It's the weekend

We made today, Saturday, another porridge day, which Matthew was very pleased about.
He even ate it cold later in the day, as they had to rush off to Lego Club with Paul and he didn't have time to finish it!

At the local lego club, they had great fun creating monsters.
Both children love playing with lego and they will create imaginary lego worlds for hours together... The sets they create at lego club are put on display until the next session.

Back home, they announced their return with excited cries of, ''You'll never guess what just happened?''
They proceeded to tell me about how daddy helped a man at the local store to jump start his car.
This experience seemed to make them genuinely happy.
It was a magic moment for all concerned!

A bit later, I left to fetch my mum from a nearby station.
My sister had kindly agreed to drop her there, to save me travelling as far to collect her.

As we arrived back home, the children cheered.
Grandma's visit was a real treat for all of us...

Grandma receives a right royal welcome!

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the garden.
Paul mowed the lawn

Paul hard at work mowing the lawn.
This requires a large quantity of extension leads!

 And discovered a frog jumping in the grass.

Obviously we all had to come and take a look.

I tried to get some good shots, but it wasn't easy to get a close up with my camera.

 

Mr Frog.
So pleased he didn't get caught in the mower...

 Grandma made tea, after the children had performed their circus routine for her on the swings and trampoline.

The children asked for Peppermint and liquorice tea.

It's their new thing at the moment and something we were introduced to by a local Home-Ed mum.
It's great, because the liquorice has a natural sweetness, without the need to add any sugar or honey to enhance the flavour...

Peppermint and Liquorice tea for two...

The tea break

 

 Sarah decided to water her herbs, realising that if she wanted hers to grow as well as the potted variety, she needed to care for them!


Sarah's parsley needs some tender loving care  

During the tea break, I was standing very close to the bird feeder and got some great shots of visiting blue-tits.



So lucky to be standing close to this plucky little fellow when he alighted on the bird feeder!

 





Matthew had asked me to help him ride his bike.
And after a lovely cup of tea, we felt more energised.
He really tried hard and appreciated our applause.



Using the slope as impetus

Pushing his bike up the hill to have another go



Using the balance bike approach




Using daddy to help him push off...

                                          



Sarah joins in the fun

Sarah couldn't resist joining in. An opportunity to get her bike and race down the slope, was not one to be missed!

After all this exertion, the children needed to go inside for a little 'screen-downtime'
While the adults retired to the dining room, where I read some funny extracts from Bill Bryson's 'Neither Here, Nor There' to mum and Paul.
It was such a treat to share these happy moments with them both.
Laughter is after all the best medicine!

Dinner was sausages, new potatoes and beans.
I chatted to mum in the kitchen while I beavered away.
I also stopped to check on my blog while the potatoes were cooking away nicely.

Paul had popped to the local shop again to buy himself the steaks he had noticed earlier.
I must say we have had rather a lot of sausages recently and I think he felt like a change.
Luckily he is always willing to cook. So that part of the meal was taken care of.

The children came down to tea and we all enjoyed a jolly, if somewhat noisy meal together. This included some rather lively conversations. 

 The younger members of the family wanted pudding and so Matthew went and opened a tin of custard and Sarah the tin of pineapple. Along with some strawberries I had purchased the day before, dessert was sorted!

I have to admit that I do use the microwave, but we are trying to avoid using plastic containers and to choose glass or china dishes in which to reheat our food. This is some sort of compromise for us at least.

Matthew heated up the custard in 20 second bursts.
This was an unexpected opportunity for him to prove that he can add twenties quite easily...

 

 

Matthew divided the bowl of custard into four portions (daddy chose to have lemon mousse)
and happily munched away on a ring of pineapple.
Great to find another fruit that he enjoys.

The combination of strawberries and pineapple with warm custard was one I relished.
The children have in fact discovered a new pudding between them...
Matthew was also really curious and wanted to find out where pineapples grow.
Thinking of his uncle in South Africa, he really hoped they grew there.
We thought they most probably do grow in Africa as well as India. But can you believe it, this is something we will need to look up!

There was also a discussion about genetically modified food, which will warrant further exploration...

We all cleared the table together.
And then Matthew went upstairs with grandma to watch an episode or two of The Famous Five.
Later daddy read him some of the latest Harry Potter book they are sharing together.

Meanwhile, Sarah and I went off to sort the guinea pig out for the night.

He needed a change of bedding and I still need to carry out this task myself as Sarah is rather squeamish about handling the wet hay.She will quite happily sweep up the hay and handles the guinea pig beautifully.

They seem to have a special bond.




While I was cleaning out the hutch, Sarah decided to have another go on her bike before she put it away. The slopes are such fun after all!

She then went inside to practise her cornet and I popped up to the poly tunnel to water the plants.

It is our first attempt to grow pumpkins, beetroots, peppers and courgettes.
We are also growing some tomato plants, which we were given on Free cycle.
The tomatoes are not producing any fruit yet, which this late in the Summer, is rather frustrating.
I looked this up on line and discovered that sometimes tomato plants need to be encouraged to fruit by removing all the lower leaves and the little leaves which appear at the base of the off shoots. Apparently, it is possible for the plants to produce copious amounts of healthy looking leaves, whilst not bothering to flower at all. Or if they do flower, the flowers don't amount to anything and just shrivel up and die.

It is all rather an experiment but a learning curve for us all.
I refuse to be disheartened, even if we fail to get a crop this year.
Maybe some of our readers might have some tips?

I will be adding some photos later, but you will be pleased to note that there are fewer today, ha ha...

Signing off and hoping that you are enjoying your weekend, whatever you are up to....

Post Script:
Now, with the photos in place, I can't resist sharing a couple more of Matthew and the guinea pig, taken earlier in the day:

 




  

I have found a couple of videos about genetically modified foods.
They seem to be rather complex.
I wonder whether the magic school bus have produced one?

 

 

 

Post script:

On Monday, Matthew asked me to contact Whole Earth Foods, via their facebook page, and ask them whether they used GM ingredients in their peanut butter.

 

I did so on Tuesday 1st September, also including a question about Palm Oil.

I received this prompt reply:

 

''Hi Mary,

Thank you for getting in touch....
We use fully sustainable palm oil across the range and we have even just launched our 100% peanuts range which is entirely palm oil free.

Our 100% peanuts products are available from Tesco and will soon be available to buy from the Whole Earth website http://wholeearthfoods.com/

Also in relation to your second question,

Yes – the entire Whole Earth product range is GM free.

I hope this information helps and thank you for contacting us.''

 

Home - Natures Wonder Fuel

 

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And here are some videos about pineapples:

 

 

 

 (I would advise you to turn off the sound when you watch this video as the music is rather annoying!)

 

A wikipedia article all about pineapples:

 

Top 5 Pineapple-Producing-Countries