A trip to Bristol Zoo.

And no, I didn't leave Emma in the monkey enclosure.

Here she is admiring the male lion.  He even did a roar for her.  She loved the experience.

We watched the penguins being fed.

And we saw this baby gorilla on its mother's back.

And here's a seal swimming under water.

Here's an okapi - part giraffe, part zebra, all cool!  And one of Aunty Becky's favourite animals.

Emma peeping through the comedy meerkat picture

And Emma next to real meerkat.  They all came to investigate when I opened our sandwiches.  Emma was not at all interested in having anything to eat, but I enjoyed mine.

Here's Emma in the butterfly house where it was really hot and humid.  She was pretending to be a butterfly.

At 1pm there was an animal show in the middle of the zoo.  The first treat was this armadillo who had his lunch.

Then this scarlet macau did a show for us.

This Lemur was called Colin.  He did some great big jumps landing on the Attendant's back.

This is a European Brown Owl (or something) and is the largest species of owl in the world.

Emma was entranced by the animal show.  I think it was her favourite bit of the whole day!

We went to get her face painted soon after.  We saw some other children who had had it done so she was keen.  She sat very still throughout.

As she is only two years old she wasn't allowed a full face painting in case she was sensitive to the make up.  But she got some cool whiskers!

Here she is practising her smile!

This seal jumped out of the water right next to where Emma had run off to.  It gave her a bit of a shock I think as she came running back to me afterwards.

Um, spot the difference? 

Here's Emma and the pelicans close to going home time.

She didn't really like these birds and couldn't wait to get out of the bird house.

She fell asleep in the middle of eating her icecream in the car.  Lucky daddy was on hand to finish it up.  Her face was a mess of makeup and chocolate.  Her painted eyebrows remained after the clean-up much to Mummy's amusement.

The Big Walk

I did a few training walks before heading off to Yorkshire, the longest being from Wells to Cheddar along the West Mendip Way.  It was only half the length of the The Three Yorkshire Peaks and the tallest Mendips that I scaled (including climbing Cheddar gorge) were only 300m compared to Whernside in Yorkshire which is 736m.  The pint of iced Thatchers cider at the end was still very welcome.

I will simply link to my Picasa web album instead of copying all the photos here as they all have comments on. One of the walkers, Lorry, has also posted pictures of the walk which are hosted here.  It was a truly fantastic experience with intense feelings of remoteness in the vast arenas of the Moors, but also comradeship with the other walkers. The charity pot currently stands at around £400 smashing my target of £250 which is very pleasing.  Thanks to all who sponsored me.  Those who want to sponsor me still can by going to  http://www.justgiving.com/shallcross3peaks  which will remain open until December.

I got a lift back to Salisbury and then a train on to my parents in Tisbury where Helen had also driven.  We stayed from Sunday through until Wednesday having a relaxing and enjoyable time.  Lin,  Mike and Ria were also staying as the finishing touches were being put to their new house, a barn conversion in Chicksgrove.  Emma and Ria were in paradise playing together!

Here's Emma bounding up the stairs into the garden and Granny and Grandad's

Here she is hiding in the barn.  Shhhhh!

She was very brave with the calves.  She was a bit scared if they came up to her a bit quick.  But mostly they were curious but not too overbearing.  I'm not sure why she felt the urge to show off her tummy though!

This calf was less than a day old.  Her mum was being protective.

We discovered this slow worm in Grandad's compost heap. It slithered away and tried to bury itself to hide.  Emma was scared at first but after she saw it wouldn't bite she wanted to touch it.

Here's Emma trying out her new boots in the ford.

The grass was a bit long here so Emma had to keep jumping to move along.

This is a sad story.  Whilst I was away Helen and Emma were playing with the train track.  Emma thought it might be a good idea to put the train on her head.  Unfortunately it is one with a motor and the wheels went round a caught a great lock of Emma's her from the middle of her scalp.  It wouldn't untangle and before Mummy could get some scissors, Emma had pulled it out.  Ouch!

On Tuesday, Granny, Mummy, Daddy and Emma went to Moors Valley Country Park. It was perfect for Emma.  I bought her this bug box with a magnifying glass in the lid.  The first beastie I found was this milipede.

This is Emma inside the first construction on our forest route.  It was a huge log anthill.

And here she is standing on a massive wooden snail.

She was full of running.

Daddy got involved with climbing all the structures, even to the point of being eaten by this snake!

This was a canopy walk way high above the ground.  Emma showed no fear.

Neither did the two Mrs Shallcrosses, Helen and Jenny.

Here are Emma and Daddy clambering over a spider's web.

Emma tries to stun the spider.

And here's Emma jumping off a bench so Daddy could catch her.

We were very lucky with the weather.  This red admiral is sunning itself in a clearing in the forest.  Just as we left the rain started.

Emma pursued the poor butterfly but it obviously loved its sunny spot as it kept coming back.

Here's Emma laughing at a Charlie and Lola video on Helen's new laptop.  She loves the cartoons.  The mark on her face is from a visit to the newly opened Cabot Circus Shopping Centre in Bristol.  She was running around in Zara and managed to vanish into the men's changing room before falling over and banging her head.

Here's Tigger looking a little annoyed.

Emma's Soggy Start to September

Dear Blog Readers,

Here are some nice pictures from September.  Emma is getting more and more bold and adventurous.

I (David) must admit that I was partially to blame for Emma's falling into the green water.  It was me who took her out for the walk and me who stood by taking the odd photo as she walked to the water's edge.  I didn't expect her to walk straight and lose her footing though.  The pond weed must have stopped the water looking wet!  I fished her out nice and quick and she didn't swallow any water.  She still talks about falling in the water now a month later with almost a fondness.  

Emma eating some smarties wearing her new vest.

The smarties spread onto the vest...

I like this photo!

Here's Emma putting the finishing touches on the masterpiece.

Whoops!

One Wednesday I took Emma to the park.  Here she is on the see-saw.

And here we are after we bumped into Jack and his Mum.  His mum is Jo who I work with.  They tore around the muddy park together.  Those trousers didn't stay pink for long.

Here's Emma on the high wire!

Here's Emma and Daddy on Green Water Day.  I'm wearing my sponsor shirt as this walk is one of the training walks for the Yorkshire Three Peaks I did at the end of September.

Our walk took us from Cheddar to Axbridge and on to Crook Peak in the Mendips.  The route follows The Strawberry Line - the disused train track we'd walked along previously.

The first impressive view was the Axbridge reservoir with all the sailors out and Crook Peak in the background and a game of football in front.

The train track goes under the Mendips through a tunnel.  Emma was excited and raced on ahead.

It was very dark in the tunnel.

Then we climbed up the hill towards Crook Peak.

This shot looks back from the Mendips down to Axbridge Reservoir.

Emma and I found this hiding place in a hollow bush.  We had a picnic.

And here's Emma about to launch herself into the murky depths.  No more photos exist of this trip as in saving her I got the camera wet and it wouldn't work afterwards.  Fortunately it works perfectly now having dried out.  I had to take off Emma's coat and shirts.  She wore my charity top with her rain coat over it.  I had to leave on her wet trousers though.  I rang Helen who then drove to our rescue with some warm dry clothes, meeting us in Crook Peak car park.  Emma cried a bit after I dragged her out, then again when some geese attacked us as I tried to change her.  I popped her back in the pushchair to get to the car park and we sang some songs and moral was good.  As we waited in the car park we read a Teletubbies book and she sat on my lap and shivered.  Mummy took her and changed her and I carried on my walk going a more adventurous way home over the Mendips and back to Cheddar with wet socks and shorts.

Here's Emma a week later helping Mummy with some cooking.

Having a nap after a particularly gruelling morning.

Poor Tigger.  There's not much dignity for him at the moment.  Here he is wrapped in a blanket being given the phone to speak to Granny.

Here's Mummy tickling Emma whilst she's on the phone.

And some more of Emma talking to Granny on the phone.  What a happy face!

Emma and Datz.

Emma loves this dressing gown.  Its a hand-me-down from Ria.

Here's Emma and Datz again.

It appears Emma shares her Uncle Rob's love of candles.

She does an awesome line in funny faces now.

Her she is giving Tigger a cuddle.  We went away to Wallmead for a long weekend leaving Tigger alone for 4 days.  When we got back she was so excited to see him that she wouldn't leave him alone.  She ended up receiving a swipe which left a scratch down her face.  Luckily it didn't hurt much and it was gone in a few days.  But she didn't pester him nearly as much afterwards!

Here's Mummy looking lovely.