Lavenham - November days

The best Christmas tree

The day before yesterday our neighbour died. We were saying how her husband must be sad. Eli said "I hope he still celebrates Christmas - they have the best Christmas tree! They put a mirror on the floor so it looks like the tree goes down as well as up".

Milford upon Sea

Firefleas 2012

Flamme rouge

Bradley looks round to see who in the crowd is passing themselves off as the maillot jaune with a Team Sky cap!

"adopting"

Eli: I am getting a sister.
Friend Tommy: Uh!?
E: She's 3 and a half
FT: Uh!? She can't be. She has to be zero.
E: No, we are 'adopting' her.
FT: Uh!? What's 'adopting'?
E: You know some children have mummies and daddies who can't look after them so people adopt them.

London Nocturne 2012

Matt Goss headed the line up for the Men's Elite race. But Sky's Ian Stannard won. The women's Elite race was great and Eli was made up when Sarah Storey gave him her water bottle.

Urban Hill Climb 2012 promo vid

Check it out 14 seconds in...

Epping Forest Camp 1

The Jubilee River Pageant

I missed the surreal David Lynchian Jubilee party at the local community centre yesterday, but today we headed down to the Tower of London in the rain for a quintessentially British affair - rain, ice creams, monarchy, flag-waving. Big guns saluted the coming of the pageant. The Queen's boat was unmistakeable, and so was she a distant figure in white like a ghost on the Thames.

Hurst Castle

Halfway to the Isle of Wight lies Hurst Castle on a giant shingle spit. It is an 18th century castle, with WWII additions. The most dramatic way to reach it is by boat - so we did.

IG Markets Nocturne

This was last month. Let the video play to 32 seconds.

From the past

The guy who runs the cheese counter at Earth in Kentish Town has been meaning to send Stephanie this photo since he took it at Bumblebee about 4 years ago. He finally sent it!

Teeth!

Eli's first milk tooth came out today!!!

Alas I am in Oslo so not there to let the Tooth Fairy in :(

Repairs

Today we just went swimming, put a new tyre on Eli's bike, and went for a spin on the Heath.

Gunners

Stef and Eli's first ever football match. Emirates Stadium. Arsenal v Sunderland. Nil - nil. Eli by far the loadest shouter in our area of the stadium, much to the pleasure of assorted fans around us.

Songs

Happy Dayday

Frere jacques

Wheels on teh bus

Language

It is some time since I have written about Elias' language.

Now he is talking all the time telling stories and ahem whining.

A funny thing has come up with words that sound the same but have different meanings.

In Jack and the Beanstalk Jack climbs up the beanstalk and finds himself in "a bare country", Eli naturally asks "where are the bears".

In Rapunzel someone tells a tale and Eli responds that he hasn't got a tail.

Between languages we have "pete" in French meaning fart and so Eli laughing if a character in an English book buys a pet, strokes a pet or feeds their pet.

Crayfish on Hampstead Heath

Long Jump

A first try at the long jump, with Noah, on the Heath.

Jubilee Hill Climb

Eleven rogue posts

The eleven posts dated today are rogue and are drafts from the past 6 years that suddenly sprang to life...

IG Markets London Nocturne coming soon

This is in the video trailer for it...

Sleepover

A sleepover. A mango.

May Lavers

A May Lavenham with our first dangerous soup...

Garden lust

Eli was saying this morning how much he is looking > forward to have his own garden where he will be allowed to have his own > patch to plant violet flowers (a lavender tree) red flowers and blue > flowers.

32km of sportivealike

32km through the forest on the route of the sportive. Overtaken by 18 Ferraris, despite Eli's personal best top speed of 42km per hour on a downhill.

Easter in Les Avants