More comings and goings

I've just come back from visiting Daughter 2, her husband and Littlest Granddaughter in London and, as usual, feel sad no longer to be with them. However, we had a good time. Daughter 2 and Littlest G made gingerbread men and Littlest G pulled faces in the shiny mixer. 

We went out to a nature reserve. Littlest G took her fishing rod. There were notices forbidding fishing but I don't think anything fishy was in danger. It was cold!

Someone had built a stick house, where Littlest G enjoyed playing. We added a few sticks.

Another day we went to the Epping Forest Visitor's Centre, which was lovely. Both her previous flat and her current house are near Epping Forest, which is very large. Here, Littlest G draws an owl. 

On Monday, everyone was at work or school so I took myself out for a walk round Chingford. I wandered round the graveyard of the local church and thought about those who came and have gone, such as these - friends? sisters? I've never seen such a gravestone before. 

I rather like this wall, made up, presumably, of lots of bits of stone and brick that happened to catch the builder's eye. It looks as if he had fun. 

This sounds like a good concert but... not sure of that spelling. One could convince oneself that it's a justifiable transliteration of the Russian, but it's spelt differently at the bottom of the poster. (Check three times, print once, sort of thing.) I suppose that with an English accent, the "ch" is pronounced as "ck". A Scot wouldn't make that mistake. You'd think that most English accents must make other spellings difficult - for example, they mainly don't pronounce "r"s, with floor and flaw pronounced the same (I think). We say "flohrr" and - well - "flaw" as in "aww". But they mainly seem to manage. 

On the way back in the train there was snow in Northumberland!

No snow here, only sunshine and blue skies, but it's rather chilly. We went to the Botanics today to raise my spirits and this was fairly successful. It was such a beautiful day.

The garden at home is looking springy. I'm not a fan of purple but have to make an exception for purple flowers, especially these crocuses, blooming away undaunted by the morning's frost.