World Book Day outfit 2019- Newt Scamander from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them

This year, my World Book Day costume comes from a book within a book.  In Harry Potter, Harry receives a list of the books he is required to buy for his Hogwarts studies including a book called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.  Back a long time ago, JK Rowling actually wrote her own book for Comic Relief (or was it Children in Need) as it if it was written by Newt. I remember buying it and reading it.

IMage borrowed from Radiotimes.com

Now, in the last couple of years, the Harry Potter franchise has created films about the character Newt Scamander and his adventures looking for animals.   CBC had to dress up last year for Harry Potter night at his school as Newt Scamander and he dutifully put together a costume for it.  I declared at that point, that my World Book Day character was already sorted.

IMage borrowed from Aimshop.dk

And here's me!

 CBC bought the turquoise coat, the tan waistcoat and the scarf from various websites.

I'm wearing my own pair of tweedy trousers, white shirt and men's brown brogue shoes.

If you can see a green creature attached to my lapel, that is a Bowtruckle which my Mum crocheted for CBC last year.  He's super cute.

The suitcase came from Sarah Nelson Gingerbread in Grasmere and we filled it with various animals including

Ones we already owned:  Owl, Fox, Squirrel, Foxsquirrel, Crab

Bought for 1 sickle a piece at Harry Potter night:  Another Bowtruckle, 2 Nifflers, 1 Pygmy Puff.

It was great fun to get dressed up like this and I found the sideways glances on the train amusing!

Lots of the children at school knew who I was straight away. Others, mainly younger, were not sure.  It was fun opening up my case and sharing the animals with the children.

Lots of the other teachers made a great effort. Other costumes included:  Wizard of Oz Year 5: 2 witches, 1 Lion, 1 Dorothy, 1 Scarecrow, How to train your dragon Year 4:  Hiccup the Viking and Toothless,  Year 6: Alice in Wonderland: Queen of Hearts, Alice (wearing my dress), Mad Hatter, White Rabbit; Year 2: Snow White x 2, SMT:  Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, 

I'd love to know if you dressed up and what you were?

x

Mr Badger's culinary adventures

Mr Badger has not been to school again but he's been having good company eating with me and CBC.  Here's a few moments from his week.

 Lazy Saturday morning breakfast- Bran Flakes and books avec Kezzie.

 Mr Badger enjoyed a Thai meal out. He quite enjoyed the noodles!

He accompanied me blackberry picking.

 and helped CBC make them into a vast French blackberry tart.

 He was a little bit nonplussed by the idea of prawns on artisan pizza but declared it most tasty after trying it!

I wonder what Mr Badger will do next?

xx

Mr Badger embraces his inner-musician

I am extremely honoured to be hosting an esteemed guest! Mr Badger, from Wind in the Willows, is currently residing with me in sunnny Essex as part of his world tour visiting bloggers. He originates from my dear blogging friends Pom-Pom and Mags  at Fraise.  Part of his mission is to promote and share 'hygge' wiht those he visits.  Hygge is a Danish word with a rough translation of 'Cosiness, creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people.

Before me, he was staying with Cheryl at Sweet Briar Dreams and had an amazing visit to Highclere Castle, the home of Downton Abbey!

It was wonderful to come home on Monday to a parcel which was a patchwork of different address labels.  Inside, I found Mr Badger, along with a beautiful copy of Wind in the Willows.

In addition, he has a passport which every host is invited to stamp and write in and there is an increasing-sized pile of postcards which each host includes. It was a delight to read through the passport and the postcards.

Really surprisingly and delightfully, Cheryl had bought me a gift and postcard at Highclere castle which was lovely!

I look forward to actually reading Wind in the Willows which I haven't done since I was a young child (and then I suspect I was read to).

I discovered Pom-pom's lovely annotations and others inside the book! This book has a great deal of heart and joy in it!

On Mr Badger's adventures.  In some ways, I am sad that he wasn't with me for holiday times, but he is a grateful old gent and will appreciate the Hygge in whatever form it comes!

 On Mr Badger's first day, Tuesday, he accompanied me to school to feel young again whilst surrounded by friendly young musicians.  Since we were learning the recorder, Mr Badger also needed his own instrument so we found him a suitably-sized recorder which he could tootle down.

 Through the lesson, I asked the most-well behaved table to host him and he sat on their table as they took part in their first recorder lesson and tried his hand at the recorder too although we noticed that he was holding his recorder in his right-hand rather than the correct left but as he is an esteemed old gentleman, we allowed it!

Later that evening, Mr Badger travelled up to London to listen to a rehearsal of Hadyn and Ligeti. He particularly enjoyed the slow movement of the Hadyn and could be heard snoozing in the middle of the flute section! We just pretended it was an out of tune bassoon!

On Wednesday, Mr Badger felt rather tired so he stayed at home for some rest and a chance to catch up on his sleep.

On Thursday, he hinted that he'd rather like to spend some time with the children again, so he came to school again and sat keeping time on the snare drum for a very well-behaved year 2 class who enjoyed his company very much.

I wonder what Mr Badger will get up to next? Hopefully,he will have some gentle fun and enjoyment at the weekend!

xxx