Finton turns 1

The other day we attended another first birthday, this time for our dog-walking buddy Finton. He lives with his parents Steve and Meredith, over the valley from us. (I feel like I have blogged about these people, but I can't find it anywhere in the blog so I will continue). In our early dog-owning days, Winston fell in love with their dog Motchi. They often come by our back gate and take Winston with them for a walk with Motchi and their newly arrived but older dog Cougar. On Saturdays they usually drop in after the walk and Finton gets to bash around some of the boys' old toys.

The party was down in the Cascade Gardens near our house. We were honoured to be asked to be the wet-weather fallback venue. Fortunately that wasn't necessary as it was great day. We did contribute some furniture - we dragged a bunch of folding chairs and a plastic table down to the gardens.There is a spot in the gardens near the barbecues, where silver birches grow on a grassy slope, making a bit of a grove. You just want to run through the trees and swing around them. This is where we had our boys' first few birthdays, and this is where Finton's party was set up. The little fella did very well - its not easy being the center of attention for hours, when you are one.

We did not know anyone there except the birthday boy and his parents, but everyone was very pleasant and we chit-chatted for some hours, while the boys climbed excessively high trees. I sat down with Steve's 70-ish dad who I understand is a bit of an inventor. I got away half an hour later having gathered that he is a climate-change denier, who holds the only good science being done is by the Russians. They have announced that not only is there no human role in the greenhouse effect, in fact the world has stopped warming and is now cooling, so we need to pump as much carbon into the air as we can. I took this on board in as open-minded a way as I could.

One of Steve's work colleagues was there with his family, including his daughter who is in Nobody's Grade 8 class. She was put out because it was too sunny to use her iPad. She had a lot of opinions, and was what I would term 'snippy'. I mentioned to Nobody that I had met her, and he said snippy did not begin to cover it.

After birthday cake we departed, dragging our table and chairs behind us. We found the boys impossibly high in a massive pine tree, with two Chinese men pointing at them and grimacing in amazement.