Saintly King Henry VI, by the late Ursula Putnam

When we were in Truro for Easter weekend - at my mother's house, I had a look through my late grandmother's writings - she wrote for various Catholic publications. I found an interesting article she wrote in 1969 about King Henry VI, of whom she was very fond. I am sure she won't mind me publishing it on my blog. It was originally in The Ransomer - illustration below.

I like to think my son Henry is named after this good king rather than the later infamous Henry!

'Animal Magic' birthday parties - really worthwhile!

It was my nephew's 4th birthday party recently and nowadays it seems 'de rigeur' to have themed parties for children. Nephew  Maxie wanted an animal party - so my sister shopped around to find a company which could provide real animals to play with. The one she went for is called "Animal Magic" and they were reasonably priced for a 2 hour slot.

A team of 2 young women arrived in funky outfits and fun hair-dos with an array of different animal carriers.

The first activity was feeding rabbits and out plopped some rabbits of various breeds and sizes onto a low table so that the children could feed them carrots. There were also some guinea pigs. 

Here they are - Maxie is facing the camera.

 

For the next activity - the team produced a fully equiped doll's house. This was going to be the 'mouse show'. But these mice were also tame enough to be handled. Again there was a varitey of colours, shapes and breeds. The parents were more scared than the children.

Putting mice on heads was quite popular too - and being pooed on!

Here is niece Holly.

And cousin Henry is here - dressed in a duck 'onesie' which was a Christmas present from his older brother.

The next show was the cookaburra show - but the animal stayed in its container and made some amazing noises. I don't have a photo of this.

The finale of the show was the Meerkat show - this was outside in a pen. The children were given live wiggly worms to feed them. Luckily it wasn't raining. The team were very knowledgeable about the animals although I don't think the children took it all in.

After a good two hours the children finally sat down to an animal themed tea party.

Here are the details if you want to hire this team.