Today the beach at Kirkcudbright

No it is not said like it looks! It has the shortest way of saying it possible! Additional information supplied to me by a local: pronunciation  is Kircudbree – emphasis on the cud, all syllables said in a clipped sort of way.

He's little but he can kick it hard and straight!

Today there was no nursery so we went off to the beach – an adventure trying to find it even though we are pretty close to the coast here in Kirkcudbrightshire! The countryside around here is lovely, very green and lush, with stone walls and beautiful trees. We eventually found the beach and the park; the tide was right out, really right out: we must have got there at dead low and the water was about 800 metres away … However, a picnic, kicking the ball, much playing in the sand, exploring a shipwreck (well, boat wreck) about 500m away from the high tide mark, digging a hole that kept filling with water – very exciting when you’re 4. The tide was coming in rapidly as we left, and Karol was asleep in minutes once the car was moving, slept until about half a mile from home. I have hung out a load of washing that will be dry in about an hour given the heat, and that Marta’s machine has a 1600 spin – I can almost forgive it for being a slow front-loader (NZers will know what I mean!)

Very busy for about 45 minutes just moving sand from one container to another

Grammy and Grandad had turns digging to NZ but the water kept filling the hole!

The boat wreck with the incoming tide behind - it is covered in seaweed, rather than the mussels I was expecting to see

So nothing exciting over these days, but lovely family time. Those moments that become treasured memories, e.g. Karol coming down to our bedroom on Monday morning with the book to be read leading the way around the door – a book I bought him last year from Ashton Scholastic called I Really Want to Eat a Child, about a baby crocodile who won’t eat the bananas his parents are trying to feed him because ‘Today I really want to eat a child’… He can and does tell the story himself, which is lovely to watch and listen to: an important step on the way to reading. With Olek, it’s playing on the trampoline – well, more like I lie on the trampoline and get bounced by him jumping around me – and conversations which are remarkably adult with wonderfully expressive vocabulary and wit. And planning his stay with us on the boat for the first part of his summer holiday. And his delight at growing taller and rapidly catching me up, brat!