Kids back to Zurich

After a very twitchy wait at the airport hanging out for the kids to arrive, Bea, and Ili (escorted by Dad) arrived safely back in Zurich after their 12 days away. It has been nearly seven years since we've had more than a couple of days away from the little ones!!! Headed out to the thermal baths in Zurich for the day (no pics).

Back to Uzès

Locked up Neuvic, pissed off (in the pissing rain), and were drawn to head south again for the sunshine, the relaxed meanders around Uzès . . . . and the restaurants!

Gardening at Neuvic

Stayed at Neuvic for a few days. . . . too much work in a couple of days to call it a holiday (closing the house down for the winter).

Day in the Luberons

Took a day trip to to very stunning Luberon mountains in Provence. Perhaps somewhat too perfect and we had to get away from the villages (tourist coaches crammed full even out of season), and we took a walk up to the ceder forests to appreciate the landscape from afar. Stunningly beautiful.

Frith in Gordes, before the flocks of tourists arrived.

Gordes, Provence.

Lavender fields in the Luberon.

Walking down from the ceder forest.

Uzes was a gem of a town

Stayed for a couple of nights in Uzès (near Avignon). Gorgeous old town to walk around at night, with some fab restaurants.Yum.

Ardeche - blast from the past

Quite a few years have past since Chris and I first went to the Ardeche as young 20 somethings (hold on, Chris was still a teenager!) to camp "wild" in the gorge. So, on our journey down to southern France for a few days away together we retraced our steps, and found the spot. My memory was surprisingly clear, but it was made easy perhaps as our camp was opposite a naturist site — you don't forgot a-clad-of-naked-men-hopping-around-on-the-rocks sort of detail that easily! 

Camels in the woods

Wow, it's eerily quiet here without the little ones, but a great opportunity to grab some "timeout", so we got some exercise in—bike ride (can go much faster without Ili on the back!), and then a walk in the woods at a reasonable adult pace. But where are the little ones when you need them as when in the middle of the woods three camels on a day trip from the zoo came sauntering by. . . . kids would have loved it!

Kids on a trip!

Dad visited to pick up the kids to take them to the UK for the autumn holidays ("THANK YOU!"). Saturday morning, as we were packing their bags, Bea and Ili were making little paper passports for their toys that would travel with them (Bea's penguin — place of birth: South Pole, etc). And then when at the airport they had passport photographs done of both the fluffy penguin and Ili's orangutan to complete them. Funny.

Another piano piece

And a link on youtube—hope it works!
http://youtu.be/rXE7pNkOQ8g

Bea playing "regenbogen"

Here's a little movie of Bea on the piano today playing his favourite piece of the moment. . . . .

Trip to the mountains

Haven't made it to the mountains much this summer, and as we'll no doubt be dusting down the sledge soon thought we'd better do a little exploring on foot before it gets too late. Had a great day out in Elm (in the Glarus valley), and the children never cease to amaze me at how they can rocket up a hill if they want to, and overall they climbed 650 meters up (equivalent to half way up Ben Nevis) to reach over 2110 meters altitude and the same back down. At the top was a beautiful little lake to spend some time, with nobody around, and it became apparent why when we finally returned very wearily to see the cable cars at our starting point all hanging motionless as they'd ceased to run over an hour ago. After some desperate hunting, I found a nice guy with a school adventure group staying at a nearby guest house who I think felt so sorry for us and our trekking kids, that he offered to take us down from the cable car station to the valley bottom (which was still quite a way) in his car. It would have finished us off if we'd had to have walked that too. Not sure how I managed to cock that one up, but thankfully, it means I'm also way off track to becoming a Swiss citizen!

The beginning of the walk has lots of carved animals to spot.

Couple of dilapidated huts on the way up. 

Looking like Scotland! Bea heading towards a waterfall/stream.

Ili at little lake Chüebodensee (great echos!)

Bea in the freeeezing cold water.

On the way down. . . .

Fab panorama that Frith took from the top — the lake is in the middle.

First class photo

Received this pic from Bea's teacher this morning of his school class. The little boy he is sitting next to is Reuben, which interestingly enough is a child he used to see regularly (although he can't remember) when I took him to the first English-speaking group we found when we arrived in Zurich, based in the city center (i.e., before Bea could even walk). His father is English, and mother French/Japanese and they've just moved into our area. Bea says they play together quite a bit, so, maybe this will develop into a friendship. The little girl to his right is Sophia (German/Brazilian) who has a soft spot for Bea. Perhaps noticeable from the picture, but Frau Meyer is due to have her baby next month . . . .

Storython on the roof

It probably looks like we do nothing but hang around in hammocks all day — but not true ;-) However, Tuesday afternoon it is just Bea and I at home (Ili is in Spielgruppe Tuesday afternoons this year), so we had a mega 'Storython' (what we used to call our snuggle up with a pile of books sessions when Bea was teeny) reading Roald Dahl on the roof.

Bit of a bonus

We thought summer had gone, but not yet . . . 

Language lessons

We've been expecting a call from Bea's teacher, as all the children in his class whose mother tongue is not German — of which there are about half a dozen children —  have been speaking with the language support teacher to assess how much extra tuition they need in German. Bea had this extra language support all the way through kindergarten once a week. The teacher was very pleased to let me know today that Bea did so well in the assessment that she thought he no longer needed additional support. He makes mistakes, sure, but no more than regular Swiss children, i.e., they mix their High German, and Swiss German, which is normal. So that was a really nice boost for Bea, he's done amazing in his bi-lingual language development.

It was funny, as when he was doing his homework in maths the same day (simple number practice), I asked him as his maths was taught in German, did he do his homework in German? He told me, "Yes, I did, but then I switched languages as I remembered I can speak English!"

There have been some great studies to show that second language acquisition at a young age is a great foundation for future language development, as it strengthens the pathways in the brain which enable you to switch between them. Which is no doubt why when I try to speak French now as I found out in the summer, I speak a very poor version of French-German, and get no-where fast!  So, whether or not he regularly uses German at at later stage, he'll have a solid head-start for languages . . . .