The joy of nature

B made me breakfast in bed this morning - sooo sweet! When I hit the sack last night at about midnight (shakes head and tuts to self) I was cold, like cold as in winter cold. I put my hand up and admit that I do wear socks in bed during winter and I've started to wear them already, but my feet were still cold (surely I don't need to hunt out the hot water bottle just yet). Anyway, had our lovely throw over the duvet which usually makes for a snug night, but not this time, so I threw on a fluffy floor rug too (only thing I could find at that late hour). Boy, I really was snug now, so snug B had to wake me up at 8.30 a.m. (an hour later than my usual rise in the morning). Anyway, he goes down stairs to prepare and then reappears and says "I've done it all but I don't want to risk taking the tray upstairs". How grown up is that! So B and I had breakfast in bed - K didn't want to know (she's a little grumpy in the mornings).

So, we're up and ready by about 10 today and the kids are eager to head for the "plot" to start digging. While I sort myself out getting boots, gardening stuff, thick bags to kneel on, bags for dirty wellies, etc., etc. K and B did some "work". They update the flag book as P has been to Netherlands recently and is in Italy at the moment. They find the relevant countries on the world map and stick his photo up to show where's he's been (to 15 countries nowin total, lucky fella), draw the country's flag and write a little about each country.

K also does more to her "Red Pepper Story" and B does more to his Star Wars project, adding light sabers this time. Kiddies didn't want to wait until after lunch so we then headed out.

Allotment is ... muddy ... very muddy. We manage to get a small patch sort of weeded, but our bucket loads were more mud than weeds I'm sure! The section we've done is now covered in carpet and I see tonight that a local is giving away a good sized carpet on Freecycle, so hopefully I'll be able to get that too. Otherwise cardboard boxes (I get them from Iceland) should be OK. K said that being at the plot was as good as being in the country, so that's made me feel a little better as we've now decided to stay put house wise, rather than move out of town. She enjoyed wandering around the site and came back with two small cauliflowers, and offering from a neighbouring plot holder, which we used in a nice winter warming casserole tonight. Another chap offered us some marrows too - all very friendly it seems. Wish I'd had the camera as our feet were so caked in mud it was hilarious - we could hardly walk! Tip from a rather chatty old fella on one of the plots was to buy a 3 for £1 wallpaper scrapers from Poundland "they do a treat on muddy boots duck!".

Question from B this evening, and I can't answer it and have no idea where to look to answer it: "if all the people in the world were put together, would they all fit on England (meaning UK)?" Another question: "what's ink made from". I'll try and find out an answer to this one.