Things we have talked about:
amethysts
fossils
people dying and why it would be unlikely for me to see her die and how various horrible scenarios might make that happen
red being in pink and orange
differences between DSs and XBox/Wii
what's unhealthy about cola drinks
how sarcasm works

Also talked about queens and princesses. Dozy Mog then claimed to be a queen and was very taken with the rhyming of green and queen but F told him he had to be a king 'because you are a boy, well not exactly a boy, because you are a cat, but you are male and a king is a male queen'. She spelt out SIE CAST IK in some context, for sarcastic. She wondered what it would be like to be a unicorn and whether, if there were real unicorns in the world, they would control the sun and the rain, and therefore rainbows. We rescued a bumble bee and a May bug (cockchafer) and let them out the window.

We talked about where people die and how most people would prefer to die at home. F thought she'd rather die in a hospital so people wouldn't have to see it at home and be sad. She pretended to be a baby ood, with some kind of tentacle-like sweets that J brought home from work. Dozy Mog observed that humans have blood for their stuffing.

F invented a funeral ritual for some plants that J had pulled up from the front garden (a thing that was trying to be a tree far too close to the house). Her ritual consisted of arranging other plants around the main plant in a rectangle shape, strewing some on top of it, singing and scattering petals, tea-drinking out of the coloured china in its honour, writing the date on a piece of paper and putting it all in a bucket. Dozy Mog and I took part of course.

Then F and I went out for a walk of two halves. First we did child-led exploration of the neighbourhood, which involved taking whatever paths F fancied, spotting a plant with enormous silver leaves, a large deep paddling pool on a lawn as slopy as ours, a black cat and a few other talking points. Then we went up 'poo lane' (living up to its name impressively as horses and dogs had both been along there recently) and round the back and explored a path that the kids spotted when we did the FFFs chalk walk. It took us a bit too close for comfort to a steep drop down to the A27 but still was a good explore. We finished off with a good old 'debate' about whether we were going to go to a new group that evening. F suddenly decided she didn't want to, and I tried a bit of persuading and then a bit of 'Well I don't care...' (...if you ignore the lovely opportunities I arrange for you, we can just stay home and I'll go on my laptop then). She took some quiet time to have a think about it, just before we got home, and eventually decided it was worth trying. So we had 40 minutes rest after our walk and then set off out again.

The new group is the younger section of Woodcraft Folk - the older section is well established and they are now ready to start the younger ones going. I had sent an e-mail enquiry a while ago and they got back to me last week to tell me about two trial mixed age sessions. This week it was pond dipping down at the railway land nature reserve. We arrived bang on time, spotted a woman with two children and some nets heading our way. She kind of waved and made eye contact, so I went up to her and said 'Hello, we're new'. Of course, she turned out not to be part of the group at all, and muttered something polite before heading off, probably thinking I had been about to pronounce myself born again or something. F and I giggled for a few minutes about that and then the group turned up. They were a nice mix of people - it was friendly and relaxed. They did a circle introduction, which was pleasantly chaotic, with most people choosing 'good stuff' as the thing they liked about the group. Had plenty of chats with several of the adults, kids seemed nice, F seemed to like it. Much dipping of nets into water ensued, heaps of weed and occasional sludge were extracted and examined. F and I found 3 tiny fish (all of which were put straight into water in bowls and then returned to the pond) and lots of little water snails and she didn't fall in or lose the net we'd been given! Other people found small fish, larvae, tadpoles and nymphy things. F enjoyed it, especially liking a dog that was with the group and kept going in the water, chasing sticks, coming out and shaking the water off. We left before the end as it was already gone 7. Got wraps'n'chips from the kebab shop and came home smelling pondy I suspect. J had had time to do all the washing up and kitchen stuff and do some Wii Fit.