The Beesley Buzz: September 2021

Miss T's amazing interview with Rob Biddulph

Following on from our recent blog post about Miss T enjoying her new #DrawWithRob books, the other totally incredible part of her prize was to interview Rob Biddulph by Zoom!

She had great fun coming up with the questions and despite being a little star struck throughout the interview, she loved asking Rob the questions she had come up with.

It was also very exciting to spot Rob's dog, Ringo, too.

Trinity wrote up notes from the interview and created an article which has been published in First News this week! Eeek! So exciting!

It's also online on the First News website so you can read the article here too.

With huge thanks to Bath Festivals where Rob will be appearing in October as well as First News and of course Rob Biddulph and his publishing team for this wonderful opportunity that Trinity will treasure forever.

Draw with Rob activity book, Build a Story and Monster Madness

Miss T was sent some amazing Draw with Rob books as part of a competition she won recently. She is a massive fan of Rob Biddulph's #DrawWithRob YouTube videos and had completed quite a few of the draw-along drawings over the past year or so.

Her enthusiasm for getting stuck straight into these books shows just how much she loves Draw with Rob and it's given her the confidence to have a go at drawing almost anything!

She started on the first Draw with Rob activity book with the Penguin Blue picture and it was brilliant because it includes space to do your drawings in the book but has perforated pages in case you want to tear the pictures out and display them.

Next she did Gregosaurus (which she'd done previously on a #DrawWithRob video too!) but this time she was speedy and confident with her drawing.

And then it was onto Kevin. The loveable furry monster. That's another that she was familiar with from the videos so she seemed to start on the ones she had previously drawn drawing them so much more confidently this time around.

And still she wasn't done...So it was time for Fred Bear, who we'd again first met via a #DrawWithRob video...

As this is an activity book as well as a "draw along" style book, there were pages with other related activities too like drawing some other bears to be Fred's friends.

And a page where you draw pirate hats onto several characters! I think Miss T did such an awesome job of this that it was hard to tell what was printed on the page and the hats that had been drawn on.

And still she wasn't finished...In the following days she also did the Teddy the pug draw along, Eugene the Owl draw along, and is looking forward to dipping into the many other activities in the book too. As an activity book, it is brilliant for taking on travels too so definitely one to take with us next time we head on holiday.

She's also made a start with the Monster Madness activity book by drawing the kindness monster and then starting on the page where you get inspired by different monsters eyes to draw the monsters around them as you feel inspired.

As well as the draw along pictures, Draw With Rob: Monster Madness also has spot the difference, pages where you have to find the hidden objects in the picture, and lots of other activities to get your imaginations whirring.

The third book, Draw With Rob: Build a Story actually came in handy today for planning a story that Miss T was writing as a piece of schoolwork. Again, there are plenty of characters to draw along with such as Superhero bear which we've completed the #DrawWithRob video for previously. And loads and loads of pages to help develop your story ideas from planning a character, to plotting the beginning, middle and end of a story and finally helping you create your very own storybook! It's fantastic!

As well as being a fan of Rob's drawings, Miss T recently found out about Rob Biddulph's first fiction novel called Peanut Jones which she is really looking forward to reading as she is an avid reader too.

No-egg eggy bread

I've had this recipe sitting in my drafts folder for so long having first made it in the early part of this year. I'm always in need of some breakfast inspiration as we head into autumn so hopefully by writing it up, I'll have no excuses to have this in my breakfast repertoire.

It would also make a fabulous weekend brunch!

Ingredients:

150ml oat milk or nut milk

half a tsp cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 tbsp maple syrup

coconut oil to fry

2 slices of bread

Yogurt to serve (I used dairy-free Coconut collab mango and passionfruit yogurt here)

your choice of fruit to serve

Method:

It's super easy to make.

1. Mix together the oat or nut milk, cinammon, flaxseed, and maple syrup. Pour into a shallow dish so that you can soak your bread in it. Turn it over so both sides of each slice absorb the liquid mixture.

2. Heat a little coconut oil in a frying pan and then fry each side of the slices of bread until they're looking crispy and golden brown. It's a great way to use up any bread that might be starting to go stale to stop it from going to waste.

3. Then simply cut each slice of bread in half and stack up the slices layered up with yogurt and your choice of fresh fruit. I used physalis and some frozen raspberries.

I've never been a big fan of eggs so this recipe is a perfect alternative to traditional "eggy bread" style french toast by using flaxseed mixed in with the milk as an egg replacement.

Summer 2021 National Trust... Chartwell, Ightham Mote, Emmetts Garden and Scotney Castle

Before school holidays began we tried to make the most of visiting some National Trust places to avoid the crowds, we had a couple of trips to Chartwell, a visit to Ightham Mote, a rainy day visit to Scotney Castle and a visit to the beautiful Emmetts Gardens.

We didn't go indoors at all to avoid being in enclosed spaces with others and tried to avoid any areas that looked busy. That meant on our second visit to Chartwell (it was a weekend visit so much busier by then), we avoided the main part of the grounds altogether and went to the woodland area instead.

Here's a photo diary as my phone was running out of space to store my pics...

Miss T at Chartwell - Summer 2021 - This time we took our wellies so we could visit the woodland areas too!

Ightham Mote

Ightham mote on a dreary day - We managed to avoid the crowds as hardly anyone else had ventured out in the wet weather.

Ightham mote

Ightham Mote

Ightham mote - what is it about kids as they grow older and not wanting to be in photos! Even with their masks on, it's clear they wouldn't smile for the camera.