Wednesday, September 27, 2006

We made the newspaper! Front page, no less!

Well, weren't we surprised today to see our lovely photo in full colour on the front of the local newspaper! The photographer came out last week to take a photo of the kids with their sunflowers. He took a photo of them with the tallest one, which was 9ft3 at the time. We hoped it would get into the paper somewhere, but didn't expect to see it on the front cover! How exciting for the children. Even Luke was chuffed to bits. We will have to buy a heap of copies to send to our family in England. Here is the photo from the front page...







(click on it to see the real size version). I was slightly disappointed that they didn't mention that growing the sunflowers was part of their home education project, but oh well.



Whilst talking about the newspaper, I read an article in it about the problem with dogs fouling the pavements. There is nothing that disgusts me more, than people who let their dogs poo all over the place. Would you believe that Sam found a doggy poo bag in our garden, opened it, to discover the dog muck inside! Someone had picked the mess up and put it in a bag, then lobbed it into our back garden!! (A garden which is clearly filled with childrens toys - swings, slides, trampoline etc) What sort of person would do that? Anyway, there is a dog in our cul-de-sac that is allowed to roam the street from time to time, and it has taken a liking to our front garden. Currently there are 3 piles of dogs mess in our driveway, and today Luke trod in some. I shouldn't have to worry about the kids in our own garden, especially when we live in a quiet little cul-de-sac, not even on a main road. I'm trying to get Steve to go and politely talk to the neighbours about it, but he is reluctant, so it looks like I will have to do it myself. I'm thinking of trying a sort of "a dog keeps fouling in our garden, and we would be grateful if you could keep your dog out of our yard, so that we can pin point the offending dog and deal with it" approach... Sam thinks we should get photographic evidence, and Steve thinks we should leave a note at their house. Anyone got any suggestions? I really don't want a fight with the neighbours, but I can't stand that they let their dog foul in our garden, while their own garden is all neat and clean.



7 comments:

Deb said...

Wow! Celebrities in our midst! Television, newspapers... you've got it all! :-D

Re dog poop - when we lived in TO, there was a very large park in front of the house, with a doggy area and an active dog-owners' association. And one family who repeatedly let their very large dog out of the house to bound across the road to the park and do its stuff. Eventually the dog-owners' association members, fed up with getting bad PR from this, collected it all in a large bag, went to the offending house, and when the door was opened, handed it to them with the words, "You forgot to clean this up." Might not be the tactic you want to use, but it worked LOL

Anonymous said...

These local papers have no idea how to present news stories:
''Terrified local children traumatised after giant sunflower attack. Dog-poo epidemic blamed for freak plant growth.''

Hazel said...

LOL at both comments! Steve saw the neighbours out in the garden so he made out like he was just passing and started chatting to the bloke. He mentioned the dog poo and how it had today been trodden through the house. The guy was nice, but sure it wasn't his dog. Then he said "Come to think of it, two other neighbours have called round recently, complaining of the same thing". He has bought a gate to go across his driveway to keep the dog in, so hopefully that will help.

Sharon McDaid said...

All this media exposure will be good practise for when your children are stars of musical theatre!

The photo looks great, and it's a pity they didn't mention the HE. Perhaps that was considered a bit too much for the good citizens of your town.

Lots of sympathy re. the poo problem. That drives me so mad too, and what kind of sick, nasty person would chuck it into your garden. I hope the front garden problem will be solved now though.

Hazel said...

yes thats lovely me!

Anonymous said...

Ugh to the dog poo problem, glad you may have it sorted now.

Where we live there are regular patrols by dog-wardens and any 'strays' get picked up, you also get fined (up to 1,000 pound I think) for letting your dog foul the path.

Anonymous said...

Wow the front page, that is so great!!

Tammy