Keen Mowers.

The heavens have been watering the garden for most of the day. At school we were lucky enough that the sunny spells coincided with the children's playtimes and we were not forced to keep them indoors for the whole day. That is a trial for everyone. We have just started work on our new topic 'Greece'. The whole school topic is Europe and we decided that it would be better for each class to focus on one country. I chose Greece because we spent a happy summer there many years ago and there are so many subjects we could cover from Ancient Greece with its inventors, philosophers, the Olympics and myths & legends to modern Greece with its music & dancing, food and geography. I have stayed on Santorini so we will be learning about volcanoes as well. Today we did a little map work and then I had the children tasting halva. This was a new taste experience for all of them even though several have spent holidays in Greece. Some of the children absolutely loved the halva while for others the unusual texture and dryness put them off even though the smell had been tempting. Being school I made them draw a block graph of those who liked/disliked the halva and to write down words to describe the taste and the possible ingredients. A good cross-curricular activity. Later in the term they can taste the ingredients for a Greek salad and design their own salad pitta. Possibly we could have Greek picnic down in the Secret Garden.

Meanwhile back home as soon as I had parked the car I was accosted by 2 lads wanting to mow the grass. (Not for money but simply because Jack is mad about mowers.) I suggested that getting the big tractor mower down was too much for my intricate garden but I was quite happy for the boys to go and get Jack's push mower. They duly returned armed with mower, shears and other assorted tools. I left them to it as I had to do some more work on my reports. The odd bit of mowing ensued until Paul came to find the boys as Jack's friend needed to go home. Yet more of Paul's tools appeared from the boys' camp and Paul went off, shaking his head and muttering about losing all his tools.

The seedlings in the veg plot are looking a bit happier after all the rain and I spotted the first potato leaves appearing. These were fancy purple skinned potatoes, hence the purple foliage. Hope they taste good.