"Falling, falling, soh-fake!"
That was a snippet from the conversation on the way home from school at lunchtime today. Then later, after supper:
"Mommy? My go tennis?"
"Erm... you want to play tennis?!"
"No! My go outside! On tennis!"
"Ah! You want to go out on the terrace?"
together: "YES!"
Yep. Winter arrived at last. And it's leaving its leavings still, as I type at 00:00 - hasn't stopped since it started, around 11:45! So beautiful... I love snow so much, not least (these days) for the added beauty it offers the view from our perch. And (ibid.) for the glee it brings out in small children:
After supper, we had a snow(ball) fight on the terrace and did some drawing in the snow with sticks. Also did a lot of stick-waving, of course...
Jean-Philippe and I have very different ideas about flash usage and other photographic details, and the result - aside from some interesting wee conversations and pictures, some VERY blurry or overexposed messes and a few jabs in the ribs - is that I've started taking several pictures of the same thing using each of the main modes on our digital camera, for experiment's sake. For instance:
Next morning, 24 January:
As Jean-Philippe made his way towards the kitchen to start the coffee this morning, he spied Tomi shuffling in before him. He thought that Tomi was looking for toast, but found the little urchin looking out quietly at the terrace. When Tomi sensed his dally behind him, he cocked his head gently and said with a little smile, "C'est marrant..." ("It's strange...") He was talking about the mounds of snow out there, everywhere:
The first is from last night, around midnight (after the boys' having chucked everything off of everything around 20:30); the second is from this morning, around 09:00.When we finally made our way out and to the market late this morning - an endeavour that took an hour of getting ready and another hour to walk the 300 metres - there were but 4 or 5 stands! Then again, there were about 4 or 5 clients, so... Another hour and dozens of putting-the-mittens-back-ons, we were home again, home again...
