Wednesday Works!

Posted by Rosie

In France primary children in primary school don't go to school on Wednesdays (although this will change next year when they will go in the mornings, bringing them in line with secondary schools). With Ben still in primary and Tom in secondary it means we have Ben home alone on Wednesday mornings and we can have a bit of time together, just the 2 of us.  This is what we got up to this week:

Gardener Ben

First he asked if he could do some digging. Well, I'm never one to refuse a bit of child-labour, help in the garden, so I set him off digging over what was the base of the old muck heap, ready for courgettes to go in as soon as the risk of frosts is over.  I was busy planting potatoes and both of us were on a mission to finish our jobs before the hail set in.  We failed!

Hale/Hail Ben!

The hail was however short-lived enabling Ben to finish his patch of digging.  He decided by then, that he had had enough gardening and as our tadpoles have hatched he'd go and see if he could catch any.  

Pond dipping

Yay, a bit of dipping later and he'd bagged 2 tadpoles and a pond skater.  

Ben's catch

He was going to do more but unfortunately the net handle broke.  In all fairness I have had this net from before we were married and as we are coming up to a wedding anniversary with a zero on the end I think it has done very well.  I am sure though, at the moment of breakage, I heard a collective sigh of relief from all the pond critters who have been unlucky enough to reside in one of the most pond dipped ponds in Normandy!  

Returning the tadpoles to the pond

The caught tadpoles and pond skater were carefully returned to the water by which time Tom was home and normal brother playing/winding each other up mode could be resumed.

After September I will no longer have my couple of hours with Ben on a Wednesday morning.  I'll have to do my own digging and dip for my own tadpoles with a new net.  It won't quite be the same!