Go Tom, Go Tom, Go Tom, Go Tom..

Tom is now officially walking - he's been shuffling about for a week, but today he took 12 shaky steps on his own across the kitchen. He was very pleased with himself and joined in the round of applause at the end. As you can see from the picture, the effort wore him out, poor chap. Ella thinks it's hilarious that he's walking and continues to find him lots of fun to have around, although she'd still like his name to be Phoebe... Today she asked Karl if he used to have the same shaped head as Tom. Not sure why she's fixated about the shape of Tom's head still....

Today we went to the park in Birdingbury and Ella scared herself witless coming down the slide. She saw the funny side of it afterwards luckily. She ate her body weight in blackberries on the walk back home. The combine harvester has been busy this past week, and we're eagerly awaiting it's arrival at the bottom of the garden - we have wheat ready to be harvested at the moment.

We are delighted to hear the sound of birds in the garden again, after a few quiet weeks. Mr Robin is back, along with great tits, blackbirds and swallows (or house martins, we're not sure). Our apples and pears are getting near to ripe and the squirrel is already gathering the walnuts. Hopefully he'll leave my tulip bulbs alone this year - I dug up my pots and borders in spring to find out why the tulips didn't come up and found walnuts in their place...

Nan is coming to stay after 4 more sleeps (Ella's counting). She arrives on the day Tour Brittania comes through the village, so we're going to park up on the village green and watch the vintage cars go past.

Bampa sent us some pictures he took at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta (before we left !). Thinking about it, the Army helicopter swooping in from the trees was probably the beginning of the end for Ella....

Pigeons and Painting

Ella, Tom and I have just returned from a fortnight with Nanna and Bampa, leaving Karl to manage the kitchen fitting...

The weather was pretty unpredictable while we were there, but we did manage to get to the beach, go to the park and go on a few trips out.

We saw Melissa before she went on her holiday to Rome and Pompeii and we're looking forward to hearing about her trip..

(pictures above : Ella at the beach : Tom and Ella at the dragonfly bench near Nanna's house)

We went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, but unfortunately didn't get to see the mass balloon ascent - the day was too busy and noisy for Ella, so we made an early exit.

We went to the Wetlands Centre for a teddy bear's picnic, a treasure trail and crafts. I took Tom into London to meet up with my friend Treez and two of her girls. We went to the Children's Park at Kensington Gardens. Here is a picture of Olivia and Tom on the fairy tale chair.

We also went to visit Great Nanny and Auntie Margaret.

We got home to a beautiful new kitchen and a couple of other nice surprises.. The sunflower had flowered while we were away and a lost homing pigeon had moved in.

Ella has enjoyed feeding the pigeon daily and a week on, it's still with us.

Karl spent the entire time painting and did a super job getting everything ready for the kitchen to be fitted.. (Here's a before and after pic... )
Yesterday was Karl's birthday, so Ella and I made some cup cakes and we had a lovely birthday brunch.

Tom is getting close to walking - he's taking 2 or 3 steps on his own, but then he gets over excited and falls over or throws himself at the nearest person. Ella thinks he's hilarious, although she would still like his name to be Phoebe...