NotSheep

Or, “how long can a bumblebee live in a toilet?”

That is the question

Large bumblebee discovered in pile of laundry which had previously been hanging outside. Nearest receptacle for said bumblebee: toilet. Approximately one hour later, bee is still floating and moving in the water, despite attempts to flush. Yes, that’s right: this bumblebee was swimming

We think it’s gone now. I’m still using the kids’ bathroom tonight though. I’ve seen the X-Files and I’m taking no chances

Apart from bumblebee excitement, today has included:

rummaging through books at the library booksale. I brought two large boxes of books home, mostly non-fiction but a bit of Philip Pullman included. Three very large books which, purchased new, would each have cost more than I paid for the whole lot. Quite a pile of books about ancient civilisations, several about Einstein and his work (an interest of Barney’s), a couple about spies and spy history and spying equipment (something the older three are all interested in) and a few more besides. Not a bad haul. So we’ll just add those to the thousands of books we already had and the 45 library books, ‘k?

I could probably have found more, but the room was hot and airless and there were too many people and the Grumpy Old Man was waiting outside in the car and making faces about having to go back to the bank machine to get more cash out.

Barney spent most of the afternoon engrossed in books (surprise surprise). The others played in and out of the house. One of the little girls from down the street came in and started asking about the aquarium because they’ve just set one up in her house (water but no fish yet). I fixed the comments on my blog (I hope! - please let me know if I’m wrong!) and fixed a wonky feed link on someone else’s (again, I hope). Do people still say “wonky”? I just realised I haven’t heard that in ages. All meals today eaten in the conservatory, some with windows and both doors open - I do like warm sunny weather

Freddy’s birthday is in just over a week; he had expressed a wish to have a party at an indoors adventure playground place, but I explained that the cost of that would severely limit the number of invitees, so he went outside to “see how big the house is” and then came back in saying “Here. I’ll have it here.” So I suppose I’d better get on with inviting people. If you’re reading this and you’re local enough, come over next Sunday

Forgot to blog my favourite line from yesterday. The three older boys were told to wait for me before getting into the swimming pool, but when I came out of the changing-rooms, they were all exploring the shallow bit. “Didn’t I tell you to wait for me before you got in the water?” I say. “Well,” says George, “we didn’t really go in, we just put our heads under the water.” Oh. That’s all right then…