I can't remember what these plants are - their name has long since dropped from my brain, but as a child I thought they were great because it is so obvious that there are seeds inside the pods!

This morning felt rather like Christmas Eve. We had to lay all the gifts (unwrapped) on the bed and the floor with the door locked and work out what we have missing. One list later, L and I are in the shopping village and manage to buy all the pressies to be sent to France. Yes I know they won't reach there before Xmas, but things seem to work differently over there - we get presents delivered mid-January from France with a little note saying happy new year, so a few days late for their xmas won't be noticed.

Later, we had the wonderful news that some good friends of ours have had their sixth child! They, like us have them dotted over a wide age range and for a while, we were in a fairly exclusive club of parents of five children, but they've moved onto a higher level - one where we are very very unlikely to follow:)