Thursday, December 14, 2006

Oh, we have a blog!

I must charge the camera so we can keep posting pictures. These pictures were taken on Dad's camera last week when he came down to spend a couple of nights while Mum was in Dubai with Tessa.




We had a lovley lunch at Tony and Laura's last weekend with Ruby and Bee, but once again we did not have the camera!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Don't Drink Too Much This Christmas

It’s been a quiet couple of weeks down here by the sea, plus the memory card from the camera disappeard for a short while hence the lack of photos.

I was reminded of this video clip again the other day and I had to laugh!!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

White Hart.............what?

This is a special picture from Callum for his Daddy - inspired a little by his Poppa!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

A few days in Scotland

Callum Charlotte and I arrived in Scotland on Sunday having had a very exciting trip up on an "eleplane". We were blessed with the presence of someone else's grandmother in the seat behind who was happy to entertain Callum while I fed Charlotte. Callum has enjoyed the seasonal weather
Charlotte on the other hand has been less happy about getting dressed up to go out - although how she could object to wearing such a lovely hat (knitted by Lally) is a mystery!

A few more pics just relaxing...

Big Slide


Washbrook Farm in Hurstpierpoint has a fantastic childrens' playground as well as a few farm animals.

Callum loved this slide!!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Charlotte's Passport!

Charlotte takes to the skies for the first time tomorrow for a visit to Scotland with Vic and Callum. Can you believe that babies have to have their own passports these days? Bonkers!
Fly well my little one.

Monday, November 13, 2006

babies who lunch

Charlotte started the week with a lunch date with her friend Cora - Joe and Trish's daughter - born just 3 and a half weeks before her. These pictures really make me laugh!





Callum's big news of the week was his graduation to a bed. The picture below was taken this evening, 5 mins ago - the lump under the duvet is Callum. He has made the transition really well and we've only gone in to him once to find him standing by the window rather disorientated.





The focus of our weekend was a visit from Adam and Hannah.











Highlights of their visit included champagne for Hannah's birthday (which was last week) a fabulous curry prepared by the two brothers and a sea kayaking adventure for Adam. Callum loves the trip to and from the sea.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Bonfire Night

We spent a lovely weekend in Hereford for the children's first bonfire night. The weather was fantastic although blimin' cold! This was the view on Saturday morning from the house!


Charlotte was clearly happy to be there.......


............and she loved the walk up on Hay Bluff.

We were joined by our friends Peter and Sabine, with their four year old Julius.

Right behind you Granny!


Charlotte and Vic at sunset.


We took Callum and Julius to the local firework display. There was a HUGE fire which gave this incredible light. However, there was a really long wait for the fireworks and Callum kept asking if we could go home to bed. Once the display started though, he was very impressed!

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

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!!

Monday, October 23, 2006

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!

Sunday, October 15, 2006

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!

Monday, October 09, 2006

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!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

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.