Dan was up at 7am, complaining about staying up til midnight watching a show. We talked about my successful electronics curfew and how it’s dramatically improving my sleep in both quantity and quality, but they aren’t interested in doing something similar (yet – sometimes it takes a while but these conversations often do percolate through and are acted on eventually).
Hugh came and talked to me when I was making brunch, and we discussed options for him cooking more often. I talked about how useful it is when he has meals he can make from scratch from store-cupboard ingredients, because then if I’m sick/tired/CBFed cooking he can step in and cook a thing, but we also discussed menu planning and how that might have implications for ingredients bought for specific meals that then don’t get used and go off. I said that he could make samosas for lunch more often, and he requested to make them for lunch on Saturday so Daddy can eat them. I also suggested that for his lunches he could start experimenting with the chicken rice bake recipe, which is extremely flexible and customisable, and he was keen. I’m trying to think of ideas where he learns a basic principle to apply and can experiment within that framework so he’s learning about combining flavours, etc.
Hugh came outside with me when I went to do the chickens, and changed the geese’s water again. He noticed there were ants climbing on the raised bed and we talked about the weather changing towards rain this afternoon and ants being able to sense it and going for higher ground. We talked about industrial agriculture monocultures and how big industrial cornfields are almost sterile, contrasted with organic polycultures where you work on creating healthy soil to build healthy plants which are more resistant to attack, and encouraging predator species to keep pests in check. We looked at the worms flourishing in the second raised bed, pulled out some volunteer potatoes and talked about nitrogen in producing healthy foliage but not tubers. I talked about how I would top off the raised bed and grow greens in pockets of potting mix, because they will flourish in the high-nitrogen environment. Also talked about how chickweed growing happily in the first raised bed shows that the nitrogen levels in there is still high as well. We made a green smoothie using mint from the courtyard today, because we’d used chickweed the last two days and didn’t want to over-harvest it (Hugh didn’t like it, unfortunately, and neither did Dan). Hugh mentioned that he has been working on the challenge list of “Build 100 Things In Minecraft” and today he’s doing #98, a community garden, which seems pretty apt! He has been sending me screenshots, and even a walk-through tour.
Dan made ricepaper rolls for lunch, while Hugh got sick of waiting for me to dismember the roast chicken for him and did it himself. Rather competently! I’m currently negotiating sprog wrangling for next week with Beth. She and Micky can give Dan a lift home after Outspace on Tuesday, and stay for dinner. And she can take Hugh on Friday so I can go to the Show demo. Useful big sister! I’ve also found a few more robotics/coding/Makerspace workshops this term and booked Hugh in.
Dan was successfully jabbed, and had a Drumstick in compensation. We even managed to remember to return the overdue book, luckily there are no fines. Hugh has been telling me about all the ways that printer companies rip people off with ink cartridges (using the “give away the gerbil, sell the duct tape” principle). You should talk to him about it some time. He’s also whingeing about how much his feet hurt from all that pogo-ing. Poor sodbiscuit. I have successfully made him bring out his laundry and his washing up but haven’t convinced him to clear out the rotten fruit. Revolting sodbiscuit!
After dinner he wanted to do something with me but I’m feeling too ill to do anything. So I suggested he read to me, and he picked Frogs Sing Songs from the seasonal shelves, then Swallows. We were intrigued by the bit about arctic frogs so looked it up, and discovered the book was talking about wood frogs, which live in Canada and Alaska and can survive freezing when dormant over winter.