The garden, The RedMan and other achievements.

We were making the most of the break in the weather and so have been outside at every available opportunity the past few days, hence not much posting on here. It has been good to get some fresh air and poke about in the garden, which still has that wintery sorry for itself look at the moment. My darling husband hacked the apple tree a bit, even though I am pretty sure he missed the suggested window of opportunity by the experts. I feel he has modeled the tree on himself, as it is now very tall and skinny, as opposed to how it used to look, which was more like me, short and round. What really happened is he couldn't find the step ladder to get to the top, hence the unusual pruning shape.

Then, of course, it rained. So what did we do then? Well, MB, owner of the best imagination I know, played with this creation, all day:
This is RedMan. Ignore that he looks slightly satanic. My 4 year old is unaware of satan or anything demonic. This is a man with wings who is red "a bit like a dactyl" as he informed me. MB played with RedMan all day. RedMan went in the car to the shops, sat with us whilst we ate tea and was tucked up in bed. RedMan is beloved now, and lives in MB's SPECIAL box, along with a foam aeroplane, some snap cards and some other oddments.

Also, I owe a debt to the makers of PS2 and Lego games. EB is not a keen reader (that is, he hates school like books with passion. A book about Sharks or Spies, he will ask you to read over and over, a chapter book that screams Key stage One, he will hide down the back of his bed.) Now, he has been playing Lego starwars quite a bit this week, when ever it is too early or late to go outside (Oh, ok, and when ever he was driving me bananas about having nothing to do) and it is by playing this and reading at speed the introductions to each section that he has learnt a dazzling array of words, apart from the obvious Jedi, Darth and Vader, we can add words like Grevious, Impossible, Prepare, the list goes on....all fabulous words that you would never find in a school reading book. He has also learnt to put feeling into what he is reading, my favourite?

"Patience, Young Jedi"