The perils of living near a lobster

Ok, so it's slightly obvious that my neighbours think I'm a little strange. I am covered in tattoos, have had a vast assortment of different hair colours, until I finally settled for being blonde.. my boy has long hair, I have a box full of chemistry vases and test tubes (don't ask) in my back garden and they can no doubt hear the occasionall 'ommmm' drifting out of my window into their living rooms. See, I think that's all perfectly normal, but maybe in the eyes of society I am indeed a bit strange; I am twenty-three years old, and detest going to pubs, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't watch tv, I like knitting,  I hug trees....

....And yesterday I told my most nosey neighbour (who's daughter happens to be a social worker) that I am home educating my son! I can't remember what he said his real name is, but he is known to me as 'Lobster Man' ever since he invited me into his bungalow and jarred me almost to death with his brass horses, and his singing lobster!! Now, avoiding getting stuck talking to him is like trying to avoid the norovirus, or the bubonic plague when there is an outbreak of it sweeping the nation...pretty hard!

Yesterday as I was walking back from the park, where we had been collecting conkers, I knew he was waiting to pounce as his front door was open. (he had obviously seen me leave, and knew I'd be back). Just as I had nearly escaped to the safety of my flat, over he came asking if I wanted some books that his daughter was getting rid of, and then the question I've been dreading but knew would come sooner or later...''so does he go to school'' and then I said it, my words seeming to reverberate around the whole neighbourhood ''he is actually home educated!''
He then proceeded to tell me how important it was to go to school, and how he forced his daughter to go to college because ''you don't get anywhere in life without that bit of paper'' and that now she has a nice house and a nice car, all because she is a social worker all because she had that bit of paper.

So, yes - this blog post is a bit of a rant - what is so special about having a nice house and a nice car anyway? Sure, those things are indeed 'nice' but why are you a higher- up person in society if you have these things? does it make you more of a special person? Does it make you nicer or more important? It certainly seems to make you more respected, but would I care about being respected by people with such a narrow view point anyway? And with regards to 'that bit of paper' I've heard of many people who have been home-educated and gone on to do very rocket-sciencey type things at university. So Lobster Man can think what he wants - I will teach my boy that he can have whatever he wants in life if he works hard for it but I will love him and be proud of him anyway weather he chooses to be a brain surgeon or a busker in the street...as long as he stays true to himself.

On a lighter note, we have been having so much september fun :) here is our mabon table and some pretty leaf rubbings and drawings by Acey:

And we (ok, me more so than Acey) have been enjoying eating more raw food, and feeling alot better for it; This is what we had yesterday;

Raw cauliflower leaf salad: (this is pretty much the same as raw kale salad, although we didn't have any kale so substituted it with cauliflower leaves)

Massage the cauliflower leaves (or kale, or whatever) with some olive oil, lemon juice and himalayan rock salt (which is soooo good for you and is pink!!) and then add lots of other scrummy salady things. We had grapes, tomatoes, mushrooms, spring onions, broccoli florets and sesame/linseeds! it is very delicious indeed!