Pools and Badgers

Wow, what a glorious day it is down here, and good job too.

As a family, we really don’t need to go on holiday.  We live in the place where most people would like to come on their hols, if you get my drift, so we go all out and buy a swimming pool for the summer.  May sound a little extravagant, but it keeps the children happy for the whole of the summer and they can go in it come rain or shine throughout our glorious british summer.

As some on here may know, we have had pools of varying sizes in the past couple of years, they generally end up as ‘swimming ponds’ come the end of the year as they are nigh on impossible to totally empty, so I figure that the money that I fork out is worth it per season.  The last one we had is no exception.  A couple of weeks ago the children managed to find 5 frogs, starting from a centimetre long to great big, full grown daddy frogs, a toad and several newts in there.  I have had frog spawn in my sitting room for weeks now, but has had to be put back outside as they are growing into little jumping creatures.

Biggie and Frog Marley pictured.

Anyways, to cut a long story shorter, this means that we have ordered a new pool this morning, an whopping 18′ beauty, holds rather alot of water, but this all means that we have to makeover the garden to be able to get  it  in. This is not as easy as it sounds.  First thing that we had to do was cut the old 15′ pool up, mostly to use as a ground sheet for the new one and also, because the new one is so big, it means that Talwyn’s trampoline has to be moved to another part of the garden, which meant that the washing line had to be moved….getting my drift?

They had to run it up the garden like a hamster wheel, and at 15′, it was no mean feat, but they really enjoyed themselves.  It is now positioned right outside my kitchen window, and they think that it is hillarious to now jump off the top of the oil tank onto the thing, whilst giving me a heart attack.  At least when it was down at the bottom of the garden I couldn’t see them throwing themselves around on it, I have to admit that they are very, very good at doing twists and turns, but I just see broken limbs and children when I am watching them.  Talwyn is actually on the school’s trampoline team, so she knows what she is doing and how to use it responsibly, but that doesn’t stop my heart jumping at the sight of it.

So today they have to tidy up and prep the ground for this new monster to be delivered tomorrow.  I don’t envy them, Paul is going to have to work with them, I am going to supervise in the sunshine, as I figure, I paid for it, they all want it, so they can do the work!

So why badgers?  Well, last night, as they trampoline is now so close to the house, and with the lights on in the kitchen and dinning room, Talwyn and her friends have now discovered that they can now bounce safely at night.  They are out there about 10 o’clock last evening and all of a sudden they come running in and ask if we have got a torch.  No, why is my reply and they went on to explain that there is something ‘snuffling’ around in the bushes just away from the trampoline and they want to know what it is.  I state to them that I think it is probably one of our friendly neighbourhood badgers and they start cooing about how cute it must be and can they please have a torch to see how cute it is.

CUTE!  Don’t our schools teach them anything anymore???  I tried explaining rationally that they will have your leg off as soon as look at you, b  ut this is met with complete denial, how can something that lovely looking be a danger to them, and I argue that lions and tigers look cute, would you mess with one of them?   Of course not mother, but this is just a little badger.  Noobs.  I had to then go to Youtube to show them how vicious they can be and they were still not worried-or so they said!

They went back outside and about 20 minutes later they come running in, screaming at the top of their lungs, first thought, someone has broken their leg or something, but no, the reason for all of the noise is that the badger decided to make its move, came out from the bushes and rushed towards them on the trampoline.  It did, in fact, get anywhere near them, but think that they proved that they were in fact scared, and what a bunch of whoos’s they all proved to be.  I suspose you had to be here to get the humour in this situation, but it was very funny-after I had told them all off for making so much noise outside at that time of night, waking all the neighbours!!

xxx

Author: Cornish Kate

I am a mum of 3, living in a wonderful part of the country, have some mobility problems, love and fight life in equal measures, am very frie View all posts by Cornish Kate