So it's been a month since our last post - sorry. We'll catch up over the next few posts.
Firstly, some sad news. The hundreds of tadpoles are no more. Either they got caught up in the masses of pondweed that bloomed ridiculously as soon as Sun really came out or they emigrated to Ibiza. We're hoping for the latter.
Still, the good news is that Zafra is still stunning, and now more mobile than ever before.
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| Zafra contemplates climbing the stairs. At the moment it's little more than contemplation. |
She also has a habit of picking things up that have existed perfectly happily in their place for the last few years but now obviously should be taken away and chewed. For example, in the picture below Zafra has taken a recording of one of Neil's old hospital radio shows - not to listen to, of course, but to salivate over.
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| The Boxing Day Brunch show from December 1994? I'd love to drool over that. |
Maiden Castle is a big iron age fortification and it's rather cool. Jenny's old friend Jesse (old in the sense of hadn't seen him for 11 years, not long in the tooth) came to stay with his wife Amanda and we decided to take them round Maiden Castle, listening to the English Heritage guided tour on the way.
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| ...but I thought you said this would play Iron Maiden...! |
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| Die, ancient wall! Die! |
Jesse is a geologist but Neil thinks that he probably doesn't like his job very much, which is why he pulls out knives whenever he sees old rocks, as you can see above. The idea of studying something with a sharp knife is not only restricted to geologists - a number of inner city schools have many pupils studying each other like this. We also went to Lulworth Cove, which is a beautiful... well, cove.
Lulworth Cove is particularly interesting for geologists who gather here regularly to look at the important geological formations and also to go out in row boats dressed up as pirates. Jesse explained that a geological fault is basically a stratigraphic discontinuity so whenever you want to tell someone that they have a fault, it may be worth instead just telling them that you feel that they have a stratigraphic discontinuity.
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| A grumpy sea troll lives here. Jesse said so and he's into rocks and stuff so he knows. |
All that visiting and fresh sea air can be quite exhausting, though...
The big thing here was the Royal Wedding. We decided to bring the neighbours round to watch it, although it was more an excuse for alcohol than it was anything else. Neil spent most of the time playing Star Wars Epic Duels and Zafra spent her time watching the wedding, playing with her toys and trying to join in the Epic Duels game.
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| Zafra still laughing over Princess Beatrice's hat. |
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| "Well, if I can't play this Han Solo card, I may as well eat it." |
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Almost everyone who meets Zafra remarks on how happy she is and her laugh is just infectious...
Now there's something extraordinarily clever about this next video. Notice how Zafra has two ways of crawling - on the colder kitchen floor she'll use her feet, but on the carpet she'll use her knees as well. We just think that's very clever....
The weather in Bournemouth is lovely. It has its own microclimate so it can get particularly sunny. Of course, there are the tornados, but it's the payoff for sun so often. So since the sun really started coming out regularly, we've really started spending more time in the garden...
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| Zafra loves the camera. She now smiles on cue. In fact, we think she thinks Daddy's face is a small box with a beard underneath it. |
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| Zafra misunderstanding our hope that she eat more greens |
Perhaps Zafra's biggest change has been the fact that she can no longer gently gnaw on our fingers because... she has a tooth. It burst its way through on Uncle Evan's birthday (6 May) - nice present - and now it has a friend growing right next to it. It's a real change... she looks very different. She's still LOVELY - don't get us wrong. Just different. She's no longer a little gummy baby any more. So we've tried to make sure that, according to the family tradition, she ensures that her dental health is maintained...
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| There's no toothpaste yet, but if she's ever crying with a wet nappy, while we change it it's very handy that she'll chew on a toothbrush! |
Just before signing off, we decided to add another section to this Blog. This is the watershed moment. If you're young, you probably shouldn't read on because of the outrageous nudity that is to follow. If you choose not to continue, next time we'll catch up by telling you about creepy vines, Europop, little lambs and more foreign visitors.
So what remains contains views of one clear view of a naked bottom. You have been warned....
Oh, there is one important thing to share. Most people nowadays buy their milk from the supermarket, which invariably doesn't pay the farmer an appropriate price and which contributes to the spread of supermarkets and the death of the high street in general. Yet it has been impossible to get organic milk delivered to your door, in an old-school glass bottle, from a milkman... until now....!
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| Neil reckons the 3 most exciting moments in Jenny's life are (3) marrying Neil, (2) giving birth to Zafra, (1) the first delivery of organic milk to the doorstep. |
We'll catch up a little more as soon as we can...
