Devenish

Last weekend, we all went back to Nijmegen for work and play. It was interesting to see how much Sean remembered of his birthplace and home for years 1.5-3.5. The very best part of the trip was seeing Eric and Keiko again. Eric took some more pictures that I almost can't bear to post, since they're so much better than anything I could ever do. But here's a picture of Sean now, and then (August 2002)...

Our friend Ena took this picture of Julian earlier in October. It's startling to see how grown up he has become: toddling along at tremendous speeds, feeding himself (if we're prepared to put up with fed chairs, fed clothes and fed carpets too), and communicating extremely well, considering he only has 3 or 4 proto-words...

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to watch a programme on the music of 1969. I was seven or so then, and one of the few popular songs that reached inside me and planted or nurtured a seed in my imagination of myself and what I might become was a folk/pop song by Peter Sarstedt called "Where do you go to, my lovely?" For me, then and now, it had all the right ingredients; though it doesn't bear much critical analysis, I know every line... Having heard it again forty-something years later, I went to get a copy on iTunes. Instead of the original, though, I discovered a cover version by Julian Davies (whom I'd never heard of before). Unlike most covers, this is better, as is his interpretation of the David Gray numbers. Try it out, and see if you agree. http://www.juliandavies.org.uk/Site/CD_-_ITUNES_and_LINKS.html

At the end of August, we set off for Trieste. This is a great city to visit: relatively untouristed, it is home to: (i) great Austro-Hungarian architecture: (ii) for most of 1904-1914, and again after WW1, James Joyce, who (I'm told) wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and most of Dubliners there; (iii) our friend Michael Siegal, who kindly put up for four nights (one night longer thanks to my miscalculation of dates...) During the days we travelled down the coast of Istria to Koper in Slovenia and Porec and Motovun in Northern Croatia. The children loved paddling, swimming, being out in real sunshine. The food was generally very good, especially in Croatia: in Motovun we had pasta with fresh white truffles -- actually, Sean had most of this, after ordering plain risotto; later, at Umag, there were super grilled squid. After our time in Trieste, we travelled back up to a campsite near Venice: again, this worked out brilliantly, including our day-trip into Venice, and the

At the end of July, before the Tideswell trip, we visited Cambridge. After a torrential Saturday, Sunday morning turned out well, and Sean learned how to paddle, if not punt. (It's just as well that there's no sound with these pictures: Julian howled his dissatisfaction at not being allowed to drink the river or hurl himself in...)

Two weeks ago, we went out for a picnic walk in the Peak District (about 10km from Sheffield). Here's Julian playing in the grass... and a picture of us three boys ... also a photo of the valley taken from Monsal Head