The garden of light

We're starting to like Bradford.  It's always been the place that we live on the edge of, but the more we visit, the more we like it.  It clearly has some fantastic architecture but we like what the council spends bits of its money on.  Doing up Roberts Park, down the road, has made a really lovely place for people to spend time.  And they've just finished the City Park in the centre of town, which is perhaps a little odd but also a nice place to go, especially for families. 

For the past couple of weeks the city park has hosted the garden of light every evening, a set of light sculptures.  Sounds a bit artsy, but it was truly marvellous.  We went down on the last day, had dinner out, and then wandered around the park.  It really was a magical hour or so - Marisca absolutely loved running around, with her light 'flower', and the place was full of happy cheerful people.  I managed to get a few photos I like, and then some others that aren't great photos but have my girl in them which makes them great photos!

Nearly a lost photo

I have a new phone, I think I've mentioned it before.  It takes pretty reasonable pictures - and in some cases (particularly low light) actually takes better pictures than my big old Pentax SLR.  The thing is that pictures can get somewhat lost on it, as I don't really think about them when I'm putting pictures here for you all to see.  But I came across this one, from last week when we were in Leeds at the armouries, and have gone to some trouble to get it to you.  Because I think it's lovely.

(And as a late edit I should say that it's a lovely owl tunic top affair that Elspeth made for Marisca)

A walk and fish & chips

What a lovely Saturday we had last week.  We noticed there was nothing in the diary for forthcoming weekends so are ticking off a few things from our list before the winter.

We went over towards Skipton for a walk in the morning, a lovely stroll up on a bit of local moor.  We were both carrying a small child but for once mine was less wriggly than Elspeth's. 

We then went to Haworth on the way home, to visit the Haworth Steam Brewery for lunch.  They've opened up a little bistro since last time we were in Haworth, and we popped in for lunch and to get a case of their very nice Ironclad Stout.  It really showed how much Marisca has expanded her eating again.  I think she must be having a growth spurt because she put away a plate of fish and chips that Elspeth would have been pleased with.  She also discovered a taste sensation of chips dipped in orange juice.  She assured us it's a taste sensation, we decided not to verify.

We stopped in at Keelham Farm on the way home for some groceries and to visit the animals.  Marisca enjoyed the goats and the chickens, but wasn't at all sure about the pigs.

Favourite furniture

I'm not certain about this, but I think the stepstool in the kitchen is Marisca's favourite piece of furniture.  She sits at the table on it for meals, she pushes it across the floor to stand at the counter for snacks and to 'do the washing up' (not really doing the washing up).  And to reach the fruit bowl, and to draw on the chalkboard.  She has a similar one upstairs which she uses for watching cars and trying to wish buses and lorries into existence on our road.  We've just bought some felt for the feet to save our ears the screeching as she pushes it from place to place.

She's just discovered another use.  Apologies that the camera work does not match the cuteness of the situation.

Making

How much do we love making?  A lot.  This morning we did a little baked egg thing for breakfast and when I told Marisca we were going to do some making, well, I've never seen her so excited.  Yesterday we decided to do some flapjacks from her very own cookbook, and it was a lot of fun.  We've just tested the makes (that's our word, but it's one that might stick) and I think that Risky did very well.

Time

Marisca is starting to get the hang of time. I got home today and she's already naked eating her dinner (this isn't unusual). We go for a bath and I ask her to take her clothes off. She looks at me oddly and says "take my clothes off yesterday". Still some work to do on precision then.