I Think You’re Bonkers

Dino and Mimi drew this and it took them literally hours of discussion, planning, rubbing out and revising. They’re very proud and so am I. It’s a plan of how they think The Big House might look.

So, from the top ….. There are two cars and a house. The smaller car is ours and it’s a hybrid of some sort and the bigger one belongs to Kris and her family, who are going to live next door. The house is really two houses stuck together.

Underneath that is the garden, yes it’s HUGE, but it’s been carefully planned, with much consultation and discussion. On the left at the top is a rectangle with a smaller square and some dots in - that’s a deck area/patio with chairs and tables. Directly under that is a round thing with a stick person next to it - that’s me next to my dome greenhouse. The thing that looks like a grid is an outdoor run for guinea pigs and rabbits although they weren’t too fond of the idea of rabbit pie. The empty rectangle above that is a storage shed/barn.

Back to the top and there’s a long thin bit on the right with a pig and some pink spots in - that’s the pug pen with sow and piglets. Now the bit to the left of the pigs looks empty but it’s actually a HUGE polytunnel and there’s nothing in it because Kris and I have to decide what to plant in it - so I’ve been told.

Under the polytunnel there’s the orchard, you see the trees? All fruit and in there is Mimi, climbing them. Under the orchard there are two pens the same size and one smaller one at the end of the pig pen - those are for the chickens. One is for specially chosen layers, the kids would love to choose some that lay blue eggs, a couple of pretty speckledy hens, and rescue some ex battery ones too. The other pen is for the hens for eating, so they don’t get mixed up. The really small pen is for when we don’t want the cockerel in with the hens, or when hens get sick, bullied or need some space to be broody.

Then right at the bottom, although the positioning and design is currently in dispute, is a bungalow/log cabin/something for friends and relatives to come to stay so they can have their own space and peace and quiet if they want it. Of course anyone staying with us is always more than welcome in the main house too, but in case you need the peace….

Dino is still doing work on Ancient Greece and find out all sorts of interesting things, drawing detailed pictures and reading loads. He made a cake pretty much by himself this week too and it was lovely! Mimi helped with the extra thick icing.

Today’s big thing is the he’s taken himself off to a corner of the sofa with his Cub blanket to sew on his old Beaver badges - he has loads and he’s done three of them. But he has until May to get them all on there so no real rush.  He’s off to his first camp in may and needs the blanket for that.

Both kids are knitting now and enjoying making things - dishcloths and doll scarves at the moment but it’s all good stuff. I’ll get pics of that in action at some point, when I remember.

Dino got a book on Ancient Greece from the library and today both kids have drawn triremes, labelled them, read a bit about them, made lego models of them and are now watching Jason and the Argonauts in the hope of seeing one in action. Dino can’t work out how all the oars don’t get tangled!

More Greeks tomorrow while the interest is there I think. 

We did the jobs list on the door again today and we’ve done them all - apart from my writing, but that gets done when the kids are in bed. 

We started the day by writing a list of jobs on the chalk board door in the kitchen and crossed each one off when done. That seemed to focus us all nicely, but I still have a couple of things to get done - including Nano.

One of those jobs was to move the hens so they’re closer to the house where it’s a bit more sheltered and not so grotty getting to them in this nasty cold, wet weather. We did that and the hens are now happily scoffing fresh grass, we cleaned their house out at the same time.

Kids did some workbook stuff and seeing as Dino made a single toffee apple at Cubs last night another was demanded for Mimi - so we googled for a toffee recipe, dug out an apple and we made toffee!

and both kids have toffee apples…

I shall be sampling the toffee slab later… 

Here we go again…. Expect gibberish and incoherence for the foreseeable future. Well, worse than usual gibberish……

Oh, and I’m on Smiths again….  That’s 2 books on there, both showing on Amazon too but not Tesco or Waterstones yet.