Bea made her first full day of beating!
Ollie went off for a little walk at lunch time so we sat on the end of the car boot and chatted for the hour – cold it may have been but the conversation was warm.
She did need a couple of drives to be “walked” on my shoulders, but that’s ok. 🙂
Here are some wonderful shots from the day:
Whilst we are still in the middle of our “Xmas break”, and I can confirm Bea has had the most wonderful Christmas to date, I am only going to offer a single photo as of the others taken none really show the happiness, surprise or (bluntly) the gratitude Bea has presented every single day.
She also she asked me about a time, “in the next season where we all make promises we keep for the year“. This took me a few seconds of questioning to work out that she was talking about “New year resolutions“!!! When I asked her what she planned to resolve to do in 2017 she promptly and sincerely stated (we were standing on our own in the middle of a field with only the dog in earshot, safe in the knowledge he is largely deaf), “I want to love everyone more and give everyone more cuddles. Everyone including Arek“. I was completely taken aback by this sincerity and honesty that was offered with the sentiment, that I didn’t know where to take the conversation! So I gave her a hug and said thank you. X.
Bea often comes into our bed first thing in the morning – mid week she rarely finds me there, but over the Xmas period I’ve been there every day – mostly being the last person in bed!! So when she jumped on me and ended up laying back on my upright knees, it reminded me of some earlier posts (On the knees morning photos – Aug 2012 & Easy like a Sunday morning – Nov 2012) where I commented on how much she has grown. I explained to her that I used to take these photos so she generously offered a “modern day” pose of the “knee shot”.
So having started school in September Bea has done amazingly well – not that any of this is a surprise, she takes more than most 4yr olds take in their stride like it’s normal.
So when she performed in the school’s Christmas nativity as a sheep, not only did she learn all the moves she was the only reception child that was able to perform them all!
I was a little far away, but she is the middle sheep on the hard right of the stage here:
Blimey… We just don’t update this blog much these days… Sorry about that… Will try harder.
Ollie and I have been beating together for a few years now, and it is our main one-to-one time together and I’m keen to be protective of that; so imagine my surprise when a certain set of circumstances meant Bea was available to come too. Conscious that I didn’t want Ollie to look after Bea (he is wonderfully independent and people ask for him over the radio and he responds), but I also get into some tough locations that carrying a four year old through wouldn’t be practical for Bea, the job of beating or my back!
In event Bea was resilient and plucky; only once did she say she couldn’t do something; she received the standard, “don’t tell me you can’t do something” response (pushy parent?), and cracked on with clambering over a branch. There were a couple of extreme situations that she couldn’t get through so she was happy to be with Paul and Jack and probably only once with Ollie during drives. We always popped out the other end together and chatted about what we had seen. Ollie had done a good prep job on the differences between girl and boy pheasants, so she was able to identity the difference. We talked about the other animals and things we might see whilst in a proper woods (not a public footpath), so we had lots to talk about!
Lots of the guns were impressed at her with her beating stick almost as big as her striding confidently about the undergrowth.
Lunchtime came and we had set her expectations that tomato soup, bread and cheese was the only option, so when we got back that’s what she “wanted” and dutifully got on with dipping and making a mess!
After lunch we were supposed to only have one drive, but we did two. The last one, whilst short, was a bit too much for her, and it was an effort to keep her interested. We resorted to her looking for pheasants that were either hiding on the ground or flying overhead. I loved her commentary that they were flying in “teams”. 🙂
The weather was cool and bright and we didn’t attend a full day, so this was an amazing introduction for her. She came away keen to know when the next one was on.
She was asked great questions throughout and added a wonderful colour to our conversations and of course increased the cuddle count massively.
Then another lovely shot with Jack and the mutt.
