Goalie!

This is for you, Nagyapa! Who does he take after??

roooo-barb

'Can we make the one where I rub the butter?' Janu often says. This time, I chucked in some butter, and he scooped out (that's one of his fave things, scooping for me cooking) the flour and oats, and then he just got on with it and did the whole thing. He's so delicious. We made cake on the bottom, then rooo-barb on top, then his crumble on top of that. yum. Note our matching aprons. His one I 'borrowed' from the Broulee cupboard!  

baby slug

Janu playing baby slugs at a local pub playground. Note in one of the video's his hand gesture (palm up enquiringly). He started doing that on his own, and it's a sweet habit I encourage by doing it too!

home

as we are making more plans for leaving [have I mentioned on here that we're moving to Australia in Sept??], we're taking more pics for posterity thinking going on - this is home! Looks funny from the outside, but it's just lovely! It hasn't looked like this for a while tho, as we've had scaffolding up for weeks now, a big skip and a viola! a new roof. 13 rotted through timbers just about holding the roof up, there were! The chickens are just to the left of this pic, snuggled in under bamboo clumps. back garden is alight with spring flowers, hues of pinks, purples, blues blending into the euc, palm, fig and ferns, apple tree with baby buds, fat rhubarb and pidgeon pecked salads.  That's Janu's window up top. Zach, his best mate from across the road, get lost in the garden. Where they are playing is just tucked in under that tree on the left in the house pic. 

oxford

Adrian's aunt turned 80 and her sisters organised a surprise party, gathering family from far and wide at her home in Oxford.

chug

the steam train chugs along to an otter sanctuary, where Janu makes a new friend! I wish I had been there!

foxhole

this is homage to Janu's beloved playgroup, which is closing down soon.  We've had such a lovely time there, and Janu loves it.  He's starting 2 mornings a week, ostensibly on his own, but Adrian and I do still stay close by, while encouraging him to play with the others. Whoever takes him sits doing some work (Adrian) or colouring in (me) and if he needs us (which seems to be quite often) he comes and finds us.  He'll only be little once! When Adrian took these pics, he had arrived very early so there were no other kids - looks like it's a whole playgroup for Janu! It's just a short walk from home. 

ice cream

look...and dive!

gardening course

we're offering basic gardening workshops at work, and this was a gorgeous spot in west devon. The National Trust (huge landowners of old estates and land in UK) have offered lots of land to community groups. this group have made great use of that - with groups for bees, veg growing, orchard (keen on the cider) and pigs. 

little summer

janu knows we are not in big summer now, just medium or little summer, as he paraphrases our more staid 'early, mid and late summer' explanations.  he's very impressed that amber is a teenager now; talks about teenagers all the time. one of his fave stories for me to tell him is about Edie, a 'very old teenage reindeer' who goes ice-skating with her friends.

bbq

bbq in our backgarden with the london cuz's

kingsbridge

misty day at kingsbridge. nearby is a kids pool where janu paddles and does great big crocodile kicks.

oyster

we grew these mushrooms, and over night they spread and spread from tiny pin pricks to giants. finally we fried them with garlic. mmmmm. janu wasn't so sure. he probably ate (more) baked beans.

my birthday sneaks up close to Janu's big 'un. I was walking home the day before my b'day excited about the idea of baking myself a cake and I opened the door to a flood of chocolate waft. The cake was hidden, but I knew I didn't need to make one! It was Adrian's first cake (and he chose a 4-egg choc smoochy dream!) and it was great. berries taken from our stash in the freezer. cards and friends and goodies. Thank you!

hexworthy

instead of the beach on a hot summers day, a river beach does the job! Janu loved exploring 'tiger forest' and 'bear country' and paddling in the ice water.  other brave souls were going in up to thier knees!