An English idyll

Beth and Enzo popping in this morning for a coffee and a chuckle. I went to the door, and again the little chap wriggled happily and held his arms out to me. It's impossible not to have your heart melted by this sort of thing. Beth and Enzo both in good spirits, so a lovely breakfast.

A bit later, Lorraine and I set off for beautiful little village of Firle, just the other side of Lewes, to meet Dawn and Paul in The Ram for Sunday roast. They all had veggie stuff and no alcohol drink, I felt a bit like Oliver Reed having pork, and a pint of cold lager. Lovely to see Dawn of course, and I enjoyed chatting with Paul. They told us about a talk about Gaza they'd attended the night before, which had moved them lots. Also about Dawn's grandson Raffy now eight weeks old. Both he and Ellie and Russ doing well.  

Having strapped on the nosebags, we went for a short walk. Paul and I were talking about all kinds of stuff, from generational trauma, to Paul telling me about the startling career of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, a child prodigy Indian cricket star. A saunter about Firle, which is a fine little village, pausing to watch some cricket on the village pitch. Something so timelessly English about the snick of hard leather on willow wood, on a sunny afternoon. Made me think of When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease, by Roy Harper, which I recommended to the cricket loving Paul.

A lazy afternoon. Spoke to Mum, but mainly did little apart from carry a park bench around the garden and sprawl about on the garden furniture.  A light supper of sandwiches, and we watched Brazil versus Norway. A tense affair, with Haaland bursting into life and scoring two fine goals towards the end of the game. Few expected Brazil to lose. All very entertaining. England were playing Mexico tonight, at 1am, which was too late for us. In bed I read us a bit more of My Family and Other Animals, which is our bedtime story at the moment. Trapdoor spiders perhaps not the best thing to read about just before sleeping.

Below, an English idyll.