Another Saturday, Another Hike

On Saturday Ben was training on Dartmoor with his school for the Ten Tors Challenge next year.  (The Ten Tors involves walking 35 miles and climbing ten tors over two days.)  As it was a sunny day the rest of us decided to hit the moors too.  We climbed a couple of tors ourselves:

Admired the views:

Climbed on a gate:

Climbed some steep hills:

Admired the views from the cairn on the top:

Frolicked with our shadows:

And climbed more cairns:

We also admired a HUGE mushroom:

A perfect Saturday activity if you ask me!

Chocolate And Sparklers

Dear Jay,

Bonfire Night arrived with the appropriate foggy conditions.  We decended upon Leah and Jason's house for the festivities and I brought along chocolate cake with a Lego Guy Fawkes.  (Of course.)  Unfortunately the orange peel 'flames' disappeared en route:

Mum cooked up a feast, and the men enjoyed setting things alight.  The little cousins all covered their ears during the loud bangs:

And the big kids enjoyed their sparklers:

Noah insisted I take a photo to send to Auntie Jay:

I hope you managed to celebrate appropriately!

Love Naomi x

Glitter Balls And Chandeliers

This is the ceiling of Bush Hall in London.  Isn't it beautiful?

I was there Thursday night with James to see the start of Brandi Carlile's solo acoustic tour.  (I fully approve her decision to start it in London!)

Having only seen Brandi play with a full band, I was excited to see such a stripped-down performance.  I wondered how the songs would sound without the twins and their gorgeous harmonies; without the three guitars and cello.  Let me tell you, she was just as brilliant.

Brandi sang old and new songs with a few covers in between.  (Damien Rice's 'Cannonball' was just beautiful.)  My favourite part of the night came during 'Turpentine'.  Usually during this song the crowd are split into three parts to sing harmony, each group following Brandi, Tim or Phil.  You'd think with just Brandi on stage it wouldn't work to attempt this but we sang those harmonies loud and proud with no direction and it was awesome.  It was perfect.  James really enjoyed the evening too, I think he gets my obsession now!

Have a listen to 'Throw It Away':

This cover of Roy Orbison's 'It's Over' is just beautiful:

(By the way, if you think I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately it's because blogger hasn't published my last few posts...they're all up now though!)

Another Manic Monday

It's half term this week and today arrived in a rather wet and windy fashion.  By the afternoon I was tired of grumpy and bored children so I decided we needed to get out the house for some fresh air.  Rosie and Noah joined me for a stroll around the village in our wellies:

Sometimes you just have to enjoy getting wet...we did!

Woodlands Fun

When you have a friend that invites you to go with her to the local theme park on a dull Saturday you don't say no! Rosie and Noah came with me and we took full advantage of the almost empty park. It's a good job Sara didn't mind taking Rosie onto the first ride of the day, my stomach cannot handle swinging boats:

Noah enjoyed driving the tractor:

There were lots of indoor rides:

I used to love this ride as a child:

Noah and Rosie braved the sled slide:

Oh, do you see that taller slide on the left of the photo? It shows about half of the height of the whole thing....and I certainly enjoyed going down it.  I hadn't mastered the art of gracefully crashing into the barrier at the end but it was so much fun!

Thanks for taking us Sara!

Thursday's Smile Lines

There's nothing I love better than a snuggle while reading school books, especially when they remind me of ones I used to read to my little sister.

Squishy Love

Is there anything better than spending the day holding a gorgeous new baby so his mum can get on with packing up her house to move?  I think not.

Little Waltz

We like to watch Strictly Come Dancing on a Saturday night and this weekend Rosie decided to make a 'pretty costume' out of her dressing gown and copy the waltz routine.  She was hillarious.  See for yourself the dedication, clicking, spinning and fabulous ending:

Hair

Rosie's hair grows very fast.  Two years ago it was cut into a short bob and it very quickly grew out.  I was going to cut about four inches off today but Rosie decided she wanted it shorter so she could again donate it to a cancer charity to make into wigs for children going through chemotherapy.  Here is Rosie before I started cutting:

And here is the new do:

 

It certainly cuts down the drying time!

So You Thought It Was Autumn?

Saturday was day five of our Indian Summer.  With the mercury reaching 28 degrees, it was the hottest day of October in over 100 years and there was only one place to be: a river in Dartmoor.  (The tourists had invaded the beaches!)  We drove to a favourite spot of ours, Spitchwick, and spent the afternoon basking in some of the last hot rays of the year.  It is truly bizarre to be having such weather at this time of year, but it's absolutely delightful.  We dug the dinghy back out of the attic (it had been packed away for winter) and found the rubber tyres.  There were plenty of baby fish to be caught and lots of floating to be done:

(I must add that Ben was with us, but managed to avoid all photos!)  Oh I do love Indian Summers!