Marie's Web Log

Guess what? The English winter illness season has officially started. I have a sore throat and a cough. Yes, a cough - do you remember how I coughed for so long last winter (despite three rounds of antibiotics) that I pulled a muscle! Bleah!

Did I write about Bonfire Night? I can't remember. It was very loud around here - lots of our neighbours setting off professional quality fireworks in their back gardens. Smokey too. Seems kind of dangerous to me.

Will put a couple of Halloween photos below. What other news? Oh yes, Amelia's birthday last Sunday. We had gone the previous weekend to the Aquarium in Plymouth with friends who weren't available this past weekend. Amelia had chosen to go there, rather than the zoo. She enjoyed it and we let her buy something from the shop with the money Ian has been putting into her piggy bank. Then we walked across the bridge to the other side of Plymouth harbour and had lunch.

Last Sunday we had Mandarin playgroup here in the morning, so we had her cake then. (Homemade chocolate with white and pink icing, specifically requested by Amelia.) She's had 14 cards in all, and quite a few gifts - including the main one from us, a baby doll that she can take in the bath with her and that will also drink and use the potty, though we haven't tried that feature yet. After playgroup we went to some friends' for lunch, and then for a walk at a place called Haldon Hills Forest, which I get confused with Halton Hills in Ontario. It was the first time we'd been there, and actually it was rather like a Canadian provincial park, with a proper laid out trail through some stunning scenery.

Speaking of scenery, the colours have been lovely this year. Not many bright reds, except for the occasional patch of that shrub of which I've forgotten the name, but lots of golds and oranges and russets, and they've lasted a long time. It's mid-November and they're just starting to die out.

Below are the photos.

And another one I thought you'd like: