Kind: Notes

In preparation for Family D&D Night (and with thanks to my earlier guide to splicing maps together!), I've finally completed an expanded "overworld" map for our game world. So far, the kids have mostly hung around on the North coast of the Central Sea, but they're picked up a hook that may take them all the way across to the other side... and beyond?

Banana for scale.

(If your GMing for kids, you probably already know this, but "feelies" go a long way. All the maps. All the scrolls. Maybe even some props. Go all in. They love it.)

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On a dining table lies a old-style map comprised of 12 sheets of A4 paper, sellotaped together. The map shows the 'Central Sea', an inlet from the 'Terminic Ocean', around which various settlements, forests, mountain ranges, and swamps can be found. An underripe banana sits in one corner of the map, weighing it down.

Trip to Waddesdon Manor with the kids for an Easter Egg Hunt.

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Dan sits on a bus, a dog in his lap, alongside a boy and a girl. All three humans are wearing cardboard 'rabbit ears' hats.

Rarely seen nowadays, these UK road signs were eventually declared "too impolite" and "brusque" and have now almost entirely been replaced with the ones that Brits are familiar with today, which read "Terribly sorry for the inconvenience, I hope it's no bother, it's all our fault really, so sorry, really sorry, sorry, I'll put the kettle on shall I?"

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On a grassy roadside verge, next to a temporary wire fence, a yellow-and-black metal sign reads 'Sorry for any inconvenience'.

White's move. Mate in three. A giant chessboard is the perfect environment to teach a child some basic chess strategy, right?

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A girl studies a chessboard on a lawn, watched over by two men: Dan and JTA.

While adding an entry to OpenBenches (openbenches.org/bench/36677), I was struck by how much of an impact this woman - Jane Gregg - must have made on her local community.

In this community garden in Bampton, in the Lake District, a bench dedicated to her includes not only a plaque summarising her achievements but it's also been hand-carved with the words "Jane an amazing human."

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Top of a simple wooden bench; an attached brass plaque on the front side can be seen, but is illegible from this angle. But on the top, somebody has carved "Jane an amazing human."

Brought the kids up Knipe Scar with limited and challenging art materials (huge sheets of paper and thick marker pens) for a lesson in drawing what a landscape makes you feel, rather than focusing on what you can actually see.

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Two children on a rocky green hillside each draw on a sheet of A1 paper.

"I know that losing your job was hard," my 8-year-old said to me this evening, "So you can borrow this." He handed me his newest soft toy.

"It'll help you feel better when you're sad. Keep him for the week."

😭

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'Squishmallow' soft toy in the shape of a fat snake with a starry belly, sitting on a grey pillow.

I'm in an extremely rural area and I needed a phone call with my lawyer about my recent redundancy. Phone signal was very bad, so I resolved to climb a nearby hill and call him back.

"I'm at a crossroads," I said, when I finally found enough bars to have a conversation with him.

"In your life?" he asked.

"I guess," I replied, "But also, y'know, literally."

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Pre-Worboys Committee British junction signpost in black and white, photographed against a bright blue sky. The signs point to Rosgill in one direction, Shap and Kendal in a second, and Bampton and Haweswater in a third.

The phone signal is so shit at this year's 3Camp venue that I've had to climb a hill to take a call from a lawyer (whom I'm speaking to about my recent redundancy). Nice to be outdoors, though!

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Dan, with a laptop, sitting alongside a rural Lake District lane in bright sunshine.

I'm off for a week of full-time volunteering with Three Rings at 3Camp, our annual volunteer hack week: bringing together our distributed team for some intensive in-person time, working to make life better for charities around the world.

And if there's one good thing to come out of me being suddenly and unexpectedly laid-off two days ago, it's that I've got a shiny new laptop to do my voluntary work on (Automattic have said that I can keep it).

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Black Macbook Pro whose screen shows a locally-hosted copy of the Three Rings web application, overlaid with a terminal running lazygit.

Sometimes the kids need to leave your pub dinner before you finish your drink, and you need to take a "to-go" pint.

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Dan, grinning, holding a quarter pint of beer in few rear passenger seat of a moving car.