Ariel

We decided to head for the beach today as the weather was expected to be good, and after a brief visit from V to say hello, we got ready and headed off. By the time we’d parked and got to the beach the sun was out and we had a lovely morning. AR seems entirely at home in the water and on the beach…wants to run and jump in the waves, make huge pictures and letters in the sand, do long jump competitions and find treasure (or trej) as she spells it out phonetically!) across the beach. She was just delighted with it all and she and Higgs were in their element - he played with other dogs, found a ball, and dashed around non stop.
Mx on the other hand was less happy. Just as we were turning the corner from the prom to the beach he slipped and fell, and then cried or moaned for ages. Poor wee soul, nothing was right for him, so he sat quietly with H whilst AR played with Mt in the water (extra).
He eventually settled down but was very fragile. We realised he was probably hungry as he’d had very little breakfast, so we headed for a rerun of the pizza and ice cream lunch we’d had here the other day. Children seem to love setting up routines and reliving previous experiences. We had to persuade AR that just because on Friday she’d had ice cream before the pizza that didn’t mean we’d do it in the same order today, and that we’d all start with pizza. Was delicious, and this time much warmer in the sunshine.
We walked back to the car via the ice cream shop …love how she keeps her eye on his ice cream even whilst tackling the mountain in her cone!
Home and they all set off to the museum whilst I went to do some filming for a book festival event to be shown next week. Some interesting books on the shortlist this year and I’ll definitely read the biography winner I think.
The filming overran so I was late back. We decided just to have some nibbles for supper as we’ve eaten so much this weekend and we ate in front of the TV…one episode of Deceit then, to lighten the mood, the first of the new White Lotus. That last one was disrupted though by the re-appearance of the mouse. Higgs was useless…didn’t even seem to see it as it raced behind the sofa and then, in a dreadful moment, ran right across the middle of the floor to go under the other sofa. All three of us were standing on chairs screeching at Higgs to get it and he just stood with his ball hoping we’d throw it for him! In the end we decided to leave it and hope that all the noise we’d made would persuade it back beneath the floorboards or wherever it’s coming from.
We watched the news and were stunned into silence by the scenes from Kabul. Where to start with it all? Such a tragedy, and on a vast scale