Trip to the restaurant

Sophie's Daddy drove us to a nearby restaurant, but it was full. When he carried on to another one,
Sophie had mournfully waved to the first restaurant and said 'Goodbye Tea'. Poor little waif.
The next was a Chinese buffet, a novel experience for me. We settled at a table, then took turns to go for food at the buffet table.  When I was filling my plate with prawn crackers to eat with my chicken and sweetcorn soup, the sound of 'Nanna Strawberry' wafted across the restaurant from a giggling Sophie.

This occurred every time I returned to the buffet table which was laden with containers of hot tasty Chinesefood. Sophie was so proud she could say my name properly, instead of struggling to say Audrey !  We could eat as much as we wanted until full. I finished with icecream. Sophie's Daddy paid the bill and we left for home. Back at their house, he lifted a sleepy Sophie from the car and she said 'Goodbye Nanna Strawberry' in tones which implied 'game over, time to go' . She was ready for her bed !

Over coming months, there were numerous family get-togethers and Sophie always delighted in calling me 'Nanna Strawberry' whenever she saw me.  It sounded as if it was going to be her permanent name for me, which felt great.

The strawberry badge

Following my happy excursion to New Brighton with my first grandchild and my first great grandchild,  I still felt invigorated by the experience.. It occurred to me it would be fun to create a strawberry badge or emblem.  I assembled a piece of card, scissors, red and green felt tipped pens and a length of green embroidery silk.  The strawberry shaped card began to look quite good once I had dabbed red dots all over it, both sides, and coloured its stem and leaves green. The green silk tied around the stem quite easily and I knotted it into a loop to attach to a button. I had been invited to visit Sophie and Emma.  Sophie had shrieked 'NANNA STRAWBERRY' when she saw me standing at their front door and she bobbed up and down from her knees with sheer excitement. She then took my hand and led me into what can only be described as her play room, so full was it of colourful toys. After playing with some of them, I suggested we made a badge like the one looped over my button. Nessie, their golden retriever, came to watch. Sophie dabbed the red tip pen over the white card which soon began to resemble a large strawberry. More on the other side. I filled in the green stem. Then the ribbon was tied to the stem. Sophie proudly carried it to the kitchen to show her Daddy. We tied one to Nessie's collar. Emma then invited me to go out for tea with them.