Can you mend a broken heart?

Fittleworth Swing Park - On our own again. How do the good people of West Sussex entertain their children on a Sunday morning?

Yes, we took our hot sausage sandwiches to the park on plates. People expect us to be weird and frankly, why disappoint them!

This is Mack Semi Hauler. O likes to give him his full title

Brand New Roller Skate Barbie. When S saw her she said "Did you know roller skates were invented by John Joseph Merlin?" I swallow my words about Barbies dumbing things down. (n.b I haven't checked this fact on google but either way it sounds impressive. Deliver with confidence, people are less likely to challenge you, that's my tip.)

Beautiful display at Fishers Today Home grown saffron harvested at the allotment today

How on earth is it only midday? Oh, that must be the pleasure of the bi-annual mess with time. We have already: harvested saffron at the allotment, handled a delayed doll bereavement crisis, been to Fittleworth Park, popped into Fishers Farm, filled up the bus with petrol and it is only just lunchtime?!

Regular readers will know that Skipper's leg came off this week. Regular readers can skip the next paragraph.

Skipper is Barbie's independent younger sister. Our particular Skipper was the first ever toy that S (6) saved up for with her own money. She came in a double pack with Chelsea (whose arm detached shortly after purchase) and a skateboard and is part of the Sisters Roll ("When Sisters roll, it outta control") series. On the day we bought her O had an epic tantrum at the self service till whilst S fed her collection of small change into the machine. We all remember that experience well.

Shortly after we bought Skipper she vanished and then, a month or so later, she turned up again, anyway the adventure continued last week when her leg came off. S was devastated but I hadn't acknowledge how devastated until this morning when she asked me if she could bury Skipper or put her on display in my teapot cabinet.

This started a whole series of conversations about what we do with broken people in our society. I suggested burial was pretty final for someone with only one leg as we often see people in wheelchairs for example. S was not to be comforted. There were Big hot tears, so many that I cried too. This has been a big life experience for S. The saving up, the bonding, the dissapointment. I checked with The Daddy One for a green light and we agreed that S could have a replacement on us and, in Blue Peter mode, I did have one I bought earlier in the cupboard. She was a Stacie though not a Skipper but I thought this might be better as a direct replacement might be a bit harsh. It seems to have helped and, just now, S asked me to get Skipper out of the cupboard to introduce her to the new arrivals and she hasn't gone back. Apparently for only 2 months you could buy a Barbie in a wheelchair.

I suspect you might be reading this thinking we are a bit daft / soft (delete as applicaable) but it goes like this for me. We won't always be able to fix what's broken for her, bigger things will come along, but, whilst we can, we will. That's us.

At the park S asked me which is the longest river the Nile or Amazon? We had a great chat about the wikipedia page and how you must first define what you mean by longest. I imagined her on a pub quiz or mastermind or something quoting Voltaire "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms!"

Very thrilled to have our own saffron for cakes and risttos with limited space and time we have always operated on the grow things that are expensive to buy philosophy and this is no exception.