Thursday 5th June 08

I took the boys to school and when the children were all in school I turned all 3 compost bins, putting the oldest material in sacks for maturing, the next oldest in the third bin and the recently interred material in the second bin, leaving the first nearly empty for refilling.

Came home for just after 10 and did some stuff around the house before lunch, including getting a message from Green Thumbs Julia saying she is unwell and is not at school, and could I head-up this afternoon's gardening club, and she gave me a list of things to do, well, suggestions! After lunch I sorted out some planting media as one of the things suggested was to plant some more seeds. However when, after school, I facilitated gardening club, we did things like weeding the large pots of veg we planted 3 weeks ago, and digging over some borders, adding rich garden compost and planting some of the veg in which we potted up 2 weeks ago... Someone found a 1906 penny, someone else found a tiny air-gun pellet, and another person found a sheep's molar tooth... We also found worms, a ladybird larva and a beetle. We all had a good time.

I tidied up and got home by 4.45, in time to have some pasta and get my bike ready and my eldest son's bike ready to cycle to the other side of town to attend the briefing meeting of the 'Gifted and Talented Summer School' to which he's been invited. We set off at 5.10 and got to Manor school at 5.40, just half an hour, not bad. Better than the bus, much better. It was a good meeting and my lad is keen to explore Mathematics further as his main topic, so let's hope it isn't too oversubscribed and he loses out in a lottery, which was suggested as a fair way to choose people if there's more applicants than spaces. A good cycle home, took less than half an hour as there's more downhill on the way back! Seems like it, anyway.

I had half an hour in the garden putting a load of stuff in one of my tumblers, before coming in and watching the first part of Big Brother 9 on Channel 4... which Gill and I both enjoyed, and I did washing up followed by a lot of peeling, coring and slicing apples for drying.

Some good late-night chat with K on Skype, getting easier after some differences of opinion and fallings out, but we both want to remain on good terms so both working at it.