equinox

Anniemay looks at me across the breakfast table; “it is time”.  She says this in a slightly wistful way, as if thinking of happier days.

There is a tradition in our house which coincides with the Autumn Equinox - that celestial timepiece marking the Earth’s journey round the sun.   

“Yes” I say.  “It is time”.

From tomorrow the nights will start to get longer, the days, damp and dark.  And wherever she rides her bike, there will be puddles.  

I go out to the garage and select my 4mm and 5mm allen keys and my 8mm open-ended spanner.  I love my tools; so clean and shiny.  Not like her bike when it’s been through a puddle. Nor her clothes, with a tell-tale muddy stripe down the back.

She winces; “it doesn’t look right”.  I say, in the most understanding way that I can, “it’s for the best”.  Because it is.  And sensible.  But when did sensible come in to it?  

The transformation is painless and I pat her saddle; “go my beauty - run free and splash”.  

And now she can; for the next 6 months, she will have mudguards on her bike. Until the Spring Equinox.