Coming Home to Darkness

Day 70 - 6:43pm, 11 March 2019

Running late this morning and so the picture was taken in the dark on the way home. I am looking forward to the clocks going forward at the end of the month and the lighter nights that will ensue. I don't mind dark mornings, because even at their darkest, by the time you get to work, it is generally light. Yet coming home to darkness in the evening seems like an evening wasted.

My Little Aptenodytes Forsteri

Day 77 - 8:11am, 18 March 2019

Little Master went on a museum trip today to see the robot exhibition. I expect him to come home his head full of robots, but no, far from it. What is the first thing that he tells me? "I weigh the same as an emperor penguin." And very proud he is of the fact too.

Lost in a Book

Day 69 - 3:16pm, 10 March 2019

CLIC Sargent have been running a charity auction on eBay this week called Get in Character. It offers the winning bidders the chance to be immortalised as characters in the participating authors' next books. Much as I hope it will raise the charity lots of money, the thought of being a character in something somebody else has written does not appeal to me at all. What would happen if your character did something that you wouldn't do? Would you feel cheated and want your money back?!

But if I could have been in any book, I think I would have been Alice's sister in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, sat on the banks of the riverbank, lost in a book . . .

Nine Years in the Making

Day 72 - 7:50am, 13 March 2019

It's Little Master's class assembly today and I am bursting with pride. He has come so far this year and this event is the evidence of it. He joins in every song and he says his lines. They are mainly incomprehensible, because he is speaking far too fast, but he remembers every word, without a script. [Shrugs shoulders and thinks to herself you can't have everything.] Best of all, he looks like he belongs, is one of them, not on the fringes, not set apart. For once, one of the greater whole.

And I must admit I shed a little tear and there's a lump in my throat when I hear them all sing. It's not just him and how far he's come that creates the spark, it's the potential for a brighter future that I hear in the words, I see in their faces and I know in my soul.

Party Time

Day 82 - 8:08pm, 23 March 2019

I'm not sure if days like this make you feel invincible or just plain vulnerable. Little Mister is turning 12 and today is designated party day. It's an awkward age. Organised parties are either too young or too expensive, so we've opt for a DIY version, hiring two bowling lanes and then back to ours for carry out pizza.

There's something about shepherding a group of over-excited 11-year olds across several busy roads and passed your quiet neighbours' houses that strikes fear into your heart. Hubby has his Garmin Vivosmart on and it tells him he is working harder than he did at the martial arts class beforehand.

Still, we all made it there and back safely, a few nerves shattered, but otherwise okay, and proceed to phase two. God Bless Johnny English, he managed to get them sitting down quietly, I say quietly but it's all relative. It's good to hear them laughing like little kids and some of them even manage to put down their mobile phones to watch it.

A success yes, but I suspect it will take some time for my shoulders to return to their natural position and I can answer a question without screaming - "YES?!" in an accusatory tone.

Bouncing Back

Day 78 - 10:06am, 19 March 2019

It is time for Little Miss to go to gymnastics, only I can't find her. I troop upstairs expecting to have to shout for her to hear me, if she is, as I expect, sitting there with headphones on watching a Youtube video. Instead, I find her tucked up in bed, fast asleep. I decide not to wake her, she has had a cold hanging on her over the last day or so. 

She wakes about an hour later and gurns. After coming downstairs, she coories in and we watch a DVD together. I must exude some sort of magic healing power because within the hour she is up bouncing about with a balloon - that is until her Daddy reminds her that she is supposed to be ill, when suddenly she is a sorry little soul again. A good night's sleep and she will be fine - we hope, anyway, because Little Mister has an appointment at the same time the other two should be going to school tomorrow.

Lunch at the Lodge

Day 76 - 4:49pm, 17 March 2019

After trampolining, we head for a late lunch at the little lodge set just in the gates of The Hermitage. Everyone must have become a little stir crazy after the recent weather and it seems like the whole of Edinburgh is or has been out walking and stopped off here for a bite to eat before us. There is not much in the way of food left when we get there, but what we get is delicious anyway, and the coffee is so smooth and drinkable. Having been a bit of a spur of the moment decision to come here, we head straight home after, but it has set my heart ticking for a family walk of a Sunday. We are so lucky to live in a city that has more than its fair share of outdoor provision, now that Spring is coming, we really must do more to enjoy it together.

Sitting in a Puddle Waiting

Day 75 - 9:53am, 16 March 2019

It's snowing!!! There's something very life-affirming about opening your curtains in the morning to find a layer of snow waiting for you. Immediately you're a kid again, hoping for a snow day and a chance to throw snowballs until the point your gloves are soaked through and your hands are too numb to continue.

Little Miss is due at acro-dance half way through the morning, which means a 15-minute walk through the snow. By the time we set off, it has stopped snowing and the snow left on the ground is rapidly turning to slush as the temperature rises and a growing rash of footprints cover it.

We are just passed the traffic lights when a taxi speeding toward us, no doubt to cheat the lights, covers us from head to foot in a hail of dirty slush. Thankfully, Little Miss has her waterproof trousers on so is able to strip off once we get to the dance studio. I, however, am wearing jeans and sit there waiting for her in a puddle of my own making, until it is time to walk home again. This is not the snow day I was dreaming of!

Wild Garlic in the Woods

Day 71 - 1:17pm, 12 March 2019

I am helping at the school book fair today. It is hectic but fun. The kids are like a storm of greedy locusts, devouring every book in sight. They go, you re-set it and then the next plague comes along and strips the shelves bare. It is nice to see that they still get a thrill from a physical book as opposed to a virtual one. 

After eating my lunch, I make my way to the bridge to take my photo and then cut through Craiglockhart Dell back up toward the school. Despite feeling bloated from lunch, the unmistakable smell arising from the wood's flooring of wild garlic tricks me into feeling hungry. It is so strong I can taste the garlic without it having to be anywhere near my mouth. Wow, if I can trick my body that easily, I need never actually eat an unnecessary calorie ever again, just smell it and I'll be fine and dandy.

My Little Princess

Day 68 - 5:15pm, 9 March 2019

The Brownies are going to Edinburgh Castle as part of their Local History badge. I am not sure how much history they come away with, but they certainly make the most of their time in the gift shop. Little Miss returns with the world's largest lollipop. It is so big she doesn't even finish it by the time we make the bus trip home; I reckon she will still be licking it when she returns to school on Monday. I am pleasantly surprised however that she comes home with change; she is growing up - I can tell this, because not only does she not spend all the money, but she pockets the change for use by herself at some later date.

Walk Softly

Day 79 - 10am, 20 March 2019

Today is the first day of Spring and the International Day of Happiness. I suspect it was no accident that the UN selected this date to celebrate happiness as a human goal. The trees are budding, the days are lengthening and so it should, perhaps, be a little easier to be happy. That being said, the only posts I see about happiness on social media seem to have been from those who aren't happy, who are having a tough day. Later on, I see a Twitter post from Action for Happiness, which makes ten suggestions for how to be happier. I'd like to make an eleventh, Walk Softly - meaning, be gentle with yourself, others and the earth on which we are so dependent. If you can do that, the world will be a happier place.