Latest Weather Report

So Walter neglected to tell me about the Autumn weather in the 'littoral Neuchatel' area. From the beginning of October(ish) to the end of December(ish) there's a thick layer of fog all the time. Occasionally, it clears in the afternoon and everyone takes the day off and catches some sun! Actually, it hasn't been that bad, but we're looking forward to a snowy, crisp Christmas (hopefully). This was the view from the living room window yesterday morning. The fog had lifted a little...
This is a compilaton of panoramas of the front view. We look over the garden of the vicar, with the church to the left and construction of a church 'youth hall' to the right. No one ever uses the garden, which is shocking considering how few people have one. I should offer to look after it in return for letting the boys play there.

Bragging for the Grandparents

I've got a bunch of pics that I know the G'parents will want to see. The rest of you are free to do whatever you do on the internet :)

Allie has been getting into drawing, and all of a sudden he can draw things that are recognisable. Current medium: chalk on screechy board...
Allie drew a big A then a little A, then drew wee feet, then a circle around them and said he had a bag of A's!
He then drew a sad face on one and a happy face on the other
Toby draws too, and really enjoys it, but by the end he's smeared chalk everywhere and eaten the contents of the chalk box. I haven't got photoing on my mind... so here's one of him during a quiet moment:
Tobe's favourite way to read. Check out where he's plonked his bottom..

So when we're not drawing, we're at the park swingin' :



I should inclue this last one of Tobe the Daredevil. Not only does he have a nice scar on his forehead from his visit to 'Uncle Gummy", but now he has another right beside it. This one didn't need stitches, but we had to visit the insurance guy to go over health insurance paperwork about half an hour after he did it. Lucky for us he has 4 children of his own.
Toby hamming up his scars

Our First Houseguests

On Tuesday of this week, Walter's cousins Grace and Ruth came to visit by way of TGV from Paris. Allie and I went to meet them after his first day of 'school'. It was a very exciting day for Allie. I took him on the bus early in the morning and met the head teacher (who was very nice and spoke some English)who sent me on my way, saying she would spend her time with Allie and help him settle in, and call me if he was unhappy.

Allie goes to School!

I picked him up a couple of hours later after spending the whole time checking to make sure my phone was on! He apparently sang, read books, ran around outside and made a best friend (who's name he can't remember). He went again yesterday and stayed through lunch. He cried a bit when he found out he had to stay for lunch... Anyhoo, when I picked him up on Tuesday we went up to the station, had a nice sandwich and watched the trains (he had ice cream as a first day treat too). When Ruth and Grace came in he got very excited about seeing the TGV (and it is indeed cool to see: http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/fr/electric/emu/TGV/Sud-Est_mod-Lyria/Switzerland-misc/pix.html and ofcourse them! On Weds. we took them into Neuchatel and had lunch (which was really cheap by Swiss standards and delicious) at a crepe shop. I ordered a ham, cheese and "erable" combination crepe because Walter ordered it on one of his trips. He had no idea what erable was but thought it might be some vegetable, some kind of mushroom maybe.... When he ordered it, the waitress looked at him rather questioningly and made sure that that was the order. So what's erable? It's Maple Syrup!!! Let me tell you, it's delish... I love it. After Walter's initial surprise, he liked it too. Who thought of it? It's common in crepe shops here, and it's not native.... We've showed them the local parks and now they're visiting a friend in Liestal for a few days. The boys have had a great time with them and have been showing off and flirting like flirty things :)

Commando Allie trys it for the first time


Cousins

Toothpaste tubes of food.

I'm getting into a routine of shopping now, so instead of blindly plowing on to find the bread etc. I can take my time and 'smell the daisies'. I've noticed a section with nothing but large 'toothpaste tubes'. On closer inspection they contain all kinds of things: various meats, fish pastes, mayonnaise, tomato paste and other stuff I haven't had a chance to look at. I kept noticing tubes with pictures of eggs on the front. I thought "well, how inventive of the Swiss- having their eggs in tubes!". Those are the mayonnaises..... I've bought mayo. and tomato paste so far, and one day will try meats and fish...... I hope it's not "fish-flavoured-food-product" type stuff.

Back by popular demand....

Here's another pic of the boys that I found. A and T at one of the fountains that dot the landscape here. In the summmer, people have been known to have a dunk too.

Quick Wee Boy Pics

It's picture catch up time. Tobe's napping and Allie is engrossed in making elaborate arrangements of peppercorns (weird boy).

Gorge De l'Areuse

Sunday, our neighbour Matthew took us and his kids to Gorge De L'Areuse in the Val de Travers. It's a stunning, deep gorge in the middle of forest. There's a river with deep pools in places (can be dived into) and caves along the way. The walk can be quite nerve racking- thin trails, mud and bits of the edge falling away. Apparently, a few weeks ago a boy died while he was fooling around with his sibling! Well, anyway it was a lovely walk and the boys were troopers. They plodded along chatting and playing, although Toby doesn't like to hold hands or have anyone holding onto him... that's even more nerve racking. Here's a photie of one of the pools taken with my new, incredibly portable camera :)

Honey, I'm home!

WooHoo! We have internet... well nearly. Walter's trying to get my computer to work with the router and I'm on his. No photies till it works (there are a tonne to post). So here we are, 3 weeks in our new digs. The boxes are nearly all emptied. We have to buy a few armoires, since apparently the Swiss 'don't do closets'. We also discovered the Swiss don't do used furniture either, so there are very few second hand stores here. We went to the one in Neuchatel today along with all the other foreigners and didn't find much at all. We've heard the decheterie (dump) has good pickin's since all used furniture gets tossed. This is a country that has one of the best recycling records too....
We're living in a really nice apartment in the center of Saint-Blaise (4 km de Neuchatel) right next to the 'bongiest' church in the world. It bing-bongs once on the quater hour, twice on the half, thrice on the three quaters and fours on the hour. Then it bongs the number of the hour. At 12pm it bongs for 5 mins (telling everyone it's lunchtime?) and at 10pm it bongs for 5 mins (I was told this goes back a long time and has something to do with curfew). On Saturday at 6 pm it bingbongs for 15 mins and Sunday at 10 am it bingbongs for 15 mins (calling the faithful). It bothered the boys a bit at first, but we're all pretty immune now. It's actually quite handy. I find myself in bed at 10 exactly a lot, and Walter (mr-California-no-watch) knows what time it is :) Allie has also become very interested in telling the time too. Speaking of him, he learned to 'read' the word 'go' today! He was looking at Walter's computer and and asked him 'What's that go button, Daddy?'. It was a window with a wee red button with GO written on it. Walter typed GO later and Allie said what it was. He also knows it in lower case...
Anyhoo, He's also staying in bed longer in the morning because he's in a separate room to Tobe and he has a digital clock. We told him he couldn't come down till it said '6' something. He comes down at 6:01!
Our house is on the side of the building, so it's thin and tall. We don't have anyone above or below and the 300 year old walls keep out the noises beside us. There's a young couple one one floor next to us (we don't see much of them) and a French/Irish family on the other 2 floors. We've gotten quite friendly with the family- they're really really nice and have been showing us around. Tomorow we're going to the Gorge de L'Aruse with them :) The kids (8,10 and 12) are very patient with the boys and their parents are very patient with our French.
There's a 'Coop' store 3 mins walk away (Coop and Migros are the 2 competing grocery chains) and the big shopping center in Marin is 5 mins on the bus (the stop is 2 mins from us). We can walk to the 'lake park' which is in a lovely beachy area next to the harbour, or the 'train park' which is up a very steep hill, next to the stream... and the train track. That brings me to the park equipment. Those of you with young children (in the US at least) will know what kind of stuff you can and can't get. Old fashioned seesaws, roundabouts etc aren't around any more due to their 'dangerous' nature. Weeell, when I saw my first park here, my jaw dropped ;) I've seen seesaws and roundabouts, and at the parks in Saint-Blaise there are 'commando cable slides' for kids! Allie's slowly getting up the gumption to go whole hog on one. I'll post a pic when I can. The climbing frames are also huge and complicated beasts. I spend a lot of time trying to get Toby not to launch himself off them.
So are we assimilating? Well, we just consumed a tasty bar of chocolate tonight (orange/noir), and I have eaten chocolate EVERY night since we moved. I also know some of the vendors at the farmer's market now- it gets me free parsley :)

Offline for a bit

Emma wanted me to post a note -- she's offline till we get the internet to our apartment. She should be back up October 11th or 12th.