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Aarhus, ARoS and Sletterhage Fyr (Scandi Trip Day 6)

August 12, 2017 by Susan

This morning we drove to Aarhus. We had planned to park out of town and cycle in but the weather forecast for the afternoon was for heavy rain so instead we got there early and parked in the small car park at ARoS. Parking the van in town centres in Europe can be tricky as multi-story car parks tend to dominate and we’re too high to fit in!

We had been recommended a visit to the library at the docks and so we thought we’d wander down there while the weather was still ok. It was simply amazing. It was a huge public space, full of interesting design, fun things for kids, cosy spaces to read, and even some books!  

We had spotted Aarhus Street Food on our way to the library so stopped there for an early lunch on the way back to ARoS. Good variety of food and drink on offer, and we even managed to secure some cheesecake to go with our coffee later on (no pastries today!)

Then into ARoS, an Art Museum (which claims to be one of Europe’s largest, and who am I to argue?) with a series of galleries topped off by the rather fabulous “panorama rainbow” – a walkway ring glazed with different coloured glass. The museum occupied us for longer than we expected (we’re lightweights when it comes to museums and galleries) with some interesting, inspiring, thought provoking and fun pieces. 

It definitely looked like we could have occupied more time here but it was pouring with rain so we headed off to our overnight stop, a car-park by a lighthouse, Sletterhage Fyr. The drive there started on the motorway then onto country lanes which got fairly narrow by the end – slightly entertaining in a right-hand drive van!  The Fyr is another fabulous stop, we’re parked overlooking the beach with the lighthouse, a trailer-cafe and a toilet.  The rain eventually stopped (though it’s still pretty breezy) so we managed a walk along the beach.

Filed Under: Scandi Trip

LIFE-BOATS (Aabenraa – Scandi trip day 4 supplemental)

August 12, 2017 by Susan

This was a completely unexpected art exhibition in the Harbour and it was a gem of a find.  These boats were full of joy and sorrow, life and death.  This installation really struck me as being the type of multi-skilled, creative, interactive, life-affirming sculptures that were reminiscent of Martin’s days at Island 2000.  The exhibit is travelling around Denmark.

These were three boats built from concrete,merging art and culture and focusing on universal womanhood and letting the figurehead take over the entire boat, allowing her to become the boat. “Each boat has it’s own identity and narrative.  The three individual titles are My ship is filled with Longing, Life, and Memories” focusing on the three stages of life.

My ship is loaded with longing  – the young one entering the world:

This boat had a treasure chest inside where we were invited to post letters about our hopes, dreams and longings, which would be added to at each stop, but the chest is sealed and will never be opened so the most secret of desires and intimate of longings can be placed inside.

 

My ship is loaded with life – in the middle of life and fertilised:

My Ship Is Loaded With Memories – the ageing or the dead:

This was the most moving ship with representations of many women and their memories standing erect from the boat.

One of the women had a number on her side, the figure is titled Arlette Anderson, Auschwitz Prisoner Number 74853 – more moving to me personally because I once shared her surname.  Another I loved who was titled June Boyce-Tilman, Outsider, Feminist and Religious Preacher of Diversity – because this reminded me of both my lovely girls!

You could add your own memories to those memories of amazing women already here.

Filed Under: Scandi Trip

Cycling in Aarbenraa (Scandi trip day 4)

August 11, 2017 by Susan

After all the travelling of the last 3 days we decided to stay out at Aabenraa for two nights and headed out for a cycle. We planned to combine a nature route with cultural route and more importantly a diversion to go an buy the archetypal Danish pastry.  Heading off up a very steep road into the local woods we found only occasional, rather random, sign-posting of the route, certainly not enough for us to follow without the help of the map we had printed.  The track from the woods finished at a main road with a tiny over-grown loose pebble cycle path beside it, we were not impressed.

However the route continued beside the fjord, with nice wide paths great views and separated from the traffic.  We spotted some unusual looking sculptures and found a fascinating exhibition – I’ll make a dedicated post about that soon.

The next challenge  was to find a bakery, a task we eventually succeeded in.  Moving onto the cultural trail was not successful; we managed to get lost and missed out on our cultural education for the day!

A bit of shopping at the local Lidl left us impressed with the fact that the cycle parking even came with an air pump – Lidl in Newport can’t even manage cycle parking. 

Back at the van we indulged in our pastries; a sort of marzipan and creme patisserie concoction and a rhubarb cake with a crumble topping – we may have eaten the leftovers for a naughty breakfast the next day.  There was even time for a bit of crochet.

  

Rebekah, at this stage, was getting worried about the vegetable content of our diet, only seeing pictures of delicious pastries and ice-creams, so we assured here that we were getting our 5-a-day too!

 

 

Filed Under: Scandi Trip

A level Results Day

August 18, 2016 by Susan

So the headline news is Ruth got A*s in psychology and sociology and A grades in graphic design and her EPQ. We were already happy going into the college to get the results as her UCAS track had been updated and she had been accepted at Bath very much her first choice! This made getting the results envelope a much less stressful thing.

The history is not what you may expect. Ruth would not have been my predicted child to get the academic qualifications. She didn’t read until she was nearly 9 , didn’t write a paragraph until she was 13 and doing her environmental management IGCSE. We didn’t hot house her we had a pretty autonomous approach to home-educating and Ruth definitely was more artistic and physical rather than academic, although she always had a great instinctive feel for maths ( and did her maths GCSE when she was 12 having done no formal maths before starting the GCSE study (blog post about maths here)).

She studied 4 IGCSEs/1GCSE at home before fighting to get a place at the local 6th form college – they weren’t happy to accept the English IGCSE – bet they are pleased they took her now! At this stage she was ready to do more formal study and really apply herself, she worked amazingly hard whilst still keeping her job at Robin Hill.

We are so pleased that she got into her choice of university and very proud of her – regardless of her results we were so proud of how she decided what she wanted to do and really applied herself to it – but we are delighted that she got grades that reflected her hard work and dedication. Well done Ruth

 

Filed Under: Family, Home Education Tagged With: A levels, bath, celebrations, grades, Home Education

A Long Gap

May 17, 2016 by Susan

We have had a very very long gap between blog posts, and like writing to friends, the longer you leave it the more it seems like you need to write something really long and impressive not just a few lines, the task becomes overwhelming so you don’t do it at all.

So I feel like there have been a few reasons for my blogging to fall by the wayside:

1. general busyness.

2.Jonathan is usually on the main household computer and it’s the only place IO can easily deal with uploading photos.

3. now I only have one 14 year old at home we don’t do things which are so interesting on a day to day basis certainly they are things which don’t make for such nice pics. This leads on to the next point

4. my blog was mostly about our home educating life, despite still having Jonathan at home we seem to have a very different life now to even 3 years ago when I still, just about, had 3 children at home being home educating. It seemed then like we were a “home educating family” it made up a big part of our identity, now it seems like we are a much smaller family who happens to still be home educating one mid teen boy. We don’t go to many HE events anymore and Jonathan is pretty independent. For us things seem very very different now.

I am unsure whether to carry on with the blog or give it up but I feel we have had a number of milestones in the last 6 months that I haven’t blogged about and would like to so I am going to catch up with them and then make a decision.

 

Filed Under: Family

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