Phoebe Day

Saturday was such fun, the family arrived mid morning having left Yorkshire at 5 am, they are all early risers, and we had lunch together in the garden. Phoebe was a delight, everything I'd imagined she would be and more, pretty, polite, talkative, undemanding, just adorable. She took a great interest in the garden and liked going up to the leafy part at the back, which she referred to as the woods. We played hide and seek, she told me about her animals, she asked me the names of plants, she spotted insects, she told me what is growing in their allotment, and that she always says please, thank you and sorry, which she does. Her mum and dad should be very proud of her, she is an absolute credit to them, totally unspoilt and very interested in nature and the outdoors.

She did ask me to teach her to juggle completely out of the blue. I've been trying to teach myself for years and never got very far but we played around with a couple balls. Then she found my sock wool, or cotton wool as she preferred to call it and asked me to juggle with that. We threw the balls around a bit and she showed great potential by picking out one particularly colour that she said would make a good skirt.

They all left us to travel up north, its Phoebe's third birthday on Tuesday but there is a surprise party for her today including a bouncy castle and other treats from Granny Scotland. I hope they will call and see us again, I intend to bribe the parents with offers of cuttings from the garden, which they too were very interested to see. That should do the trick.