Fathers day flowers

On fathers day we took an outing to Columbia Road Flower Market. It's a pretty amazing array of flowers and plants...

... not to mention of course the usual array of market foods... nom... 

... spotted this, no longer amusing graffiti, on the way back...

... here's the fathers day Sunflower... 

... and an array of other flowers were also purchased for our growing garden... 

4 Grandparents in a city made of wool

Teddy recently received visitors from America, as his grandparents took a trip to see us. The main outing we all took was to Bristol, where we met with the English grandparents and Teddy's newly arrived cousin, Uncle and Aunt, who've returned from New Zealand. 

We visited the city of Bristol, here seen depicted in wool in an exhibit at the fabulous M Shed entitled "Briswool". 

... a view of the Matthew from M Shed.... 

... Rose holding court with all the grandparents... Ted and Bailey (unseen) playing on the floor of this kids section... 

... Ted in the train on the trip back ensuring no-one takes a nap... 

Note: the internet provided information about "family friendly" places to eat at, and they got it right....  due to where we were planning on seeing, we went to @Bristol Cafe for lunch, and ate an early dinner at the Watershed... both were great super baby friendly (and the food at Watershed was great, something you can't always say for baby friendly places). 

Yurt Lush: A Ger Glamping Adventure

We recently went on Holiday to Ivy Grange Farm, in Suffolk, where we stayed in a Mongolian Yurt (Ger)... and explored the local area and the two nearby towns of Beccles and Halesworth. This style of camping is known as "Glamping" and Ivy Grange definitely falls under the eco-tourism umbrella too... it was a lovely site, but sadly the weather wasn't great and so it was really windy and thus a little cold (the Yurt was nice and warm especially once we got the hang of the wood burner --- the secret being make a big fire!)

Here's a few photos from our trip...

... for some reason the number 9 features on the packing list... 

.... en route, doing a little sketching of the views out the train window...

... outside the Yurt...

... tucked up in bed in the Yurt...

... playing table football.... concentrating hard...

.. the cob oven for pizza cooking...

... more than 3 hours of constantly feeding and moving the fire later... ready for action...

... pizza on the peel... the oven was amazing, cooking a pizza in about a minute and a half...

... Teddy and Rose, off on an adventure (or possible for breakfast in the Barn)...

... Teddy eating breakfast in the barn... 

... Teddy and Rose meeting a horse...

Following Paddington to the Canalway Cavalcade

After reading "Paddington Bear at the Carnival", and having a slight obsession with boats, it seemed only fitting that we should attend this year's Canalway Cavalcade, in Little Venice.

... there were of course plenty of boats to see..

... here they all are parked around "The Pool", all decked out in their flags...

... we saw Mr Mylo the Children's Mime Artist... who was amusing...

... and we watched the opening ceremony from the Bridge on which it is hosted, and the very same bridge that features in the final page of the Paddington book...

it was a fun day out... and best of all we got Ted a badge from the IWA that reads "Captain".  

The Men Who Stare at Boats

Drawing influence from the Stargate Project, Teddy has begun a series of experiments on London's waterways.... Teddy is the first in the new intergalactic battalion of Men Who Stare at Boats.

...this mostly involves walks along the southbank in Rotherhithe to look at boats between Tower Bridge and the Peninsula...

... in the rain...

... or

... nice weather...

... and even walks down onto the foreshore beach to see the boats from their level....

... and a spot of sketching from time to time...

... sometimes with a vehicle... 

... this has earnt Ted the local nickname... "The Captain". 

Easter Activities....

... some things we got up to over the Easter Holidays...

... On Good Friday... we went to the newly opened Magic Garden, at Hampton Court Palace (photo knicked from HRP)...check out the link for more info and photo's on it...

... there's a dragon that breaths steam... seriously awesome! (photo also knicked)..

... Teddy and Rose running wild on the high walkways on way to the massive slide...

On Saturday after a morning at Museum of London Docklands, we went to "Big Stick Day" at Stave Hill Ecological Park... 

... we made a magic wand, which turned out to be useful to banish cars the next day... 

... After a Lazy Sunday... we raced through Storm Katy to Messy Monday's at the National Gallery, messy play here we come!!! 

... stick day clearly rubbed off on Teddy, as he stopped off to pick up sticks! 

... a week later we sort of closed off Easter by feeding the Lambs at Surrey Docks Farm... 

... amazing, fun times for all! 

Easter Food...

This Easter we did some baking! 

We made a Simnel cake, the eleven marizpan balls represent the twelve apostles minus Judas. We made this on Mothering Sunday, as per the tradition. 

We made some lovely hot cross buns. 

Which were well appreciated!! 

We died some eggs, with homemade dyes. 

Instead of Easter Eggs this year we made Cornflake Chocolate Nests

... and here they are with the Simnel cake, and an Easter basket that Teddy made at a stay-and-play. 

Where the wild things are...

 We recently paid a visit to Lavender Pond, a 2.5 acre wilderness space, in our community. Not typically open to the public, they were having a wild flower planting day.

The pond... where Teddy discovered frogspawn...

...your local wilderness needs you... to plant! 

..here's some of the amazing insect hotels...

... dig for victory...

... Ted checking out this path..

... and this path...

... and having a well earned break! 

Going through the archives

I realized out trip to Paris was a year ago, how time flies!  I was looking through the archives of photos and found one from last year and one from this year and thought about how much Teddy has changed, and how some things have remained the same. 

Teddy in 2015

Teddy in 2016

You may note in the second picture he is doing some heavy reading, he enjoys Amy Poehler's book Yes, Please which is really funny, he has good taste in books and comedy already.