I’ve been struggling a little with the expectation of the summer not quite matching the reality. I was so excited to have Piglet home all summerlong. I was excited for how BLISSFUL it would be to not have to stick to the school-day schedule and to be our own bosses. Lazy, hazy, easy summer days.  In reality, it has rained most days, there’s been some pretty tricky behaviour, I’ve spent a small fortune in cafes and have semi-regularly stress-spooned Nutella straight out of the jar.  Turns out that everyday life is still everyday life without the school run: good and happy but with ups and downs.  

There have been lots of lovely moments this summer so far, despite the rain.  And a lot of them were nature-moments.  Here’s a few:

– Trix (now almost 2 and a half) absolutely loves picking flowers in the garden.  She takes out her tiny scissors and snips away.  She especially loves the purple lavender. She then yells at me until I find her a tiny vase to put them in.  So our kitchen has had tiny Trix-posies in it all summer.  She also loves picking wildflowers when we are out and about.  If she spots a flower that she desperately wants to pick she shouts MAYBE PICK IT TAKE IT HOME MUMMY PLEASE.  

– I’ve become quite protective over our aubergine plants in the community polytunnel.  I had absolutely no interest in growing aubergines as I had heard that they are quite high maintenance, but we were given seeds so we gave it a go.  Two plants survived the choas of toddler fingers replanting them.  They grew quite big! And then they flowered and the flowers are a pretty purplish-pink with really quite vicious spikes. I was hooked! Aubergines are rockstars! And a pinkish flower faded to reveal a glossy purple Baby Aubergine.  Captivating! Then a slug ate Baby Aubergine and I was bereft.  But more flowers came and more baby aubergines are appearing.  I visit them every day to whisper encouraging words and to threaten the local slug population.  If we get an edible aubergine I will be unbearably smug and joyful.  

– we went glamping with Auntie Ruth.  We were supposed to go camping but it escalated and we ended up booking a wigwam with a hot tub. I found it comforting to be sleeping in a funny little hut knowing that there’s a blanket of perfect dark, filled with stars, above your head.

– while away with Ruth, she took on the alter ego of a Soggy Sock Troll who chased small children with their own soggy socks.  The only way to defeat her was to throw hogweed seeds at her.  Thus, a hogweed obsession was born.

There’s still two weeks of the summer holidays to go. The sun is out. I’m excited! I’m desperately trying to stay in the moment – I shan’t let worries about Piglet starting primary school shadow our summer. August is going to be a big month for my little family.

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