Thursday 29 May 2008

Owen and his bucket full of snails


My idealistic and relaxing visit to the plot today was to have both boys engaging with mother nature and the great outdoors. Reality is that it just turned into the usual chaotic event accompanied by plenty of screaming. It's not as if I go along without any planning. Today I thought we could walk to the patch giving Huw the chance to nod off in the push chair so that I can get on with things when at the patch. Owen was to take his scooter to make the walk more fun. We could spend about an hour there and come back for a slightly later lunch. Nevertheless I went armed with baby food, crisps and drinks for both.

As soon as we hit the allotment site Huw awoke from his slumber. Perhaps he has allotment aversion syndrome. I knew that the game was up at this point but pressed on across the site with both boys.

I gave Owen one of his sand buckets and asked him to collect snails and to see what he could find, he is quite keen on this job. At this point he announces that he needs a wee ( I let him use the back of the patch he likes to mark his territory regularly!). The next bombshell is that he needs to poo. I know this is just a tactic to get us to leave, so distract him with the crisps. Meanwhile baby Huw is reaching a crescendo in crying and the biscuit he is chewing is not pacifying him (teething eh, an irritable phase !?!).

At this point in time all I have in my hands is a hoe I start thinking that perhaps I should impale myself upon it. So today I have managed to loosen and chop some of the new weed growth near my recent plantings it doesn't really add up to anything that puts a dent into the long list of things that need doing.

Yes I call it quits (random thoughts of returning later alone are emerging) and we leave.


What of the snails? I here you say. Owen did collect quite a few. Then he released them at the back of the patch, so they'll be back!




No comments: