The
Dorset Family
No photographs of the Dorset Family! No opportunities, so here's a photograph of Arthur this morning, saying, 'It's about time we went out for a walk!'
On Tuesday
evening I had a call from my eldest daughter, asking if it would be all right
for her to visit the following day. She had been intending to descend on us
without warning, but her elder daughter said, ‘Mum, haven’t you read Janice’s
blog? She said that it's lovely to see people, but a little advance notice
would be helpful.’
I was
surprised at that. I didn’t know that Marnie read my blog. Anyway, Gillian took
the advice to heart. On Wednesday, Gillian, her daughters, one son-in-law and
all six of her grandchildren arrived. Their dogs remained in Dorset.
Five-month-old
Hailey was passed to me and sat happily on my knee watching her cousins. The
other three girls, Marnie’s daughter, Isla, who is twelve, Kiri’s daughter, Ariella,
four, and Callum’s daughter Melia, two and a half, did what girls usually do.
They settled down on the floor with paper and coloured pencils, then gravitated
to construction toys with gears and cogs. It’s clear that they spend a lot of
time together, giving, taking, and working cooperatively.
Fergus, who
is nearly eleven, concentrated on playing with the dogs, particularly Gilbert. He is very much at ease with animals.
Luca was busy pressing buttons and investigating the contents of cupboards and
drawers. He will be three in October and is ‘into everything’ as the saying
goes. He needs a dedicated full-time adult to monitor his actions, and prevent them
if necessary possible. He found the cat litter tray especially interesting.
The texture of the granules was pleasing as it poured through his fingers. Naturally,
the more he was dissuaded from investigating it, the greater was the
fascination. Fortunately, the tray only contained unused litter! The cats were
prowling around, quite unaffected by the sudden influx of people, particularly
small ones.
Gilbert
and Arthur were intrigued by the baby and gently licked her toes, which she
seemed to enjoy. Roxy, of course, is an old hand paw with little humans,
and knew which ones to attend, principally Luca, who was waving his food around
in a tantalising manner.
Barry
took Marnie and Dean into the garden, to pick apples and plums, of which there are
an abundance. All the children, apart from Hailey, had a turn around the garden –
such a Regency phrase!
Our
garden is no longer a children’s space, in the sense that they cannot play football,
cricket, or tennis in it, or ride their bikes, but it is full of interest. We
have tried to divide it into ‘rooms’ with a winding path and arches which support
a variety of climbing plants. Actually, it’s more the case that the plants support
the arches now.
Marnie
was in seventh heaven. Her ambition is to have a self-sufficient garden. She
already grows a few vegetables, but has plans for much more when she and Dean can
acquire a house with a bigger garden.
She came back
into the house laden with fruit, a branch (!) of bay leaves to dry, thyme, oregano,
a number of different mint plants, which she can root on, and a great quantity
of cobnuts. She and Paul, her father, have been engaged in creating chutneys
and pies. The crab apples are not ripe, so she will have to make a return
journey to pick those for crab apple jelly. I haven’t made that for some years
now as somehow everything in sight gets covered in stickiness.
They had
to leave early as Fergus had a football match near Blandford. He’s a tall boy
and plays goalkeeper, like his sister, Isla, and just as his mother used to.
All too
soon, the house was relatively empty again and peace descended. The dogs and
cats slept well, Gilbert retiring to (our) bed shortly after his supper at 6:30.
Tonight,
there will be more upheaval for Arthur when Susannah returns. He will be so
excited. He’s a lovely little dog, very faithful and affectionate and we shall
miss him when he returns to London with Susannah and her cats.