A grand week

It's been a while since I have posted. There is wildlife stuff to blog about, but the last fortnight has been a bit of a whirlwind due to a family visit, as my younger daughter and her peedie son spent a week with us. What with "cleaning the world" prior to their arrival, seven days of full-on being a grandad and then a week to recover, it's been a journey!

Preparation also involved sourcing some equipment, all of which was rather different from "back in the day" when my daughters were toddlers. A stroller was purchased and mantled, as was a car seat. A good friend loaned us a high chair and some age-specific toys for the wee one, and last but not least, we fitted a stairgate to the office so that the cats, Cookie and Mocha, had a safe space (which I dubbed The Panic Room).

It being Orkney, there was, let's say, a range of meteorological conditions for everyone to deal with, but on the whole, the sun put in plenty of appearances. Another good friend gave us directions to the nearest playpark (honestly, we wouldn't have found it otherwise) so there were several walks down the hill, along the street and up another hill to a wonderful facility for children. The lad quite liked the swings and slides, but his favourite game was running down a grassy slope, which never failed to serve up delighted belly laughs.

Strolling along the street

This year sees the final archaeological dig at the Ness of Brodgar, as the Neolithic structures will be covered over and left for future generations (with better technology) to puzzle over. Meantime, archaeologists have 20 years of data to sift through, reports to write and theories to debate. Megan and I took The Boy (thank you, Mr Tumble) for a walk along the Stenness Loch shore whilst his mum had one of the final tours of the dig.

Fortuitous photo-bomb

We all went along to the West Mainland Agricultural Show, where cows and sheep and tractors were a big hit, as was this toy. I may have provided additional noises along the lines of Ba-a-a-a, Moo-oo-oo, Cluck-cluck-cluck and "Get orf my la-a-and!"

Unsurprisingly, The Boy was into everything. Keys had to be removed from window catches and doors, he soon figured out how to open the internal doors and the front door had to be (to a chorus of Orcadian gasps) locked, to stop him disappearing off along the track towards our neighbour.

Megan's parents scored highly with a dinosaur book which featured huge dragonflies

Helping to hang out the washing

He had several visits to the beach, complete with bucket and spade, although demolishing sand castles was much preferred to building them.

Megan had bought a bath toy for him to splash about with, which he always carefully perched on top of the taps after bath time.

It's very, very quiet now.

The cats have moved back into the lounge.

Another new concept from when I was a dad is the phenomenon of social media, so this post has aimed to convey a family holiday without oversharenting.