Snakes may be alive, but the fish are not! · Friday May 18, 2007 by Abbie
We didn’t see the snake this morning even though we looked for it while Ram was having his hair done. But we did notice that we haven’t seen the three fish in the pond for several days now! It could be because it is cold and grey and they are not coming up to the surface, or maybe the snakes have got them. We have also noticed that all the tadpoles are gone. Usually we have some hanging around until September, even if the main lot have turned it frogs. So perhaps the fish ate the tadpoles and the snakes ate the fish!
There are still plenty of frogs and newts swimming around, not to mention water boatman, damselflies and beetles, so I don’t think it is the water that has killed them.
Ram has been avoiding helping with the cleaning, and our days are drifting a bit with lots of ‘what should I do next’ questions, so we have decided to get some structure back into the day again. Between us we have decided to do some house chores after Ram eats his breakfast. He prefers to do things when they are really dirty because you can really see the improvement, so we tackled the downstairs cloakroom. Ram scrubbed the sink, and I did the toilet. As he isn’t very good at aiming in the toilet I wish it was him that was doing the toilet, but he refused! We are going to try to do a little something each day after breakfast. Hopefully it will become natural after a while and the house will slowly get more tidy. Ok, all you that have seen my house, or who home educate, can stop laughing now!
You see, home educators houses are always messier than schooled children’s houses because the house is being used all day and has far more time to get messed up, and my house is no exception!
We read a lot this morning. We are reading Mort now, which is the Discworld book that is mostly about Death. When Death talks it is in CAPITAL LETTERS, which I have to read in a very deep voice. I can usually do it without hurting my throat by taking a very deep breath and relaxing my vocal cords, but every so often I get it wrong and have to stop for a drink to sooth my throat!
The gardening boys came this afternoon. Luckily it wasn’t raining as it was last Friday, as the grass really needed cutting. I told them about the snake and one of them said he wasn’t going to be weeding that flowerbed, but the other one looked interested. It turns out that he has an interest in reptiles and said that if he found it he would pick it up and call us out to see it! Ram was very excited about that, but I won’t hold my breath. In the 14 years we have been at this property I have only seen a grass snake once two years ago. I think we have been very lucky to see this one and a baby in the same month.
While they were here we nipped next door. Our neighbour was sending some books to the charity shop and asked us if we would like to have a look first to see if there were any we would like. Ram was a bit worried about going and kept saying all morning, ‘I want to go home.’ Then suddenly just before we left he brightened up and said, ‘If I go there then I can say I want to go home and then go home!’
The first book Ram picked up was called ‘How Things Work’ and the page he opened it to had a detailed drawing of a tank on it, so that sold him! We also took a book about the Romans, a children’s book in German, a book about philosophy and a couple of others. I would have liked to take some books of poetry and some biographies but I know I won’t have time to read them and the Dxh will go spare if he finds that I have acquired more books and we are running out of room for them!
We watched some more education things that we had recorded. Panorama, Timewatch and so on. We listened to the New Quiz during supper which was a good laugh, then watched the programme about the man that lived with wolves. We put the sound from the TV through the stereo, and turned it up to see if Arrow, who is now quite deaf, could hear it. She did, and she came round to watch it too! She seemed to enjoy it but not as much as we did.
We finally got an early night. At least we went up earlier than we have been. It is so light out that somehow it seems wrong, but it doesn’t stop me from falling asleep while reading!
