I woke several times during the night last night to the sound of rain on the attic bedroom skylight windows. Not just gentle, reassuring patter but proper heavy hammering. What Granddaughter Number One always calls “biblical rain”! It was still going when I got up at some unconscionably early hour to let my daughter drop the two smallest grandchildren off for the day.
My daughter has been back at work this week after her half term holiday. For some reason that escapes us all, the school the two smallest grandchildren go to has two weeks for the half term holiday. They have been Daddy’s responsibility earlier in the week as I have been occupied with my own stuff but today they came to me so that he could catch up with the kind of admin work you can’t do with two small children around.
We pottered about for the first part of the morning: having some breakfast, actually changing from pyjamas into daytime clothes. We did a bit of planning for what we might do together: a bit of telly - but not too much - some craft work, a story or three, and maybe, just maybe, an adventure.
Granddaughter Number Four and I persuaded Grandson Number Two that he wasn’t going to spend all day watching Minecraft videos on YouTube Kids. While he spent some time doing just that, she and I did the first of our craftwork projects. Then we all three investigated water bears, also known as tardigrades, tiny, tiny creatures, also known as moss-pigs. Grandson Number Two was very excited to discover extra information about these survivors - surviving under arctic ice, in the deepest ocean, out in space on the space station, much more resilient than dinosaurs!
Towards the end of the morning the rain seemed to have stopped. The sun even came out. We got ourselves together, put our waterproofs in my rucksack, and set off to walk into the village, pick up some supplies at the co-op, and then go to the sandy park, a place we used to frequent on a regular basis but where we hadn’t been for well over a year.
We had a picnic, the children managed to make the “digger” toys work - you sit on a rudimentary seat and work levers to scoop up sand from one place and dump it in another. Grandson Number Two constructed a volcano out of sand (we had been looking at pictures of Etna in eruption) and Granddaughter Number Four made a farm with all the animals and tractors and so on drawn in the sand. Who says children don’t know how to play?
After some time we had to put on our waterproofs but the imaginative play continued. Eventually we had to accept that it was no longer just spitting with rain but beginning to be a bit persistent. We fastened our raincoats and set off homewards. Just as we reached the point where there is nowhere to shelter from the worst of it, the rain decided to go up a gear, moving into that “biblical rain”. Even with waterproofs we were rather wet when we arrived home. But we had had our adventure and there were snacks to revive our flagging energy.
My daughter arrived in the late afternoon, we all had tea together as it’s Thursday. It’s a regular Thursday thing. Out of the blue Grandson Number One turned up in an Uber. Since he’s been working he feels he can be extravagant when it suits him. At present what seems to suit him is the prospect of buying a rather expensive bicycle! We’ll see how that goes!
A good day on the whole.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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