Conversations and connections

We had a chilled out weekend.  Rob beetled about on Saturday fixing some broken household bits and bobs.  I snuck off to town and had a bucket of mocha from Costa Coffee - seriously, it was medium but they're bloody enormous. 

We had a lovely, relaxed afternoon at our friend's house on Sunday.  Food, wine, music, painting, minecraft, conversation. We didn't want to leave!

This week, we have no plans of any sort.  No meet ups, outings, appointments.  Highly unusual.  

When we have nothing in particular to do, the kids often gravitate to the ipad or the nexus.  I took this photo on Sunday morning, when they were all busy playing games.  It made me smile!

Freddie's been playing a lot of Clash of Clans, and using the global function to communicate with other players.  He frequently asks me how to spell words.  He types them out and reads the replies.  He's learning a lot about how people communicate, what' ok and what isn't, and what might happen if you're rude (one player got kicked out of the clan!).  Fascinating.

Betsy bought an I Can Cook magazine yesterday.  She spent the afternoon doing the activities and puzzles, and really enjoyed it.  By coincidence, many of the foods in the 'abc' bit we'd bought that morning, like apple, egg, lemon and onion.  Some things she hadn't heard of, like zest and figs.  Then by another coincidence, Betsy helped me to make christmas mincemeat, and grated some lemon and orange zest.  And today I remembered there are
green figs on a tree on the way into town.  Betsy picked a couple and we cut them open when we got home.  Some lovely connections made.

Freddie noticed that the water level in the canal has dropped.  We saw a neighbour who said they have changed the flow at the end of the canal as they're doing some work on one of the banks.  Betsy worried about the ducks, but I think they'll be ok!  A young swan has moved in, and we're all a bit concerned about it.  It looks too young to be alone, especially coming up to winter.  Freddie thinks it's a female, by the size and shape of the beak.

On the walk into town, Freddie asked what the council did.  We chatted about roads, street lights, schools etc, and I compared councils to small versions of the government.  Freddie said that he thought the queen was in charge, which led discussion of kings having all the power, to Charles I having his head cut off, and the increase in parliamentary power since then.  He usually tells me when to stop talking (!), but seemed genuinely interested to hear about this.

Other diversions - hopscotch, a new Little Letter subscription for Meg, dressing up, painting, The Phoenix comic.  The car won't start, which is annoying but not a serious problem yet!