She reads wuffly....

T had a great time this Saturday. She partook in the "Paws to Read" program which allows the kids to have a reading lesson (at the local library) whilst cuddling upto an extremely patient and literate mutt. T's was called Murph, and he even glanced at the pictures when she held the book upto/on his nose.

And, yes please, she would like to do it each week, if that's OK.

Gunpowder Trees on a Plot II

Our second Bonfire Night in Minnesota. It takes place on what seems like farm-land - we only ever go in the middle of the night, so it could just as well be in the middle of a housing estate. It has a long drive decorated with candles all along. It reminds me of when I was little and muddy bonfire nights at a farm we used to go to.

We were stopped on the corner of the driveway going in to the house where it is held by a Police Car after a burglar. He told us to all stay indoors and lock everything. This made the revellers laugh when we relayed it.

The tandoori chicken I made was devoured with alacrity, although I overheard quite a lot of discussion re. the parkin. Some distrust (it is rather sturdy, and shouldn't actually be eaten for another 2 weeks, and even then possibly only used in interior decorating as a type of rustic door-stop); but a mostly positive, albeit muffled, response. Everyone takes loads of food - with each new arrival, there's a new course. T discovered treacle toffee for the first time, and was quiet for at least ten minutes.

T adored the whole thing - this after all is all she knows of Guy Fawkes, having never experienced it in the UK. She is talking about the whole thing in class today. We stayed for two sets of the Morris Men, and the burning of the Guy. We had one of the stagiaires with us, who cheerfully joined in as required.

I got chatting with one of the Morris Men - he wears three bells, is one of the Marches Morris Men ( they wear black,as opposed to the Cotswold, white-wearing, handkerchief-flipping bunch of miscreants - I detected some professional jealousy/dislike here), and aspires to be a "Molly" (which seems to involved wearing a frock, unsurprisingly).

We are beginning to recognize people...and we only have one more left.

Halloween...

You would have thought it was Christmas Day on Saturday. A palpable excitement when a six year-old realizes that before the night is through she will be neck-deep in sweets.

We went around the shops in Wayzata, trick or treating first. I explained to people she was dressed as a Minnesotan, as we were actually saving the skeleton outfit for the evening, and it was really rather nippy. It was a great way of going into all the shops there without feeling you had to make a purchase.



Her friend came around at six in the evening so they could go out together. Last year the clocks must have gone back before Halloween, as I remember it being much darker. It was quite light still, and really too warm for a ski-jacket. In the picture, both of them have about 4 layers of clothes underneath, T's outfit was really for a 10 year-old, and she's looking distinctly porky.

They soon got into the swing of things, ringing the bells, bellowing trick or treat and diving into the proferred bowls of sweets.

I remember feeling very cool at 14 - however, walking behind two 14/15 year-olds on the way around, it was quite funny to hear one confide in the other "I'm goin' to eat all my candy as soon as I get in". Still little kids....

She ended up with more sweets than we started off with. Bridgjo didn't managed to see more than two minutes of his film at any one time with the number of kids which came round. Sadly, all the decorations, webs and lights have had to come down.....but only a few weeks till the next lot go up.



T's Hallowe'en haiku:

Hallowe'en
A time for getting scared
and sweets.
Thank you.