Sometimes I ponder over them; sift them through my fingers. Are there enough to make a post out of?
Other times, they come thickly, like jam and extra helpings of jam, and jam dripping off those same fingers.
Mainly, it’s the chance to pause. I need that right now.
—
A week with two days off in it. Monday and Thursday. One strange school week as a consequence, but light on the homework. That helps.
Granny R comes round on Monday. We have no plans for the day, but she comes armed with rug cleaner and so on, so we knock off a few more things on the to do list.
Including helping me get over my (often internalised) ‘I don’t know how to do it!’ with the lawnmower and strimmer. And I decided that both are now OK.
The strimmer is very satisfying. I can see why you might start here and make a progression up to chain saw. (But I won’t. And we don’t need that much sawing anyway.)
Junior Reader dances in and out of the day’s procedings. It is, for once, sunny AND a holiday: perfect. The space hopper makes its maiden voyage (a present back in the dark days of December); the bow and arrow see their chance to have longer distances to attempt.
By Thursday, the weather has turned cold. Again. What is going on this spring? The trees, the flowers, they know it’s spring, but the wind does not.
Thankfully, we have plenty to occupy ourselves, visiting friends. The jackpot jumble sale of the year, obviously keenly awaited (and elbows need to be pretty sharp too, it’s a crush).
We come away with a few new books. I steel myself to leave it at that. (But I may revisit my youth a bit and make some cardboard models.)
We do some decoupage – otherwise known as decorating items with cut up strips of paper. I’ve done this with tissue paper; I discover it can be done with wrapping paper too. (I think those wisps of paper that won’t wrap anything just found an outlet.)
We have a walk – a rather wet underfoot walk, because it’s been chucking it down all lunchtime. We admire snails; pick campion; catch glimpses of the coast when there’s a gap in the trees.
—
All this on the ‘off” days (which, as we know, are really full-on days). But there are other treats to catch just now, if you have a moment.
The moments when you find it possible to go around in T-shirt and jumper alone.
(Yes, the coat is still with me, almost always. It’s Scotland. Rain is the more likely option.
Plus I don’t have to transfer essentials out of the pockets.)
I have a treasured conversation with my dad, a few days on from an op, and getting better.
It is a Friday night, and Junior Reader is in bed. The weekend stretches out before me, and I am chatting books with my dad, amongst other things.
The lilacs are in bloom. I see them on the school run, and any other on-foot errands I’m running.
Sometimes, when I think I can (without someone spotting me), I pull a branch towards me, and take a good long sniff.