Monday, May 4, 2009

Bluebells and cats



We are very lucky to have a bluebell wood on our doorstep - there has been some mention of bluebells on the mothership so I thought I would post these photos. The bottom ones shows Sparky, our cat, when he was very young (about 9 years ago). He has grown sideways since then, but still enjoys exploring.

In The Guardian the other day there was an article which suggested taking your children to a bluebell wood over the Bank Holiday weekend. Thinking it was a good idea, I took young Munday (6) for a walk in the wood yesterday. It wasn't quite the tranquil afternoon I had envisaged - he insisted on taking his toy 'electric' guitar and playing to the bluebell audience, who bobbed their heads obligingly in time to the pre-recorded riffs. Eat your heart out, Jimi.

Later we played Star Trek, and the bluebells became the alien population on a new planet - the wood anenomes became wooden enemies and it all got very surreal. But maybe one day he'll look back and remember the bluebells ...

Enjoy your weekend, we have some much-needed rain today, and Sparky's asleep on the bed!

7 comments:

ToffeeBoy said...

@ Ali - Wood Anemonies > Wooden Enemies. Genius! I think you have the basis for a children's story right there!

DaddyPig said...

Lovely photos and good to take pride in your child for having different ideas about a bluebell walk. I might have been guilty of a certain amount of (futile) 'shushing'.

Blimpy said...

Yay for Sparky - have we exhausted 'Spll pets yet? I'm sure there must be other out there>?

steenbeck said...

Beautiful pictures--and your tale of a walk with a 6-year-old is very very familiar to me. We're trying to instill a sense of respect for nature, but...he always has a stick in his hand, and he's always slashing at imagined foes--a giant mound of snow, a tree trunk, whatever it might be. He's very gentle picking up insects and frogs, though, which is encouraging. His brother is still in the grab and squish stage.

AliMunday said...

@ Steenbeck - we've managed to avoid any squishing, though he isn't terribly fond of creepy crawlies. I've just appointed him Chief Cat Exerciser (Sparky is getting rather fat) and he has been quite good at playing with the cat without teasing. It will probably end in tears though ...

ToffeeBoy said...

@ Ali - I didn't know cats could cry...

AliMunday said...

Toffeeboy - ahhh, but Sparky is definitely a human in feline form.