Simples

After his breakfast this morning (three pieces of toast with chocolate spread) I asked the Boy if he might like to go to a place where they have interesting animals to look at, and to my surprise he was both enthusiastic about the idea and cooperative about getting ready. So in short order we got ourselves to the car and went off to All Things Wild - which R and I had never visited before, despite the fact that we've lived barely a five minute drive away for nearly a quarter of a century. 

I didn't have high expectations, to be honest, not being a fan of wild animals being kept in captivity, but I was pleasantly surprised by the experience, and B seemed to enjoy it - right up to the moment when he suddenly said "Let's go home." "OK, I said, " we can if that's what you want to do, but there are some nice goats over - " "No," said the Boy. "Well," I tried (mentally calculating time on site against cost of tickets), "could I at least have another look at the Beavers?" "One more thing," was the pronouncement. "OK? You can look at one more thing, and then we are going home." In fact it didn't work out like that, because on the way to the exit he spotted some Parrots and Lovebirds in an aviary that he found very interesting, and then he spent ages playing on a model ship, running back and forth between the replica EOT at the stern and the wheel at the prow so as to be fully in charge of driving it, and finally he spotted the indoor soft play area and wanted to go in there as well. But we were still back home in plenty of time for me to start lunch, before the almost simultaneous arrivals of his mother and uncle.

The rest of the family were outside, and I was busy making cauliflower cheese, when the Boy suddenly burst into the kitchen. "Grandma!" he said. "Come quick! I've found a Ladybird! Quickly! Bring a camera!" The 500mm lens I'd been using for Meerkats wasn't the ideal tool for photographing a Harlequin, but I did my best. L was very amused by the incident. "This is you," she said. "He wouldn't have the slightest interest in Ladybirds if it wasn't for your influence." Which was the best thing anybody had said to me for quite a while, though it came close to being trumped half an hour later, as we all sat around the kitchen table. Hearing the grown-ups complimenting me on the meal, the Boy waved his spoon and said, "Delicious lunch, Grandma!" - in almost the exact tone of voice in which Wallace says, "Cracking toast, Gromit!" - and I experienced what for me is the rare feeling of having done a pretty good job.