Boo!

Let's face it: when it comes to autumn, the northeast United States is tough to beat. Clear sunny days, vivid foliage, crisp apples, pumpkin patches, roast turkeys. While I'm sure parts of Britain are pretty this time of year too, London not so much. Lots of rain. Leaves mostly turning brown and falling off. Darkness before 5pm already. Fewer holidays and traditions (at least that we know of). We miss fall back home.

Having said that... we've managed to have a few season-appropriate escapades. This weekend we celebrated Halloween with our friends the De Bonis, visiting from Belgium, in a pretty impressive costume display involving all 9 of us. It was a tight competition for best dressed between Count Dracula (Bruno), an evil monk (Luka), two rather un-sinister witches (Karen and Ilona), a carnivorous cat (Katya), an itsy bitsy spider (Sadie), a bat (Parker), a chef (Artemy) and a pirate (me - but only briefly as Parker got very upset whenever I put on my mask. I have since been chastised for my age-inapropriate costume selection). The trick-or-treating itself was fun, as the kids had a blast, but it felt a bit like hunting late in the season. Not so many treats out there. A lot of unanswered doorbells. Halloween is a Celtic word, and according to Wikipedia many of its traditions originate from the British Isles, but it is only halfheartedly embraced in northwest London. Part of that is probably city living anywhere; trick-or-treating to a multi-family appartment, when someone has to buzz you in, does not work all that well. But this may be for the best, as it leaves fewer Mars bars to consume. In all it was good fun, and it was great to see the De Boni gang -- we are looking forward to visiting them on the other side of the English Channel soon.

In other activities, we tried out Zipcar once again for a trip to the northern outskirts of London to visit a children's farm/petting zoo (Belmont Farms), which made for an enjoyable morning (especially for Sadie) and nice for us all to get out of the city -- although it wasn't quite far enough away to feel like countryside. For that we'll need to plan something a bit further away, for a full day, which is still not too easy given the various nap requirements. (The tyranny of the nap!)

Otherwise life moves forward, and some important things have been happening. Karen spent much of last week training for an interesting volunteer opportunity involving the criminal justice system here, which she may spend a day or two a week doing. Sadie started nursery school at the local synagogue this week. And ballet class. And she is also deep in the throes of potty training (and making good progress, although the combination with a new school is a little tricky)-- these all topics that Karen (hopefully) will be blogging about as she's more on top of the details. Actually given how busy we are, we don't get to talk all that much so I am looking forward to seeing what she has to say. (Ok that's a joke, although not all that far from the truth.)

Parker is doing great, walking more and more confidently -- and can now pretty much make it from one side of the flat ot another without falling over, which is making him much harder to keep track of. He is also starting to give speech a try, tentatively, with a vocabulary at our count of 30 words or so. Some favorites: "goo" (hot beverage), "gmm" (give me that / read this); "boom" (phone/blackberry/ipod); "butz" (buttons).

As for me I've been battling a virus which got into my throat and took out my voice for a few days, although I seem to be on the mend. Heading to Turkey for a few days next week. Feeling behind at work and struggling to keep up with everything. But such a condition seems pretty unavoidable these days, for the forseeable future anyway!