Day 209: A very English hostess

The two year old daughter of my very oldest friend entertained Noah this afternoon with tea and toast.

Day 208: New day, new park, new friends

My three best friends from school and I have had a couple of lovely evenings together in the past month, but today we got together with all our children for a marvelous day at the park. We have nine kids between us, aged between ten and fifteen months, and they played together beautifully. It is a little hard to see in the picture but Anna, Daniel and Tom are on a kind of bouncy tire swing, which gave endless enjoyment.

Day 207: Nothing like a slide

David left for Heathrow early this morning and we began the final third of our holiday feeling bereft without him. It was a quieter, more leisurely day at my parents' house, with a trip into town around lunchtime and a fun visit to the park with cousin Alex in the afternoon. Noah REALLY loves the slide. I spent the evening at a lovely old pub with a dear friend from my teenage years. One of the biggest blessings of this trip is reconnecting with old friends - I feel very thankful for them.

Day 206: New friends

One of the many wonderful things about this trip has been the way our kids have made instant connections with people they have just met for the first time, usually the children of old friends' of ours, whom we have not seen for years. We have brief visits with these families and the kids seem to enjoy every minute with their new friends. We had less than twenty-four hours in Staffordshire, but the children loved being together every waking moment. We took another walk this morning, exploring the village and the beautiful countryside.

Day 205: Sunset walk in Staffordshire

After a marvelous time with our friends in Cambridge, we said goodbye to them after church and drove north to visit more old friends who live just outside Stoke-on-Trent in a lovely village on a hill. We ended the day with a walk in the glorious countryside as the sun went down.

Day 204: Punting

Punting is a very Oxbridge activity and we were thrilled when Anna's godfather offered to take the kids along the Backs, with their beautiful views of the Cambridge colleges. Barney is a skilled punter and it was a lovely ride. His daughter, our goddaughter, Katie, was a charming fellow passenger. We then walked through the meadows to Grantchester and had a delicious lunch at The Orchard.

Day 203: View from the top deck

Johnny and Daniel were born in Cambridge and David and I have spent many happy days there, so it was wonderful to return. This is not a conventional shot of this lovely city, but it is notable because the kids have ridden on a number of double decker buses in this last month, but until now have not had the opportunity to sit in the coveted front seats on the top deck.

Day 202: More fun with the cousins

We all felt sad today as it was my sister's last day in the UK before flying back to Brunei tomorrow. We spent the day together and the cousins continued to enjoy each other's company, here forming a band.

Day 201: Back on the ATV

We have a photo in our kitchen of 3 year old Johnny and almost 2 year old Daniel riding on our friend Bob's ATV just before we moved to Portland in January 2004. We recreated the scene at Bob and Julie's beautiful farm, and added Anna into the picture. We had a fantastic day, as the children got to visit their beloved Lizzy in her classroom and be her students for the morning, before heading to the farm for a delicious lunch and delightful reunion with a group of old friends.

Day 200: The Science Museum

Eager to spend as much time as possible with my sister and her family before their return to Brunei, we joined them for a fun day at the Science Museum in London. There were plenty of hands-on exhibits for the kids.

Day 199: Stonehenge

Another fabulous day: a visit to beautiful tenth century Malmesbury Abbey in the morning, then further back in time to remarkable Stonehenge, which was more impressive and moving than I had expected. We ended the day with a wonderful visit with old friends in Basingstoke.

Day 198: The Roman Baths

We had a splendid day in Bath, enjoying the beautiful architecture. The highlight was our visit to the Roman Baths and Temple, an amazing place, where you almost expect someone in a toga to come around the corner at any moment. There is an excellent audio tour, and that is what Noah is listening to in this picture.

Day 197: View from a front door

Pictures can't really do justice to the beauty of this part of the country. We loved our brief visit to Wales, and especially the hospitality of our lovely friends who live in this gorgeous place. This is the view as you step out of their front door.

Day 196: Llanbedr

I have to give credit where it is due. I am breaking my own rules because Anna took this picture and I absolutely love it. After a fantastic week in the Cotswolds, we drove to the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales to visit old friends. We are staying a converted stable in the tiny village of Llanbedr amongst rolling Welsh hills.

Day 195: Ring-tailed lemurs

Our last full day in the Cotswolds was spent at a lovely wildlife park and the highlight for Johnny and me was a close encounter with a group of lemurs, including this mother and her twin babies.

Day 194: Cousins

Between us, my brother, sister and I have seven (soon to be eight) sons (Anna is my parents' only granddaughter). These four boys were all born within eighteen months of each other and, as hoped, have bonded incredibly well on this trip. Seeing them together makes me smile!

Day 193: Cotswold Farm Park

A day of all kinds of farmyard fun, one highlight of which was getting to hold rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks and ducklings. The kids also explored a maze, rode tractors and a zipline and bottle-fed sheep. Another lovely day...

Day 192: Warwick Castle

I've wanted to visit Warwick Castle for years and it was just as interesting and beautiful as I had hoped.

Day 191: Mary Arden's house

We spent a lovely day in Stratford-upon-Avon today, visiting a number of different houses connected with Shakespeare's life and the church where he is buried. We ended the day at this gorgeous house where his mother, Mary Arden, grew up.

Day 190: Jumping

There are sixteen of us here in this beautiful big farmhouse in the Cotswolds: my parents and their children, their spouses and eight children between us. Today was a lovely, relaxing day, just enjoying being together, walking in the rolling fields that surround the house and making the most of the trampoline in the back garden.

Day 189: Back to one of my favorite places

We visited Oxford on our way to the Cotswolds today, a city full of happy memories for me. It is always enjoyable to take the kids on a tour of old haunts. For one wonderful year, I lived in a room at the top of this seventeenth-century staircase.

Day 188: Animated conversation on the Underground

We returned to my parents' house in Chelmsford today. The kids are very at home on all the different forms of London transport now. It was great to see my parents again and exciting to get ready for our trip to the Cotswolds tomorrow.

Day 187: The Imperial War Museum

It is so wonderful to have David here with us! We had a fascinating and enjoyable visit to the Imperial War Museum today. We are planning a return visit, which is a good thing, since Johnny and Daniel both claim they could have stayed there for hours.

Day 186: Together again

What joy to be reunited with their daddy today! David took the tube from Heathrow and met us for a lovely picnic lunch in Hyde Park. We are looking forward to three weeks all together.

Day 185: The Changing of the Guard

We had a terrific, touristy day in London today: walking and a picnic in St James' Park; viewing Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament; a wonderful 90 minutes in the National Gallery enjoying the paintings. But the highlight was watching the changing of the guard at Horseguards Parade. The kids all loved it, but it made the biggest impression on Anna, who is considering abandoning her long cherished plan to be a deep sea diver/ballet teacher/long haul trucker, in favor of the new career path of becoming a member of the Household Cavalry.

Day 184: Sunday afternoon at the park

After a wonderful morning at our friends' church, we enjoyed a lovely picnic and walk at Crystal Palace Park. Here is Noah with his good friend, and my sweet godson, Asher.

Day 183: Sweet treats

After a fabulous visit to one major world capital, today we traveled to another. All four kids did a great job riding the train and underground into London to see some dear friends. We are thrilled to be staying with them for a few days. This afternoon, the kids played together at a park (Johnny and Daniel joined in a local soccer game once again) and then we walked to a an elegant old fashioned sweet shop, which sold sweets from my childhood. I took a lot of photos of the kids but they are all chewing in a rather unpicturesque way, so I thought I would use this picture of the shop sign, which I thought was great.

Day 182: Americans in Paris

This is what the two of these boys have been wanting to do for years: stand at the top of the Eiffel Tower and survey the city of Paris. The experience did not disappoint them.