The whole family descended on us today – L arrived first, with the Boy Wonder, then an hour and a half later H turned up from the Frozen North, followed almost immediately by G and the Baby Brother. Just before the visit I whisked around the garden in search of invertebrates, and spotted this pair of marsh flies having a good time on the pond sedge in the wildlife pond. They’re one of the Tetanocera species, but I can’t get any closer than that from this image.
A month before it should have done, the weather has suddenly turned quite equinoctial, with fierce gusty winds driving waves of cloud across the area, and sunny periods rapidly giving way to cold, dark spells and an occasional sprinkling of rain. This rather put paid to my plan that we could spread ourselves out around the homestead (“How many gardens have you got, Grandma?” said the Boy. “Is it free?” “Four”, I said. “Four?? There’s this one, and that one, and the secret one – but where’s the fourth one?” “Round the front of the house.” “Oh, yes. Four gardens!”), and I’ll admit that by late afternoon I was feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed by the number of people and the amount of noise in the house, but we just about coped.
My other plan, which was that we’d have fajitas for dinner, worked absolutely brilliantly, because L and H commandeered the kitchen and cooked everything I’d bought, while I just wandered around the fringes asking questions and getting in their way. By the time we were eating the Baby Brother was tired and getting a bit grizzly, but this issue was promptly solved by his parents giving him some of their food. I wish I’d had my wits about me, because I’d have liked at least a record shot of my younger grandson (seven months) cheerily troughing through pieces of highly spiced chicken. I suspect he ate rather more of it than the Boy Wonder, who’s become quite a picky eater, and is going to have to up his game if he wants to carry on being the bigger brother much longer.
Tonight the entire crew is staying at a nearby Airbnb, so we’ll be seeing them again tomorrow. Happy times!
R: C4, D21. Fin.
