When, over morning coffee, your daughters inform you that they have changed their names to Plop, Stomp and Belle - and you know that everyone had breakfast, no-one is hung-over and the throbbing finger that got trapped in the hinge of the garden loppers five minutes earlier confirms that you are awake - you cup your drink in your hands, smile and say "Fine." Then you try to figure out which is which and join the joke, and laugh, and reflect how great it is to have them home, and love the way they tease each other. And wish that it would never end.
The coffee conversation leaps around from funny names, to the funny faces that dogs make before they sneeze - imagine squirting the bitterest most astringent liquid into its mouth and you get the picture. The giggling chatter then tumbles into the subject of fruit and the one calling herself Belle says "It's impossible to eat a banana at school now."
To which Littlest (or Stomp) adds, "I always eat a banana when I have Thursdays."
Perhaps it's the 'having Thursdays' with their associated banana consumption that is making her grow - we did one of our there-isn't-enough-space-in-my-cupboards-because-I-have-too-many-hand-me-down-clothes sorts of her room (mostly the floor) yesterday and some of the too-little-items (which we pass on to the Little family ... yes, really) were a trigger for 'But I like that one' and 'Can't I keep it and turn it into something?' This was followed by "Either my clothes have been shrunking or I've grown 10cm!"
Littlest isn't alone in growing -
In the garden, weeds have taken over the fruit and veg' plot. There are raspberry canes here. Somewhere.
And rather sickly gooseberry bushes cowering beneath the weeds. Pruning out the lichen and broken branches to create a classic goblet-shaped bush may have promoted a healthy recovery.
But perhaps a sudden demise is more likely following the vigorous bark shredding, stem crushing chewing that all the cut branches got while I took a barrow load of weeds and clippings to the bonfire heap.
"Me!" Nooo ...
Spring will no doubt tell if mangled gooseberry bushes are capable of recovery and growth. Spring is also a time to contemplate the undesired growth that is the consequence of months of hibernation, wrapping-up warm and comfort eating - both Bertie Baggins and Four-legged-friend have added winter thickness to their girths and are on a diet - slightly smaller cupfuls of dried food per meal and chopped carrot for treats, adding moisture to the hardened, crumbling, bread gravel in my pockets.
I need to switch to carrots and longer walks too.
Which will happen shortly after I give up chocolate.
The coffee conversation leaps around from funny names, to the funny faces that dogs make before they sneeze - imagine squirting the bitterest most astringent liquid into its mouth and you get the picture. The giggling chatter then tumbles into the subject of fruit and the one calling herself Belle says "It's impossible to eat a banana at school now."
To which Littlest (or Stomp) adds, "I always eat a banana when I have Thursdays."
Perhaps it's the 'having Thursdays' with their associated banana consumption that is making her grow - we did one of our there-isn't-enough-space-in-my-cupboards-because-I-have-too-many-hand-me-down-clothes sorts of her room (mostly the floor) yesterday and some of the too-little-items (which we pass on to the Little family ... yes, really) were a trigger for 'But I like that one' and 'Can't I keep it and turn it into something?' This was followed by "Either my clothes have been shrunking or I've grown 10cm!"
Littlest isn't alone in growing -
In the garden, weeds have taken over the fruit and veg' plot. There are raspberry canes here. Somewhere.
And rather sickly gooseberry bushes cowering beneath the weeds. Pruning out the lichen and broken branches to create a classic goblet-shaped bush may have promoted a healthy recovery.
But perhaps a sudden demise is more likely following the vigorous bark shredding, stem crushing chewing that all the cut branches got while I took a barrow load of weeds and clippings to the bonfire heap.
"Me!" Nooo ...
Spring will no doubt tell if mangled gooseberry bushes are capable of recovery and growth. Spring is also a time to contemplate the undesired growth that is the consequence of months of hibernation, wrapping-up warm and comfort eating - both Bertie Baggins and Four-legged-friend have added winter thickness to their girths and are on a diet - slightly smaller cupfuls of dried food per meal and chopped carrot for treats, adding moisture to the hardened, crumbling, bread gravel in my pockets.
I need to switch to carrots and longer walks too.
Which will happen shortly after I give up chocolate.
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