Autumn safari - colour hunting in Nagano

 We are definitely into the wintry half of autumn now - and suddenly - as this time last week it was still just about OK to wear shorts out if it was sunny. It might still be sunny, but we also have what we call a "lazy wind" in Yorkshire - one that goes through you rather than around! Brrr....

This morning we went on a Bear Hunt with our Kids & mummies to the very local little park. However, just like in the story, we couldn't go through it, over it, under it or anything else :(  as it was fenced off with "No Entry" signs. Looks like they are replacing the slides and stuff (OK!)

Plan B! We are lucky to have a shrine at the top of the street, and it has a lot of old trees. Unfortunately, the monk is a flag-stealing nationalist...but that is another story! We rummaged and sorted, picked and collected like good Wombles on Wimbledon Common! Leaves in oranges, browns, yellows and russett reds, twigs & fronds, bits of bark, berries and even some mint. Haru-kun found a house-brick sized 'pebble' as well!

Rosy-cheeked we dumped our findings on the table back at Luna, and got into glueing. I've never glued a large rock to paper before, so we had to reach into the DIY locker and bring out the industrial stength stuff we used to block off the disused staircase! It's never coming off - but made for a collosally heavy collage!

While we stuck & pasted we talked a bit about eating funny coloured berries, and generally decided it was a bad idea unless we are sure they OK to eat - and mummy said so first :)

Do you like our autumn collages? What does autumn look like where you are?

Preposition Expedition - looking for trolls

As we all know from our nursery rhymes, trolls live under bridges. OUP's Three Billy Goats DVD is a hot favourite with our pre-schoolies and they remembered the songs very enthusiastically a long time ago. So whenever we go for a walk, we can break into song about

• There's grass, there's graa, there's green green grass, over the river, over the river...
• There's a nasty troll lives under the bridge, he eats frogs and mice, and he's not very nice...

(There are more songs - it's a cool video!)
This morning was a beautiful early autumn, blue sky affair. Just right for a troll hunt - we took a map so we knew where we were going, just in case.

Where did we go? We went down stairs and across a road; down steps and across the riverbank. We walked into the river, but Jim carried the little ones through the water.

We sat on the top of the steps and waited for Naomi, then we tip-toed under the bridge. We did not find a troll, which was OK...but we did find a very smelly looking bed. Maybe he wasn't far away?!

We met a dog called Momo and Eleanor took his picture, before we walked over the bridge to look at the fish in the river, and a duck paddling. Finally, we crossed the road again, looking carefully left and right, up the stairs and back to Luna.



That was a long little walk, and a headful of prepositions! We powered up with snacks then set to the map - it needed decorating with things that we saw on our safari. We drew fish, flowers and ourselves in crayon, and painted with watery poster paints on shoji paper. The end result should be worth a few quid, we think!