boxes

Finlay was coming to my house for a few days at Christmas. I asked Neil next door if he had a box big enough to fit a small toddler in. Neil said yes and joked "where are you thinking of posting him to"? I wanted to fill it with some toys for him to play with. Finlay likes boxes too. He liked to empty it and fill it up again and to climb in it.

This box had his talking Elmo in it but Finlay liked to sit in it and be pulled around while he giggled ! He loved banging the cymbals together and when he did it just right and got a great cymbal sound he would put the cymbal up to his ear to see if he could still hear it. He got lots of  duplo lego for Christmas which is good because he likes lego. He also got an airplane and when the pilot is pressed it says "prepare for take off" and sings "flying high flying low" and the lights flash. Finlay had soon worked out that you had to press the pilot about three times before the song came on. When the song played he giggled and danced.

Matthews castle

Matthew needed to make a castle for a school project...his dad was working away from home...his mum had the flu... He needed someone to help him...so Matthew came to me... He brought a wonderful drawing of a castle he had copied from a picture in the classroom and lots of cardboard, tubes and boxes.
This what we made.

Just been told that Matthew's castle won first prize ! Well done Matthew !

Grapes

Remember I showed you grape vine growing wild with all the rain ? Well the rain has helped the grapes to grow....I picked some bunches of grapes but I could not reach some more bunches of grapes so I have left them for the birds to eat.

 

I do not think I can eat all these all by my self ! I think I will turn them into grape juice and drink some now and freeze some grape juice for later. Last year we did not have many bunches of grapes. If I get lots of grapes next year I will have to see if I can make jam or chutney with them. They have pips in them. Some are very sweet and some are sour..and I make a ugh face !

Frank, the cat from next door still likes to come in my garden. Sometimes he sits on my back door step and on a night time he sits at the front door looking in !

I wonder how you are liking school Matteo? Luca do you like Aslio ? I hope you do. I loved going to school and learning new things.

grape vine gone wild

hello boys

We have had lots and lots of rain and lots and lots of hot sunshine and the grape vine has gone wild. The vine should be running along the wooden beams but they have grown so many leaves so quickly that it has become so heavy, its all hanging down covering the chair and table where I sit sometimes......I think I need some help to fix it don't you?

Tao do you remember last year picking some blackcurrants for Grandma Janet ? 

this is the currant bush you picked them from.

I now have a cherry but the birds think the cherries are for them and I haven't tasted one yet ! The pear tree has some little pears on it and the plum tree just likes to grow leaves at the moment. The apple tree is going to be chopped  down like the trees across the road in the school field. tree 

My rhubarb has been ENORMOUS this year with all the rain and sunshine. 

I have 4 rainwater butts and a plastic dustbin, all full of rainwater for watering the plants when it stops raining so much.

I have lettuce, spinach, carrots and beetroot growing here. I eat lettuce, spinach and beetroot leaves in a salad 

Do you know what these are ? potatoes !

A new visitor to my garden, he really lives next door but likes to come and play in my garden. His name is Frank ! He always losing his collar, the first one he lost was yellow, then a stripey one,a pink one and now he has lost this blue one. His new one is orange.

A fox often comes in the garden but I don't always see him. 

Wonder how your garden is growing?

Bye bye boys....

Why the trees had to be chopped down

Ciao boys, did you wonder why all the lovely big old trees had to be chopped down ? 
The school noticed that some trees had stopped growing at the top. The top branches had no new leaves in the spring. Those branches were all bare when the rest of the tree was bursting out with bright green leaves. 
So they sent for the tree doctor to come and have a look and to tell the school what was wrong with them.
He said the top branches were in danger of snapping off and falling on the children playing on the school field.
He said that the trees were dying off from the top and it was the strange weather we had in the last few years that had made it happen. 
Where you live, your trees are used to very cold weather and having lots and lots of snow. Sometimes you have so much snow you have to send for the snow plough to clear the snow. Your trees are used to really really hot weather and not having enough water for some of the time.
These trees got a shock when we has some really cold weather like snow that you get and the other year they got a shock when when it was really hot like it is now. Another year we had so much rain that the field was flooded and the trees had too much water to drink up. 
The poor trees couldn't cope with all these weather changes and started to die off from the top.

If you look at the picture of the pile of tree trunks you will see all the brown bits....that is where the tree had died off and the white bits is where the tree is OK. The tree doctor said sadly all the trees had to be chopped down before they fell down. When the school was closed for school holidays they came and chopped them down. I thought,I know who likes chainsaws and tractors and chopping trees down......Matteo and Luca so I took some pictures so I could tell you about it.
The school field looks very strange without the trees and it's very windy without them !
I feel a little bit sad. The birds and the squirrels will have find some where else to go and play. I wonder where it is. 

Ciao Matteo, Ciao Luca. Do you remember where Nonna Jean Lives? 
On the other side of the road is a school field which has lots of really old trees in a line along the fence. The trees were there before the school was there and it was a farmers field a long time ago.

One day some men came with a tractor, a long heavy chain and a Chainsaw. 
One man climbed the really tall tree and put a chain around it. 
The chain was fasten to the tractor's winch. Can you see it? 
Can you see the man with the chainsaw ? He has an orange hat on.

Can you see where the man with chainsaw cut the bottom of the tree ? The tractor pulls chain and the tree begins to fall

This the man who climbed the trees  to put the chain on and used his chainsaw to cut them down.

Now the school field has no trees.