Halloweeen

When we first arrived here Halloween wasn't really something that many Swiss kids got involved in, not being a Swiss tradition, but that has all changed. I remember last year's trick or treating, which was a scream, the kids came back with a luxury box of chocolates — only in Switzerland!— no doubt someone very confused who just wanted to send them packing. This year a friend (from the US) had organised a halloween party for the kids so that was the main focus (too scary for Ili so we left). Bea wanted to dress up as a vampire bat and Ili was a witch — they looked cool.

Waiting for Bea

Ili waiting for Bea while he has his piano lesson.

Balloons!

Back to the woods again this afternoon and a balloon on a stick provided amusement for ages! While Ili and friend were running around, Bea was happy sitting on a bench whittling his stick.

Sunday in the woods

Beautiful day today and perfect for an autumnal walk in the woods. Ili wanted to take us the the woodland "sofa" where she goes with Kindergarten up on Zuriberg — although Bea knew it well from before. It's actually not so far from our garden, so we walked through the woods and ended up there (picked our grapes and later made grape juice) . . .  and Papa came back this evening bragging about his Brazilian nuts!

The "woodland sofa"

River islands

Frith heading home again after his Peruvian trip — guessing this is between Maldonado and Lima.

Piano test

Bea started this piece (A Country Dance, by Berens) just before the autumn holidays. It's one of a couple of pieces he's chosen to do for his first piano test:

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LIruC3Smyo&list=UUDA68VFE5TzjHukAyFpoVUw

Madre de Dios

What can I say. . . Frith busy at work in the Madre de Dios region (on the Rio Tambopata). Captions anyone?

Trees and trucks in Puerto Maldonado

Few more pics from Peru as Papa is now somewhere near Puerto Maldonado — about 50 km from the Bolivian border. Great selfie from the back of a bike in the forest! I'm guessing the tree is the mighty Brazil nut tree. Nice work if you can get it!

Ili heads to a birthday party

A boyfriend of Ili's celebrated their 4th birthday today. Here she is in her party party gear!

Somewhere over Peru

Grabbed this pic from photostream (i.e., straight from Frith's iPhone), so we know he's probably now in the forest somewhere.

Papa surfs Peru

Papa managed to walk from his digs in downtown Lima out to the Pacific ocean to hear the waves roar in, and sat and watched the surfers from Café Mangos. Further north up the coast of Peru to Chicama is a bit of a surfing mecca were you can find the world's "longest wave". He's off to the forest today and somehow I think he'll prefer it there.

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo . . .

A couple of cute pics from last week's trip to Colchester zoo with Ruby, Grandma and Becky.

Pumpkins to Peru!

Frith flew over to Lima to check out Peru today, while we ambled up to the garden to check out our pumpkins! We were happy with the biggest in our patch which should hopefully be ready to make a Halloween lantern at the end of the month. We also cropped some of the beans and sunflowers for next years seeds (Bea loved doing the dissecting). 

Cactus collection

We needed a good distraction today. Bea and Ili were adjusting to being back home (as were we), which is always full of mixed emotions, and Papa is preparing to head off to South America tomorrow. It was luckily a beautiful day and we had time to whizz around on our bikes. Today we stopped in at what is quite an amazing resource of cactus's by the lakeside (and free to visit!!).

Back to Zurich

Only had a day all together in the UK together before we had to fly back to Zürich. The children had an amazing time with everyone, and I know for sure they will miss everyone very much — until the next holiday!!

Visit to Neuvic, France, 9-15 October

We had just under a week to do some work "sans enfants" on the house and close it down for the winter. We cleared more garden space (hard work), exposed stone walls in the downstairs bedroom (dirty work), planned the new upper terrace (expensive work) . . . . and squeezed in a couple of dinners out (bliss). Had a lovely time and flew back to the UK to collect some very happy, excited and hyperactive children! The kids had a great time without us, and we could really relax . .  big thanks and love to all XXXX

The bedroom after we'd knocked a ton of plaster off the walls.

Rendez-vous in Montpellier

While the children were up on the Norfolk coast with Mum and Dad, Frith and I had a rendez-vous in Montpellier (3 hrs from the house). However, poor Frith arrived with the symptoms of his Yellow Fever jab, and some infection where you really don't want one (I'm so sympathetic) but we still had an interesting time jaunting around the narrow back streets in the old town in the hunt for a good toilet, I mean tapas bar — and we found one. We were all very relieved!

Autumn Holiday - off to the UK!

Bit of moving about this autumn school break. Frith took Bea and Ili to the UK (I stayed in Zurich to work), and they were both very excited at the thought of seeing everyone!

Cake faces

Today was the last day of term and extra special for Ili as it was the last day of her very first term at Kindergarten. Seemed like a good enough reason to go out for some afternoon sweet treats to celebrate! Initially I wanted to take Ili out for lunch (they usually both go to a friends on a Friday lunchtime), but when Bea heard the plan, he sobbed complaining that I never did that with him! Pah. So we celebrated together.

On the polyterrace on the way home.