3 June already.

It rained all last night & again today until 4.30pm.
It was my "Thomas day", which involved a lot of playing, cuddling & sleeping. Thomas also ate heartily & pooed regularly.
The constant rain kept us indoors until tea-time, when we managed to walk to the park & around the rose garden, between showers.
There was a great deal of surface water, the flower beds were submerged, but we were rewarded by seeing lots of dogs, all taking advantage of the break in the rain.
Thomas, unlike Jessie , finds dogs very exciting. She finds them terrifying.
G dropped in on his way home from work & we collected a takeaway (the usual) on the way home.

I should be at the gym....

A brilliant weekend.
Thomas came to play on Friday, stayed overnight & went to Guildford with us on Saturday to S & M's wedding.
He was great fun, slept well, & was very well behaved throughout.
We arrived in good time to have a snack, give T his lunch, spruce up a little & walk to the church. I have learnt that babies are a hazard if wearing a large hat - T took a long look at mine & then determined that I had inadvertently put a toy on my head & that he would remove it when I wasn't looking!
The wedding was wonderful, Sarah's entourage was beautiful & the sun shone.

What more could you ask?

Jessie was an enchanting flower girl hitching her skirts & running around the gardens with Tim, B in pursuit.
Following a delicious meal, we gathered for an evening's socialising & entertainment - much of this supplied by Tim & Jessie break dancing.

Where did they learn that!
Hot bacon baps were served at mid-night - a brilliant idea.

On Sunday morning we took cousin Elizabeth to Gatwick & then went to Bournemouth to see J, G & Oscar.
We went to "The Pierpoint", just above Bosombe pier & had an excellent lunch,
Oscar was great fun, G was enormous & J relieved!

G managed to fit in a visit to his "outfitters" in Boscombe before we set off for home - another sleeping opportunity for me, I did manage the odd hour or two en route.
How did I ever manage to stay awake a whole day at work?

NB. Bridegroom's hairstyle must be able to hold confetti!

Home again.

I drove to Cambridge shire yesterday to see cousin JR.
A 2 hour journey, during which I experienced all kinds of weather from fog on the M6 to sunshine over Godmanchester.

We went out to lunch, then viewed photos on my laptop, chatted, & nodded off for the remainder of the day, in a warm lounge.
I "slept over", driving back at lunchtime today, in glorious sunshine.
I did the washing & a little gardening before going to the hairdressers at 4.00pm.
I had "foils" & a rather sleek cut. I am pleased with it, G is indifferent (no change there then), so all is well.

(This isn't me, but she does have foils)

I hope that I can get it right on Saturday for the wedding, but I shall be wearing a hat anyway.
When hats are removed you always have a "pudding bowl" anyway.
When is the accepted time to remove hats at weddings?
Is there a way to avoid "hat hair"?

I am watching "Question Time" - not too bad, although the Tory underling looks like Michelin Man - he would be better on the radio!

Does anyone know the whereabouts of my camera case (containing memory & spare batteries)?
Last seen in Cornwall, but not left there.

Fewer weeds now, top left.

Back to work (for some)

Yesterday, the weather was cool, very wet & windy.
G went into work as he was unable to do anything outside, walk or cycle.
Obviously, I wasn't sufficiently entertaining, so I went to the gym, bought some scrummy food at M&S & came home to look after G.
We slumped in front of the TV after dinner & watched "Life after people" - how the Earth would change over the next 1000 years if the people disappeared. They did disappear, no corpses or anything, just no people. Dogs & rats died of boredom with no-one to aggravate (moles as well, no doubt) & the plants took over.

This morning we were up early as G had meetings all over the North of England.
I planned to go to the gym early on, but started by sorting out my wedding outfit for the weekend, in case I needed to buy anything. This cost me 2 hours as I sorted out the wardrobes & took a pile of clothes & some strange objets d'a to the Hospice Shop in Knowle, en route to the gym.
Afterwards, I visited M&S for a cup of tea & cake (drink 1/2 price with cake, after 2.00am)
I did have a look in the dress departments in John Lewis & M&S, but saw nothing of interest.
Drove home, swept up the tree debris & prepared dinner - olives, welsh lamb chops with new potatoes, sugar snaps & redcurrant jelly, summer pudding with creme fraishe, then "The Apprentice"
Hurray, hurray,that self-deluding, egotistical, arrogant, conniving, two-faced little toe-rag, Michael, was fired.
Time for bed.

Grannny, Granny, Granny....

Both Friday & Saturday were "Granny days", hence no blogs as I fell asleep when I sat down after dinner.
Jessie & Thomas on Friday, to the park in the morning to check out the swings & the slides, then home to lunch.
Thomas & I can drive to Brueton Park, walk across the park to the town centre, have a cup of tea /bottle in John Lewis & do the return journey in the time Jessie is at nursery.
There is little time to spare &, to be honest, Thomas doesn't walk far, but he enjoys the scenery & I enjoy the walk.
Tim & KP on Saturday whilst B & E went to London to see the queen, so Tim told me.
I think that she may have been busy as they settled for "Joseph" instead!
We visited the local barracks in the morning, en route to the swimming pool, after lunch we walked to the local playground & then did a little light shopping to take on "Percy Pigs" in M&S.
Bathtime was fun; Tim soaked me over the shower cubicle, on purpose, I suspect. KP was taken short whilst on my knee, wrapped in a bath towel.
Both days were great fun; thank goodness I went to the gym on Thursday!
All of this activity necessitated my getting up at 6.00am this morning to complete my sermon (Love your enemies...) in time for Morning Prayer at 9.30 & 11.00.
The weather was cold, wet & windy so G went into work for the day, I had an unplanned nap after church then baked, ironed, sewed & prepared dinner. (British asparagus followed by coq au vin)

We watched a fascinating programme about Tibet this evening.

Shopping guide:
Aj recommends the Meal for two for £10 at M&S*, which includes two courses & a bottle of wine. Sounds good to me!
*Not available in Denmark.

Wet again tomorrow; not a gardening day.

De-moled.

We are a mole free zone.
We have a bill for £120, but we can now look out on G's well tended lawns without wincing at the disfiguring piles of soil.
We seem to have more birds in the garden than I have seen for years. Swallows & wrens are nesting in the stables, thrushes in the honeysuckle, blackbirds,sparrows robins & a variety of finches in unidentified corners of the garden.
The swallows do perch on the washing line on their approach to the stables & occasionally plop on the washing - only sheets & large items of course - this seems a small price to pay.
Swallows nested there every year until an extreme winter in the late eighties, I think, when the population was decimated.

I have had a quiet day - washing out (to entertain the swallows), floors washed then off to Coleshill to the cleaners, bank, chemists & hairdressers, to make an appointment for next week, prior to the wedding.
On to the gym for a good session & a swim then to Shirley to pick up Jessie from school.
She looked very cool in her yellow school dress, pink sun hat & pink, fur-trimmed thermal gloves. We read & coloured in teddy bears, deciding what each colour could hide in for an hour or so before coming home to prepare salmon for dinner...eventually.
G is mowing the field, first.

Home Alone.

Well, not anymore as G has arrived home from work & mown the lawns.
W, K, & J departed today. W went for a bike ride then put his bike back in its bag & loaded the car ready for the journey to East Midlands Airport.
J & I watched a bit of "cars"DVD whilst the packing up was done.
This involves us saying "Granny", "J", & then J being tickled.
It is fun, really.
W drove to the airport, a final treat, in a volvo, before returning to the Danish"van" & all went well.
I came home cross country & stopped in Ashby to have a tootle round & buy jam & lemon curd tarts at "Birds the Bakers".
We always stopped & bought a box of these fantastic tarts on journeys between Shustoke & York when I was a student/ married & living in York/ visiting AJ in York, before the M42/ A42 was built & Midlands to York journeys included Ashby, Breedon on the hill,Donington, then the M1.
The tarts are in a class of their own & well worth the detour.

I arrived home at 2.00pm, stripped the beds, turned the matresses, put loads of washing on & on the line, spoke to aj on the phone & fell asleep on the settee.
Thank you God for such a good drying day.
It is all now dry, ironed & away.

We have had pate, salad & drunk a nice bottle of red wine for supper, eventually.
We forgot to watch "The Apprentice" Shucks!
We did watch the follow up on BBC 2.
How could AS fire Ralph, an educated, articulate, charming, discreet young man & retain Michael, who is none of the above?

Happy.Birthday, Bent.

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