Family Speckled Bush Cricket Debate

A debate is raging in our house this morning! Well, erm, we had a quick discussion anyway.

It turns out that not only did the bush cricket survive being doused in killer spray, but its actually set up home in the basil plant. Its still there this morning?! Its an official overnight resident in the basil! So what do we do?

Liam said we have to take it off - he said that's the reality of agriculture - he told the kids how farmers kill rabbits and foxes to protect their livelyhood and we can't humour this cricket. He said this was an important lesson to teach the kids if we are going to take growing vegetables seriously.

Megan and Sam were horrified! "How would we feel if a big giant came along and flicked us out of our house?" said Megan, "Its just mean!"

Leah said "KILL IT!!"??!! Should we be worried about her?

So the vote is 2 : 2 at the moment - that leaves me with the deciding vote - should he stay or should he go? I've told them I need time to consider this important decision. At the moment I'm leaning towards him staying??! The cricket reminds me a bit of the characters in James and the Giant Peach! I don't want to be like the cruel aunts!

I've nearly had enough of being a plant mummy!

Since March, my kitchen windowsill has been a production line of seeds to plantlets before they got moved out to the green house.

I've enjoyed seeing them sprout up, although I haven't enjoyed so much the moving them to a bigger pot - I haven't quite got the hang of that.

But today, imagine my horror when I did my daily check of the windowsill:Green fly out side are horrible, but in your kitchen, they're disgusting! And there were LOADS of them! This leaf was like a play group, with mummies and babies hanging out, just growing up together!

I have to say, this parenting for plants is really starting to grate on me. I have enough trying to keep the kids nit-free without having to delouse the plants as well.

And I'm not interested in organic gardening - greenfly are gross so I reached straight for the bug spray! It did feel a bit weird - it didn't take long for that green fly nursery to be belly up on the windowsill! I know that is the aim, but it did feel a bit brutal.

This week I've been feeling the pressure of watering. Now the plants are all getting bigger, they're taking a lot more watering. Some days I go out and realise that I haven't watered for a few days and the tomatoes are looking all pathetic and droopy! They look a bit like Leah looks when tell her its bed time...

Right now they're looking bushy and green and flowery and happy. Maybe a bit too bushy - I think I might have squashed too many plants in! I must go and check all those little bits you're supposed to nip out to stop bushiness have been nipped out! But the next time I look (which admittedly might not be for a few days!), they might look withered and gray.

And I tell the tomatoes to stop complaining - it doesn't matter how pathetic they look, I will water them when I'm ready! I used to feel guilt, but I'm passed that now - its more like resent (I'm talking about the tomatoes now, not Leah).

I think I'll have to involve Liam more in their parenting. When we decided to plant in the spring, he was all "I'll help with the watering, that's easy! I'll enjoy that." But now they're growing and needy and demanding, have I ever seen him out there with the hose pipe?

Potatotes, on the other hand...I love potatoes! They're independent! They're in the ground and I just give them a quick spray with the hose every now and then. They just get on with it without asking for much. My kind of vegetables. They had humble beginnings - we didn't eat the whole bag of potatoes one week and they sprouted in the cupboard - not unusual in this house! And I dug them into the ground...thats it! I love low maintainance potatoes!

And finally my herbs - the basil was a bit droopy one day, but generally they like their pots and are growing nicely...or so I thought!

When I checked the basil after my green fly discovery, I noticed that something had been eating the basil all up too - and worse - goldilocks was still there!If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll see the bug was all spotty. And here's my final issue with plant parenting. In our house, generally we love wildlife and as we don't have that many animals in our garden, we like looking for bugs. We catch them in a viewing pot with a magnifying glass and look them up in the book mum gave us. Its probably our most used book. So what do I do when a speckled bush cricket is eating my basil? Do I feel pleased that we're encouraging wildlife into the garden? You don't find them in the north you know - my book says so! Or do feel offended that its eating my babies, raised from seed and get my bug spray out? Well thats what I did - I felt pressured to protect my plants and I sprayed! It didn't seem to have the same instant affect as it did on the green fly! And I didn't have the heart to flick it off! I think if it can survive poisoning, it deserves the basil more than we do.

Actually, with all the spray I sprayed, I don't think the basil will be fit for our food anyway!

I'm hoping when the tomatoes start producing fruit I'll feel more affection for them.

I promise I am talking about my tomatoes and not my children!

The Emperor and the Nightingale

Sam has been excited ALL week because of his school play - The Emperor and the Nightingale. When he told me he was a frog, and he and Cameron had to hop to the middle of the stage, ribbit, and hop off again I thought he'd been given one of those made up roles to make everyone feel included! But it turns out that he was one of only a handful of the three year 2/1 classes to have a costume! It was a real role! Most of the children just wore chinese hats and sang so I was really pleased for Sam that he got to dress up because he's SO enthusiatic!

He almost missed his cue, but luckily Miss Henty was on hand to shove him along, and he actually did just hop on, and hop off again, but he absolutely sang every word of every song with gusto and enthusiasm - he really enjoyed himself!

He told me that he really wanted to be the Emperor, but I'm glad we didn't have the pressure of learning lines! I'm happy with our frog!

Work Ethic

On Tuesday night I (eventually - I lost my keys and so we were 30 minutes late!) went to help Sam L with her Faith in God group. I was keen to help - she's 8 months pregnant and was having six 8-11 year olds (including Megan) over to her house to dig up her garden! Surely that's not right! When we arrived, they were in full swing and there were gloves and trowels all over!

I was really impressed with their hard work. My Sam's never been to F.I.G. before - obviously he's only 6, but he saw how the others were working and got straight in there - learning by their example. He didn't quesion why we were weeding someone elses garden - I wasn't sure if he'd rather be inside playing with the toys, but he was pleased to be involved.


Sam L also taught them how to plant their own seeds and sent them all home with a pot of lettuce seeds to look after.
I'm thrilled that my kids can have experiences like this, with kids like this and leaders like this. A simple night, but great for our family.

Birthday Parcels

Leah's had a birthmonth rather than a birthday - mainly because she had a party with Sam 2 weeks before her actual birthday! It seems to have lasted forever! She slept over at Grandmas the night before her birthday (and had McDonalds at 11.15pm apparently!) and then on her birthday morning, they went shopping for birthday shoes (she's a brave Grandma!).

We met them at the £1 cinema (we splashed out for her birthday!) to watch The Bee Movie. I would tell you what the film was about, but when I watched Delores sleep through the first half, I took it as permission to sleep through the second half! I woke up to see everyone leaving the cinema! Liam and Delores were SO smug - apparently there'd been talk of leaving me there!

Liam liked the bit at the end of the film where the mosquito fulfilled his life long dream of becoming a lawyer - after all he had always been a blood-sucking parasite! Every dog knows his own!

Leah has particularly enjoyed the birthday parcels she received - actually we all did!

We missed a parcel from Great Grandma on Saturday, so went to collect it from the post office on Monday. Leah clutched the little receipt on the way to pick up Sam and Megan from school and then stood on her tiptoes at the post office to exchange it for the parcel.

I thought she would want to open it there and then, but she tucked it under her arm and marched home!

She was thrilled to find loads of little bits and bobs - stickers, colouring, stamping, hair clips - all the things Great Grandma knows she loves.

Sam definitely had parcel envy! Explaining to a six year old that he had his day last month doesn't really help! Life's tough! I think he managed to negotiate a few stickers from her - enough to pacify!

She got a parcel from Auntie Barbara too - a beautiful dress - Leah told me she's saving it for the weekend so there's no sneaky peaks! She loves her clothes!

Leah's 4

How decadent - gardening in your posh frock! if she had them, I know she'd have heigh heels on too!

Sam aged 6...

I love Sam at 6 years old - he's inquisitive, interested, enquiring, mischieveous...





...and freckly!

Lizard Release

What a fantastic auntie Lorraine is!

She has often told me how she gets lizards in her garden - in fact she told us that the kids often let the lizards just hang off their clothes. I have to say, I was a bit sceptical!

The only time I've seen a lizard in the wild was in France, and it was there for a second and then was gone!

So lizards in Heybridge that let you handle them?? It just didn't sound right.

Anyway, she stood by her word and rang me on Friday to tell me that she'd just rescued a lizard from her cat! And it was in a bucket in her shed if I wanted to see it.

So I picked Leah up from preschool and rushed over to see it! How cute! But Lorraine's fantasticness didn't stop there - she found an old fish tank and parcelled up the lizard for me to take home to show her neices and nephew!

How lucky are they to hold a lizard - and Lorraine was right, it did just sit on their hand - I expected it to scuttle away, but it was just happy (well, I say happy, maybe it was frozen in fear!?) to sit and be passed around between my 3 kids...and Megan's friend Buffy who was over...and Lily, Louis, Brandon and Bobby from next door...and their friends Adam and Ryan! What a great pet it would have made, but I was strong against their begging!

So we piled into the car and went to Danbury Common to pick the right spot to release it! And it couldn't be just any old spot - they marched me round the park looking for the perfect place! Until the lizard took matters into his own hands and saw his chance! It was Leahs turn to hold him and he must have realised she was his best opportunity for escape. He dived for freedom and as we all pounced after him - he did that scuttling thing I was expecting from the start! And vanished into thin air!

The kids fancied staying at the common a bit longer and spent a bit of time looking for more wildlife to persuade me to keep. I eventually gave in to their nagging and promised that if they managed to find a skunk, we could keep it as a pet. I know, I'm a generous mum! And they spent at least half an hour looking for one!

The girls didn't need any entertaining - they liked wandering about, just exploring.

Actually, they were writing notes to a fairy to ask her to leave them a skunk or other animal to keep as a pet. They would leave the note on a branch then check back ever few minutes to see if she had obliged! You just can't trust a fairy nowadays - we went home empty handed!

When I gave them the selotape from my bag as requested, I didn't think too much about what they would do with it! Megan and Buffy were thrilled to be tied to the bench by Leah and Sam?! I'm not sure how I'm going to explain this photo to Buffy's mum!

Trip over the water

Richard and Liam recently enjoyed a little trip to their roots - they visited Grennan and Uncle George in Ireland.

I've heard a lot about Grennan, so its nice to finally see photos.

Liam's Grandad used to live there, and we've heard the stories of the fish he used to catch from the river Nore which runs right next to the house. I know Liam was really looking forward to following in his footsteps (any excuse - fishing in the name of heritage??! How can I question that!)
There's been a lot of talk lately about boats in our house, especially of a Saturday night when Richard and Nicola come over for a takeaway! Richard's even had a poor sales woman get a boat down from the ceiling of the sales room for him to ogle! So imagine their thrill to find a boat right next to the river for their useage!




Here's a picture of the three William's - aka Billy, George and Liam! How can NONE of them use their correct name?? I hate to say it, but they are Irish!

Old News

I realise that I'm not exactly keeping up with current affairs, but this story is new to me! Hester sent me this on Facebook today and its my new favorite clip!

So it started in 1969 with two men from Chelsea buying a lioncub from Harrods! How things have changed! They called him Christian and he lived with them for 1 year - travelling in the car, even swimming in the English Channel!

When he grew from 35lbs to more than 9 stone in that year, they realised they couldn't keep him any more and he was released in Africa.

Four years later, even though Christian hadn't been seen for 9 months, the two men travelled to Africa to see where he had been released. The night before they arrived, Christian was seen outside the camp - like he was waiting for them. This is the clip of them meeting the lion. How wierd and wonderful is this?

Keeping up with...

Sam's on a mission. And who can blame him. Not only does he have a mum who's been on the BBC (have I mentioned that I was on the radio last week? Apart from to everyone I know?!), he also has a sister who's photo is in this month's "Danbury Journal" - Megan was on the school council last term and the Danbury Journal took a picture of their cake sale! She's thrilled!

So with our little brushes with the media - how can my 6 year old fail to be influenced by such dizzy heights!

Now in our family in June, we've covered magazines, and radio, so he's on a mission to get on tellie! And his plan is, obviously...You've Been Framed!

So Sunday afternoon at Grandma's he spent about an hour rehearsing a fake stumble, planning how to swing so high on the garden swing that it would flip backwards, and toppling from the top of the slide!

On the way home, Leah had some Ice Pop left and Sam was trying to persuade her to share it with with him... without success! So he tried luring her - if she gave him her Ice Pop, he would give her 1000 sweets!

"You haven't got 1000 sweets!" Megan was quick to point out "Don't make false promises!"

Sam knew what he was doing though - "I haven't got them now, but I'm going on You've Been Framed soon - you get £250 for that so then I'll have 1000 sweets!"

Its so straight forward for a 6 year old:

Getting on TV = You've been Framed = 1000 sweets!

He's so keen to make a winning video, but his acting skills aren't that great, so I'm wondering if its wrong to get him to stand under the bedroom window and drop a bucket of water on his head? It might make him cry, but we'd get a good clip! Isn't it okay if its for his own good - mother love and all that!

Of course I'm also trying to prepare him for disappointment - I tell him that not everyone can mix with producers and presenters like his mum did. We can't all be tracked down like his mum was! Life's hard sometimes!

Who'd Have Thought...

Yesterday, I'm washing socks, today I'm the star of local radio! Okay, so I'm not a star, but that's the way I'm telling it, and I did get to go into a radio station for the first time!

Travis from BBC Essex left a comment on our blog yesterday, asking me to ring him about a possible story...then my neighbour came round with a note - he had phoned her too.

It turns out they had come across our blog and it got them interested in Essex bloggers! So they asked me to go in to talk to them for 10 minutes. Well they said I could either go in, or talk to them over the phone. When I started the blog, it did cross my mind that I wouldn't have anything interesting to write about so if some one offers me the chance to go and sit in a radio station, I'm not gonna turn that down!
So with Becks and Eden in tow for moral support (she's the proper blogger - taught me all I know!), we trooped to the radio station.

Get me, having my 10 minutes on the radio! They were all REALLY friendly and made us feel very welcome. And they very cool and collected - I need everything planned out and checked, but they just shipped me in and there we were, live on the radio! How did they know I wouldn't just slobber into the microphone?!
They even accommodated my little groupies - I need groupies - I've been on the radio after all! (Update: I've just corrected my spelling of accommodate - realised I missed out an m - please feel free to tell me spelling mistakes - its a learning curve!)

So who'd have thought it! My Mum and Dad listened on the internet in Sheffield, Lorraine managed to catch it, but Delores missed it - it sounds like she was ready to throw the radio through the window 'cause she couldn't tune it in to the right station! I'm sure she'll be able to listen on the internet - its there until Monday morning - I might just listen one more time...or two!

One of my kids favourite programmes is Hider in the House. They tell one of the parents that they're in a kids TV show (that doesn't exist) as a distraction and then hide a celebrity in the house. At the end of the programme, they find out the TV show they've been filming isn't real and they've been tricked!

It was such a surreal day, I'm still expecting a bouncy kids TV presenter to jump out of my cupboard and tell me that I fell for the prank, and how stupid am I to believe that a radio station would want to talk to me about our blog! Ha Ha - I'm watching out for you Fern Cotton!

Time to Say Bye to Nanny

We've had her for nearly a week, but on Monday it was time for Nanny to catch her £1 Megabus home! I know two little girls that are going to miss her!

Every Boy Needs a Big Sister!