Les baskets

In French 'baskets' are trainers. So this line up of sports shoes are probably 'baskets de basket'. This is the line up at CarbBoy's big match against the local Big Team this afternoon. CarbBoy is second from the right. The big feet at the far right belong to the Club President, who was very impressed with their performance today - as they won 36-21 against a very strong and well-organised side. Last week CarbBoy didn't play too well, and there was a lot of chat during the training sessions this week that he might be dropped to the second team. Mr B and I diagnosed his problem last Saturday as being a lack of lunch (a point I made to the coach's wife (a pal) today - so I know the message will get back to the coach... I'd much rather be seen as a rubbish mother than have to deal with CarbBoy's confidence crisis if he is demoted. And anyway I blamed it on Mr B...) and today he played really well. The parents around me muttering when things weren't going so well in defence "He should bring CarbBoy back on" verged on embarassing. I guess our little chats through the week about the importance of close marking worked... But I remember well from TallGirl's stint in basketball that good defence earns you a place in the team every time.

Anyway, with that parental bragging out of the way, in other news: Mr B left for a trip to see his Dad, who is still in hospital, our builder showed up to start the next list of jobs we've agreed with him (garden wall-building, re-rendering, terrace tiling and chimney removal), and I had a lovely friendly "bonjour, bonjour" trip around the market. Funny how some days I see no-one and other days it feels like I know everyone in town.

I should just note that yesterday finished not exactly as I predicted. There was lunch outside.... and the weather was so hot that we lingered a little. Then lingered a lot. And ended up doing very little work. Since I had to eschew the "last G&Ts of the year" (it's a summer drink for us) in order to be in fit state to drive the kids home from school, I managed to summon up enough energy to dig over a few beds, collect some compost from the tip, spread it, plant a bunch of daffodil bulbs (late), and a load of kale, mache, spinach, mustard (green manure) seeds (all of which later than they should have been) and some sweet pea seeds too, though it was really too dark to see how many I put in and whether I covered them over at all... That sounds like a lot of work - but it really was only about an hour and a half in all. A reminder to me that the garden is not the huge job it seems in my imagination.