Eight years ago

This time eight years ago I was slightly drunk (as I am now), dancing wildly and singing badly to whatever the band was playing, clutching the man I had married just a few hours earlier. I remember the heady frivolity of that night, and the many similar nights that have followed, with great fondness.

I am lucky that I found the right man and he stuck around long enough to think I was the right woman. In spite of all our many flaws, we are still happiest in each other's company and for that I am hugely thankful.

Happy Anniversary grumpy old man. x

Redcurrants

A small harvest, but delicious all the same, and the promise of a few more to come.



Yum.

Baking in the heat

Round here there are several ways of enjoying the heat but it is Stanley who does it in style, lolloping slowly around the garden, pausing here and there to nibble something delicious. He is especially fond of lying in the shade under the raspberries where he is completely invisible to the anxious owner. He likes to hide when we are out of the garden but comes out when there is company to be shared, hopping past us slowly with a friendly waggle of the ears.



He is the biggest rabbit I have ever met with enormous satellite dishes for ears. A cat sized bundle of soft white fluff you can bury your hand in and is always spotlessly clean. One ear always sticks up, the other flops about unless he is feeling especially alert and he clearly considers himself the boss.

Given the chaos inside, he is probably right.

Two sad things

Today has been one of many tears, for all of us. A dear friend has moved far enough away that a visit would be quite an epic trip. I shall miss her enormously. She is a funny and happy soul, endlessly generous with time, friendship and hospitality and there will be a big hole in my life where she used to be. Still, a visit is in the offing and a trip to pastures new is never to be turned down.

The friend's daughter is bestest pal to one of the smalls so she has been sobbing, great waves of sadness at saying goodbye. They have had some great fun over the past two years and the classroom will be quiet without her. On the bright side, it is a fantastic opportunity to learn how to communicate by phone, email and Skype which I'm sure will be fun though I suspect it is bound to drive me nuts at some point.

Finally, as if the day was not sad enough, we came home from school to find the guinea pig had died, totally unexpectedly. More sobs, this time from the smallest small, whose pet he was. A state funeral will take place tomorrow, should any of you have a gap in your diaries.

Collective nouns

This afternoon, with what might be classed by some as reckless abandon, I have collected five extra children. There is now a tribe of seven running around the garden, driving tractors and trikes, watering plants, digging in the sandpit and generally getting up to all sorts of mischief. All this activity is accompanied by a constant babble of noise, most of it loud. I can only hope the neighbours are away.

I do no know what the collective noun for children is, but I would suggest a cacophony.