April Adventures

What happened to the 1st half of April?

We'll be off to Disneyland Paris on Monday, and everyone is very excited. Duncan is just looking forward to getting his present when we get back again. He's going to stay at home with his grandparents, as he wanted. But Lady and Thomas have been deciding what to pack and talking about what rides they'll try and have even been practicing a little bit of French.

Easter weekend we spent with my brother and sister-in-law in Leitrim. The children had a great time with their 2 little cousins and we all enjoyed a few days of being well looked after. My brother did all the cooking, and damn fine food it was too.

My other little niece visited last week one day with my dad and step-mum. We walked through the country park, the children all pretending to be jungle princesses and princes...or something. Lady gathered a handful of leaves and pine cones to pretend to cook when they got back for their 'forest feast'. Some of the leaves, she told me, smelled of garlic. They looked familiar so I Googled wild garlic, and that's what it was. It's quite safe to eat, and tastes good, sort of peppery. The guinea pigs really liked it! They've been loving all the fine weather as they're getting on in their run on the grass every day.

Gordon had a few days off work so we all dossed about a lot and occasionally managed to cross a few things off the always growing to-do list. On the Monday, after we drove back from Leitrim, I took Thomas and Lady into town to buy them shoes and a small suitcase. The traffic was terrible as we approached so I parked in an outer car park and we walked in. It turned out that we'd just missed a parade of some sort. I'd naively (hopefully) assumed it was some sort of Spring festival for families and was sorry we'd missed it. I found out later it was a Orange Order thing and a bunch of low yahoos had been causing trouble so it was no loss. And that's an understatement. Anyway we got what we wanted and went home.

Yesterday, Thomas and Lady were playing on the street (well, the pavement) out in front of our house while Duncan and I were on the computer together watching videos of Disneyland parades on Youtube- oh I wish he had wanted to come with us! Lady came in all excited with a little Yorkshire terrier that they'd found in our garden. They took him into the back garden to play with Duncan, who had immediately named him Pippin after Auntie Mabel's dog (it's a TV show he likes). I went out front and walked up and down the road to see if anyone was looking or calling for their dog. I went to ask the lady who lives across the street if she recognised 'Pippin'. I knew she owned a dog herself and people often know the other dogs in their area. Now I'd never spoken to this woman before, and I'm so glad that we've now met. She's a lovely woman, who has lived here for over 50 years. We stood talking for ages and I told her all about the children and she's going to come over for tea some day when we return from France. It's funny how it takes an unusual occurrence to get you to meet your neighbours.

Another neighbour, whose house backs on to ours didn't recognise 'Pippin' either, but he gave us a little bag of dog food in case he couldn't find his owner soon. I kept an eye out on the street while the children played in the back garden with this adorable little dog. Eventually a woman walked past who was able to tell me where the dog lived, so I called into the right house and the owner came to collect him. The children were so disappointed. They'd been hoping that we'd be able to look after him for a while longer. Hopefully they'll be be able to see him now and then.

It's certainly re-opened the dog debate here again. Though one senior member of the household is adamant that there will be no dog! Ach, sure we'll see!