Hey, Autumn leaves are here so thought you would like this colour. On Thursday A and I had a great day out with AE to Uppark, a National Trust place near Petersfield. We found lots of mushrooms or toadstools, and A picked up lots of beech nuts, chestnuts and a new one, hazel nuts. She has quite a nut vocab now and I am hoping she will be able to write 'Spotters Guides to nature' should she ever fall on hard times. Our NT days are numbered, got til the end of October, am hoping to fit in an Arboretum next weekend.

We have a new addition. It is big and blue and in the garden. Yep - you guessed it - every suburban home has one - the trampoline, compulsory childhood toy. It is a big purchase for us for a birthday present, but both grannies dug deep and contributed a third, so A is enjoying her present, and H is enjoying it even more. No casualties yet.

We had a mega swim week this week, A and I did the Quays on Wednesday, then swim lessons as usual on Friday (managed to stave off the whining at the bus stop on the way home with doughnuts) and then met some neighbours at the Quays on Saturday. Saturday was a girls day, as R had somehow fallen into one of those 'paintballing - its fun!' traps for a stag do and has spent today making odd noises, using up all the paracetamol in the house and looking ashen. I sometimes struggle with Saturdays but this one went ok, we did Haskins in the morning, where I collected my 'free plant for every reader' from the Daily Echo, which I had purchased on Thursday. Thursday was a warm day, and we went to the park to enjoy the summer. I read the Echo and the girls did crazy brave things from monkey bars. A has a great bruise on her cheek to prove it.

Some notable news about the local Coop. I walked down on Sat eve, leaving R limping around the house and the girls pretty much in bed (actually, they both slept in boxes that night, their choice). It was one of those dusk walks to the Coop which I adore, with the autumn smell going on and people out getting ready to do whatever they do in the evenings. Anyhow, the Coop has had a hard time lately, but with a security guard and a groups dispersal zone in place things are on the up. All the fridges are working, and - wait for it - they sell ORGANIC milk. Now, I assumed this was because L and J Crandon are now ' in the hood', and they had requested it - but no! Purely by chance, the Coop felt the very presence of the Crandons and put in an organic line. I am delighted, because milk is one of the things I think is worth going organic on, in fact I think most things probably are, but milk is something I am prepared to pay extra for as the girls drink a lot of it. So, how good is that??? So, please, buy some today from our Coop to encourage them to keep stocking it.

So - to summarise - do... buy the echo and organic milk, don't... go paintballing or fall off the monkey bars. My messages are simple, but will change the world. I count the Pope and Elvis among my readers, and they know how to influence popular opinion.