Happy Halloween

New Friends

This weekend Sveta and her two children, Sofia and Maria came to stay. They are Russian but live in Holland so they can all speak at least three languages - sometimes I am so envious!!

Callum and the girls got on like a house of fire and was particulary smitten with Maria.

By Sunday morning we had the making of a really good rock and roll band, although I think some of us may have been taking it slightly more seriously than others!!

Apples

On Saturday we spent the day at Middle Farm, a fully working farm and visitor centre that is great for small people. It also happened to be the Apple Festival which meant there was music, a fun fare, lots of food and plenty of Cider (which made it great for bigger people too)!

Grandma and Callum were very excited to be there.


Charlotte was slightly less impressed!

You could taste every single one of these if you wanted to. Norma and I did our best, but I know one man who would have done better - there was plenty of Gwatkins cider there too.

Our friend Dave (left) had organised all the music for the weekend which was really good, a real country flavour.



These guys were getting really into it! They are Welsh Morris dancers apparently.......


..........who did a rather entertaining fertility dance!

1066 and all that!

Yesterday was the 940th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings and to celebrate the event there was a huge reenactment of the battle in the very field that Harold got it, all those years ago. Now, I don't know about you, but whenever I have seen TV footage of people all dressed up in medieval dress prancing around a field and pretending to slaughter each other, I've just thought sad nutters!!

Well, my opinion changed yesterday having spent the day in the company of around 3000 Saxons and Normans. Those taking part take it all very seriously. We got the low down from a professional Saxon (such a nice man, a real pity he was going to end up on the losing team!) They are under instruction to always be in character. They are not allowed to use mobile phones or eat and drink out of anything other than bowls and goblets. He also told us that there were around 15 different nationalities involved in the reenactment, and we certainly heard Polish, French, German and Dutch being spoken. There were a few Americans too.

Even the very young were involved.

It took a lot of blowing, but he did get the fire started in the end!


When Callum spotted this fire he thought he would make himself at home. Little did he know at the time, but these guys were Normans!

This guy tried to sign Callum up to the cause, however, once Callum refused he told him he was off to burn his country!


So, on with the battle. The bloke on the horse is William, who was actually booed by the watching crowd!

We left before they had finished(it was expected they were going to be at it for two hours!) in the safe knowledge that we knew how it was going to end!

All in all a great day out - we really did enjoy it and Vic is already talking about next year!

The Hugging Machine

Saturday morning Callum and I walked up to Richardson Road to pick up a newspaper and have a coffee. In the time it took us to walk there and back he managed to give a big hug to six random members of the older generation. He has a real thing for grey hair!!! One very old man was walking up the street with his walking stick (he would not have managed without it) and Callum gave him such a big cuddle he nearly fell over. Luckily I grabbed his arm just it time.

By late morning I was up on the Downs near Washington (north of Worthing) with Callum and Charlotte for a walk. It was a beautiful day. Callum managed to hug two more retired types (I think I will start a rogues gallery of those who have been Callumed!) and chat to some horses.


On Saturday afternoon Nina and Isaac came to spend the weekend and in the evening the three of us left all three children with a babysitter and headed out to a party!


Sunday was a bit of a slow day due to lack of sleep for all the night before! After Nina and Isaac had left to go home the four of us set about baking some cakes for tea. Delicious!

And finally, a couple of rather cute pictures of Charlotte taken today!

Two Cakes

My birthday was brilliant. I came home from work to discover that Callum and Charlotte (with a little help from Vic!) had made me a birthday cake with green (Callum's choice) icing. We washed it down with some champagne. Callum was quick to grab a glass left unattended and downed the contents - another champagne lover in the family!!!

On Friday we traveled up to Hereford to spend the weekend with Mum and Dad and Callum was clearly delighted to see another cake!

On the Saturday we went to a great Owl sanctuary which had lots of other animals too.

There was definitely a spark here!!!




Here is Granny and Callum in the Cave of Wonders, or, under the kitchen table!
And finally Grandpa and Callum collecting vegetables from the garden for Sunday lunch.

Callum's First Haircut!!

After 788 days Callum has his first haircut today. He no longer looks like our little baby, but more like a proper little boy. Very smart though!!!

Castles and Long Walks

This weekend we took full advantage of the fantastic weather and headed into the country. On Saturday we packed a picnic and went to Bodiam Castle.

The moat is full of carp and ducks so you can imagine how excited Callum was to feed them with his leftover sandwiches. There is an organic vineyard just behind the castle but unfortunately we could not buy the wine at the castle. However, after a little bit of investigation we discovered that Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard was just down the road. Naturally we popped in and picked up a couple of bottles including a delicious sparkling wine.



On Sunday we headed out early for a three and a half mile walk through beautiful woodland. Callum walked virtually the whole and Charlotte was as good as gold. We stopped for a pub lunch on the way back and were all absolutely exhausted by the time we got home. It did not stop Callum from waking up at 6:30am as usual though!!!

All these pictures were taken on my phone so the quality is not great!

Dat's Funny!..................

On Saturday the four of us joined up with the rest of the Richardson's for Susie and Ryan's wedding near Henley. Susie is the daughter of Merv and Val Hall, very old friends of Mum and Dad's.

The children were brilliant. Every time the guests laughed during the speeches Callum said (in a voice that everyone could here!) dat's funny. Charlotte fell asleep in the bottom of the buggy and Callum partied hard long into the night, finally falling asleep just before 11:00pm.

We took Norma's camera as ours had run out of battery (and I have no idea what has happened to the charger!). I clearly did not master it, but there are some wonderful pictures here.

It's been a while!

Here are a collection of photos taken over the last couple of weekends. The lously weather was the weekend of the 2nd September and the stunning weather was last weekend. You would think they were months apart rather than one week!!!!

The winter hat photos were taken at the Forgoton Village of Tide Mills near Newhaven on a very windy day.

This weekend my Mum and Dad stayed with us on Friday night and had lunch with us and Laurrie and his son Aiden on Saturday.

The Last Few Days

Quick disjointed (and badly laid out!!) update and some photos to go with it. Summer is fading fast so we had a "last picnic" on Friday to celebrate Dan's great success in his marketing diploma, complete with my mother and Dan's favourite drink. It is Callum's favourite type of meal. Dan had a curry - which is his favourite type of meal - (home made - so maybe it's not quite as bad as it sounds) for breakfast at the weekend. Odd - very odd.

The park behind the houses has a new attraction - proving difficult to get away from there fast now.
Charlotte is smiling lots - despite her reflux and terrible cold which I think Callum must have given her.
Sadly missing pictures of Dan's most recent kayak adventure - stormy seas, riding the waves - fear of capsizing - "awesome dude!" I was planning on getting down to capture the event but driving rain brought the intrepid explorer home faster than I could get two little people waterproofed and out.

Stormy Weather

Today has developed into a windsurfers paradise with high winds and high seas.

We had an early lunch at the Pizza Express in the Marina which was delicious, before coming home and everyone falling asleep!

To rid the sleep from our eyes we took a walk along the front. As you can see, it was pretty blowy.


There are some other pictures taken today below this entry.

Three Generations

Brother and Sister

Charlotte

Saturday

Lally flew down on Wednesday night and is staying with us for a week. Callum was very excited when he woke up to find her here and was quick to introduce Charlotte.

Iona, Juliette and Hugh came for lunch today and we had great fun playing football in the park and with the Callum's cars.

I think Spurs could have done with Hugh today!