Rachel, Owen and Kathryn

The promised heat-wave really did happen. Here we are in the garden, on 1st October 2011.

Katy at her friend Alice's 2nd birthday party the very next weekend.

Katy supervises the construction of the tent. Owen cooks us all breakfast. Verdict: we like this camping lark.

Those eight days were our first chunk of summer holiday 2011. On August 3rd Katy had her first night away from us, as she had a sleepover with her cousins in Newark. She had a wonderful time and was very well behaved (unless Barbara's not telling us something), and came back a noticeably more confident and grown-up little girl. She now goes to children's meeting at Quakers without us, which makes a huge difference to our Sundays. We made the most of our escape, and stayed at what might be My Best Hotel Ever, the Bailhouse in Lincoln: small but perfectly formed. I managed to forget my phone, but there are some lovely pictures on the hotel website . The weather forecast was bad, but when we arrived it was 30 degrees! This necessitated a quick trip to the shops, as that pool was irresistible. Primark has its uses: all kitted out for £15.

Chugging again, this time on a steam train from Haverthwaite to Lakeside . Wondrous Windermere. What a surprise! A reception committee of owls met us at the station - w[h]oo'd have thought it?

En route to staying with friends in Silverdale we visited the Lakeland Wildlife Oasis , which boasts a large snow leopard and some rather smaller creatures too.

After all the excitement of the previous few days, a 50p ride seemed thrill enough for a tired little girl.

Katy loved the treehouses, wobbly bridges, rope walks, zip wires, big slides, sand pits, den-building and boat-trips so much we had to go back and do it all again the very next day.

Katy takes part in the re-enactment of a woodland adventure at Bewilderwood , the 'curious treehouse adventure'. The plot development was somewhat halted when she spotted a sign saying "Broken Bridge" and said excitedly to the storyteller "I have to tell ya something. That's the first letter of my name!"

(At Walberswick)

Visit to Eureka, the national children's museum (30th May 2011) They have a modest sand-pit there:

Blazing June is here! Owen sped off to Kendal with a colleague this morning for a micro-performance of Don Giovanni, leaving me and Katy with a gloriously sunny Saturday and the car keys. The world is our oyster: where shall we go, what shall we do? Playground, nearby city farm, even Chester Zoo? No, Katy wants the paddling pool in the back garden - all day. So we have a whale of a time, splashing around naked (Katy), sunbathing and drinking a can of beer (me), admiring the washing drying on the line, and periodically dragging the paddling pool round our handkerchief lawn chasing the sun round the shadow of the house. After all the excitement she voluntarily went to bed early. By the time I'd finished the last bedtime story the clouds had closed in and rain had soaked my previously bone-dry washing. But after all the fun we had today I say: it's alright.

Katy's birthday celebration was a distibuted affair, with visits to the grandparents on the weekends either side of a Thomas the Tank Engine cake at nursery mid-week. We were also able to piggy-back on the much grander party at Marple Garden Centre [picture with big 2] organised for Celeste (daughter of an Anglo-German couple we met at NCT antenatal classes). We had a miniature train all to ourselves for the whole afternoon.

In the last week of August we set off again: this time a car tour taking in Cambridge (well, Chesterton to be precise), Hempnall Green (Norfolk), and Leicester. Katy enjoyed boating on the Cam and paddling in the sea at Walberswick.

Before the summer becomes a distant memory there's just time for a quick catch-up. First week of August: we all got on a plane to Berlin, to stay with Julie. I realised over dinner one evening that we had known each other 25 years. That's just a tiny bit frightening. But the weather was great, Berlin's Tierpark was fantastic, sandy playgrounds were almost like the beach, and open-air swimming pools under blue skies made it feel like a real holiday.

Nicolas Road street party, 18th July 2010

Reading books is something that Katy has always enjoyed, and now she will happily sit through much longer stories - often joining in when encouraged. She has the entire set of the Thomas the Tank Engine train books, of which we've only tackled a small subset. This evening at bedtime she suddenly announced she wanted to read the story of Duck. In case you don't know, Duck is a strange-shaped Great Western Railway engine, who takes no nonsense from anyone. Katy knows the character, but we've never read the story properly. I was struggling to find the required volume so I asked her "Katy, can you remember what colour the book is?" and she said "Mmm, mmm, orange". So I looked for an orange spine, and sure enough, the Duck book has an orange cover. As you might expect from books written by a Revd., these little stories are very heducational in promoting the values of hard work, honesty, forgiveness, friendship etc., but what I didn't remember from my chil...