Visiting

No not an alpaca. My youngest grandchild giving me a
shower

This will be rather a short post this week, especially as I haven't got any pictures from Ian. I left him at the village bus station, as I headed into Riga for an early morning flight on the Wednesday. I have to confess I'm in disgrace for my farewell, or rather lack of it. We had been busy all morning and I literally had about half an hour to pack for a three week trip and shower at the apartment before setting off for the bus. I was a tad flustered because I had left some stuff in the caravan I intended to take with me. To add insult to injury there were some young guys sat in the seats I would normally sit in and I hadn't realised he was waiting to wave me off. Whoops! I only realised when I saw him wending his way over to the other side of the road. In my defence he normally sits in the car and rarely gets out when I head off, although it is usually for a shorter trip.

The older of the two granddaughters with her lovely curly
hair. This was taken by my grandson

My trip is to see family and a two day seminar later on in the month. At the moment I'm having fun visiting my son and his family in the South of England. As usual I have picked up a cold from nature's little petri dishes, aka the grandchildren, but fortunately nothing serious this time around.

So here are some of the highlights.

I was shown how to jump on the trampoline by my five year old grandson and I accomplished a bounce down onto my behind to a stand up position without killing myself in the process. He was very proud of me.

No not a selfie, but again taken by my grandson

I have accompanied my daughter-in-law to school drop offs and pick ups (not all of them as I had a slow start to the morning this morning due to my cold - lots of sympathy please! Sniffle! Sniffle! Okay not too much just a bit will do) and been to toddlers with her and the youngest two

Our meal that we made along with the story cook book we
used

I looked after the oldest two grandchildren while Mum and Dad had a night away to celebrate their anniversary. The children were very good, especially as I don't get to see them very often. We decided what to cook for our evening meal from a story cook book and then went shopping for the ingredients we needed. I did foul up a bit by buying frozen pastry and forgetting how long it takes to defrost, so we ate cakes we made first. I haven't bought that stuff in years. I was told after the event that there should be some non-frozen pastry too. Well you learn something new everyday. I was surprised at what you can buy in the supermarkets these days. It is hard to believe that people actually buy ready-made bread and butter pudding. Why, when it is so easy?

I had my first G&T tonight. My kids are leading me astray.

Asleep again

My youngest granddaughter keeps falling asleep on me. Not sure why but kind of cute.

I have read books to the grandchildren and been read to by the oldest.

I've also been learning some Makaton (sign language), as my granddaughter is struggling to speak clearly due to a problem with her hearing. We still chat along though and I can sympathise. I have never really had good hearing myself and with a cold I'm even worse. I usually need to see someone's face to be sure what they are saying at the best of times.

Still blowing bubbles

We Skyped Ian today too so our young grandson can see the alpaca he adopted. He calls Brencis, his alpaca. Freddie was much more inquisitive though. Our grandson wanted to see the chickens too and was amazed to see how many we have. He couldn't quite understand why we don't have chicks at this time of the year though.

A cheeky grin

While on Skype I found out that Ian has got on with quite a few jobs. There is a new door on our root cellar that fits better. There is a new training pen ready to halter train the cria in the winter. He's also sorted out a fence for the boys to give them new grass to eat as they have eaten the field right down now. In other words I think he gets on far better without me being around and getting chatting.