Mieke's Acrostic Poems

Mieke learnt about Acrostic poems at school (Acrostic poems is where you write a word down the side and then make a sentence beginning with each of the letters and staying within the theme of your word). I only learnt this recently from Mieke! Anyway the other day she was writing something and then showed me the 2 Acrostic Poems she had written - we have a poet in our midst!!

A great Day Out with the kids in London

Why is it called a 'DAY OUT'?

Days Out are like an institution here - its something you plan beforehand with great detail and then it normally rains on the day.

So our days out are planned on the day depending on the weather (we are getting a bit smarter with time).

The other day we went to London again, we enjoy just getting off the train and Waterloo and then wandering up the South Bank. There's a merry go round, play ground and lots of mime artists and musicians which entertain the girls (and us). And its beside the river so there are also boats to look at.

Then we went to the London Borough Market which is a huge food market with anything you can think of - its busy but wonderful - fruit, veg, the weirdest mushrooms, fresh fish and meat, wine, beer, bread, cakes and lots of places making sandwiches and take away food. We bought some baklava and strawberries and bought rolls with lamb and mint for lunch. Then we walked across a bridge (which we later realized is the Millenium Bridge) and then stumbled across St Pauls Cathedral. Cool...

A really great day out!!

Surrey County Show & picnic in the countryside

Yelloh Summer!!

We have been having some beautiful days so we have been finding nice places to picnic - this was at a little lake at Loseley Park - lots of ducks and fish and white people - I mean very fair skinned people either laying about turning red or with backpacks assertively walking somewhere. But overall still nice and quiet and empty.

We also went to our neighbours two year old girls birthday party which the girls enjoyed and also the Surrey County Show which reminded me to never book and pay for anything which will take place outdoors here - especially not on a bank holiday! It rained, it poured, the wind blew our umbrellas inside out... and just as we exited the refreshments tent where we sat just to get out of the torrential rain, someone said 'Looks like its clearing up' (NOT). Well it was funny on the day...

But we saw pigs and cows and a huge bull and some sheep and Mieke had her face painted like a tiger (quite impressive) and we watched a Punch and Judy Show (oh that's what a Punch and Judy Show is). Anyway - great fun. Well would've been on any other day....

Scarecrow Walk Guildford

Guildford in Bloom - Spring 2008:

Mieke's school took party in the Scarecrow Walk in Guildford Town Center to celebrate Guildford in Bloom (don't ask - don't know - something about Guildford competing with other towns in being the most beautiful town in summer).

So with Werner being at home a bit inbetween jobs I could go with Mieke and walk down the High Street with 100's of little children dressed as Scarecrows!! Well at least Mieke was happy that I was there and I could take some cute photos.

But it was 'flaming' as Mieke would say - hot hot hot. Proof - it does get hot in England - even if its only three days a year.

The Best of England ...

We went to Leeds Castle again a few weeks ago. It's nice because if you pay once you can go as many times as you want in a year.

The grounds are beautiful with lakes, birds, aviary, huge playground, dog collar museum?, gardens - and that's not even the castle itself.

The pictures of the ugly castle is Corfe Castle in Dorset (where we went last weekend), its used to be a huge castle on a hill destroyed in some battle. Gorgeous scenery, especially the cows on the way!

The glass window and the building the hotel we stayed at, the Durley Hall Hotel, built in 1891 (which is quite young here). The kids also enjoyed swimming and at night we locked them in the room and tried to have romantic dinners in the hotel. This was just slightly disturbed by Mieke phoning me at reception the whole time (Silke is playing with glasses (only my sunglasses) )and then by the old people next door telling us our kids were running around on the landing (why do we always end up with old snooty neighbours wherever we go?). But we still had lovely three course meals with wine which were great!!

We also visited Monkey World, a monkey sanctuary, which the kids enjoyed very much.

Today (weekend at home) was a really beautiful day, we went for a walk and a picnic at the river, then just came home and sat outside in our garden with the children running around and playing while its still light at 7pm.

No fear. No what ifs. Just the beautiful light and the birds singing and freedom and safety.

Which at the end of the day is most important - isn't it?

Silke's 2nd Birthday

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Silke had a wonderful day at her party. She loved seeing all her other two year old friends and was probably wondering why they were there. She only realized it was for her when we brough her In the Night Garden Cake and started singing Happy Birthday!!

She is such a happy brave lovable and active baby who adores her sister.

Sy sing happy birthday en scooby doo en row your boat en Barney. Sy praat nie baie duidelik nie maar sy praat baie. Veral engels - haar favourites is: 'Go away' en 'Stoppit' en 'Sweetie, Sweetie'. As dit nie werk nie try sy: 'Syntjie' (rosyntjie). Sy is baie beleefd en se altyd 'thank you' en 'see you later!' (sien wat ek bedoel met die engels!!) As ek haar vra hoe oud sy is se sy 'twee' en sy hou vyf vingers uit. Sy begin nou uitfigure om een vinger van elke hand te wys!!

Kyk hierbo is die fotos van haar birthday!!

Daar is 'n land by die see... / There is a land by the sea...

'Daar is 'n land by die see wat jou alles kan gee,

Ja dit is 'n land wat jou vreugde bring,

Bo van die berge tot in die vallei,

Dis die land vir my...'

We went to Betties Bay to visit our family and to enjoy being back in South Africa. And we did. It was amazing. My children walked barefoot and wore little sundresses. We drank too much wine and ate too much of everything nice and spoke Afrikaans to everyone for the two weeks we were there. But the photos say it all.