children’s playground – derrickjknight

A Lovely Afternoon

Danni, Ella, and Jack joined us for one of Jackie’s splendid salad and cold meats lunches; once Ellie woke she and her parents accompanied us, as Elizabeth did later.

We were able to give Ella her birthday present, which, having unwrapped it with suitable glee, she propped, unopened, on the arm of the sofa and carried on putting together the body parts puzzle which she had extracted from the toy hamper as soon as she arrived.

The next game involved a telephone conversation between her mother, Danni, who was in her own home, viz my chair, and Ella, in her own home – or rather the sofa at the far end of our sitting room.

When arranging a sleepover at Danni’s house, she pointed out that she had a lot of children and was that all right? She needed also to seek permission from G’ma, Elizabeth. This meant a call to her,

having checked her phone number with Danni.

Permission granted,

she enjoyed her sleepover.

Ella had looked forward to meeting Ellie once more ever since she arrived here. She was delightfully tender with her cousin.

Leaving Jackie at home to recuperate and prepare this evening’s dinner, the rest of us took a trip to the mild-weathered Milford on Sea, beginning at the children’s playground next to the Needle’s Eye Café,

where the slide was enjoyed by Jack,

and by Ellie, each aided by parents.

Ellie

Jack,

and Ella, keen to display her ability to propel herself to a great height, all enjoyed the swings, although Ellie wasn’t quite sure what was happening.

While I sat on a wall above, the others wandered along the shoreline;

Ella gathering handfuls of pebbles and throwing them into the water.

Two other children splashing, caught my eye.

We returned home shortly before sunset.

Later, Danni sent me photographs of the rest of us on the beach wall,

and also from behind. Note Ella’s collection of missiles.

Danni took her children home soon afterwards and Elizabeth stayed for dinner which included tender roast lamb, crisp Yorkshire pudding, boiled new potatoes, crunchy carrots, firm Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower, with tasty gravy accompanied by Hoegaarden for Jackie and Swartland Shiraz 2020 for Elizabeth and me.

Almost Empty

What is the best way to make a trip to the pharmacy exciting?

During pandemic lockdown it is when this is considered an essential journey and petrol has remained in the tank for weeks.

Off we went this morning to Milford on Sea for that heady pleasure. The establishment’s door was open. Just inside stood a table on which the pre-ordered products were placed by the friendly staff for the masked and gloved Jackie to pick up. There were no other customers behind whom to queue.

I had hoped to walk along the clifftop on the way home, but there was nowhere to park so I settled for the occasional stoppage along a largely deserted road.

For fear of an influx of campers and city dwellers escaping infested metropolises The New Forest District Council along with many others of beauty spots has

sealed off entrances to the forest and beaches like those at Milford and Barton.

Here, a facility in which spaces would be at a premium in such spring sunshine was occupied by one single seated pedestrian.

A locked children’s playground’s attractions stood idle.

Promenades were almost deserted;

this desultory hound appeared to be struggling to keep up.

Hazy spray beset the Isle of Wight and The Needles;

waves and spray also beset this side of the Solent,

where beach huts, replaced after the devastation of the storms of February 2014, stood locked.in isolation.

A solitary figure sat in contemplation on staggered steps;

three walkers passed a woman in the process of emptying her pooch.

Turning into Downton Lane we observed a tractor toiling in Roger Cobb’s sun-kissed field.

While Nugget briefly visited his feeder, Burt entertained us with his trapeze act this evening as we dined on Jackie’s wholesome chicken and vegetable soup with crusty sourdough bread, followed by mixed fruit crumble and custard. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden and I continued with the Valreas.

More Of North Wales

This morning we prepared the rooms upstairs in readiness for the Christmas hoards. The first task was replacing the towel rail and cabinet and cleaning the bathroom that Aaron has redecorated. Our friend, who is A.P. Maintenance, would have come back to carry this out, but we encouraged him to stick to his well earned holiday. The three spare bedrooms were then cleaned and their beds all made up. After this came the hoovering. My role could best be described as supporting and carried out somewhat tardily.

After lunch YouView stopped working on the TV. I grappled with it for a while, then calmed myself by scanning sixteen more colour negatives on Agfa film from the 1983 holiday in North Wales. Fortunately, the equipment required for this functioned satisfactorily, and whilst I was working on this, Jackie informed me that the BT service had returned to normality.

We stayed in a farmhouse near the home of our friends Ann and Don whilst their own property was being renovated.

Hills like this were all around us.

Here is a broader view of the houses lying beneath the heaps from the discarded slate mine featured in ‘Aberfan’. As always, clicking on the images gives more detail, such as that of the children’s playground indicating the family nature of this fairly remote community near Cerrigydrudion in Corwen.

A second picture shows rugby and soccer pitches alongside each other. I wondered which was the more popular game here.

This view looks across the further side of the valley,

above which nestles the farm at which we stayed. In the first of these two pictures Becky and Matthew approach the cattle. Jessica replaces them in the second,

The farm was approached from this rough track.

Louisa made the acquaintance of the inquisitive local fauna,

and tried her hand at bringing life back to the train in the disused mine.

Barbed wire attached to a weathered wooden post in front of a large boulder exemplified the rugged nature of the landscape,

to which plentiful spiky thistles spoke,

and in which foxgloves managed to survive.

This evening Jackie cooked a chicken jalfrezi for the eighteen people she will be feeding on Boxing Day. Eyes streaming until she created a through draft by opening the kitchen doors to the 40+ m.p.h. prevailing winds, I peeled and chopped the onions.

Hordle Chinese Take Away provided our own dinner with which I finished the malbec and Jackie drank Hoegaarden