Travelog for: Edelweiss

Leading on from the last update...

Every year the carnival has a scarecrow competition where anyone in the village can make a scarecrow to display in their garden. This year's theme was the 70's! So we went to have a nosy The Starsky and Hutch one was funny, with the rabbit hutch, but my favourite had to be FlOWER POWER! of course

Hi mom it's me! My host says sorry it's been a while. I will update you on the goings on:

The first photo was taken on the 14th of July when my host was getting ready for the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter. She was very thoughtful and made us hats for the occasion!  Even though they only seem to wear hats in the first film... ah well. Sadly there was nothing exciting in the cinema for us to take more photos of - noone dressed up!

Then today was Pinky's leaving day. We made sure she was comfy for her travels, then it was just Buzz and I left. My host says there are a few more toys on their way though so that will be exciting!

Oh oh, there was post, FOR ME?! Well not for me, but I was mentioned :P It was the birthday card you sent to Miss Becca! She really liked the flowers and the stamps and is very grateful. I wanted to show Buzz but he was snoring away!  He refused to wake up so I decided to have a rest too. He really liked the card when he finally was awake

The next picture is of the shelf where us TVs sleep. There is a baby clown and Pinnochio! Buzz wanted to meet the toys on the shelves above so I followed and a kind mouse let me pretend to be on the beach under his Umbrella 

I also found a cabinet with pretty things in, and I was almost small enough to blend in!

(Pictures to follow)

Today we managed to visit a city and a town all in one day! Our host had an appointment in Manchester so we went there in the car, then Edel and I wanted to get the train to her home town centre afterwards. It was lovely and sunny so we couldn't see why not

We took so many pictures I won't describe every one, but the first one is us in the car. In the background you can vaguely see a white sculpture called the 'encounter' on the roundabout next to the motorway. Maybe we can get a better view another time! When we got out in Manchester we spotted some window cleaners abseiling with their buckets on the big buildings. Then we found a mini water-fall further down the canal from last time we went - and the pretty graffiti!

When we got to Warrington we visited the town hall with the golden gates, another park, then went into the centre where all the shops are. There was Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter's tea party! And then we heard chanting and wandered over the the rugby the stadium where there was a match on. My host doesn't like rugby but usually when you mention to someone you live in Warrington they only know it because of the Warrington Wolves team. The pubs nearby were so busy with people spilling out you could hardly see the doors!

The last pic is out of order as it was taken near the golden gates. It is Buzz and I in the sun watching the world go by

Today we were surprised because our host got up at 6am for once! And said that we could go on a morning stroll We visited the horses. It is nice that there are stables here so you see horses walking around the neighbourhood with their owners, but behind their fields is the motorway which you may be able to see on one of the pictures. The constant noise of cars and lorries ruins the atmosphere a bit! A white horsey came to say hello We didn't get too near though in case he wanted to eat us! When we got back the room looked pretty because my host's glitter ball was reflecting the sun, so we took a picture of that too. 

We're back (on sunday night we travelled down to stay with my host's friends in Gloucester). I am going to split these updates into sections. This section shows us on monday morning, learning how to quill; a skill which my host's friend taught us

We cut some strips of coloured paper. I went first and chose the purple Then we used a cuticle stick which had a slit cut into the top to keep the paper strip on, and twisted the paper into a spiral. We put the spiral down, then glued the end of the paper so that we could pinch the sides of the circle to make a leaf shape. Finally we glued all of these onto the card and stuck pipe cleaners on to make the trunk of the tree. At the end of our stay we gave the card to our host's friends as a thankyou for looking after us

On monday afternoon we went for a stroll to the local park. We had to go through a church graveyard to get to it, which was nice and calm. Then we entered the park and for some reason it looked a bit like Autumn, with the leaves falling already! Some of the trees must be confused. There was a building hidden behind the trees which looked pretty. Then we found a mini nature reserve to investigate. There didn't seem to be much wildlife about but on the way back to the flat we saw some black and white cat twins sat on bins. They looked rather amusing

The third of our mini break updates:

This morning we visited the town centre of Cheltenham. Buzz and I were posing on the wall for our picture (well I was having a nap), then noticed that behind us was a a cute group of fluffy ducklings! We zoomed in the camera to get a closer look

We went to a park for our lunch, then did some climbing and sunbathing  The sun was so bright that the climbing picture isn't clear as we were a bit washed out by the light! :/ I then tried to camouflage myself amongst some flowers... can you see me mum?! The fountain looked cooling, but we didn't really want to jump in as it was rather green.

On our way back along the high street to the buses we saw a nice building that was the bank. I will update again soon to show where we got the bus to next

The final instalment of our mini break...

In my last update we were just about to get the bus from Cheltenham to Gloucester city centre. Here I am on the bus When we arrived we were glad we'd made the journey. The cathedral is so beautiful and calming. We were even allowed to take some pictures inside and it wasn't really dark like some cathedrals. We were messing about around the walls when a man went past saying 'what a good idea to take your teddies with you on a day out!' He didn't stop long enough for us to explain that we weren't any old teddies - we were teddies travelling the world! :P Ah well.


We managed to get some pictures in the centre grassed bit of the cathedral, just before the camera's battery died and signalled it was time to travel back to our host's home! We had lots of fun mum


Added trivia found online (As you may remember from the visit to Durham Cathedral my host likes visiting places where bits of the Harry Potter movies were filmed ):

On our walk back from the library where my host had been studying, we went along a bridge. There wasn't much else to see on the walk apart from the Free-range chicken farm near to my host's house. I don't think we were meant to be on the land so we zoomed in a bit.

The next photo is us inspecting the sequin glitter glue Michel was using to make his mum's birthday banner - we helped too!

My host travelled again to Durham for a meeting about her education, so us toys went along too. We had fun taking pictures from the back of the car We're not sure what the landscape was that we passed, on the map it looks like we skimmed the top of the Yorkshire Dales.

We had a break to stretch our legs and met some sheep They wanted to talk to us I think but our host was wary about our safety.

When we reached our destination we didn't have much time to investigate as the journey is a long way to go there and back in a day. But we just about had time to walk along the river a bit and saw the cathedral in the distance. Since I had seen it before I described to the others what it looked like close up

(Sorry the pictures are a bit out of order towards the end!)

Hi Mum!

Today my host took us to a nearby city called Liverpool. We visited her favourite shop which is known as 'Quiggins'; it is full of gothic/retro/vintage/alternative clothing and objects. Sorry the indoor pictures are blurry; it is rather dimly lit and we suspected a flash may not be allowed!

The next pictures are of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, just up the hill from Quiggins. We waited for a group of tourists to move so we could get a group shot undisturbed From the other side of the cathedral we zoomed and could just about view the top the Liver Building, which has two liver bird statues on top. This building is situated next to the Docks and River Mersey. We will hopefully go to see that side of Liverpool another day.

Hi mum!

My host is dying of stress right now, so these updates may not be as organised, but we should be able to still post pictures despite perhaps getting the dates wrong!

Here are some photos of Bine showing me and the new TV Pinky Bear, the trip that I missed. I was asleep on another shelf with my cedar in the plastic bag, hiding from a moth which we spied whizzing around. Then the next day my host picked up the other TVs in a rush, and forgot me! :O It was okay though, I had a nice rest and it was good to hear the tales from the others when they returned

I showed them my cousin Wavy Gravy

P.s. If you're wondering who the Monkey and bear are; they arrived from the charity shop and hope to become TVs at some point

These photos were taken in two different places.

The first are from a business park in Cheadle, Manchester. Unlike most business parks it had water in the middle that attracts wildlife, which makes it pretty I had a relaxation beside the setting sun.

The last two pictures were taken at Winwick Church, which is in the next village along from where my host lives. We didn't have much time as my host had things to do, but we managed to grab a few pictures each

A few weeks ago we all got packed into a bag ready to travel to my host's term-time home in Durham, North-east England. It was very exciting!

We stopped off at a service station for a break. Unlike the rather dull motorway stations this was a friendly country one with farm animals. Just as we were leaving we looked across at the cows and then stared Buzz said 'is that a deformed cow?!' Pinky Bear exclaimed 'That cows got humps!' and then BineHH shouted 'That cow's a CAMEL!' :O Ahahaha. So funny. It was extremely windy so much so that my host had to try several times to get the camera still, but we were determined to get the random field camel on camera My host had never seen a Camel in a field before. In England we usually only see Camels in zoos!

I don't think Mr Camel was aware that he was not a cow... :P He was on the other side of the field though so I have added a really zoomed in pictures for you to see

So, on the 3rd of October (quite in the past now!), we arrived in the university Halls of residence. On another day there was a double rainbow! We rushed over to climb onto the windowsill, but sadly it was fading quickly I don't know if you can see the remains of one of them just above the roof on the opposite building?

The other pics are of our new Toyvoyager accomodation :P The shelf is very much like the one back at my host's home, only this one is more spacious so we can all fit on