How lucky we are…..

Having been out and about to various places in our local area, we were having a chat-on-the-mat reminding ourselves of some of the places we have seen on our travels.  Places, we discovered, where people can work and where people can visit.  Tommy, ever thoughtful, suddenly pronounced; ‘We are lucky to have Chateau de Penthes…..

in our local area.  You can walk all around - and see tadpoles.’

Shahrbano continued.  ‘A few weeks later you can see frogs and you can hold them.’

Rammy reiterated.  ‘We are lucky to have Chateau de Penthes because there are a lot of things you can do like catch tadpoles - and climb trees.’

‘You can look at the tall trees,’ added Aabis.

‘Yes, you can amuse yourself by looking at the amazing leaves and trees,’ elaborated Amelia.

‘We are lucky to have Chateau de Penthes because there is a nice view,’ said Quentin.

‘From the wall by the chateau you can see a bird’s eye view and the sun shining on the lake,’ Dylan pointed out.

‘You could paint the view from the wall by the Chateau,’ contributed Tatiana.  (As we did the other day.)

‘You can see birds,’ said Shouq.

‘You can hear the birds sing,’ added Ryoma.

‘You could rest on the grass or go for a run,’ suggested Amelia.

‘And it’s a good place to walk your dog,’ added Meghna.

‘You can roll down the hill,’ said Martin. 

‘You can play,’ Viivi told us.

‘You can have a picnic there,’ said Virginia.  ‘And you can learn stuff.’

‘Yes, you can go in the nice museum.’  Sivert.

And we could have continued in a similar vein - had we not needed to get to French.

The discussion was all the more extraordinary if you look at the timing; we had earlier in the day indulged in the fantasy of pretending that we might have anything that we wanted in our local area, just outside the school gates.  Imagine leaving school each day and being able to dive into a swimming pool or ride on a rollercoaster, pet a friendly lion or even, perish the thought, shop endlessly for toys.

Well, a pleasant dream perhaps; but it would appear that in fact we are happy with our lot and, perhaps more importantly, that we understand quite how lucky we are to have it.