Pouring

'Man's maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play'
Frederick Nietzsche

Mostly I don't get to blip the children I work with ( which is a pity as I am a playworker). This is Charlie, the son of a former colleague of mine. He's not quite two, but a very active toddler. His mother, Beth, and I had arranged to meet up in the pub as Stroud's "outer fringe" festival was going on, but Charlie kept running out of the open door into the road. So we went up to the delightful play area at Daisybank, then back to my house via the path along the allotments.

Charlie likes cats, but our Bomble was being a scaredy-cat and ran away as soon as he saw Charlie! It didn't take Charlie long to notice some saucepans, so we got him water, pans and a teapot for easy pouring, which he soon discarded. He was in heaven. My mother would approve: she's a Montessori teacher, and I was Montessori educated too. We like playing with 'real stuff', sometimes inventing new uses for it, as opposed to using manufactured toys.

All went smoothly: our garden has many steps and potential hazards but Beth is a vigilant mum and not a worrier. The only setback came when I was lying in the hammock watching Charlie and Beth go down some steps. I took a swig out of a glass without looking at the contents, then felt something fuzzy clawing at my upper lip! In a second, I realised it was a wasp. I spat it out and swore and raged and got some anthistamine tablets and chamomile lotion. Luckily, that was that. It still hurts but I did not go into shock and I don't even have those bee sting lips that were so fashionable a while back!

After C&B left, CleanSteve and I went to the pub again with DailyKeith, another blipper, and they talked about flash photography and I drooled over cakes. There had been a flower show/country fair competition with prizes for best flower arrangement, best vegetables, and so on. Sadly it was almost over bar the auctioning of any leftovers, but I did photograph a delightful strawberry cake, and buy a couple of books for charity. Just out of interest to blipper Agan, who mentioned seeing the "Fifty Shades" trilogy in Canadian goodwill/charity/op shops, I saw two copies of Fifty Shades Darker in one charity shop yesterday, and one on the bookstall today. It must be the worst of the lot!

Then I came home and gessoed the magazine files I bought yesterday, and cooked a healthy coconut rice and lime dish. I don't need to go back to the pub a third time to hear the music: I can hear it all from here.

I also invented a new foot cream for a client. I am ridiculously pleased with it.