What with the glorious heatwave making us all feel like we were holidaying somewhere considerably more exotic than our own back gardens, I decided it was time to broaden the gremlins' culinary horizons.
Instead of the usual apples, pears and bananas, I introduced them to dragon fruit, mangoes, papaya, coconuts, watermelon, passion fruit and pineapples.
A little culture.
A little adventure.
Perhaps we'd discover some new favourites.
I really should know better.
(I can hear you laughing you know.)
The first coconut was immediately declared "wearable."
One watermelon became a hat.
Another became maracas.
Someone disappeared with a pineapple shouting something about "fashion."
There is now an ongoing disagreement regarding whether coconuts count as formalwear,
and I have absolutely no intention of getting involved.
Not after last time.
The fruit itself fared... surprisingly well.
Watermelon was an overwhelming success.
Pineapple proved extremely popular, although mostly because it could apparently be weaponised and accessorised.
Dragon fruit received several suspicious looks before eventually being accepted on the grounds that "it already looks like a gremlin made it." I mean... fair.
Mangoes vanished.
No witnesses.
Papaya was politely sniffed, discussed at length, and then ignored in favour of stealing each other's coconuts.
Typical.
I had imagined a sophisticated afternoon of tropical tasting.
Instead I somehow ended up supervising what can only be described as a tiny, chaotic island festival where absolutely nobody understood the assignment.
In hindsight...
...they may actually have understood it perfectly.
After all, tropical fruit isn't just for eating.
Apparently it's also excellent for costumes, percussion, improvised hats, and questionable engineering projects involving coffee filters, duct tape and, apparently, prayers...
Just...
...keep a close eye on anyone eyeing up the coconuts, maybe.
History suggests they're never more than about five minutes away from inventing an entirely new dress code.