Stagestruck!

So much to do, so little time! Half term, at the end of October, was filled with sick children trying to perform for the Brownies and Cubs extravaganza. Mel was a rock-star in the performance and the girls were cats. They soldiered on all week, despite flu, but the little ones had to miss the last show when it turned into a stomach bug. Altogether, they didn't have much of a rest.

On one of the better days, their friend came over and they carved pumpkins. It was delightfully squishy and mushy and orange stringy everywhere. They loved it. The pumpkins glowed in the night, as pumpkins should. Five days later the hairy, mouldy, ultra-squishy remains disintegrated all over my dining-room floor and the front of Nick's jumper during the clean-up process. A success all round, then.
I spent an afternoon manning the SARA fundraising stall. It was dead boring so I spent most of the afternoon taking pictures of the swans and the river, which, was far more entertaining than waiting for people to not buy the cakes.

I went to another lecture - this time by Leo Houlding, who is a top rock-climber and BASE jumper. He's just done a new route on El Capitan. He climbed it in about 10 hours, then jumped off the top wearing a parachute, before hiding from the American police - who for some reason think it is an offence to throw yourself off tall things for sport. The video footage was scary enough. I sat there with my palms sweating, just watching it!Lastly, I have some autumny photos of pretty places I've been. The colours have been gorgeous this year.