Grapefruit Sun

September 24, 2009

It’s a lovely Autumnal day today, me and Boy Lacer are settling into our nursery routine* and this morning we decided to go to the shops as I needed to buy some of the most fluorescent thread you’ve ever seen. We have two ways of getting into town, via the main road or by the river (which runs pretty much parallel to the main road, with just a row of houses and a supermarket between the two). We decided on the river route today, the trees slowly shedding their leaves, the sky bright but with a little fresh nip in the air, the river almost mirror like. But all was not as peaceful as it seemed, as the walk into town today was like following the trail of a grizzly crime, about half way through the little park that runs alongside the river, there was a little puddle of white fluffy feathers on the grass, quite a distance from the river, you see stuff like that every now and then and it’s obvious something’s been eating its lunch, but then a few metres further down there was another puddle of feathers, this time on the river bank. Didn’t think anything else of it, until leaving the park (but still walking along the river), we went under the railway bridge, past the little carpark and by the patch of grass and riverbank the sea cadets use to moor their boats, there on the grass was the remains of one large swan and a little distance away on the slip way where the swans like to sit, an explosion in a mattress factory of feathers, the poor thing, I just hope that a) it was quick and not actually a fight along a considerable stretch of river bank (maybe the animal had taken bits of to eat elsewhere or had more than one kill last night) b) it was actually a fox and not a stray dog.

So apart from the gruesome side of wildlife in London (I don’t envy whoever has to clear the remains up from the sea cadet land), it was a lovely autumnal walk. One that in the end filled me with an absolute craving for grapefruit juice, so I had to get some of that to. Now normally when I drink orange juice (although I’m more an apple juice drinker, whatever apple they use in Waitrose apple juice is lovely, it reminds me of honey), anyway normally when I drink orange juice, that is what reminds me of sunshine, it’s warm sweetness but I have decided that orange juice sunshine is summer sunshine, whereas grapefruit juice is autumn sunshine, sharp and bright

*He loves nursery by the way, although he calls it school, as in in the morning when we’re dropping Girl Lacer off at school, he’ll go “I want to go to school!”, which makes a change from what he was saying prior to his first afternoon, “I don’t want to go to school!”. It makes sense that he thinks of it as school, as the nursery is part of the school and is on the same site, that Boy Lacer has equated for over a year as school, as that’s where his big sister goes to school. It’ll be good then when he properly starts school next year, as he thinks he’s in school already! The teachers in nursery are being amazing with him and he’s already learning so much, they’ve been practicing ladder climbing with him in the playground, he can now just about, as a consequence, climb up to the top of Girl Lacer’s bunk, but at the moment has the most dangerous idea about how to get down :S . He’s also learnt about three songs and new signs, like ‘time to go home’, which they teach all children, able or not. So an absolutely lovely place.

About these ads