I Think You’re Bonkers

I was putting Mimi to bed and after settling her down I wandered back downstairs to find Dino curled up on the sofa with a guinea pig on his lap, Bruce Parry on the telly and the first Harry Potter open in one hand……

"You’re right Mum, there’s loads in the book that wasn’t in the film isn’t there…"

  I have a child voluntarily reading! He’s been eyeing up the HP’s for a while now and I don’t mind really but we did have a short chat about there being some books in the house that really aren’t for him yet and he could do with just asking - but that also I will never deny him a book without a good reason.

I am soooo proud. 

You’ll see a link on the right hand side here for Dino’s JustGiving page. He’s doing an Abseil to raise money for the British Lung Foundation, in April, in South Wales.

He’s never abseiled before and although excited, he’s also a bit nervous!

A message from the lad:

Hello,

I’m Rowan and I’m 8 years old, I am abseiling at Dinas Rock in South Wales, on April 26th and I’d like you to sponsor me so I can raise some money for the British Lung Foundation. I am doing this because my Granny has Emphysema and I want to help her and other people with lung problems.

So please sponsor me now!

Thank you,
From,
Rowan.

If anyone feels like chipping in then please do, he’ll be chuffed to bits. Please ignore his target as set today, it’s likely to change as he reaches his first target of £100. He wants to see how much he can manage by the day of the Abseil. 

Pics will be posted when he’s done it…..

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 making his Cub promise - he was very serious and didn’t slip up at all. He was afraid he would but he did really well. 

Receiving his necker, Green woggle to denote his membership of the Green Sixer group and a whole bunch of badges for me to sew on his uniform. 

However, on the way home he announced that he wants to learn to sew and then he can put his own badges on. So, sometime this week we’ll start that with the idea that I’ll carry on doing uniform badges but his old Beavers ones can now go on his Cub Camp blanket and Dino is planning on doing those himself.

Says Mimi on a regular basis, every time salad is served and she carefully picks out the bits she likes.

It’s hot, so salad is featuring quite a bit, especially as we’re growing edible leafy things - yes, lettuce! So, she has some carrot sticks, raisins and slices of apple while Dino and I have everything else, apart from he doesn’t like tomato….. 

About a week ago Mimi helped me pull some baby lettuce for the salad. "What’s this?" she asked. "Salad leaves." I can’t remember if it’s lettuce, what sort it is or what, so it’s salad leaves. There’s a wrinkly leafed one in green, similar in red and a round leaved one in bright green. She tried them all and said she liked the round green one.

She still doesn’t like lettuce, the wrinkly one, but the roundish green salad leaves are alright.   Daft child. Must sow another row of "salad leaves".

Conversations:

Mimi - Can we grow cucumber?

Me - We can try, why?

Mimi - Because I like to make tzatziki.

Me - But you won’t eat it?

Mimi - No, it’s yucky, cucumber is yucky but I like making it.  

Go figure…..

I think I need to make choc chip muffins. 

We cleaned out Fudge’s hutch today, scrubbed and disinfected it so we could re-use it for Mini, and then the spare cage can go back to Kris for babies (umm, baby piggies, obviously, not people babies…. I hope?)

The final cage cleanings got dumped in an almost ritualistic manner on the kids veg patch - "so when we eat the things we can remember him" 

It was drizzling a bit but we stayed outside and planted out some peas, carrots and leeks behind the shed and a melon in the sweetcorn bed near the house. I took some lavender cuttings and if they take then the old (tatty, leggy and falling over) lavender can come out and I can put something else in there - maybe the new acer or fuschia, or both. Anyway, there are 8 cuttings sitting on the sill behind me.

Then we made paper pots and sowed carrot and peas as well as a few ransomes and woad seed - just to see if the ones I’ve saved will actually germinate!

Both kids are doing a lot of talking about Fudge and death in general and in between that and gardening they’ve both done some reading.  

We were in town, it’s Monday and therefore bill paying day - added to the parcels that needed sending urgently after my soap nuts finally turned up this morning. Anyway, on the way back to the bank to pay the last bills in there and we wandered past the butchers we used to use a lot before the kids decided they’d rather have bland sausages that may as well have no meat in. I think it’s a general part of life now that we’ve forgotten what meat actually tastes like, along with what it looks, smells and feels like.

I adore our little butcher opposite the post office, he has posters of animal breeds and butchering diagrams all over the place and the meat in there is fresh and tasty and locally raised, slaughtered and butchered. He makes basic pork sausages as well as some interesting varieties - the pork and apple is just gorgeous.

So, we were walking past when Mimi pipes up "That looks nice, can we have sausages for tea, from here?"  They’ve chosen some of the basic pork and some lamb and mint. We’re having the lamb and mint with mash and baked beans tonight and they smell lovely. I hope the kids like them as I’d love to go back for meat from him again.

Dino - Can we have a snack?
me - of course we can, gingerbread person?
Dino - Can I have a man?
Mimi - They’re all women silly, just some are wearing trousers!

Reckon that covers the lesson in equality then…