Allotment Stuff (by sarah)

We are loving our allotment but we still want a walkable one that I can attend with the kids after school and plant the stuff that needs lots of watering etc... so I prodded the council again - found that their email system has apparently changed which might be why I've only been getting bounces back lately. Anyway I pointed out that I had been trying to get an allotment since we moved in which is now well over 2 yrs ago (I should probably stop calling it the new house!). Apparently we are registered as having asked about it last year and they will pass on that we are still interested. :/

So I think we made a really good choice, going for the private one on a farm - at least I can grow something! And hopefully more than dandilions!

We have so far (and when I say we I mean poor Alaric as I have had course work or been ill) dug over one section of it and have planted the pumpkins out in a little cold frame or mini green house we have hobbled together out of bubble wrap and bamboo canes - it wont take strong wings but then neither will most of the polythene and metal frame ones you can buy.

The pumpkins are tad insane - half of one of the pumpkins started to go off and when I went to compost it I saw that the seeds where germinating so I bunged the whole thing in a pot and popped it on the top shelf of the propogator that is in the dinning room at the moment. I'm hoping one or two of the plants will live to maturaty.

The girls love the allotment and Mary calls it The Mud, Jeany has gotten over her fear of worms and actually held one! (I think Al took a photo of that on his phone so I need to extract it!).

Jean has requested the old tyre at the end of the plot and wants to grow flowers - we have compromised and she is growing edible flowers. I have lots more seedlings and a rota written out for which seeds need to go in next 🙂

Also there is an amazing view and the girls like having picnics there.

Library Book Tower (by sarah)

It's one of those parental situations where you don't really know weather to be proud, angry or too split your sides with laughter. Out 8 yr old has been hoarding library books - all of which she's read.

It all started with a letter from the library saying books where late (my fault I've been too busy and sick to walk to the library and forgot there was the website). So we got together all her books and took them to the library - except it wasn't all her books!

Turns out she had gotten Daddy to take her to the library and had maxed her card out, then she got my parents to take her and got books out on Mary's card (which looks exactly the same). So we had a fine just under £10 and I was fuming especially as we couldn't find one of the books.

She had to earn the money to pay the fine (back to me as I paid the library - though not for my own fine (including the one I had out on Al's card - erm...).

In the process of looking for the library book we discovered that Jeany has also been getting unlimited books out of the school library, those who have been following this saga on social media will not be surprised to find out that the last count of 25 school library books has since been upped by another 5 or so. Apparently they told her she could take as many as she wants as she was checking out a handful everyday.

It is hard to be angry when a) she has demonstrated the intelligence to get around the system b) has actually read them all c) you would be the biggest hypocrite ever if you were.

Most of the books from both libraries where RL Stein - the Goosebumps Books with a few Winnie the Witch and Jacqueline Wilson - she says she likes the Jackoline Wilson books but they all seem to be the same story and asked if her parents broke up when she was small. She loves Whinny to the point of being too shy to talk to her at the literature festival but it is the Goosebumps that are king - I know she is eyeing up the point horrors and Fear Streets but I've told her she has to read all the equivalent ones for her own age group first. She asked if my Spooksville books where by the same person but nope they are Christopher Pike!

I am finding this really interesting as they where my two favourite teen horror writers.

But still Jean's book habit is a tad insane - she has inherited Alaric's fastness for reading but my love of fiction and my obsession for always reading - she even asked if she could to town reading - I said no and felt two faced for it as I used to walk home from secondary school with my nose buried in a book.

Spring Fever (by sarah)

The rabbit has... erm... spring fever or twitterpation or what ever, he is now official an all grown up and not the little baby bunny abandoned on a snowy morning in a cardboard box. The only issue is that unlike Blacky who got a crush on me and did dances around my slippers - Fluffy Obsidian has his eye on the chickens and is attempting to be a little more physical.

So I have separated him and he is being booked in for the snip which probably should have happened a while ago. I was kind of interesting to see the normally passive chickens just frustrating him by ambling away but not the one in the nest box laying - oh no she was defending the nest and he got a deserved peck - I was attempting to oust him at this point.

Normally they all get on fine and I find rabbit asleep in with the chickens and chickens laying in the hutch and so on but I'm worried he will cause them a mischief or they him as they have beaks and claws.

He is now bouncing around the garden whilst they are shut in the run - seems the wrong way round somehow!

He is punching the air like a female hare - something Blacky never did. But then Blacky used to turn cart wheels and this one doesn't. Helium went out earlier and came back in quite rapidly so I think he may have a thing for pusskins too.

Jean and Cats and Books (by sarah)

Jean has finally reached an age where the cats not only don't run away from her, or only guard her/nuzzle her when she is half asleep, but actually seek her out. This includes Helium who has been skittish ever since we moved and tends not to even go on mine or Al's laps!

She keeps being 'held prisoner' by them, ie they sit on her and she finds them so cute that she will give herself cramp trying not to disturb them!

She also loves reading and believes that the cats are reading with her - they always stick their faces in the pages! The worst for this is the kitten who wont let her read!

I think everyone is happy with this arrangement!

Hoping for the Sun (by sarah)

With the weather warnings for the weekend we decided not to go to the allotment but to pot up seeds at home and place them in the propogator I have in the dinning area. The girls it turns out are both scared of worms - a bit of an issue as I am using the soil from the wormery instead of compost. Still after a while Jean began acting brave to calm Mary down and they both seemed to get into it as long as I removed the larger, wigglier worms!

We potted up so many tomato seeds that if they all grow I will be looking for homes for some of the plants! There are a few funky varieties and yellow and red cherry varieties as well as normal tomatoes. Then aubigine, chilli, pumpkin and courgette. I was hoping to get the beans in but alas I a) ran out soil, b) rain out of childrens conceptration spans and c) rain out of room in the propogator. If spring is late and everything germinates I could have a slight problem but I will deal with that when I get there!

My current plan is to get some window sill propogators for the remaining seeds. I am running slightly behind schedule as I normally do the potting up outside and wasn't expected the weather to be so rough! I dare not have the little propigator outside for fear it would take off!

I also got round to soaking the shiitake mushroom block I have - it has fruited for industry once but should have another 3 fruitings in it! I got excited as it has instructions in welsh. So hopefully we will soon have our first crop! Jean also found some bean sprouts and alfalfa and instantly wizzed off to find some jars, so we have them soaking under the sink!

I'm going to re-arrange under the sink so that I can grow the mushrooms that need the dark and the bean sprouts in there.