I'm still alive!

Well, quite a lot's happened since I last posted.

Helen, our younger daughter, got married to David on Friday November 12th. The marriage took place in a really lovely hotel over on the Wirral, the Brook Meadow hotel. The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly, I would wholeheartedly recommend the hotel to anyone looking for a wonderful place to get married.



It has quite an interesting history. It was built in 1860 by Major Bibby (of the Bibby Line, Liverpool). A private chapel was added in 1900, now used as a function room - we had the Wedding Breakfast in there. This was turned into a games room in 1903 by its new owner, and the house remained as a private residence until 1968 when the owner leased it to the Order of Franciscan Monks. In 1983 the house was sold and turned into a hotel, now owned by a local company - AE Reynolds PLC.

John and I were really amazed at our room, well I guess it's a bit insulting to call it a room, it was more of a suite! We had a sitting room with a comfortable sofa and easy chairs as well as a huge coffee table and a rather nice china ornament of a quail. The bedroom had windows looking out over the fields at the back of the hotel, and we spotted a squirrel (though sadly grey not a red) a couple of times. But it was the bathroom that really got me - the bath alone was about the size of our bathroom at home! A double sized bath with jacuzzi. I could get used to living like that! And even some of the rather strange paintings scattered around the room had a nautical theme, so John was happy.

There's a small picture of the chapel, where we ate both the Wedding Breakfast and Sunday breakfast (a rather hung over party!), on the Brook Meadow Hotel website. There are lovely gardens, and happily the sun shone for long enough on the big day for the wedding photos to be taken outside. But only after a few drinks of course!



And even John got dressed up, I don't think I've ever seen him looking so posh!



But it was Helen and David's day.



The meal was good, of course with a vegetarian option (our Helen has been a veggie since she was around 16) and the pudding was fantastic!



I think my Mum and Dad really enjoyed themselves though I feel the general hubbub was something of a problem for them. Here they are towards the end of the meal. Getting a bit tired by now I think.



Chrissie, who used to work with Helen at the Women's Hospital, gave the cake as a wedding gift.



Several of the party stayed overnight, the disco went on till after midnight. And so it was that the next morning David's car had been decorated.



John and I stayed over on Sunday night too, spent Sunday afternoon having a trundle along a nearby canal. But pictures of that are on the computer that died yesterday, and I haven't set up the external hard drive on this laptop yet.

On the gardening front my sweet peas are sprouting merrily, but the canary creeper only 2 seeds have germinated so far. The primroses are still flowering in the back yard, and the violets came into flower in the last week. The slugs have been seen already, but we have the nematodes to attack them with tomorrow. Several snails have taken flight over the wall into the alley behind. I still have rocket and schizanthus to sow, and the seeds that I harvested from last year's morning glories.



I'll try and update a bit more often - want to get back into the habit. And stil have lots of catching up to do!

Long time no see!

A lot of things have happened over the summer. Hopefully I can catch up at some time, but seems best to me just to jump straight back in.

Monday I gave the caravan living room a good clean, Dysoned the floor, tidied up all the papers and general odds and sods and put clothes away. Ended up so tired that I couldn't get outside with the tripod and camera to take photos of the (almost full) moon rising. Ah well, there will be other moonrises, hopefully.

Yesterday morning I re-arranged the computer and the table, so that the room is more of a living area and less of an office and general dumping ground. If I were in Liverpool I would have been at Chris's funeral. But I'm in Abersoch, so decided to at least join in spirit.

About 15 minutes before midday I lit four candles and some Barbados Dunes incense, and had a ciggie - Chris was a smoker, so I think he'd have liked that. I shut down the computer and switched everything off at the mains so that there was no distracting high pitched hum. Opened the door so I could hear the outside, the bird calls and wingbeats.

At midday I stood for 2 minutes in silence, and tried to send my thoughts and love to everyone at the funeral. Then I sat watching the birds feeding through the open door - great tit and sparrows. And the robin came down for some crumbs. After half an hour I broke silence with some music - Buena Vista Social Club. Somehow felt the right one to play of the four CDs I have here with me.

Around tea time I went round the back of the caravan to take the chain off the gas cylinders in case it should be raining when the gas man called. I stepped round the back of the shed to find that the last passion flower of the year had opened. Felt like a sign of hope to me. I watched the mist on the hills, then the summit of Snowden reared up, floating above the low hills on a billowing cloud layer.



Heavy rain drumming on the caravan roof overnight woke me several times. This morning began very still, damp underfoot, but a lovely dawn. I went out in the field in my nightie to take photos of it, despite the chill in the air it wasn't too uncomfortable as the wind was so light.



I'm the only resident in a field with 12 caravans, and there isn't anyone resident on the nearby site either... Mind you, it's a very fetching apple green vintage nightie with a print of bunches of red, pink and blue flowers, was tempted to wear it as a dress in the summer! So not ashamed to be seen in it.

I sat and watched the sea lighten to a milky white, with a single yacht motoring slowly across the bay. Behind Pwllheli the mist rolled down the valleys, the trees rising ghostly from the fields with the white fret around their feet. The cloud base finally rose enough that the summit of Snowdon showed, mist overspilling the valleys below, silhouetting the nearer hills.

Today is one of those days for just sitting and watching the changing cloudscape and the light on the sea. And (3.30pm) the rainbow and heavy squall drenching me when I leaped out the caravan to take photos!

Oops, life just got "interesting" again!

Well, we've had a busy few weeks since I last posted anything here. Work has started on fixing our roof, but then the rain came back, so nothing done for about 10 days. Summer re-arrived today though, so let's hope Herby makes it back next week!

We thought we might barbecue some lamb kebabs this evening, so spent most of the afternoon trying to buy a barbie. We went to B and Q first, but no luck - they seemed to mostly have gas barbies or really cheap and tinny ones. So we went on to our local garden centre, but they suggested the Woolton Garden Centre on Gateacre Road... No luck there either. So finally we thought we'd try Homebase at the Edge Lane Retail Park, and finally got lucky. No online picture, but it's a little cast iron pot-bellied barbie like the ones we have at Abersoch.

BUT...

We got home to find a large chunk of our kitchen ceiling has fallen down!




























John has now taken down the kinda loose stuff around the hole, and hopefully no more will fall down over the next few days. We've been in touch with our Insurance Company, and they will phone on Monday to arrange for an Assessor to come and see things - I took plenty of photos before John brought more of the ceiling down to make it safe. We're both too knackered to do a barbie tonight now - maybe tomorrow!

Friday Night

Sitting here in bed with the window open. Blackbird is singing, can hear even over the intermittent traffic noise.

Yesterday I set the morning glory seeds to soak overnight in luke-warm water. Today I planted them - some of the traditional blue, and some "Black Knight" are more a deep and glowing cerise.

John has gone off to see Flamingo 50 launch their new album, and a US band who's name sadly escapes me. I'm still looking at car websites! Hope can get to sit in some more cars tomorrow, Renault this time.

Yard hasn't changed that much - more flowers on the Mock Orange, and Mystery Flower finally revealed what it was. But here's a picture of the "flower bed" I took this afternoon.

Mystery flower opens!
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