Mud, mud, glorious mud...

This image is here to remind me of the sheer, full-on juggling act that is parenthood - and of the joys of grannyhood too.   Today I met Josh, Luca and Eben in the park for a bit of socially-distanced time together.

Luca balances precariously on a giant snowball, while Josh tries to keep his balance in the mix of mud and ice under his feet and braces to keep Luca upright.   Meanwhile, Eben gets engrossed in trying to kick the snowball to pieces. Does he know he's destroying the support that Luca's balancing on? Probably not, I think. He's just loving the look and feel of the spraying snow and mud.  If Luca falls flat on his face, that will be a side-effect.

And in this time of social distancing, Nana is meant to watch from 2 metres away, but not reach out to help.  Mostly I achieved that, today, though it felt more than awkward.

The best moments were short one-to-one interludes with Eben and Luca in turn. Eben dived into a make-believe saga in which the giant snowball was the moon, and smaller chunks lying around were asterroids.  Our job was to investigate their composition, as scientists.  Luca got engrossed in a game in which I picked up little sheets of ice  that had formed on the grass, and balanced them on a fence;  he delightedly pushed each one off and we both giggled.

Times to treasure, while looking forward to a post-vaccine period when we can hug each other again. 

On that note, Richard found a wonderful rewrite of  Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah on YouTube by 'the Marsh Family' who can really, really sing.  It's called  'Have the new jab'.  I'd like it to go out on every TV channel.  Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnbOKH9Oe9s