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We’re home from our holidays well-rested, well-fed, and generally restored. Here are some of my sketches from our time away. We had gorgeous weather and so spent a fair bit of time on the beach. A beach is one of the natural habitats of Little Owl. Her shoes and socks are off before her feet even hit the sand. Not so for Finch. You think sand in your sandwiches is bad? Sand in your nappy isn’t much fun either. Neither is sand in your ears, particularly when you don’t yet know you have ears. He took it all in his stride though, even being left to turn into a small sand dune by his neglectful parents. While we played a game of frisbee with Little Owl we hadn’t noticed a slight breeze picking up. Slowly, kicking around on the picnic blanket, Finch became coated in a significant layer of sand. We wondered if we’d left him there long enough some maram grass might have taken up residence too.
Our beach trips gave Big Dreamer opportunity to engage in some serious engineering projects under the pretence of ‘playing’ with Little Owl. To call them ‘sandcastles’ would be a serious injustice. One ‘sandcastle’ took the form of a volcano, through which Little Owl could pour buckets of water that then flowed out to fill a moat. Another was more a series of ‘sandcastles’ that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the set of Lord of the Rings, and which dammed a small stream creating two pools for Little Owl to paddle in. Oh yes, Big Dreamer’s quite a high achiever when he puts his mind to it.
Another highlight of our holiday was getting to catch quite a bit of Wimbledon. I don’t think Little Owl has ever watched much tennis but she really got into it. We were amused that she kept wanting to know if each tennis player had a big sister. The addition of Finch to our family has obviously had a significant impact on her attitude to herself but how funny that it should show itself then and in that way. I have no idea if Novak Djokovic has a sister but I bet he wouldn’t say no to Little Owl taking on an honorary role if he should ever meet her.
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