Our adventure without electricity!

Well, our first attempt didn't go too well.  I got up on Sunday 3rd June, went downstairs and switched on the kettle - whoops!  It is just so automatic, so much taken for granted that the hard bit is not living without the power but remembering not to use it as it is just there!

By the time it had dawned on all of us that we were not meant to be using electricity, it was 10am and more or less every appliance had been used already that day!  Oh well, I am not easily deterred, so the plan was to try again tomorrow - as it was a Bank Holiday it is a similar day to a Sunday in terms of not needing to rush off to work etc.

Take 2: Monday, 4th June - this time it worked better.  The main difference was that we made sure we told the children what we were going to do, just before they went to bed, so that they remembered not to turn on lights etc in the morning.  Tea was made using a saucepan of water on the gas hob, the battery radio kept us company in the kitchen and the children were turfed out into the garden sooner than usual.  The novelty of living without television did not last long for our 6-year-old son who had just discovered the film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  He can be defiant and disobedient when he wishes, but for some reason he did listen and didn't try to sneak the t.v. on; instead we just had to put up with half-hourly questions about whether we could watch "Harry Potter now?".  Mid-morning snack for the children and coffee made in an old-fashioned cafetiere gave us energy to take our dog out to the park.  This was a normal outing for the children, so they forgot about moaning and just enjoyed scooting in the park.

Tea will be ready soon!

Lunch was fried vegetarian sausage sandwiches, and then the afternoon was spent pottering about in the garden.  As soon as Leo was taken out of the environment where he was reminded that he could be watching the film, he was soon occupied in whatever activity we encouraged.  He very enthusiastically re-potted a tray of sunflower seedlings into individual pots with me, and I managed to do all the sowing of onion and sweet-pea seedlings into the ground, and pot up some lettuce and tomato plants into larger pots to encourage their growth.  The rest of the day was taken up with playing Blockus (a board game), whilst Felix started the industrious task of designing and drawing superheroes made from fruit to occupy him and his brother.

Playing Blockus

So while watermelon-man and banana-superdog came to life, Chris and I managed to get the picnic together for the jubilee celebrations that we were having with my Mum and Step-dad in their village.  After a couple of hours of yummy food and listening to a brass-band, we returned to our naturally lit house to get stories read to the children and into bed before the light faded from the windows.  All achieved and finished with a romantic hour of listening to the Royal jubilee concert broadcast from Radio 2 on our little battery-radio in the dark!