Merry Christmas

It's very Christmassy in our house. Presents under the tree, carols playing, notes everywhere reminding Herself to defrost the turkey, tinsel in every nook and cranny.
Because tomorrow is Jesus' birthday! Yay!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Mary and Joseph had to leave their home and travel down south to Bethlehem.
Mary was pregnant and Donkey got tired and kept lying down.
But everyone smiled.

By the time they arrived everywhere was full and they ended up with the animals.
Eugh.
Donkey was happy though.

May and Joseph didn't get much rest that night because Jesus arrived.
Donkey looked on and smiled.

Other people were busy that night too...
An angel freaked out some shepherds who'd pulled the night shift.
'The Saviour of the World has just been born!'

The shepherds (with Sheep 1 and Sheep 2) went straight into town to see the new baby.
Everyone smiled.

Even more people were busy that night.
In the east, some wise men suddenly spotted an unusual star.
'Oooooh look, that means a new king has just been born. Let's go and see him.'

Camel, accompanied by the wise men, travelled all the way to Bethlehem.
They brought the baby King Jesus special gifts:
gold (nice),
myrrh (smelly),
and frankincense (no idea ??Frankenstein).
Everyone smiled.

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for visiting my blog!
Squishy bear hugs from Scamper xx

Book Launch

I recently took Herself to Philip S Davies' book launch in Oxford. It was for the release of the final book Destiny's Ruin in his fantasy trilogy about Queen Kat of Anestra. I had to fight Herself to get to read it, she wouldn't put it down long enough for me to grab it. But it was worth the wait when I did get my paws on it.

Setting off in the car.

On the Park & Ride bus in Oxford.

Ooooh! There's Blackwell's bookshop.

Posing for a sneaky photo with the artefacts.

Close up of the cake (which tasted as good as it looks).

 

Exciting moment when uncle Philip cut the cake.

I think uncle Philip must be a best-seller! Look at all these books he's written.

Posing with the author.
(I think that makes me famous.)

I met a new friend at the book launch.
This is Sheepish.

Oxford is very historic.

What a marvellous read. Loving this book.

NaNoWriMo!

It's NaNoWriMo time! For all you uninitiated, November is novel-writing month. Writers from all around the world aim to write 50,000 words in thirty days. That sort of word count would give any novel a good kick-start. 

Some of Herself's friends (auntie Fiona and uncle Dan) are doing NaNoWriMo so we all decided to get together for a day's write-in last Saturday. Guess where? We went back to Hobb's Cafe at Monsal Head in Derbyshire. 

All packed and ready to go, er write.

Here we are again!

Hard at work at Hobb's Cafe.
(Drinking lots of tea is very important when writing.)

After a hard couple of hours' writing, I took Herself for a walk along the Monsal Trail.
I told her we were 'looking for inspiration'.

It's hard to admire the view when you're hiding from an over-friendly dog....

 

Sir Scamper Hillary conquering 'Everest'.

Beautiful view.

Which way now?

 

Huh. Photo-bombed by a sheep.

That's Cressbrook Mill in the background.

Looking back up the valley.
Marvellous autumn colours.

Do hills have memories?
I'm sure I could hear the sound of a steam engine chuffing along this old railway line.

The leaves on these trees were beautifully golden-yellow in real life.

'Looking for inspiration' is a hungry business.
I enjoyed every bit of this Stilton, walnut and apricot tart. Yum.

It's not the Three Stooges, it's
The Four Writers.

Moment

I'm being cheeky today and combining a blog post with the Five Minute Friday link-up. Herself sometimes does FMF but this week, I got in there first. The topic is 'moment'.

I had a moment in June when I ended up in hospital. This morning I went back for a check-up.

Setting off in Herself's handbag.
No one would ever guess I was in here, all snug and safe.

Aaagghh! After driving round and round before finally finding a parking space, guess what?
The ticket machine was out of order.
STRESS!!!
Am glad Himself was with us and knew what to do.

I need an ECG to check my little heart is beating properly.

Here we are, ECG Outpatients.

Lots of wavy lines means my heart is behaving.

 

Herself was so pleased that we went for a celebratory walk in the
autumnal woods afterwards.

Today has been full of moments: nice, worrying and otherwise. But Someone who loves little bears like me has been looking after us.

Prague: Food, Drink, Scamper-size Trains

Here's the last of my adventures in the city of a hundred spires. Enjoy.

Posing in the Palace Gardens.

Just look at that view.

Blending in...

The Palace Gardens were marvellous.
Lots of steps to climb up and down... on a hot day.
Almost felt sorry for Herself. Almost but not quite.

Vytopna Restaurant in the Palladium had a Scamper-sized train.
Can you see me the platform?

Here I am, waiting to catch the train.

The train delivers drinks to customers at the tables.

Can you see the cans in carriages?

Taking a cheeky train ride.

This is what arrived for me in the train. Slurp.

Here we are in Petrin Park.
It's on a very steep hill and it was a hot day...
We just had to climb this tree for a breather.

Tucking into chocolate cake at the summit of Petrin Park.

Enjoying fresh lemonade in Old Prague Restaurant.

This goulash soup served in bread was delicious.

My last hot chocolate in Prague.
(I loved it although it looks strange having the cream separate - it was like hot chocolate soup.
Yum.)

Bye bye Prague.