Doing something right

Weekend rambles

So after the success of The Hike, we've been out walking again. First, a stroll in the hills behind the village. 

 On the way up.

And then back down. Bonus points if you can spot Téo without enlarging the photo.

Another somewhat more civilized lunch than the bush walking lunches of my youth.

Followed by wild strawberries for dessert.

Next, a stroll up to ... teepees!

Checking out the sleeping quarters.

Three very happy boys. Happy parents too.

Campfire sausages... also somewhat better than the bush walking dinners of my youth. Why, mum and dad, why the textured vegetable protein stews?

Toasted marshmallows. Once again, somewhat better... oh never mind.

And sadly cancelled last weekend due to rain, a hike to see dinosaur footprints. Oh well, another time.

Metamorphosis (an apparently unhelpful guide)

- I want to be a tortoise.

- A tortoise? Why?

- Because dey live to be two hundwed years old.

- Well, you know there is a way for you to become a tortoise.

- (Face lights up) How?

- Well, you go lie near a tortoise and let it eat you.

- (Face falls) Not twue.

- Yes it is, all the atoms that make you Lukan will become part of the tortoise. You will be transformed into a tortoise. You won't be you any more, but you will be a tortoise.

- (Disdain) Dat's not what I want.

- Actually, not all of you would become a tortoise. A lot would become tortoise poo.

Pondering the unanswerable

Why is it that pretty much all efforts to set a good example - even the hard efforts, like not burping or farting or yelling - are routinely ignored, yet despite the presence of bees in our lawn, and despite already having been stung, the kids refuse to wear shoes outside unless I am too?

Penmanship

So sure, the first two years of school were essentially childcare. And even now that maths and reading has started, the level is not equivalent to 2nd class in Australia. But there is one thing the Swiss push faster.

Not only did Téo transition from pencil to pen this year - 2 years ahead of kids in Australia! - but to a fountain pen. A fountain pen!

Can you guess what movie we watched recently? 

And what the current obsession of the shortest and loudest member of the household might be?

Well OK, I agree a fountain pen is not really the height of technology - I mean, weren't ballpoint pens invented to overcome their inadequacies? And true, Téo does now have perpetually blue-stained hands. And there are ink spots on the floor. Our very absorbent floor.

But there is nevertheless something very charming about it all. Especially when your child chooses to use his pocket money to buy himself his own pen and ink cartridges.

They had a blue one, but it wasn't as pretty.

Well OK, he may have done that simply to get more of the plastic balls inside the ink cartridges, a highly desirable item, apparently. But still, it tickles me that my son is learning to write with a fountain pen.

Quick cuppa snapshots

... because it seems that's what this blog's become. And very slow with them, too.

Anyhoo onwards, well backwards actually, to some of what happened 'round here last month.

1. I was fish food.

It's a little disconcerting, the way they swarm up to meet your foot as you lower it in, like starving mini piranhas.

And then a little weird.

And not really that effective, but fun to have tried.

2. I took the kids strawberry picking

It was foul, a wet miserable day but I'd promised Téo so when the rain stopped off we went... to an absolute quagmire where most of the strawberries were rotten, collapsing wetly and grossly around your finger at the slightest touch.

The gobbling up of the good ones was quite yummy, though.

3. I've been bottling

In total I bought something like 10kg of strawberries over the 4 weeks of their season, at least 2 kg at a time, and each time all were gobbled up in no time. So no strawberry jam. Now it's raspberry season... and seeing how we still had around 4kg in the freezer from last year (thanks largely to C's dad who picked and froze what we didn't have time for ourselves), I figured I better get around to using them up. Last night, jam, tonight, raspberry vinegar, and sometime soon, raspberry ginger mint syrup, because doesn't that sound yum?

4. It finally got hot

They did start with bathers, but it's so cool when you slide so fast! And it was only 9.30 so my sun protection mania was not yet active.

Unlike later in the day when we went to the pool.