This is where we were today at lunchtime. This is a Taiwanese restaurant, completely vegan. There is lots of good stuff on the menu. Many items sound or look as though they contain meat, but it's all soy or wheat gluten.


The younger kids have a penchant for "lemon steak" and "veggie barbecue". We all love the spring rolls. It's all very tasty. And it doesn't weigh heavy on the stomach. I don't know if it's the lightly cooked vegetables, but it digests easily.

I forgot to take my camera with me, but this afternoon it hit 39 degrees Celsius so I took two of the boys to the lake. We spent a very pleasant hour alternating between cooling off in the water and reading our Usborne Time Travellers book - adding to our knowledge of the Egyptians.

I think Lego Nut must have picked up a bug in the water because not long after coming home he said he felt sick, and a little while later he threw up. Thankfully he had a bowl ready, or our computer keyboard would never have been the same again! I rubbed some oregano oil on his feet and he seems fine now. He's eaten an apple and feels much better.


This is a baby bird that I stumbled across yesterday while walking back up the garden from my clothes line. It was perched on a rock on the edge of a flower bed and let me get very close. I called the boys out to have a look and went to grab the camera, and while I was inside Ninja Boy scared it and it managed to fly into a nearby tree. I'm not sure, but I think it may be a baby robin (American robins are larger and look quite different from British ones).

We are lurking downstairs again - it's marginally cooler down here in the family room. We're watching a DVD of A Touch of Frost, a British police drama. Upstairs it's 33 degrees outside and 32 inside! Too hot.