School Holiday Diary Day 3 and one lucky little bird

Day 3 started off very wet and dull so inside activities were the order of the day. The fantastic array of card making and crafting materials I had collected from a local freecycler yesterday came in very handy with some of the littlies making birthday cards for their mums. My lot will chop things up & stick things down for England ..... our best days have been spent playing with cardboard boxes which just goes to show you don't need expensive toys and gadgets to keep them amused. A couple of summers ago we took delivery of an American style double fridge/freezer which came in an enormous box ..... the delivery men kindly left it behind and it was used every day until it finally collapsed.

While we were all busy at the kitchen table this morning our black cat Binks came in from the garden. I didn't take too much notice of him at first but he sat by my feet and wouldn't move ...... I heard a little flapping sound and when I took a closer look he had this little chap in his mouth! I gently removed him and was so relieved to find he was still in once piece. He is a baby Robin and you will be glad to know that after I put him outside on the bird table he flew off seconds after I took this photo. My husband keeps and breeds budgies, canaries and small parakeets and somehow our moggies know they have to look after birds and it was as if Binks had found him in the garden and brought him in to me. Many years ago we had a cat called Tiggy ..... one summers day I was relaxing in the garden when he came up to me and dropped a baby bird by the side of the chair ..... it turned out to be one of the babies from our shed that had escaped under the wire door and somehow Tiggy had found it and brought it back safely. After lunch the skies had brightened up and the sun came out so we decided to take a walk to the local park with the dog. A few minutes after we arrived a group of young people came over and it turned out they were from the local council and they had managed to obtain lottery funding to provide a Play Rangers scheme for the summer hols ..... they hadn't had enough time to advertise in the schools before the end of term and we were lucky that it was our park's turn today. They had brand spanking new equipment ...... cricket, footballs, hula hoops, skipping ropes, rope swings to put in the trees, frisbees, space hoppers and boxes of craft equipment ..... just about everything to cater for all age groups. There were two other groups of children playing in the park and my lot (5 in total this afternoon) so we all got together and played non-stop cricket and ended up staying there for a couple of hours. They will be there one afternoon a week for every week of the holidays and so we will be going again and will be prepared next time with a picnic and drinks. The children really enjoyed themselves and it was free which was excellent from my point of view. When we came home they were knackered so we watched Pirates of the Caribbean and I finished off my latest bag. In a former life this denim was a pair of jeans belonging to my daughter .... I was just about to put them in the bag for the CS when I thought it would be worth seeing if they could be converted to a bag and I am so pleased with the result ..... I have lined it with Laura Ashley pink Aubrey check fabric.