Day 13. Garden adventures!

Minded Sinead's two little ones today, and we had a whirlwind of a time; building a fort, water-fights, swings, walks, bike-and-scooter races, minor cuts and abrasions, reading Avengers books, and then, finally, a cup of tea with Sinead, who had a refreshing three-hour sleep while I played downstairs! I feel vastly complimented (and a little terrified) that she trusted me to watch the boys. Daniel is warm and friendly, Isaac a little more withdrawn, but equally heart-melting. Daniel took me on a tour of the garden, while Isaac whispered to me sotto voce 'I'm shy', so we agreed to talk but not look at each other till he was comfortable. Half an hour later, as I was lifting him off the gym equipment on our walk by the river, I was absurdly complimented when he told me he 'wasn't shy anymore.' The only downside came when he fell (after insisting being wrapped as a mummy in a towel, post an imprompt water-splashing-event). He pronounced himself 'sad', but when I patched him up with a gaily chequered plaster I caught him admiring his dashing reflection in the hall mirror.

They were adorable!

So, today, I feel that most of my creative endeavours went into ensuring the boys didn't die or get seriously harmed over the course of our three hour adventure! BUT I also got a fresh surge of inspiration for TWTWH (inventing fictive theosophical journal extracts) and plunged past the thousand-odd word mark I'd been stuck on, and finally (I hope) hit the downward slope.

Came home to find that Scott had mowed the madly overgrown lawn and made an amazing, spicy chili. (See Freya modelling the newly-mown garden below)

And Sinead sent me home with some fantastic pear and cardamon scones!

A day which contained a lot of winning.