puddles

Days 40 – 46 of Project 365

February 15, 2014 by TheBoyAndMe 50 Comments

Days 40-46 of Project 365

40. The Boy (Playing on the beach at sunset, plopping pebbles and making sand angels. I love my son.)

41. New Glasses? (The Boy's teacher had expressed concerns about his eyesight so he had drops in to dilate his pupils for an in-depth test. Nothing the matter with them, thank goodness, which is lucky considering how dreadful his paternal family's eyesight is.)

42. Scoot (A scoot along the promenade at dusk to make sure we just managed a small amount of fresh air! We're so fed up of this rain!)

43. Two-can (We've received a Toucanbox to review – good to see how they've progressed since we first reviewed them – and The Boy was getting to grips with all the activities and where to start! It's a great after-school play activity for us.)

44. Cheese (Thought it was a bit different from the standard sleeping Boy shot!)

45. Jump (There are oodles of puddles on the pavement outside of school, it comes from the council being so God-damned awful at repairing the highways and walkways. It does make for fun and games on the way home though!)

46. Destined Besties? (These two here. Born 11 hours and 55 minutes apart. In the same hospital. One room apart. Shared a pre-delivery room. Shared a post-delivery ward. Live one street away. Best friends in school. The absolute best friends. And his mum and I only discovered their connection a month ago.)

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Why We're Happy It's Autumn

September 13, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 19 Comments

As the wonderfully warm Summer draws to a close in the most spectacularly dreary fashion, I have found myself contemplating which is my favourite season. Surely the blue skies and kaleidoscope of Summer is more of an attraction than the drabness of the colder months?

But with September comes the wonder of the natural world:

Finding the first conker of the year.

Prising it open it to discover that the much longed for and anticipated conker is still white, with just a smidgen of chestnut brown.

But then spotting another one floating in the dammed stream in the gutter.

And there it is, the first shiny conker. The one that no-one in the world has ever seen before.

Why we love Autumn

And then, there's the water.

All the water.

Why we love Autumn

So you can let it beat you, stay in and moan about the incessant rain running in rivulets down the windowpanes. Or you can put on wellies and a mac and go and enjoy all the water.

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country kids

Country Kids: In The Country Park

November 4, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 19 Comments

Near us we have a country park that started life as a quarry. During the 1980s it was flooded and turned into a country park and lakes, and is a popular place to visit on a weekend for a stroll around the main lake, a play in the park and a trek through the wooded area.

The recent rainfall meant that the lake was at least a foot higher than it should have been, the surrounding boardwalk was flooded. However, we took some stale bread and fed the ducks while shoo-ing away gulls with the umbrella (like Sean Connery in Indiana Jones). We took The Boy's bike for him to practise, although daddy had forgotten to raise his seat so he struggled a little. That mixed in with ruts in the path meant that he toppled over a few times, even with stabilisers on, but he got back on and continued pedalling away: good lad!

Today brought a new first; showing The Boy how to climb a tree! (As Coombe Mill has pointed out, it was one of the things to do before 11 and ¾!)

I must confess though that I am properly chilled to the bone now, time for me to invest in some thicker trousers (or even long johns?!) for our outdoor play, I think.

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Country Kids: A Cloudy Carnival

July 15, 2012 by TheBoyAndMe 7 Comments

Every Summer our town has a holiday fortnight, culminating in a carnival and fireworks.

Well it used to be a fortnight, and it used to have a parade with about thirty floats in it. It also used to be sunny in the Summer but there you go. I wonder if it was health and safety that put pay to that as well? The dreaded H&S ensured the end of our very popular parade as community groups and schools could no longer afford the spiralling costs of the insurance. We haven't had floats in about ten years, nowadays it's a walking parade which quite frankly, is pants. And because there's no focal point for the day now, it has slowly dwindled to a handful of stalls down the beach front, a few children's rides, and a few bands who take their turn.

Today was carnival day, so we prepared to head down to the beachfront late afternoon. And while we were standing in the porch it started to rain. Just for a change. So we donned waterproofs and wellies, and trundled down anyway.

While everyone else was huddling under any shelter they could find, we splashed through the puddles. All three of us. We had great fun, as did the people watching us. Sometimes you just have to embrace the weather and deal with it.

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