WE WERE away for a few days over half term, so when Alex came home with a pot of cress seeds from his Beaver pack, I chucked the pot in the bin the morning we left home.

Beavers, for the uninitiated, is the junior section of cubs and scouts.

It was a bit of a shock to then get an e-mail from Rabbit, his Beaver leader, asking for the pots back for measuring and observation at this week's session as the cress counted towards a badge. Doh!

Alex obviously takes after me - in one ear, out the other - because he had no recollection of the conversation at Beavers.

Fortunately, I had some packs of seeds in the house that came with a fantastic new kids magazine pack called Growing Vegetables is Fun!, so we've had to regrow some cress seeds from scratch.

This summer I've decided to get a few growbags for Alex, and armed with his copy of Growing Vegetables is Fun! he'll be sowing seeds and hopefully growing some organic veg for us to eat.

The pack is a cross between a book and a magazine, and gives you the seeds and all the information you need in a fun, child-friendly format.

Alex likes the scrapbook section where you can keep a growing diary.

We only have a little garden so I'll have to move a few pots around to fit the growbags in, but to be honest you could use this guide even if you had a window box where you could grow the herbs and salad leaves and tomatoes, or even a pot indoors is fine for chillies, tomatoes and peppers.

Talking of magazines, I've just finished delivering the latest issue of Sunshine Magazine, the free local community magazine for families living in Hillingdon that I run.

You can get a copy of the magazine from your local library, the information point in both Uxbridge shopping centres and lots of other places in Hillingdon.

This issue has a voucher for a free hot drink from the brilliant Café in the Park at Rickmansworth Aquadrome, and also a half price voucher for family entry to the London Motor Museum in Hayes - both well worth checking out.

If you are having trouble getting a copy, the kind people at the Families' Information Service will send you out one if you call them on 0800 073 4800. 

Growing Vegetables is Fun! - Dennis Publishing, £7.99.

Fetes this weekend

Hillingdon's school fete and fair season has well and truly started. Here are events happening this weekend:

Whitehall School, Cowley Road, Uxbridge, Friday, 3-6pm

Hayes Park School, Raynton Drive, Hayes, Saturday, noon-3pm 

Oak Farm School, Windsor Avenue, Hillingdon, Saturday, noon-3pm 

Glebe Primary School, Sussex Road, Ickenham, Saturday, 1-4pm 

Cowley St Laurence School, Worcester Road, Cowley, Sunday, noon-3pm

There are lots more listed in Sunshine Magazine, and also at www.netmums.com/hillingdon