Quite educational walks. In praise of local libraries and book-themed, child+friendly cafes.

I never got round to posting yesterday as the day disappeared down a family wormhole. My daughter phoned late on the morning suggesting we meet somewhere on the road to Uppermill, depending on how far I got on foot before she arrived by car. Once we had met, we parked at the garden centre and walked through the trees until we reached the canal towpath.

Walking along the towpath towards Uppermill village centre, we stopped for a while to watch a longboat manoeuvring the lock gate system. Taking a sneaky look through the windows of the boat, I must say I was impressed with the arrangement of the interior. It looked really comfortable. The kitchen was truly excellent, at least to look at. You could most definitely live in there. 

Once we had discussed the physics and mechanics of the lock gate system with the small grandchildren, we continued on our way. There was a minor argument about where to go first: playground or library. A session of rock-paper-scissors was used to decide the matter. The small boy, who had insisted on the playground first, won and then told us that we could go to the library first after all. 

I have praised the small public library in Uppermill before now. The two small grandchildren were clearly quite at home looking at books in the very comfortable children’s section, deciding which to borrow. While they did so I returned my overdue books, for which fortunately there is no longer a fine, and selected some more to borrow.

As well as a couple of novels I found a book of amigurumi crochet patterns, checking up how to spell that word, I found this definition:

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. The word is a compound of the Japanese words 編み ami, meaning "crocheted or knitted", and 包み kurumi, literally "wrapping", as in 縫い包み nuigurumi "stuffed doll". Amigurumi vary in size and there are no restrictions about size or look.

The “Super cute Amigurumi bible” (rather twee title but there it is) included instructions on how to make a guinea pig. Perfect! because my 8 year old granddaughter is currently guinea pig obsessed. She has a couple of books (at least a couple) about guinea pigs and her current favourite television series and bedtime story book is “Olga da Polga”, a series of stories which portray the world from a guinea pig’s point of view. 

We went on to a cafe for refreshment and I took a look at the instructions for crocheting guinea pigs, for there will have to be two, one each for the small grandchildren, and possibly three as the small people assure me that their cousin, from the southern branch of the family, will undoubtedly want one too. So I popped to the yarn shop conveniently situated next door to the cafe and bought suitable yarn.

The Cupcake Kitchen, as the cafe styles itself, is lined with bookshelves, second hand / pre-loved / pre-read books which people can purchase if they are so inclined, leaving a contribution to charity in an honesty box. There is also a collection of toys and a small carpeted area where children can play, leaving their adults to drink coffee in peace. For a small fee, children can also take part in craft activities. Our two made masks. The coffee is also quite acceptable and they sell a good lemon drizzle cake. All in all, a good little cafe!

It was almost the end of the afternoon by the time we walked back to the garden centre carpark to collect the car. A quick run to the supermarket followed  and then my daughter dropped me off with two bags of stuff - we need to do a bit of celebratory dinner tomorrow as Granddaughter Number Two is home from university for the weekend. 

And that’s where Friday went. 

In the supermarket the small people selected pumpkins to carve for Hallowe’en. The five year old asked one customer who was buying a watermelon if she intended to carve that for Hallowe’en. No! She simply planned to eat it. Later he asked if I was decorating our house for Hallowe’en. No! I’m not but here is a Hallowe’en-related cartoon.:

And as the matter of Labour Party activists going to the USA to campaign for the Democrats rumbles controversially on, here’s a another cartoon:

According to news reports, Nigel Farage used £33,000 of UK donor cash to support Donald Trump in the US election.

So it goes. 

Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!