Rough and tumble

I was looking at an email or two earlier, when my attention was distracted by some piercing screaming in the street outside: it sounded like someone was being murdered! I got up to take a look out of the window, and saw that the toddler across the street must've fallen off his bike and hurt himself. His mother came out and correctly worked out that the screaming was almost certainly in inverse proportion to the actual physical damage and calmed him down a bit before scooping up him and the bike.

A bit later on, I took the dog out to do as nature required, and he spotted us and waved. As we waved back I didn't notice a plaster or anything: he got back on his bike and rode up and down the drive once more, apparently none the worse for the experience. I daresay it'll become part of dozens of uneventful everyday childhood mishaps that he won't even remember in years to come.


I doubtless had many of the same experiences at his age. When I was leafing through some old photo albums at my sister's at Christmas, I came across a snapshot of me on a bike (or a trike, in fact) - I don't remember having it, riding it or falling off it - yet I obviously did the first two, and probably all three. If I had an accident, my mother would apply whatever was necessary - be a it a kiss, a wipe over, or a plaster - and it was soon forgotten. However traumatic I probably made it sound when it happened, the natural resilience of a young child heals all sorts of wounds without in most cases leaving so much as a trace to remember them by.

Wot... no bouncy castle?

Today has apparently been the hottest day of the year so far, with a temperature up into the eighties. I took Raggs for a walk into the woods this morning, where it was pleasantly cool in the shade of the trees, and she had fun wallowing in the water in the little pond there.

When we got back, the neighbours were busy. Next door had got a huge tent in the back garden, big enough to throw a sizeable party in - although in fact nothing materialized, so perhaps it was just a rehearsal for something later? A couple of the front gardens across the street had little paddling pools, and we heard the shreiks of the kids splashing about, followed in the afternoon by a water slide!

And as I type this entry, I can hear the sounds of the BBQ being cleared away. Not that I'm jealous or anything: I'm sure that if I'd had kids of toddler age they'd have all been joining in, too. At any rate, it's good to see neighbours and their kids getting on well together, and it was a day of happy activities which was achieved at a tiny fraction of the cost of a trip to Alton Towers or somewhere!