So on Midsummer’s Day we caught the train to Cambridge. Isabel was wearing some pretty funky nail varnish.

 

It was hot and the sun was bright and Isabel’s eyes were itchy so we went into a shop to try on some sunglasses. Isabel picked a pink pair with gold butterflies that matched her fingernails.

We booked a ticket to go punting but there was half an hour to wait before the next boat set off. Just time for an ice cream? Maybe not. Isabel said she’d already had one. Then wished she hadn’t mentioned that. Just time for another ice cream? I think so. Super-delicious ones from Marine Ices. Isabel chose chocolate and hazelnut. Victoria chose chocolate and raspberry sorbet. We both love chocolate ice cream.

Hang on, one of those is mine…

Hang on, I said….

We stood on Magdalene Bridge to eat them, watching traffic jams of punts in the river. In one boat there was a bride and her groom. Another punter went so close to the houses that he could reach in through one of the windows and pick up an orange ball lying on a table. He did put it back…

 

 

A couple of river selfies….

The punter of our boat was an American guy called Derek who said he’d only fallen in the river once. We hoped he might fall in again. So did the other girls on our boat…

 

Unfortunately, Derek was too good to fall in again. He did bash into a couple of other boats – but only when he wanted them to get out of the way. One of them complained. Derek shouted back, “Learn how to steer.”

 

It seemed as if no one was going to oblige by losing their footing and then – SPLASH – to everyone’s delight one of the men punting just a couple of boats away slipped and went right in.  We didn’t grab a picture though.

 

After the punting, the plan was to walk around the back, across Jesus Green and into Jesus College to have a quick look at the rooms Mummy and Victoria had when they lived next door to each other in the first year. What we didn’t know was that, on Midsummer Common, we’d find the bright lights, candyfloss smell and loud music of a….

Shall we go?

YES.

But just one ride, Isabel. Just ONE ride…

The question is, which one….?

 

I was scared Isabel might pick this one and expect me to go on it with her…

 

But luckily she was still too small….wasn’t she? Hmmm, I’m not sure…

Yes, definitely too small. Phew.

So what would it be? The carousel?

The dodgems?

Oh – she’s chosen….

 

When I said just one, I really MEANT just one. (I get travel sick, I was way more scared of this than Isabel.) But someone else had other ideas.

Yes, five minutes later, we were on another ride.

 

 

Isabel, after the Frog experience.

Come on, we’ve really got to go and get some dinner otherwise we’ll miss the last train home. But there were the giant water balls…

 

And a giant ice cream…

And hook a duck to win any prize…

 

We wanted to stay….but it was getting late…

So a couple of goodbye fairground selfies…

A quick march up Jesus Lane…

And just, but only just, time for a sausage pizza, “one of those lemonade thingies” and a glass of water for a Very Important Puppy (or was that Victoria, Isabel Perry?)

 

 

And then a rush to the station – and home, looking out of the carriage window at the midsummer sky and the beautiful, golden clouds.

 

What a brilliant day….

 

Lovely to see you last night Isabel. Here are a few pictures from my camera – you took quite a lot of them!

Task number 1:

Take a picture of Matthew Green and of Daddy looking naughty.

Task number 2:

Ask three people to take a photograph of you…

Task number 3:

Find the best shoes in the marquee.

Johnny and Isabel….

 

Night falls…

And there was dancing….

 

And at the end of the night, I found the owner of the winning shoes although it’s almost too dark to see her:

Hello Isabel and HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

This is a blog all for you, and only for you, so that I can share some of the things I see and hear that I think you might like. This first one is a volcano called Mount Etna in Sicily. See the cloud in the middle of the blue sky? That’s not a cloud. At least, it’s not a rain cloud, it’s a big, hot, dirty mess of ash and smoke and dust that have been thrown up into the sky. I took this photograph a couple of weeks ago when I was there. It only counts as a small eruption for a volcano so there was no danger but even standing all that distance away it was a very noisy business. Great big creaks and groans, like a cross between an “I’m huuuuuungry” stomach rumble and a noisy aeroplane.

It feels magical standing on the slopes of a volcano. You can see lots of black rock, or  lava. You probably know more about volcanoes than I do, but the lava bursts out of a volcano when it erupts, pouring out from the middle of the earth, at such high temperatures (anywhere from 700c – 1200c which when you think that boiling water in a kettle is only 100c is pretty steamy) that the rock is melted, or molten, and runs downhill in bubbling hot black and orange streams before solidifying as it cools.

Here’s some solid lava, from an old eruption, a bit closer up.

And here’s a tiny piece I brought home for you, that I’ll give you when I see you later.

And here’s a video of Mount Etna erupting a few weeks before I was there – painting the sky red with hot hot lava.

Mount Etna is incredibly beautiful. You can see scars and lines across the slopes where hot lava flows have cut through the flowers and trees and bushes, killing everything in its path, and nothing has grown back yet. Then lichen grows back first, and gradually other flowers and plants follow. On Etna there was a lot of yellow broom, wild orchids and tiny wild sweet peas. I pressed some of them in the pages of my notebook so you could have your own little slice of a real volcano.