This week has been quite uneventful. 

Last Sunday we went exploring the woods near our house and learned that Rory finds the everything about them to be intimidating and alien which I hadn't expected at all. I mean she's a toddler, all of that space should seem like a wonderland! I grew up spending almost every weekend playing in open fields filled with cows and climbing trees to build dens and stuffing my face with the berries growing on the hedgerows. I rowed my canoe along the river Severn and skimmed stones from its pebbled shingles into the murky water and reveled in the freedom of playing however and wherever I wished. I was used to endless starry skies and foggy vistas and her dad is even more so, growing up in it entirely and while it's been a very long while since I've been so at home in the countryside, I suppose I hadn't given much thought to the lack of exposure that my daughter has had to it in her two and a half years. 

Until that afternoon Rory's only experience of deep dark woods were in storybooks filled with Gruffalos, grumpy bears and monsters, places that always result in hazard and danger for those who venture into them so I suppose it's no surprise that she clung to us, too cautious to explore a place with no boundaries or direction. So this year I intend to make a greater effort to introduce her to the wild places that surround us and to better acquaint her with its wonder.