splash

sea

puddles

he gets such a cheeky grin when there are puddles about...

friday ladies

a good friday. a gang of us at pip's (spot the interloper!), and somehow between running around after 5 little todders, we hoooovered (see ellen in action!), made pizza dough & topping, made bread, made cookies (damn the house smelled good!). not bad for a mornings work..

nos mayo

an almost spring day walk around nos mayo. I have to grudgingly admit England has some pretty spectacular coastline (can't say much for the water temperature though!)

snow man

up the field

a few streets away is a place our neighbour calls the 'magic field' that runs into the woods. the name sticks.

chips & kisses

after pruning in the snow - chips & kisses - with erica, adam and aaron (he calls them aan, eka and man) who moved to dartington from totnes from london not too long ago. lovely lovely neighbours.

ones that got away

keeping the ground clear under the apples at our allotment, these turkeys escaped the xmas chop! They thanked us by eating all our green manure, new garlic shoots, spring brassicas and trampling the carrot tops and - luckily - pooing everywhere. hmmmmm. (note new fence!)

swinger

exploring devon parks with abandon.

cabbage king

a little opening into the little imaginary world of this little man. we found some cabbage leaves along the path (near a farm-gate stall) and were carrying them home for the chickens. he started picking more leaves and told me he was making a 'samwich'. and then tried to eat it. wasn't quite as good as he thought. mmmm.

allot(ment)-of-snow

uncovering carrots, parnips and leeks (that we planted, dad!) under all this snow. we are building a great little community around the allotment and have been up a couple of times in the snow to prune the apple trees and clear while the bramables and nettles are dormant. silly hats are the only requirement to join in! some of the parsnips look a little scrawny, but I blame it all on the turkeys roaming free, who have been trampling and crashing thier way around for months now.

snow-boy

somebody let slip that snow is 'slippy' and 'icy' so little J hasn't been madly into the falling flakes everywhere - but now he knows what a snowman is! We had inches of snow for about week, and devon has all but ground to a halt - perfect! walking in the snow is so beautiful - still & silent - and everywhere turned black and white. this is our front and back garden transformed. amazingly, our 3 ladies continue to pop out the eggs, cosy in their house. I collected 6 the other day!

gnana

adrian's good friend Gnana (next to A) from sri lanka visited us here with some friends - he's visiting his mum in london and came all the way down to devon for a coffee! Adrian and he worked on interim shelters post-conflict in the north of sri lanka, and also in the south after the tsunami. he's now head of the housing unit at a large NGO in jaffna, and doing an amazing job.

screens

the porters dug out their old video tapes, and we watched (endless!) footage of baby AA and family. and janu snuck in some telle with amber too. he still talks ALL the time about 'max!' and 'am(b)ma', 'julie' and 'man!'

bathing beauty

what can I say? Sidney, Charlotte and Chloe all live a stones throw away and are Janu's favourite people ever. Remind me of this pic when he turns 18!