Picnic on the Green

Many times since we have moved here to the UK, we have enjoyed walking about 10 paces off the pavement (sidewalk for you yanks) and sitting down on the extremely short grass to enjoy a bite to eat and bit of relaxation in an open green. Today was even better because we were joined by several families and couples at our churches' picnic. We unfold our picnic blanket (which happens to have a foil side underneath, so as to warm the people sitting on top!) and spread out the plates and the packed lunch and enjoy conversing with the other families. The kids soon eat up their food and are up and about, playing football (which would be soccer, but of course we call it football), frisbee or just running around with swords and sticks. A game of cricket starts up, and I watch for a while trying to understand the gist of it. All I can gather is that its not baseball! The bat is flat with a sort of a bump in the middle, the person throwing the ball is attempting to get 3 wickets down behind the person with the bat. The person with the bat is trying to keep the person with the ball from knocking over the wickets. Sometimes people run, but I didn't understand why. My friend tells me she doesn't understand the game either (but everything I know is what she told me!) and she says this game can literally go on for days and days. Seems like a big commitment to me!

Someone comes round to offer me a chocolate candy, and I say, "No, no, I'm good." and she says, "That's an American expression. When someone says they are good, we would say you are referring to your behaviour" (I tried to spell it the British way, probably wrong though)

Then I say, "Well, no thanks, I am okay." She laughs. So I say, "How should I respond then?" She says, "No thank you, I have had enough or I am full." How very straight forward. Never really thought about that before.

So there was something nice about our gathering today. On any given day pleasant day, the green is filled with small groupings of individuals, but to have several gathering together was really wonderful. The weather cooperated and though the morning was cloudy and cool, the sun came out for a simply lovely afternoon! Other than a little sun burn our children survived with no injuries (though Tim almost chased a ball into the street--I am paranoid about kids running into the street since I a 4 yo chased a ball and was killed in our neighborhood in Annapolis), the fun flying disc Grammie sent last month had one of its fasteners pop off and though Todd and a friend and 2 boys searched and searched we couldn't find it. We only had tantrums at the end of the time when 2 tired boys decided they were still hungry and very thirsty and we had to take the bus home. Never enough energy for the journey back! After arriving home, Ethan asked for a fried egg as a snack.

By the way, these pictures are not from today, though from a sunday a few weeks ago. Since, then Ethan has had a haircut!