Talking turkey

Due to technical difficulties I am not yet able to bring you the answer to Monday's Mystery Object Competition. Tune in tomorrow for the big reveal! Meanwhile, if you haven't already, take a look at some of the entertaining suggested answers (click on Comments).

I glanced out of the kitchen window early this morning while preparing packed lunches and was startled to see a flock of wild turkeys racing down the garden slope.

It was an impressive sight. They're not as huge as fattened up farm turkeys, but still massively out of scale with your average garden sparrow. I'm told the males can weigh up to 8 pounds. They hung around all day, and in the evening we watched one of them seeing off a domestic cat.

I helped out in the school library for a bit today, shelving books. The librarian introduced me to a children's picture book which is currently top of America's most banned literature list: And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. It's the true tale of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who became a couple. After failing to hatch a stone, they were given an egg to sit on and in due course became the proud fathers of a penguin chick. It's a very sweet book, but I'm sure you can guess why it has been banned in schools and libraries in various parts of the States - and if you can't, read some of the one-star reviews on Amazon. As the Man points out, under Section 28 it would, until 2003, have been banned in the UK too. How very silly. Request it from your local library today!

What with them travelling by bus now, the school day being so long and the toys having arrived from England, I feel a bit surplus to the children's requirements. Well, that's not strictly true. I have to feed them occasionally. And, perhaps even more importantly, last night I was called on to comfort a tired and weepy little Boy. After a cuddle and a few consoling words (and a bowl of mini-wheats) he was back to his usual cheery self, but it's true for us all that no matter how much fun we're having here (and we are) we still miss our friends back home.