Big Girl's Clothes, Siskins and Snow !

It's Snowing !! I was getting Ella ready for bed earlier when Karl came upstairs, pulled open the curtains and said "LOOK !". Huge chunks of frozen water falling from the sky... It's almost half past nine now, and it's it's still quite heavy and starting to stick. So, as you can imagine, Ella went to bed quite excited at the prospect of building a snowman tomorrow..

Ella is still getting over the sickness bug she had at the earlier part of the week. She could do with a nap at mid-day, but struggles through the day regardless (with lots of melt-downs and throwing things at the moment !).

Thursday we caught the bus into Rugby to get some groceries. Rural buses are fantastic. We get one a day - from the village at 9.30 then back from Rugby at noon. The drivers know us, so they stop outside the house,rather than at the official stop and occasionally carry the shopping to the door. We can also get the bus from Birdingbury, which is a brisk 20 minutes walk through the lanes and they run every 2 hours (luxury !). We can also get a bus to Leamington Spa from Birdingbury, but it takes forever, and the bus back has already left by the time we get there !! I'm not sure who's in charge of the bus schedules, but they should be sacked...


Yesterday we went to Ryton Pools Country Park, which is a couple of miles from us. It's a huge park with nature walks, a few natural playgrounds, a bird hide, natural ponds and a big lake.

Ella took Miffy with her.. We met with our friends Duncan and Gillian, and their children Imogen (6) and Cameron (3). We had a wander about, visited the bird hide (Ella asked the age-old question "Is that a Siskin") and played in the playground.

Ryton Pools is (not surprisingly !) a just a stones throw from Ryton Gardens which is a place we visit regularly. We have family membership to Ryton Gardens, and go there once a week if we can. Outside is a huge expanse of ground split into various "gardens" - wild flower, woodland, orchard, butterfly, biodynamic etc). Ella's favourite is the Children's garden, which has a big natural pond, musical instruments, natural insect houses, and best of all, the play house.


We went there for Pumpkin Day with our next door neighbours Joy (mum), Harry (8), Connie (5) and Eddie (3). They had lots of fun playing in the leaves and mucking about in the play house... Here's Ella and Harry on the balcony...


Ella was delighted to hear that her big cousin "Menissa" had posted a comment. She has recently been the very lucky recipient of many of Melissa's old clothes and Ella seems to think these clothes contain magical qualities. Her sentences used to start "when I'm a bigger girl I can... (do a cartwheel, bounce higher etc)" but the mere action of putting on one of Melissa's t-shirts means "Now I'm as old as Melissa I can...". Bless...

Well, we'll let you know if our snow has stuck, and if so, post pictures of the various snow sculptures Karl and Ella create..