Gnomeo & Juliet, Movie Night

Phase 3 of the Due-Date Party was outdoor cinema time with comfort blankets, posh hot dogs from the fire pit, plentiful popcorn and German apple pie and ice cream, plus hastily halved candles for the now accelerating number of years being marked.

Afterwards impromptu blue vs. red gnome battling - no Shakespearian lessons learnt then!

Gnome Homes on Floyd

The gnome party gathered supplies in the alley as well as a selection of squirrel approved forest items (mistakenly left outside), bits of fabric offcuts, foraged cardboard from the garage, white fluffy felt and lolly sticks, pegs and a glue gun...

Amazing structures emerged... we got ecclesiastical settings, a gnome zip wire, tire swings on capsule homes and an outdoor tent shelter as well as garden paths and an immaculate multi-mattress beds.

Tiny George on Floyd

Tiny George shipped down the east coast and was neither plastic or lewd - a challenge in the sourcing! We needed last minute pillow case aprons for the gloss acrylics so these little guys can survive outdoor life.

Game Time at Binford

Away from the fire pit there were more trash bins to climbs into, other friends to join-in, a giant branch to move and a bit of basket ball post-shimming.

The perfect Saturday.

Fall Playdate on Floyd

Yard clearance with helpers... then fire pit experiments that relied on the sandpit for flame retarding, until the dry leaves in there caught fire.

Richmond in Light, Monroe Park

A sub zero evening not far from here with light installations a  plenty. Our favourites pictured (with M&J in one) and then the most amazing context turned out to be the dark interior of the Catholic Cathedral, lit only by real candles we could place on the altar steps and in the chapels, plus there was a crypt.

The smell of warm wax and church wood and the night sounds echoing up into the glinting gold cupola was total magic (and the heating!).

Valentine History Centre, Downtown

We got to ride in a yellow school bus!!! Iconic stuff of movies and in reality suspension-free, seatbeltless and cumbersome transporters of Americas' children by lost drivers, in this instance... Got downtown in one rattled, grinning piece.

Indoors fab native American artifacts from a rough hewn canoe for 10, to gorgeous small carved wooden animals to a real deer skin camouflage, that J got to stroke and tales of a that first Virginian (Pocahontas) who left for England and never got to come back... concern furrowed the teacher's brow.

Beach-Side, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, VA

The godchild and the godfather this side of the Atlantic...

Marsh-Side, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, VA

There's nothing like a wooden walkway, high rushes and herons (and hibernating reptiles).

Virginia Beach

THE cafe was not quite ready for us so we hit the beach to catch the breeze... No swimming this time!

Italian Orange Cake on Floyd

Preparing for a night of charades at the Italians... The challenge is to get this favourite recipe to go wrong and caramelize with a giant dip in the middle - job done!

Lewis G Larus Woods

On second thoughts this was a bit risky - the log was above freezing water and we were a long way from the car. However no disasters befell us and the leaves overhead were crisp as a they fell in all that stillness.

Careers Day 2014

What if your dad could teach your friends to make computers talk across a network and say anything they fancied or take surreptitious photos or even guess a decent password...

Perhaps they too might be excited about a hackable future that allows them the privacy and freedom to be their fabulous selves.

Belle Island Bicycle Skills Area, Richmond

Or the zone of tears as one competent passing First Aider remarked. For a full appreciation of the skills being developed see here.

Playdate at Fox

Hooking up with old school friends was a little bit of magic and hand-eaten pasta hysterical.

Late Fall Harvest, Urban Farm, RVA

I returned to a totally changed farm landscape and so many greens to be gathered in - mustard, collards, spinach, kale, arugula aka rocket - and to come bok choi and cilantro aka coriander. It is a feast out there.

Big Apple, Carter Mountain

What's not to love about being an apple worm head?!?

Fujis & Granny Smiths, Carter Mountain

We climbed the mountain, navigated a tractor stampede, made a movie (Linklater does childhood better), reworked some orchard directional signage and made it to the rows of Fujis, the ripe ones very high in the trees, then did some free-roaming in the Granny Smiths before an English picnic, apple cider donuts and some artiness and finally the trek home to a better adult:child ratio (1:4).