Operation Sunflower - Part Two (Who Is Pete Potts?)

There was more hard graft along the fence on Saturday morning, and as you can see, we did a pretty good job! The back is definitely broken on the clearing up, all that Dad needs to do is finish off the last few bits then prepare the soil in readiness for the seedlings.



Sam caught someone out while they were skiving....

We're using peat pots to get the flowers going, that way we can just stick them straight into the ground. 48 peat pots from Poundland and a bag of compost from the same place takes the total spend on this project to a whopping £2. And Sam did, really, ask "Who is Pete Potts?" when I was outlining the day's itinerary.

Planting seeds is great fun, and a very pleasant, tactile activity whether you're six, or forty two.....

Last job of the day was to thoroughly water the seeds into their new homes.

Car Wash

It's very handy having such a helpful chap around....




In amongst all the digging and chopping we decided to wash Lightning, our car, and made a trip to the shop in preparation - imagine Dad's delight when we found that they were selling buckets for just £1 each.

So Lightning was washed with help from the local gaggle of teen girlies (who Sam likes, despite his proteststions otherwise) and now looks rather shiny.

And thank goodness, Sam had the obligatory bucket accident, and absolutely soaked himself, requiring a complete change of clothes. Good fun!

Operation Sunflower - Part One

We decided to do something about the mess of brambles along the fence opposite the flat....we decided to clear it and plant sunflowers!


Discarded ideas were a water park, a nice flower bed of small flowers, a zip line, and blackberry bushes. You may be able to decipher who suggested what.



So we decided to (hopefully) create a wall of sunflowers, to cheer everybody up. Who doesn't like sunflowers?


Thank you Auntie Lou, for sending us a packet of sunflower seeds. Thank you also Jennie from work, who has loaned us a sack-load of gardening tools and gloves to get the job done.

It was after school on Friday that we began work....the vegetation grew to a metre out from the fence, and at its highest was over two metres tall. NO PROBLEM!

We set about our spiky foe with gusto, with Sam to the fore but Dad actually doing most of the work. But it was a team effort, and every chunk of hedge removed was a cause for comment...."Look at this big boy Daddy!"...."Ow, buggrit, me arm.....again".....

When we decided to call it a day we had already given the hedge a haircut that hinted at further snippage.

An extra piece of entertainment was provided by Dad when he was disposing of some clippings and didn't see a hole in the embankment....cue full falling in and thinking he was going to die, ended almost immediately by a safe cushion on a bed of thistles.

Operation Sunflower is go!

Hande Hoch!

Well, I'm not sure if that;s what Clone Troopers really say, but this threatening specimen beamed down into our hallway recently.....

I told him that I'd be reporting him to the local Kingdom Hall for going OTT in delivering The Word.

FA Cup Final 2010

The FA Cup is the greatest club football competition on Earth!


That's a fact-a-mundo.


Dad's first cup final that he can remember was in 1975, when Fulham were playing West Ham. As I remember it, my Mum and Dad would go out for the day and I'd spend the morning and afternoon glued to the telly, with Grandad for company. Now, Grandad was the chap who inroduced me to betting, as we'd watch the ITV Seven on telly in his flat in York while Mum and Dad were doing their own thing. After the racing we'd watch the wrestling, proper wrestling, with Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki, Big Daddy ["Easy! Easy!]


And in May 1975, Sam's Nana and Grandad went shopping in Boston, and I was with them. I was already a Subbuteo fan, and already had a claret and blue team (they were Burnley, West Ham, and some others). I wanted to buy a Fulham team so that I could recreate the FA Cup Final for myself, but my Mum tried to dissuade me, as "it's got no colour....just black and white". I insisted though, and spent...I think....75p to buy Fulham - white shirts, black shorts, black socks....could also be used as West Germany and Port Vale.


I don't remember the game, but I do remember seeing the game....does that make sense? Tommy Taylor scored both West Ham goals in a 2-0 win.


I do remember the build-up on telly. It started well before noon. There were player interviews, fans' Mastermind competitions, cameras at the team hotels, cameras on the team buses, shots on the fans walking up Wembley Way. It was MAGIC!


So, Fulham and West Ham was in 1975. One month from my seventh birthday. Yesterday Portsmouth and Chelsea played one month from Sam's seventh birthday. Another huge milestone.


I thought it might be a good idea to implant the FA Cup Final into Sam's pysche. So we went shopping for pizza and ice cream on Friday, and on Saturday we dined heartily during the match. In future years we'll share a pint, but for now Sam scoffed Hawaiian pizza, Dad pepperoni, and we delighted in Flake ice cream.


The game should have been a walkover. Chelsea had won the league the week before, and Portsmouth were relegated and in administration. Chelsea hit the woodwork five times in the first half, but Portsmouth also missed an open goal. In the second half Pompey won, and missed, a penalty, Didier Drogba scored a delicious free kick. Right at the end Frank Lampard missed a penalty, but Chelsea won the game 1-0.


Sam didn't sit and watch the whole game, but I doubt that I did back in 1975. But we had an AWESOME father and son afternoon.


I hope Sam remembers his first FA Cup Final as warmly as I do mine. We had a good day.

World Cup Fever!

Three and a half weeks to go! If you're female you probably won't know what Dad's on about.


It's only The Football World Cup 2010!


This was a great weekend for Sam and Dad. We decorated the car to show our support for Ingerland, and we've been practising the Great Escape tune. You know.. ..der dut.. ..der der der der dut... ..der der der der der der der der dut... ..der der der der dut... .der der der der dut.. ..der derrrr der der derrr der derrrrr ENGLAND!



We have passed through the rites of passage that is the World Cup Wall Chart. Above you can see Sam scribing on the, now-dominant, feature of our living room. And below you can see what he wrote.

There was a little flag-waving.... Sam felt so patriotic that he wore his Sport Relief medal....

Fantastically, this weekend was also the FA Cup Final. See next post.

Our Tame Ducks Return....And So Does The Bullfinch

Only a week or two ago Sam was asking whether the nearly tame pair of mallards who used to visit us were still around, or if they'd gone away. It was a tricky question, as Sam is quite sensitive to keeping things stable and secure, especially where any kind of emotional bond has developed....and we really used to love the way the ducks (the man's called Crispy and his missus is Pancake) came waddling up to the windows of the flat hustling for food.


Yesterday they came back, hoorah! Sam wasn't here so I snapped them on the mobile phone's camera and sent the pic to his mum's phone....apparently he was very excited! Today after school I spotted them outside again, so Sam was able to re-acquaint himself personally with his inappropriately named chums. They're a nice old couple and amble to within a metre or so for their bread. Occasionally Sam's been able to feed them straight from his hand. Welcome back, duck dudes!

Equally amazing was another return visitor, spotted this very morn. I keep a record of the first visit, and also the most recent visit, of all the varieties of birds we see here. This morning I had a fancy to see which one we hadn't seen for the longest time - it was the bullfinch, last spotted in May 2008. Unsettlingly, an hour later I glanced up from my Weetabix and there was was a huge, bright red blob of colour sitting outside - a bullfinch! Not just the male, he had his moll with him too. I took the picture below, which is a bit rubbish as the camera was zoomed to the max. Welcome back bullfinch dudes!

So it's a lovely time for reunions at the moment. Sam and I celebrated by wolfing down the new, favourite meal, the home made meatballs and spaghetti.