Aaaaagh!! The start of the hols!

My grandson is lying on the couch upstairs watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The summer holidays for Scottish schools has begun. I still remember how my heart used to sink on the last day of term for my own children as they joyfully dumped all their paintings and clay figures and wood carvings and etc. etc. on me to display around the house whilst they celebrated and started to ask 'what can we do Mum?' I stared forward glassy-eyed into the mists of six weeks of quality time with the three of them, driving them around, each to different activities if I was lucky, or being stuck indoors with them in wet weather when there was nothing for them to do. The same feeling hit me this morning when Sandy arrived on my doorstep and his mother went off to earn a crust. Happily he has caught the obsession with Buffy from me and on this wet wet wet day she will suffice after a manly day outside yesterday with his Mum's new man, a tree surgeon (or something.) I took him to Findhorn earlier to book some sailing-and-activity days for next week, then his new pony arrives thanks be to Freya. We are VERY fortunate that all these diversions are possible at about a tenth of the cost for parents in the south - even in the Borders of Scotland it's all dearer.