Jiggety-jig and more mice…

I’ve not been a very effusive blogger lately – it’s been a busy time! And doesn’t it fly… so here we go with a catch-up:

Mireille-who-can’t-keep-still accompanied my daughter, grandson and me to the family base at my lovely granny’s house in England for a few days – now 8 months old, she’s crawling, standing up and into absolutely everything, particularly if it’s edible

 and remains the sunniest baby I have ever known, staying cheerful through crowds, flights, her brother’s tantrums and seeing lots of strangers – who soon become her friends! This was a valiant attempt to grab some of my mom’s lovely birthday cake, with Granny having to defend her piece… and the baby still can’t keep still.

I don’t think Granny will mind that I mention she is now 96 years old and marvellous for her age and the Queen can only hope to be in such good shape in another 10 years’ time! Just as we see the Queen going with the times, I have proof that Granny can do the same, in this hilarious photo – she’s got the moves, yo!! (Innit?!)

 (she was giving my daughter’s new sunglasses a tryout!!)

We found a concept unfamiliar to us while over in England – the indoor playground. Just the thing for an energetic nearly-4-year old after a boring morning of shopping, we were delighted to let him loose on this padded funpark, which included a cute crawl area for the tinies: we think this concept should be introduced (or extended) here in Switzerland – perfect if the weather is either very hot or very cold, notwithstanding the need for kids to be outdoors a lot of the time, this is also a more pleasant experience for the attendant parent/carer, who can sit down with a drink in relative comfort.

 Of course, while the cat was away (sadly not of much use to the mice over at http://catterel.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/plans-of-mice-and-men/!), the mice at home were having a good time, resulting in thisFor once, not a photoshopped image, but the colour my youngest daughter’s hair now glows… 😮 That is probably why one tends not to leave teenagers on their own! I hasten to add that her father permitted this…!!! (note “her father” rather than “my husband”… hrmph!! You know exactly what I mean!) But I can’t really grumble after her older sister had green/orange/purple striped hair for a while and she is just finishing secondary school and about to embark on her vocational training, so what better time to experiment – plus her class has spent the last 3 months preparing for, rehearsing and appearing in an end-of-year musical that involved some rather more elaborate make-up  DD kept everyone on track and upbeat by being the drummer for the show! They did a great job over a total of 12 performances public and private…

We ended the month by celebrating another birthday back home in a more traditional environment – the countryside around Appenzell on a perfect 22°C day of sun and wind. Just right for a walk along the Barfussweg, a barefoot track that is signposted from Jakobsbad to Appenzell, up on the Säntis mountain. There are places you can wade in the stream or dip your arms in a special trough for a Kneipp water treatment, a mud-path where you walk along about 150m in knee-deep mud (presumably health-giving?!) and areas with different ground surfaces to tickle your soles, with the majority of the path being plain, simple meadow and delicious on the toes. Ideal for a wander and a picnic and then you hop on the little red train to get back to the start – if you do go as far as Appenzell (we didn’t), that’s always a gem to explore. Oh, and there are foot-washing facilities at various intervals!  Isn’t this a gorgeous, enormous, ginger piggy having a snooze in the sunshine?! We were pleased to see these enclosures allowing the pigs to go out and snuffle in the outdoors and shade was provided, too…