A load of old rubbish!

This morning Davies and Scarlett played with some foam blocks. And watched Wall E. And Kung Fu Panda, well the films were on in the background really as a soundtrack to their games.

I did some knitting and some online stuff including talking Davies through the HE consultation and typing in his answers for him. It was a fairly collaborative effort between the two of them and resulted in lots of discussions and outrage on their part (once I’d explained what child abuse and domestic servitude was). They decided that if someone was going to monitor them they they’d want to be sure they spent enough time with them to get to know them properly and ‘make friends with them’ and to be sure to give them a good idea of just how much they are learning. I’m really pleased they are so proud and certain of their HE status. I do so hope testing doesn’t become a reality in the near future.

We had lunch and then as the sun was shining and we’ve been meaning to do it for ages we headed off into Lancing armed with a camera. One of the WAA activities is to ‘put on a display’ so naturally we’re going to use the display space at the library. Davies has long been outraged at the dog poo and general litter in the alleyways and has said several times he wants to write to our MP about it. As one of the other activties is ‘write to your MP’ and another is ‘get in the local paper’ we’ve hatched a plan to do the display about litter in the alleys and pavements, write to our MP about it and possibly do some sort of big clean up event armed with bin bags and gloves and write a press release / invite the local paper to come along. The only trouble is the wildlife link is slightly tenuous although I know litter can cause problems for wildlife. I guess it’s no less indirect a link than recycling and walking instead of using a car though and it is something Davies has been quite vocal about for a while.

So the first step today was to get some photos of all the stuff we encountered that shouldn’t be there along the pavements and through the alleyways on the mile or so walk to the library. It was quite disgusting – broken glass, crisp and sweet wrappers, dog poo, cigarette butts and packets, loads of cans and bottles and fast food containers. The children took all the photos themselves and although the subject matter is unpleasant the quality of their shots is pretty good. It’s all a bit worthy but I am proud of their outrage about people not caring about where we live. I wonder if they’ll forever hold those values or if like most of us as they get older they will care less. I remember being the most vocal anti-smoker I knew for years before starting to smoke myself 😳

In Lancing we had a quick look in the supermarket for free range chicken – sold out – before going to the wool shop for a couple more balls for my jumper. I really need to find a cheap wool seller. We then popped back to the newsagent as Tarly had brought her purse with some coppers and wanted to buy some sweets. We walked home again and chatted about ideas for their display.

Back at home Davies took himself off to his room for a while and Scarlett painted my toenails for me. I did some more knitting and have now finished the back of my jumper – only the front and sleeves to go ;).

They had tea and I made some cookies and some cupcakes while they were eating as there is a distinct lack of sweet stuff in the house. Scarlett and I had a falling out but it got resolved fairly quickly and then we had a few chapters of our latest Humphrey story before Ady came home.

Work all day for me tomorrow and Ady is taking the kids off to work with him for the day as he is doing price surveys in supermarkets and garden centres all day so they will actually help him with his cover (mystery shopper type stuff) which they are both very happy about :).