June inspiration

Here in England, we have half term holiday, this week. This is a week later than usual because of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations but there are still several weeks to go before the summer break.

I'm looking forward to a new geography project, in this second half of term. My work has been made much easier by an incredibly useful and detailed Geography Travel post by Debbie at Our cup of tea. Debbie has posted the work that she has done with her children on various places and has added additional links. So far, she has posted on Canada, Iran, Venezuela, Haiti, Peru and there is more to come. Definitely, something to look at if you are planning to do a country unit study.


Over half term, we have taken part in the RSPB Nature count. This is a simple survey and involves counting the numbers and types of birds in the garden, or in a park, over an hour. The data can be entered on-line and there are an additional few questions about other types of wildlife seen, in the garden, but not necessarily in the hour. This is a great survey for different age groups. We had all three generations involved. The survey can be entered until the end of the week.

There is a fascinating challenge over at Keeper of the Home-The eat from the freezer and pantry challenge. The idea is to make an inventory of everything in the cupboards and freezer and save by living off this. I made an inventory and found that there was loads of apple, not a surprise and some seeds but not loads, or any, forgotten vegetables.

The inventory has been good, in that we have had some seedy bread which seems to be very popular. We had a bacon and spilt pea soup to use up some left overs of both and a greengage crumble. We continue to eat apples but, probably as a comment on our plenty in this part of the globe, it is difficult to use up more than one or two containers a week. Today, we had an apple cake which was well received but I think that I have overdone the apple crumble theme.

I didn't really count the jams and marmalades. These are eaten at a steady rate-it would be good to have enough marmalade to last until next January and this year may be the closest yet.

Altogether, we probably saved the grand total of about £10 from the challenge although much more from using the freezer through the year. Perhaps, the most useful lesson for me, was to freeze/preserve more of a variety of fruit and vegetables. Having prolific apples trees it is tempting to fill the freezer with apples but there is a real risk of apple fatigue!

Finally, a review of one of my most loved books: Crushed yet conquoring by Deborah Alcock. I have a lovely old copy, found in a second hand bookshop but it has been reprinted and is worth reading. Head over to the review to read more!