Lifejackets and hardhats

After lunch we decided to go on a short motorised boat trip around the lake. There were only three pedalos available and a huge queue, and a rowing boat was a bit ambitious since neither boys swim, lifejackets or not.

Here are the crew, keen and excited about their imminent voyage.

Another first for Alastair. He seemed to love it. Praps the rowing boat won't be quite as daunting next time...

Allie looking as though she was giving Alastair a reassuring hug, but actually she was trying to restrain him. He had found his sea legs.

Back on land and both boys waited patiently in the long (mainly full of girls) queue before getting their pony ride. Gregor is coming in as Alastair leaves.

There wasn't a hat small enough for Alastair, and I am so glad that he was actually allowed to ride without one. Thank goodness the health and safety zealots haven't got as far as Fritton yet.

Fritton Lake

We picked up a passenger in Kelvedon - cousin Allie. She's come to stay for the week. Today we went to Fritton Lake, part of the Somerleyton Estate - a 10 minute drive out of Lowestoft into beautiful woodlands with an enormous lake as its centrepiece. During the second world war they developed an amphibious tank there in secret.

Here are Allie and Alastair bombing around on the tractor. As you can see, Alastair just has a small dressing plaster over his closed hole while it heals.

Alastair continuing his recuperative programme, letting others do the work.

I don't know what this plant is, and would have made a good den but for the spiky flowers and stems inside.

We thought this was an innocuous enough photo, until we realised what Gregor was doing.....

After such indecent exposure, Allie and Alastair sought refuge in the castle.

The grandparents arrive

The trip to the airport and back was successful. We stopped en route at Pauline and Dutch's to jump on the trampoline and give her some courgettes from the garden.

Then Gregor was dropped off at Sarah's and picked up again at 10 in the evening, quite late for him, but clean, at least. Then a rainy drive back to Lowestoft.

The following morning "Baba" (Babushka - Grandma) and "Gaga" (grandfather) gave the boys some lovely presents. There are still more to unwrap.

The same day we went to Kelvedon - for Alex's 2nd birthday party - though there are no pictures of him, unfortunately. I thought we'd be too tired to go, but we were okay and I could see that Alastair needed a dose of happy little children after his spell in hospital, so off we went. Baba and Gaga had a long lie in and relaxed and unpacked at their leisure.

Here is Will helping Alastair climb the climbing frame.

Sue giving Sam a hand with his present.

Olivia and Steve (bouncing Alastair on the trampoline by his head)

Will and his profiteroles.

Home again

Well, our hospital stay took a little longer than expected, but in the end it has all worked out okay. The decannulation (tube removal) went well and Alastair's trache hole has closed. We think. There's still a bit of gunk and it's a greenish, yellowish colour, but we are informed this is normal. Tomorrow a community nurse will visit to check up on his scars and wounds and give us any advice for maintaining them hygienically, etc.

Here was Alastair up and about and munching on a biscuit before he was decannulated.

Still in hospital

No photos since our computer is so seriously lacking memory I cannot even post any at the moment. I will have to get one of those slim boxes Dick in Durham had and move all my stuff over to that. Ho hum...

As for Belousovi, they are still in hospital and we visit every day. Alastair is doing really well - smiling, eating, babbling, walking, demanding. He has his plastic tracheostomy tube in and today they plugged it as a prelude to the real experiment which begins tomorrow. Basically, they will monitor him closely for 24 hours - plugged up and having to breathe normally through his nose and mouth - and if they are satisfied, then they will (swiftly, I hope) decide on decannulating him and sending him home.

Misha doubts whether it would be before Friday. Hopefully, it is at least by then since his parents arrive on Saturday for their annual break in summer's cancelled, deluged Britain! I will pick them up from Heathrow on Saturday and drop Gregor off at his cousins' house (Sarah and Matt's) in Kelvedon and pick him up on the way back. At least that way the grandparents get a more enjoyable drive home than just me!

Veggies

Well, the long awaited fruits of our labour are beginning to appear. I am absolutely loving growing the tomatoes and co. We did go a bit overboard with the amount, but I am researching old catsup recipes. Last year aunt Judy made a delicious tomato jam with her surplus.

Here is the main crop of tomatoes in the back garden. We created some space alongside the wall where the sun shines the longest. They seem to be thriving despite my initial, elementary, mistake which was to pinch the leader early. I know for next year to wait for four trusses then pinch.

These are regular, hardy versions. We also have Italian plums and cherries that don't need pinching. However, the ones in the terracotta pots out in the front are really not doing well. I don't know if it's something in the pot or drainage, but I will be sticking to plastic pots next year.

The zucchini are coming on. It's wonderful to go out and simply pick a couple to use immediately. Although pretty tasteless, they are firm, fresh and simple. Alastair tried them steamed with a bit of butter and lemon the other day and loved them.

The front garden path adorned with aubergines on the left and cherries on the right. The aubergines are still holding up but could be better. I gave one to Barbara the other week to nurture and hers is already twice the size. I suspect her glass house provides a more suitable climate than our eastern winds and utterly changeable rainy, sunny, windy, cold and warm that we've been experiencing.

And there you have it. The decision to plant the courgettes out in the front has proved to be a good one. Firstly, they are thriving there, and don't appear to be being scrumped by passers-by. Also, the plants are really beautiful. First thing in the morning, or after rain, the bright yellow flowers open right up and the plant leaves are large and quite tropical looking.

Hospital

On Tuesday evening we travelled to Aunt Judy's in Norwich to spend the night. The next morning Alastair was due to have his trache hole closed and his gastro peg removed.

Here he is, bouncing on the four poster bed before being imprisoned in his travel cot. The boys kept each other awake for hours doing what they do when they have the good fortune of sharing a room. Mostly, they make noises for each other, laugh at the noises, Alastair throws his Ag monkey out and Gregor picks it up, Gregor gets out of bed and finds us or, alternatively, gets in to Alastair's bed, or opens the curtains or turns the light on so they can play.....all of this they did on Tuesday evening.

The next morning, bright and early, we arrived at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital and went straight to the play room on the children's ward. Alastair was scheduled to have his operations in the morning. Misha stayed with him and I travelled back to Judy's to pick Gregor up and take him to playgroup, groggy eyed, but breakfasted.

We visited Alastair the following day and he was in good spirits in the critical care unit. The operations went okay. The gastro one was fine - the PEG has been removed and the hole is gone. However, the trache one, the hole didn't close as intended. As a precautionary measure the doctors have inserted a plastic tracheostomy tube - the type he had two years ago - and this is what you see on the picture, with an oxygen pipe connected. His breathing saturation levels are all very good, his mood is okay and he is eating and drinking. The plan thus far, and as I understand it, is to decannulate him, ie take the tube out and hope that the hole will close (with a stitch) in a couple of weeks.

As it always used to be, I couldn't leave him before he fell asleep. As before, we played him his "twinkle twinkle little star" hvezdicka toy, stroked his nose, and sang through the repertoire of other soothing and adapted for Alastair songs - Shenandoah, My bonnie sails over the ocean, row the boat, baa baa black sheep, and I left him tucked up and in the land of nod.

The Carrolls depart

And the sun I was mentioning that we saw sporadically.....here it is briefly.

During the week we managed to get in a few traditional British meals - roast chicken and lamb, fish 'n' chips, Indian takeaway.

When the kids weren't at the beach or having a walk along the coast or through the town we made a couple of trips out - one to Beccles, a pretty town 15 minutes away, and to Aldeburgh and Thorpeness, down the coast where we marvelled at the buildings, collected pebbles on the beach and had a look at the lifeboat. Pavlina and Gregor found a conch which spilt its (what smelt like) years of abandoned neglect down my hand. No amount of washing and soap could rid me of the stench that day.

Here's me, unsuspectingly snapped, by the looks of it.

All of us posing in the front garden. Gregor and Alastair are already in their pyjamas, ready for bed.

And a lovely one of Buzz, Pavlina and the kids. After dropping them off at the airport, I stopped off at Barbara and John's for a bit of breakfast and carried on home. My car had a little electrical problem last week which seems to be fixed and then yesterday I got a puncture, also fixed. Just as well since we have a busy week next week. Alastair and Misha go in to hospital in Norwich on Wednesday to close up Alastair's open trache stoma and remove the PEG (gastrostomy). It's hard to believe how far we've come, and how much we've cracked.

Patrick, Pavlina, Sebastian, Isabella

At the beginning of July our friends from Prague came for a visit. Assiduous readers will recognise them from our recent trip there in May. Anyway, they were expecting a relaxed, hot and sunny week at the beach. Unfortunately, they arrived in a storm and left in sunshine - the time in between intermittently rainy, windy, cold, warm, sunny, not windy. Some of the northwest of the country was seriously flooded, so our changeable outlook was satisfactory in comparison.

We did, however, manage to exploit the sunny and warm moments for all it was worth and got good use of our "garden" with two barbeques - a burgers and hot dogs affair on July 4th, for Patrick's benefit, and another at the weekend. Here are Pavlina and Misha enjoying the chance to gabble away in Czech. I managed to remember more than I thought and have promised to keep it up.

Our friends from Ipswich, Charlotte and Nick, came up for the evening. Charlotte and I met at Leicester Poly in the late 80s and have managed to stay in touch and friends ever since, in spite of me moving abroad and her moving down south. Her mum relocating to Ipswich in the 90s enabled us to reunite most Christmasses. Here she is devouring some potato salad. Apart from that we enjoyed grilled chicken, gorgonzola and walnut stuffed mushrooms, veggie hot-dogs, burgers and salad.

Here's Nick. He came with a raincoat and left without one. We suspect Patrick and the gang took it back to Prague with them by mistake. I am on the trail.

Gregor and Sebi having a cosy little chat. Actually, the kids got on really well despite the language barriers. After an initial territorial jostle everyone understood where they were and what they liked. Gregor liked everything Sebi did, Sebi liked the stairs, they both loved the beach and Isabella developed a soft spot for Alastair. Alastair was his usual laid back self, who didn't mind anything as long as he got his regular "row, row, row the boat" song from whoever was around. Patrick renamed him the little Buddha.

Isabella showing Alastair her latest dance moves. This room is usually a guest room, but instead the Carroll family were upstairs (in the boys' rooms) and Gregor and Alastair in cots here. It worked pretty well and Gregor has finally grown the length of the travel cot. This week we are making a grand purchase of a proper bed for Alastair, since he can really walk now.

In search of George Vancouver

Since King's Lynn was a bustling and wealthy port in the 18th century most people would have been connected with the sea in one way or other. George Vancouver was no exception. Son of a merchant family with good connections, he landed a job with Captain Cook as a fourteen-year- old midshipman and sailed around the globe.

Here is Alastair getting a bit of training at the ship's wheel.

Unfortunately, the festivities were marred by the rain. At one point we took shelter in the sea cadets' hut. While the brass band practised in the back, Gregor wanted sit in the canoes and be shown how to paddle.

Here's Gregor hurrying past the statue of Captain George on his way to the Custom House to register his imports of coal, wine and timber.

The Great Ouse River under East Anglian skies. Vancouver's ship, the Earl of Pembroke, joined the weekend's festivities.

Here's Buzz reading about Cook and Vancouver and why his home town was named after the boy from King's Lynn. As they were preparing Cook's third voyage - this time to survey and attempt to discover an as yet uncharted North-West passage of North America to link the Pacific to the Atlantic - the Spanish and English were arguing over Nootka Sound (apparently an Englishman had bought Vancouver Island for a few sheets of copper and the Spanish didn't like it). Anyway, to cut a long story short, Cook died en route in Hawaii, Vancouver continued and went up the coast searching for the northwest passage, didn't quite find it, but did manage to survey the coastline on his way and make maps. Enlighted Canadians changed the then Gastown to Vancouver around the beginning of the 20th century.