Earlier Morning

"Gone Fishing"

A Heron uses the piers of the old Tay bridge in Perth

as a perch from which to fish.

The delightful Mrs Hideous has started to go into work early one day a week. This is because she works, like many of you, in the public sector and suffers from the curse of government initiatives. The latest batch is the product of politicians who apparently couldn't find their own elbows in broad daylight (or some such less Bowdlerised popular phrase) But I digress.....

On such mornings, Boris, Norris and Doris were ready for the walk to school ludicrously early, which was creating a problem. Those of you familiar with my offspring will know that faced with the choice of how to use-up twenty minutes, they will not sit quietly or converse politely, but will immediately set about the urgent task of sibling dismemberment with some gusto. We do not need a devil to make work for these idle hands.

Needless to say, my usual negative reactionary parenting was useless in maintaining a calm atmosphere, or preventing the outbreak of the next impending fracas. So yesterday morning, faced with well-rehearsed indications of rising hostilities, failing diplomacy, and troop build-ups at my children's emotional borders, we took action. We went to the park!

We are blessed and privileged to live in a beautiful part of the world with plenty of nearby open spaces. In fact the busy main-road which we brave every day on the walk to school, has a delightful river-bank park running parallel with it, which makes a pleasant but longer alternative route. So with space to run, the river to watch, wildlife to see, trains to wave at and things to climb, we arrived at school on time, with happy children complete with the requisite number of limbs intact between them.

I discovered an old compact camera in a pocket as we walked and got a few good photos of the kids - which was a bonus too. My initial reaction may have been to curse the government for my lost sleep, and scream at my naughty children for their apparent inability to sit still, but Boris, Norris and Doris' reaction has been to ask if a trip to the park before school can become a regular feature!

We'll see.....