January...

Yasmin celebrated her fifth birthday with most of her school year at the Bear Factory, where they chose, stuffed, fluffed, inserted a heart, clothed and named their bears.  After two hours of such exertions, they were restored to health with pizza and free flow ice cream...

She is continuing to do well at school and is now reading quite confidently.  Whereas I had “Peter and Jane“ when I was young, she has ”Wilma, Wilf, Biff and Chip” - names you hear everyday, of course.  Beats me why all the kids in today’s school books have to sound like they’re puppies - but maybe I am just getting old.

Work continues on the house with most of the dining room decorated, lighting rearranged and curtain poles up.  We hope to have a new floor and curtains up in the dining room during February.  The leak in the roof has been fixed and various other roofing jobs, including installing mesh over the holes that the rats have been using, have been done.  Fortunately there is a stack of hand made clay tiles behind the garage that has kept this exercise reasonably affordable.  Most of the plants that have outgrown their location on the front of the house have also been removed making it easier to tackle some woodwork maintenance and brick re-pointing.

Julian’s trips on business mentioned in the December update are no longer happening - more time for decorating...