Stuart and the Chocolate Fountain

Pauline's parents came over for Christmas this year. Pictured above at Seaton Sluice beach. P with her special pregnacy coat. Bump totally invisible. No free seats on the Metro for her!


The chocolate fountain made another appearance on Christmas Eve. I always enjoy the task of cleaning it up afterwards. There does tend to be more chocolate on my face afterwards than was in the fountain when we were using it. 

Pauline graduates

Pauline graduated from her MA today. It took Stuart nearly an hour to get parked in town - an hour! I ask you - parking in the the city centre? Get the Metro I say.


The ceremony was pretty good as graduations go. A couple of talks from the Uni big wigs, then an honorary degree to Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. They wrote comedies such as Porridge, Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.


Then the graduation of the students themselves. Here's Pauline receiving her degree. A superb achievement!

Latest scan pic

The latest pic from inside Pauline's womb. Complete with handy pointers so that you know what you're looking at. We've got one more scan due before the birth! 

Tomatoes

These tomatoes have been grown in the north east of England. Outside! I even didn't plant them outside until the back end of June. They're pretty small, but they are red. I shall pick them and enjoy this weekend! 

Baby on the way!

12 week scan today. Here's the picture, complete with handy hints as to what bits of baby are where. We're very excited (as you can imagine). Looking forward to the next 6 months of pregnancy. 

Wallington Hall

There's nothing like an afternoon out in the country! We went to Wallington Hall in Northumberland this afternoon. We took a stroll around the lake and into the walled garden. A couple of wildlife spectacles caught my eye...



These flowers were very popular with the bumble bees. There were only two left in flower, so maybe they were a diminishing feast.



We must have seen 3 or 4 robins whilst we were there. Not exactly rare, but interesting enough to photograph when they sit this close.

Well worth a visit by the way. I'm sure we'll be back! 

Ants' nest

This was just fascinating! I was taking up the paving slabs in the back garden (to make a bigger border - part of a grand-ish plan for improving the back garden. It's all likely to take some years to complete though). Anyway, I lifted the first slab and I uncovered an ants' nest. Of course, they immediately went into defence mode and began hiding away all the eggs. Managed to get a photo of the little heros in action. All the eggs were gone in under 5 mins though. Pretty darned efficient. 

Chilli

I'm growing chillis this year. The vegetable patch is out of action as we're having a bit of a garden re-development. So, I decided to grow something that could exist quite happily indoors. The chillis seem to be doing very well. I've got 4 chillis on one plant and loads of flowers on the second one. Green fingers you see... 

James and Frances' wedding

Weddings again. We've got quite a few this year. James and Frances mark the second of the year. I was an incredibly hot day - so hot that the reception tent had giant fans keeping everyone cool.

Froglets

I took this this afternoon. We've now got loads and loads of tiny froglets in our pond. This frog is about 1cm long! 

These are pictures of Stuart's adopted pig. Millie. She lives at Bede's World near South Shields. This records their first meeting. It was very emotional.

 

Blackcomb mountain

Today we went up Blackcomb Mountain (near Whister, western side of Canada). A beautiful day, just great for taking pics. Here you can see a pic of Stuart near the top and a black bear we saw near the bottom. We were dead impressed with seeing the bear! We were on the chair lift and so only got to see from a safe distance.

Niagara Falls

We visited Niagara Falls today. This is a pic of the two falls. The American Falls to the left and the giant Horseshoe Falls to the right. We got pretty wet! 

CN Tower

Here are some pics of when we visited the CN tower on our reent trip to Canada. The night picture is from the harbour front.