I can't remember what was going on on Monday or Tuesday, but Wednesday DH had to drive to Wales to do some stuff with his parents. Picked up one of the Grandchildren on Wednesday, traffic was horrendous.
I have barely sat down since Wednesday night. Darling Grandson H is an amazing little ball of energy. He loves to learn - learn anything and is really bright. He picks things up, thinks them through, and is very articulate.
We made fairy cakes. We had a discussion about different types of mixing, and why you beat part of the mixture, but fold another part. We went out to play with the chicks.
I showed him how to use the embroidery machine, and after one go he was able to thread it, put the bobbin in, pick up the bobbin thread, put stabiliser in the hoop, fit the hoop, load a design, stitch the design and change threads. We made hair clips for his sister.
Darling Great Niece arrived with my Aunt (her grandmother), and we played with the chickens, ate the cakes plus some gorgeous Cornish Fairings made by my aunt. We sat in the summerhouse and played cards. We sat outside and played cards. We gave DGN and Aunt a lift home, and then went to see to the allotment chickens.
This resulted in a discussion about what happens to cockerels; and why do we bother to get the chicks used to being handled if they are only going to be dinner. I explained that we wanted to make the process as stress free as possible for the chooks, and that if they weren't used to being handled, it made their last day too stressful. He asked me how we culled them when the time came. I hesitated, and asked him if he really wanted to know. So I described the process, factually and carefully, - from picking up the chicken and talking to it, to the calming effect of the upside down bit, through to the broomstick and the pull. I explained that it was instant He seemed fine.
We talked about Henry and the girls. He suddenly said "Does that mean the eggs from the allotment might be fertile, do they have a chick in them?" I explained that fertile eggs didn't have chicks in, that incubation needed to trigger a fertile egg to start the development process. I could see him thinking about this. Later, he asked about temperatures (Would it start if we out the egg in the oven? Why not? What about if I held it? etc). We have a couple of broody hens, so I encouraged him to put his hand under one, to see how warm it has to be.
Despite chatting non stop, his brain was obviously whirring away. On the way home, he asked me how people could have a broken neck and not die. We then had a discussion about neck thicknesses, and whether you could kill someone by chopping them on the neck somewhere.
At home, as soon as we got in the house, he wanted to sew. I showed him how to thread up the sewing machine - slightly different to the embroidery machine - and he had a go at sewing some lines.
We made dinner. We did more embroidery. We then went and looked at all the fabric I had available, so he could choose some for an apron. Somehow we agreed that wed do an apron with a different pocket. He had a good eye for colour, but was really torn because there were so many fabrics that he liked. We went through an elimination process which involved modelling in front of a mirror.
In the end we chose 2, but didn't make a decision on which way round - I suggested we sleep on it, and he could have a look again in the morning.
