Lost and Found

It was a little bit of a weekend of losing and finding.

Since we moved, pens have been one of those things which have remained elusive. They've been hard to find and even more difficult to hold onto. It's been positively umm, penful! 😜

So much so that, when working from home, I've had to resort to using a novelty, Halloween, pink, hand pen. Yes, really. I've had to make sure to keep it out of sight during online meetings and everything. 

See? 

Oddly enough, this pen hasn't disappeared with all the others, but that might still be pen-ding.

Yes. I'll stop now.

Imagine my delight then, when I found not one but three pens this weekend. Including my very,  very special pen.

My so inspiring to write with, so smooth to write with, and so lovely a pen that every colleague I've ever introduced these pens to has become an instant devotee, pen.

Well apparently,  it's not just adults who like these pens.

After using my pen for all of 5 minutes on the weekend and glorying in its gliding lines, it went AWOL. 

It disappeared so thoroughly, so completely,  that I actually, genuinely began to doubt I'd even found and used it. 

Then I found it.

Carefully secreted and included into one of LittleOne's Place of Treasures.

 It's in my possession again. For how long, we'll wait and see.

Our other big weekend lost and found experience featured this lil dude:

A 1-and-a-half-inch (5cm) ooshie of, I think, Woody from Toy Story.

I'm not into these ooshie thingies, and the last time the supermarket gave them away in a big promo exercise, I ended up with two dozen of them in individual packets. At the time, I looked at them askance, wondered what on earth to do with them and told the supermarket not to keep give me any more of the things.

Of course, they've since come into their own. LittleOne enjoys them and they've been a useful ad hoc surprise/reward system for the last year or so. I kinda regret opting out of them. Sometimes. 

Woody was the last ooshie from that original supermarket batch of freebies. We opened it yesterday. He's the only Woody in the collection too. 

Woody was new and special enough that he had to come with us on our afternoon pram walk with Indi-Girl. LittleOne fell asleep for a bit, Woody tight in hand, as Indi and I did a longer-than-usual, detouring onto bumpy woodland grass to carefully make sure Indi avoided other people, dogs and bike riders. It was a rather peaceful Australian equivalent of a Wind the Willows type of mood, even if the reality was more pongy and with a greater number of biting bugs.

We had just decided to head home when LittleOne woke up, so I extended the walk to show LittleOne a hitherto unseen bit of the creek. Including a new bridge and also a quick stand up in the pram to peep at a very long tree which had fallen into the creek, and which was sitting along the water without touching it (when water levels are low).

We got home and then realised Woody was gone.

.

.

GONE.

It was late afternoon. We left Indi home to have a huge drink and a rest. 

LittleOne and I came back out so I could frantically retrace of all my steps along the longer-than-usual walk. Trying to scan all around me for a 5cm scrap of yellow and blue in tall grass littered with yellowy leaves. Trying to remember all the bits where I'd taken Indi-Girl off the path to get her away from other people. 

Meanwhile, the afternoon sky started go sadly towards its indifferent late afternoon colours, the tree leaves started to darken their colours, and LittleOne wailed intermittently at Woody's loss with non-stop streams of nose goop.

At the same time, the memory of how Woody spent the entirety of Toy Story trying to get back home taunted me with irony, thick and strong, as I paused repeatedly to mop away said nose goop with an ever-diminishing number of tissues. 

I'd just decided there was enough daylight to rush to the new bridge (the bit of the walk we did after LittleOne woke up) and back home before it got too dark. Actually, it felt like there wasn't enough daylight to do all that, but I had to try. Let's put it this way - at that time of day, I preferred to have Indi with me. It was less Wind in the Willows and more looming trees, long grass, overshadowing dark creek and a gathering darkness which didn't have long to wait.

As we walked fast, I suddenly, finally remembered. 

There was the spot where I suggested LittleOne stand up in the pram to look at the tree lying over the creek. I gunned the pram to that spot, slipping and sliding over the muddy, slimy bits of path to the Fallen Tree Spot.

There, nestled safely in the grass, right where LittleOne had stood up and dislodged him, was Woody.

I scooped him, less triumphant, so relieved, and frankly annoyed at myself not remembering the culprit standing-up moment which caused Woody to fall in the first place. I presented Woody to LittleOne with lots of apologetic kisses and wasn't surprised when the main reaction was more tears. This time of relief as Woody got clasped tightly in both hands.

The Wind in the Willows vibe returned surprisingly rapidly, and there was just enough daylight left to detour into the nearby playground to shake out the bits of tension on the swing and slide under a peach and gold sky. 

Woody got home safely and was sternly told he wasn't allowed to go missing again. 

Thankfully, a weekend with all the founds and none of the losses.

Du fond du coeur x