Poems, potatoes, plans etc

Yet another busy day here. Here are some snippets from the past couple of days.

We unearthed our first lot of potatoes yesterday. The flowers were long gone so really they should have been ready. The yield was disappointing. I won't grow potatoes in containers again next year. At the same time I don't want to grow them in my patch as they take up so much space. An allotment, I need an allotment for my space hungry low maintenance stuff.



Later in the day I went to the green grocers to buy some rhubarb for a crumble. It cost me over £2 for a few sticks of rhubarb to make a pudding! Rhubarb - another space hungry, low maintenance crop - another point scored for the idea of an allotment. My name is on the waiting list in the village and has been for a few weeks. Just a matter of waiting till a plot comes free now.

Nana finished reading Fantastic Mister Fox by Roald Dahl to Hermione. She devoured it in about three sittings which surprised me as she was reluctant to read it at all. She only tried it because we can't find anymore Secret Seven or Famous Five she's not read and our order of more Boxcar Children stories hasn't yet arrived. Anyway, this seemed to launch her onto an animal themed hour or two during which she dragged out an old animal poetry book which I read as a child. She decided to read a poem to me and this is the one she chose -

Rabbits

Rabbits have fur
And also more rabbits
And it is a habit

A habit is something you are doing
Over and over again
Because you are liking it
When you have it

A habit of rabbits is having more
First there is a rabbit with fur
and you have it
But soon there are more

Soon they are having more rabbits
Over and over again and liking to do it
And then it is a habit
And rabbits really have it

Ray Fabirzio

Made me laugh, lots. Hermione couldn't understand what was funny about the poem. Oh, the age of innocence.

There is mould on some of my Elderflower Champagne! Three out of five bottles have fury floaters! Nana thinks this is part of the natural fermentation process but I have to say it looks most off putting. I Googled and found this but I'm not convinced. I've now screwed down the lids on the two mould free bottles and have binned the rest. Hopefully I'll have at least a couple of bottles of fur free fizz in a couple of weeks!

Hermione has decided that she would like more structure in her learning again. She would like to continue doing her core stuff but also go back to story/project based work and more science experiments. I'm pleased she has made this decision. For a time it felt right just to concentrate on core concepts but I think we've both missed our literature based stuff recently. It's just so nice to snuggle up with a good book and read and discuss all kinds of related things. We both discover so much.

It's poppy time again. Driving home from our home ed get together this afternoon the fields were once again scattered with scarlet petals. I remember one evening last summer when I visited those same fields with a friend to take a closer look and capture the scene on film. Surrounded by beauty and the sad thing is I'm often too preoccupied to notice it *sigh*.