Day 112 - high pitched screaming and the lovely Di.x

Monday 22nd April

The start of a busy but rewarding week as preparations continue for our butterfly charity tea party at the weekend.  It is sort of a weaving job to make sure we get to everything.  I spent some time with Max and George going through the school work they had done while I was away.  All tasks completed and we were all pleased.  Their spring journals are a delight.  They know this is the last time they will do this and every page is a work of art.  All the children have excellent presentation skills.  One of my favourite features of home school is the fact the children have the time to finish everything.  No more trays full of unfinished work.  I never rush them, although sometimes we do have timed activities.  These instances of timed tasks are just to teach them the importance of completing something in a specific time.  Generally, we don't work to artificial time frames and their work is all the better for it. 

One of the tasks was to build a bug hotel at the bottom of the garden.  We do one every year and I am normally right in there with the mud, rotten branches and bugs.  This year George and Max tackled it on their own.  Now this might look like a pile of wood to you but look closer -

Inside the loose structure are plant pots filled with hay.  The structure is also designed to have lots of entrance points as well as exit points.  Damp mud is deep inside the structure for the bugs that like the cold and damp.  See, we even give a home to my mortal enemy the slug.  This bug hotel is a long way away from my tunnel but be very sure that those slippery little suckers will make their way to the   tunnel and happily chomp through my veggies.

We monitor the hotel through the season and you would be amazed at how many bugs move in. 

Apart from the catch up on home school the rest of the day has been organised chaos.  Ribbons, beads, paper, fabric and naughty kitten have been the order of the day.  Mimi clearly wants to help and she is particularly fond of chasing ribbon around the floor and her name has been the subject of high pitched screams on more than one occasion.  Of course, now the house is a complete mess and the tidy up alone will take days. 

We are not alone in our creative endeavours as butterflies continue to arrive in the post.  On Saturday I had a wonderful delivery from my friend Di.  Di is the lady I told you about who has been reading my blog since the power cuts.  So we have moved from christmas cards to chatting most days.  Fabulous!  Three beautiful butterflies arrived from her complete with a letter.  The letter began -

The cry was unanimous, 'what do you mean you want to go to hobbycraft? We want to go home.'

'Well we're so close and I've got an idea....'

'But hobbycraft is rubbish mum.'

And so the tale began of Di's journey in butterfly making.  Hobbycraft was indeed rubbish but Di had a plan.  Di, like all good women, has a stash!  This stash is full of fabrics, ribbons and beads.  Armed with her pink pliers and some wire she created the shape of the butterfly she had seen in my photo. 

I am sure not long later three pretty butterflies sat before her and they are now on the island waiting to be sold.  To fully understand this story you have to know that Di has three sons!  It is a very male dominated house and so the time spent with her pink pliers would, I am sure, been lovely.  I do hope she ate cake at the same time.

It is such a charming story and so typical of the project so far.  People from all over the country have helped get us off and running.  There is always room for more little helpers so if you fancy helping just get in touch and I can send patterns for various crafts by email.  We will be selling all through the summer and all help would be gratefully received. 



These little people would all be so very grateful.

George, Max and I have started a scrapbook of the campaign so we can look back one day and remind ourselves of the joy of being involved in such a wonderful project. 

Di making her butterflies, despite a lack of a pattern, is indicative of what is at the heart of this campaign.  We want to put effort into our contributions and we want to tell the story of this 'effort' to the children in Zambia.  We will write the story up at the end and send it to Jane to read to the children.  They will see just how much we care.  This feels important.

I have not added anything new to my list and I have some lovely red ticks by quite a few jobs so we are heading in the right direction.  A good day in the Doubleday family.  An inspection of the willow crop witnessed real growth and the plants in the tunnel are loving the sunshine.  I do hope you have had some sunshine. 

Until tomorrow. xx