Keep Off the Grass?

Matt had to work today, so Frankie and I spent a little time wandering around the city center. We found a huge castle-like stone church with a beautiful hillside location, right on the bank of the river. There was green grass everywhere. It was cold, but the blue skies were absolutely gorgeous. I let Frankie have some fun rolling down the steep parts of the hill. There wasn’t a single other kid there… For as nice as the day was, that seemed more than a little strange.


Then, I got a little paranoid. Maybe the rules in the UK are different and that people aren’t allowed to walk on the grass in public areas? That sounded familiar… Hadn’t I heard that somewhere before? There weren’t any signs, but why wasn’t anyone else running around on the grass?

I couldn’t be sure, so I cut Frankie’s tumbling routine short in fear of breaking some sort of unspoken social code. She spent the rest of the outing following pigeons around and trying to snap their pictures.

So, it looks like we’re going to have to learn a whole new set of rules and customs. Little things (like playing in a park) that I wouldn’t think twice about back home suddenly have me second-guessing myself.

We also have to completely re-learn how to be pedestrians. Every time we get to a crosswalk, I have to force my brain to say “LOOK LEFT!!!! LEFT!!!!!!” So I do. And then I second-guess myself and look right, just to be safe. But then I feel like I need to look left again, in case any new cars have showed up in the intervening seconds. So I do. Again.

Long story short, it takes *forever* for us to get across the street. But hey, at least we’re super safe!

A few pictures from today’s mother/daughter (possibly rule-breaking) riverside outing:

And this last one cracks me up, because it looks like she's posing for her senior picture: