Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 317
Geysers
Hello Everyone
This week Bill, Bob, Emily and l went down to the Rocky Bay Headland for a walk.
lt was a pleasant day and we wanted to ‘blow our winter cobwebs away’.
The tide was coming in and as the waves rolled in towards the rocks, the water caught between them and spurted up into little fountains.
lt reminded me of the time when l went to lceland and saw some geysers there.
lceland is very famous for its geysers and volcanic activity. Although it is not the only place you can find geysers. They are found in places all over the world – but they are rare.
Geysers are hot springs which shoot spouts of steam and hot water high up into the air; maybe for many metres. They occur when surface water works its way underground and is heated by pockets of magma.
Magma, as you already know is the hot, molten rock that tumbles out of volcanoes when they erupt.
So geysers are found in areas of volcanic activity.
The water is heated up to a point where it expands and then explodes into steam.
A geyser will periodically eject a column of hot water or steam into the air and it is fascinating to watch.
The eruption stops when the underground water reservoir is empted or when the system cools down.
There are two types of geysers: fountain geysers which erupt from pools of water so they explode out of the middle of a little lake and cone geysers that erupt from mounds that have built up on the ground.
lcelanders cleverly use some of the hot water from the geysers to provide central heating for their homes. lt is a very good, environmentally-friendly way of using locally-produced energy. For the last hundred years they have also harnessed this power to heat greenhouses to grow food.
Old Faithful is probably the most famous geyser. lt is in Yellowstone National Park in the USA. lt is a cone geyser.
lt erupts every 60 to 90 minutes and blasts a few thousand litres of boiling water into the air. You would not want to stand too close!
lt is so reliable that there are benches for the tourists to sit on and become an audience.
There aren’t that many geysers in the world; only about 1,000 and most of them are in the Yellowstone National Park. They are hundreds of years old. Some of them have names and some of them don’t. Each one explodes in a different manner.
Some geysers blow upwards and some at an angle.
Most geysers don’t erupt on a regular basis which is probably how Old Faithful got its name – being so regular!
Some blow for a few seconds and some for a few minutes. Some blow every few minutes and some every few hours.
You could sit there for many hours or even months waiting for some of them to blow!
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: Knock Knock!
Bob: Who’s there?
Bill: Geyser
Bob: Geyser who?
Bill: Geyser kiss and l’ll go away!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Fly Geyser in Nevada USA
The colours are from lichens that are growing on the mineral deposits.
Jewel Geyser
Old Faithful
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
So over the last few weeks, Auntie Alice has been selling her eggs to Betty Clutterbuck in the Rocky Bay Tearooms.
Betty has been using them to make cakes. She makes them early in the morning and then opens the tea rooms up at about eleven o’clock in the morning to start serving tea and cakes.
Auntie Alice also sold her some of her jam, she always makes too much for her own needs, for Betty to serve with her scones and clotted cream and also some flowers from her garden for the vases in the café.
She has sold her some home-made chutney and home-grown lettuces for her sandwiches too.
She will make lots more jam when she starts getting fruit from her garden this year. There will be flowers to find from somewhere for the tea room tables.
Auntie Alice will have more salad crops to sell to Betty for her sandwiches as well as the summer goes on.
She is also going to sell her vegetables to Reg in the Rusty Anchor for him to use in his pub grub lunches.
The doves are nearly ready to be trained.
The bee keeping classes are going well.
Hopefully, she should have a thriving business by the end of the summer.
She will be what is called an entrepreneur. She will have a real cottage industry to help pay for a new roof for her cottage!
Of course, there won’t be so many vegetables to sell in the winter but then there won’t be so many tourists wanting cucumber sandwiches in the Rocky Bay Tearooms or vegetable lasagna in the Rusty Anchor either.
With everything going so well, Auntie Alice thought it was about time that she booked Reckitt and Stackett, the Rocky Bay builders to come round and replace the thatch on her cottage this summer.
But before they come, she knew she would have to clear the attic out completely to give them room to work.
It hasn’t been tidied up for years. There is so much stuff up there that she couldn’t face moving everything herself so she asked Bill, Bob, Emily, Captain Jack and me to all go round and help her.
It was very dark up there and we had to take lights up with us to see what we were doing.
It was so spooky in fact that the children thought it might even be haunted!
We made a start this week – but progress was very slow!
This was because we kept finding interesting things, and couldn’t help stopping to investigate them – and sometimes even play with them!
We found a stack of photograph albums and took them downstairs to have a proper look at.
We spent all afternoon going on a trip down memory lane. The children spent the whole time laughing at the clothes we wore when we were younger and our hairstyles way back when.
We carried on looking in the albums and talking about the photographs long after the children had grown tired and gone back home to go to bed.
Nothing more got done that day.
The next day we found an old gramophone. The children took it downstairs and had great fun winding it up and playing with it.
We decided that we really had to get on, and the pile of things in the shed and two spare bedrooms grew and grew – until we found a set of hand bells.
Then we spent the rest of the day playing with them.
There was some sheet music in a box by the bells.
Each note had been coloured over with a different colour felt tip pen so that the person with the bell corresponding to that note could easily see it was their turn to shake their bell.
Auntie Alice vaguely remembered playing with the bells before.
She said you had to hold the bell upwards so that the note travelled from the side of the bell towards the audience.
We got the technique of playing the bells quite well but getting the notes to come out of them at exactly the right moment was not so easy.
The children had one bell each because it was much easier to play just one bell than two.
There were ten bells.
We three adults had a bell in each hand. There was a bell left over.
Captain Jack said he might be able to manage to ring three bells – but he couldn’t!
It was really difficult to get everyone to ring their bell or bells at exactly the right time. The results were disastrous!
Every time we made a mistake we fell about laughing.
We tried to play Jingle Bells and then Joy to the World and we did get a bit better with practice – but not much!
Auntie Alice suggested her friend Betty Clutterbuck might want to join in and Captain Jack said that Reg and his wife Ruby from the Rusty Anchor might want to join in too.
Bill, Bob and Emily said that Henry would definitely want to ring a bell.
We thought if we practised quite a lot, by the time Christmas came round we would be good enough to perform in public.
We could perform in the village hall and give the old folks a treat.
Captain Jack said it would be no treat the way we were playing at the moment!
We all fell about laughing again and not much more tidying up got done that afternoon either.
The good news is though that we have now formed the Rocky Bay Hand Bell Ringers and we did manage to persuade the four other people we thought of to join in with us.
We all have one bell each and are going to schedule in practice sessions over the summer in the hope we can improve.
We are even going to buy ourselves some bow ties to match so we can look like we are wearing a sort of uniform!
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Quick Quiz
Straddle Words
Can you find words hidden between the words in these sentences?
There are two in each – and in fact three in the last one.
- The ark in the rain was full of animals.
- ls this hot atmosphere very damp?
- The detectives thought they knew Ethan was the murderer.
- Terms and conditions apply.
- Her husband, it is clear, doesn’t know anything.
- The telephone was ringing all day.
- Remember, there are lots of ways to pay.
- Call into one of our branches at any time for further details.
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A LlTTLE COWBOY AND A LlTTLE COWGlRL
This is a really cute couple all ready for the rodeo!
Chaps were first worn to protect legs from cactus spines as cowboys went through the desert.
Kerchiefs are worn over the face during dust storms.
Use the hat, waistcoat and neckerchief patterns for both dolls.
You can put jeans on your cowgirl instead of a skirt if you would like to.
COWBOY FRONT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and denim blue dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to light blue dk yarn
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10-15cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
Embroider 3 buttons onto the front of the shirt using French knots.
Wind the denim blue yarn twice around the needle.
COWBOY BACK (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and denim blue dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to light blue dk yarn
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10-15cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
COWBOY ARMS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and light blue dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
COWBOY LEGS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and denim blue dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown yarn
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
CHAPS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 13 stitches
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Slip 1 (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row
Repeat the last row 11 times (12 rows of moss stitch)
Continue knitting in moss stitch and decrease 1 stitch at the beginning of the next 4 rows
Knit 1 row
Knit 1 row
Cast off
BELT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 18 stitches
Knit 1 row
Knit 1 row
Cast off
Sew two yellow stitches into the centre front of the belt to make a buckle and sew the chaps to the belt so that the chaps can be pulled onto the doll and stay in place easily
VEST BACK (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 11 stitches
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Slip 1 (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row
Repeat the last row 5 times (6 rows of moss stitch)
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Cast off
VEST FRONT (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 5 stitches
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Slip 1 (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row
Repeat the last row 5 times (6 rows of moss stitch)
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Cast off
Sew the fronts to the back along the shoulder and side seams using over-sew stitching and right sides together – the seams will only be 1cm otherwise you will not get the arms through the armholes
HAT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 5 stitches
Slip 1 (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row
Repeat the last row 31 times (32 rows of moss stitch)
Cast off
Sew up the back seam using over-sew stitching with right sides together
Turn the right way out before inserting the top of the hat and sewing on the brim
TOP
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 25 stitches
Cast off
Sew knitting into a spiral by sewing yarn across the disc several times
BRIM
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 30 stitches
Cast off
You can decorate the hat with one contrasting length of yarn and sew the hat to the head if you want or put a chin cord on it with another length of yarn and let your rodeo stars wear their hats on their backs
KERCHIEF (MAKE ONE)
Crochet 20 chains into a length of scarlet red yarn
LASSOO
Crochet 40 chains into a length of rope-coloured yarn
COWGIRL FRONT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to light green dk yarn
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10-15cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
Embroider 2 buttons onto the front of the shirt using French knots.
Wind a slightly darker green yarn twice around the needle.
COWGIRL BACK (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change to light green dk yarn
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10-15cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
COWGIRL ARMS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and light green dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to pink
Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
COWGIRL LEGS (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pink dk yarn cast on 10 stitches
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Change to brown yarn
Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch
Don’t cast off
Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away
SKIRT (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 26 stitches
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch
Purl 1 row
Purl 1 row
Cast off
Sew up the back seam using over-sew stitching with right sides together and then weave a 30cm length of light green yarn through the channel at the top of the skirt, tie it into a bow and trim the ends
BAG (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pale beige dk yarn cast on 7 stitches
Slip 1 (knit 1, purl 1) repeat the last 2 stitches to the end of the row
Repeat the last row 7 times (8 rows of moss stitch)
Cast off
Sew up the bottom and side seams using over-sew stitching with right sides together and add a shoulder strap of a length of yarn which is secured to the top corners of the bag
TO MAKE UP
- Sew up the side seams of the body and head right sides together using over-sew stitching
- Turn the body and head the right way out
- Sew along the inner leg seams using over-sew stitching right sides together and turn the legs the right way out
- Tightly bind the ankles twice around with brown yarn
- Stuff the legs
- Sew across the top of the legs and the bottom of the body from behind (lay the legs across the stomach as you work) to attach the legs
- Stuff the head and the body and then pull the top of the head shut (you may need to put a couple of extra stitches in the top of the head in the same colour yarn as the hair to close up the little hole) then sew a few strands of brown yarn down the sides of the face to soften the vertical line at the join of the knitting at the side of the head
- Add two plaits to the bottom of the hair at the side of the cowgirl’s face which are 7 chains crocheted into two lengths of brown yarn worked together
- Sew a strand of shirt-coloured yarn into the back of the neck and wrap it around the neck a couple of times, pull tight and secure the yarn into the centre back of the neck
- Embroider a face onto the front of the head using one strand of black yarn (you can pull double knitting yarn apart to get thinner strands) the eyes are French knots made by wrapping the yarn around a knitter’s needle twice
- Sew along the under arm seams using over-sew stitching right sides together and turn the arms the right way out
- Tightly bind the wrists twice around with pink yarn
- Stuff the arms with the ends of the yarn left over from the knitting
- Sew the arms securely to the sides of the body so that they point forward
- Add other garments to the dolls
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- The ark in the rain was full of animals.
- ls this hot atmosphere very damp?
- The detectives thought they knew Ethan was the murderer.
- Terms and conditions apply.
- Her husband, it is clear, doesn’t know anything.
- The telephone was ringing all day.
- Remember, there are lots of ways to pay.
- Call into one of our branches at any time for further details.
Tat = rubbish
Ewe = female sheep
Sap = juice in a tree
Wan = pale
Gall – bitter juice
Berth = bed on ship
This man looks very wan
