sharpham

we were trying to take a pic of us to send with xmas cards (after looking through a whole year of pics and finding NONE of us 3 together!?). but we never got round to doing anything about it (maybe because of Janu's fetching smile in this first pic?!) this is on a short walk along the river dart. it was a bitterly bitterly cold day, and the next day Janu came down with a cold that lasted for over 2 weeks.... He's all better now.

pants!

this is to mark the first time janu pulled on his own pants/undies. and these are his no.1 socks too. we still regularly ask him to show off his belly to passers by, and it does make people laugh.  this weekend at the pool, we were undressing and some lovely old ladies had such a good giggle at his beautiful shape.  so proud and happy. (me and him!)

fi fi fo fum

he is very very scary when he does this...

bedroom

he can climb up and get his pants and socks. and books. and jump courageously to the chair (boat) below, avoiding the crocodiles and sharks on the floor (sea) below.

beads

at the local steiner school christmas fair, Janu fell in love with beads. I think this was his face when we wanted to take them off and give them back!

garage

This features largely in a day-in-the-life-of-Janu. Up, down, up, down, oh no crash! There is a family of 4 boys down the road from us, and this is one of the many great hand-me-downs we enjoy!

g'bread

At the local steiner school, we made our own gingerbread men..

bike

this is a bike I found at the tip - perfect with it's pedals on the front wheel so Janu can use it like a balance bike (wheels don't bang his legs when he speeds along). Unfortunately Adrian gets in the way, but you get the idea. Taken from Janu's bedroom window.

jam-jelly-pickle

I am a bit proud of this cupboard. courgette chutneys, apple and (everything - rosehip, hawthorn, sloes, ginger, elderflower, elderberry..), blackcurrant and redcurrant goodies, rhubarb sweet and sours...

yum!

nuna and janu made these delicious people on one of their wonderful Mondays together. Orange essence made them very tasty - off with thier heads!

buckfast woods

autumn lasted longer this year than some others - a storm at the wrong time can bring all the rainbow colours down.  we found a new area to explore quite close by - more walks along the dart on the edge of dartmoor near a huge old Abbey.  Janu enjoys a) cake on the way b) find a bench to sit on c) a pub before or after a walk.  The less walking the better.  He asks almost constantly: Is there a pub here? Can we go to a cafe? I don't wanna go walking.  Whose kid is this???

halloween

Here are 3 unidentified people on halloween.  a spooky party in town, where Janu wasn't as scared of all the ghouls as much as we thought he might be.  We took some betrooty blood soup. 

steam train

there is an old fashioned steam train that runs from totnes to buckfastleigh along the river dart. we took it on a rainy autumn day, and went back and forth twice as we couldn't face the rain!

occombe farm

this is another wonderful community farm near adrian's mum's house.  the whole thing was designed from scratch by a really young woman - so impressive. Like the programme I work on, they also got lots of Lottery money (hard to believe it's all funded from people's lottery tickets, but much of the charity world in UK seems to be!).

embercombe

embercombe is an amazing social enterprise near Exeter - they have big community days where there are lots of apple pressing, guess the weight of the pumpkin, marvel at our compost etc things to do. the star attraction for me is a huge, productive garden in a circle, with concentric beds around a central sitting/fire area. it was too large to take pics of.  the vid is one of janu's mates elmo. and the tree house was high up in the woodland, near an enormous swing. i've never felt that flying feeling - it really takes off from a steep hill and you're in the air for a long time, before swinging back down.

blessings

puzzled

he loves puzzles. I try not to help toooo much, but at this point I may make a few suggestions...

yum

I think he's the last one of his friends to get comfy feeding himself. I often still feed him -- I still think he's a baby?! but he's getting a lot better.

busy bee

he is a busy bee. he says 'i have so many luggages' when he looks at all his bags.

baz's b'day

so many porters, so many birthdays! barry visits home from malaysia, just for some devonshire cakes.

couch

more couch days. reading and tickling are probably key among our pastimes.

aa's b'day

hip hip! hooray! adrian is 40 something again!

hips & haws

this autumn we've found riches in the hedgerows.  janu and his best mates from the neighbourhood have all helped with bundles and bags of rosehips, hawthorns, elderberry, sloes and much more. all mixed with various concoctions of apple, quince, sugar - bubble bubble toil and troubling in syrups, jams, jellies and pickles.  I don't think I am ever as happy as when foraging for food.

fire

janu loves this scarf - he calls it his 'fire'.