David Currie

700The original plan for today was to head out in to the New Forest on our bikes for a family outing to celebrate Christine’s birthday. This didn’t seem like such a hot idea given the temperature was just above freezing. Instead, we bundled Emma up in as many clothes as we could find and had a walk around the Tall Trees Trail on Rhinefield Ornamental Drive and the Blackwater Arboretum. Hard to get too excited about the trees but it was a pleasant enough walk and Emma eventually dozed off in the buggy despite the cold. We stopped off in one of the many Lyndhurst tea shops for lunch on the way home. Given that, after about an hour and a half this evening, I still hadn’t finished fixing our new roof rack and cycle racks to the car, it’s probably just as well we didn’t go for the bike option anyway!

694We took Emma to have her feet remeasured today and decided to buy her second pair of proper shoes. Thankfully her feet have slimmed down a bit and are both an ‘F’ fitting now. However she still looks set to have “problem feet” like her mother. This time it was the lowness of her ankles that was causing difficulties. In the end, we just about avoided girly pink but the purple boots do have butterflies on them!

685I’m not sure quite what it says about my upbringing but my only previous experience with pumpkin lanterns involved lots of carefully curved pieces of cardboard, a foil lining and a flashing bulb! Consequently, this was my first attempt at carving the real thing. I enjoyed myself and Emma became interested at the point the candle was lit! We hadn’t realised that placing it outside our front door was a signal for the trick or treaters to descend though. Actually, we only had one group come round – it just happened to contain seven very greedy kids! One definite plus point for the vegetable pumpkin was that it was dismembered and disposed of the following day – the cardboard version sat on a shelf at home for over twenty years!