NotSheep

…is driving me nuts. Jack has a habit of asking for things indirectly - for example he’ll see some biscuits or toast and instead of just asking for some, he’ll say, “I’m still hungry…” I find it very irritating.

The most recent news on Barney is that he seems a little bit brighter. We’ll be talking to him on the phone again at the weekend, and I’ll remind him that the success of the exchange, and how much he enjoys it, largely depends on how much effort he makes. Perhaps he’s a bit too laid-back for his own good? I’m just glad things are sounding a little better.

The rest of us have been doing our usual things. I’ve been doing more French, German and maths with Freddy and George. Freddy didn’t go to ju-jitsu on Monday evening, as a result of an attempt to kick Toby - well, not really an attempt, he wasn’t actually going to do it, rather he just waved his leg in that direction, but we have a policy that if you can’t cope with life at home with the family, you’re not able to cope with life anywhere else with the general public… so he had an early night instead. George did go to ju-jitsu, however, but was found in the bathroom after 10 p.m., which meant that he was very tired all day yesterday. He decided to go to bed instead of SJA Badgers - entirely his decision (and not like him to be so mature LOL). He did actually go to sleep early; both he and Toby were fast asleep when Freddy and Jack and I got back from Beavers. M, the boy next door, has also joined us at Beavers for the last two weeks, and it is, according to his mum, “a big hit”. Last night we made a huge poster about what life might be like in the future, then played a game where the Beavers had to “collect” each other like magnets, which they thought was fantastic - and I’ve just had an idea for a variation on that, turning it into a sort of tag, rather than teams… I’m only writing this to remind myself, so you can all ignore me

The pups have been taking up a fair amount of time, as pups do. They’re really pretty good, and we’re doing a little obedience training with them each day. They are growing fast, particularly Cass, whose collar I’ve had to adjust already - she’s going to be twice the size of Andie, I think.

My laptop is still misbehaving, something to do with the fan, we think. Scratchy thought it was OS-related, but experiments seemed to disprove that, so then he decided to dismantle it - he had it spread across the table in hundreds of bits - I couldn’t look, too squeamish When he put it back together, it seemed to work - for a couple of days, then the error message re-appeared. So it seems better, but not fixed. Sigh.

The trampoline has been temporarily turned into a gardening table, as we’ve been re-potting lots of shoots of various things. I got loads of pots from a woman on Freecycle, though I could still use a few bigger ones. (I also got a Little Tikes climbing-frame for the garden - missing a bit, but still very usable). All the plants have to go into pots; I could plant some stuff along the borders in the garden, around the bushes, but the pups would probably dig them up, whereas I can move pots outside the garden into the driveway (which goes down the side of the house, we’re not talking front garden full of potatoes a la Good Life here). I have high hopes for my sweet peppers and garlic - mostly because, of all the things we’ve planted, they’re my favourites to eat

Off to the garden-centre for more compost now…