted!

We have been out twice foraging for berries. It was great to see Miss Dale and some of our friends on our first outing to gather berries for bramble jelly.  Mum found a recipe online to make bramble jelly and one of our friends in the village gave us a load of cooking apples from her tree as she had too many so we had the base for our first batch of jam. Mum helped make it as it got very very hot but Tanith and I helped with prepping the fruit, sterilising the jars, stirring the jam, checking for the wrinkle (the setting point of the lava) and writing the labels. As you can see, the jam is infected with the piggy virus! (Roblox game characters, made by Minitoon, very fun.) Our second foraging at the weekend was for rosehips, sloe berries, hedge berries (yellow but look like raspberries) and damsons. The berries have been put aside for crumbles, pies and more jam but we made the rosehip jelly last night. We are going to have a go at nettle jelly next but I’m going to let Mark, Tanith and Mum pick the nettles while I shout orders!

On Friday, I wrote a Doctor Who story for literacy. Mum got me to choose a location, five Doctor Who references and two things to do with the Mesolithic. I will post my story later.

I also did some research on Leonardo da Vinci (not the mutant ninja turtle). I found out the following:

1. He invented flying machines.
2. He painted the Mona Lisa.
3. He painted the Last Supper of Christ.
4. He painted Vitruvian Man.
5. Da Vinci’s architectural genius is used to this day by other artists and engineers, such as the Vebjorn Sands Da Vinci Project in Norway.
6. His hobbies were painting, sculpting and engineering.
7. His dad was a lawyer and a landlord.
8. His mother was a peasant.
9. He was also a scientist and a geologist.
10. He was illegitimate.
11. His surname is also the name of the town he was raised in.
12. He didn’t receive any formal education.
13. He could play the lyre.
14. He had ten years of art training as an adult.
15. He was ambidextrous so could right and left handed.

Today, I have read up to chapter 22 of Wolf Brother. At the part where Torak tried to kill Wolf for food, I had to skip the few sentences as I cannot bear to think of dead wolves, they are my favourite beast. I also like the fact Wolf calls Torak ‘Tall Tailess’. I have written three letters today. I will be writing some every day. It was really great getting all the letters from everyone.

That’s all folks!!

(The picture below is Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci.)