Sunday lunch in the sun.....

     ......Spanish paella in the garden.....

       .....with the family and friends of one of Sally and Dave's neighbours....

A face only his mother could love.....

       ......Tommy the cat reclining in the morning sun.

What he lacks in beauty, he makes up with his gentle calm character.....and sheer impressive appetite!

     (Bit like Darsh really.)

Greetings from......

     .....France.

     The weather so far has been glorious by day, but cooler in the evening and we have had a couple of days seeing the local sights.

    We had a good flight over and Sal and Dave were waiting for us at the airport.  They certainly have a lot to do on the house, but it has a certain charm of it's own even though there is just so much to be done, but they are enjoying their life over here as they plod on with the building work. 

Getting ready .......

....for my holiday and sorting out the camera, found a few forgotten days,

Like the craft day before Easter, where we met Charlotte, Nev and Bex and spent the afternoon sat on the grass in the sun, eating sausage rolls and ice-creams.    

   
       ....A forgotten Easter chick sat in his basket

     .....Our Easter Sunday afternoon tea in the city centre, we went in to fetch Charlotte, not realising that all the shops would be shut, and it was cold and wet, so what else could we do?
     EAT....obviously.

       our picnic at the end of the day at the Malvern Flea Market.
      How much more proof does Darsh need to realise that he really does needs to get his hair cut?

    And finally this last Saturday in Birmingham on our way to meet CNB again. taking a short cut through the more scenic parts of Birmingham...NOT
.

    Charlotte has got a new coat, we won't loose her in the crowd if she is wearing it.  A very apt choice for this wet chilly day, especially as we were meeting them in the "Custard Factory".

     This is where Nev bought himself a lump of old railway sleeper....as you do....and it's still in my car boot 5 days later....!

A rainy rainy day.....

     .....simply the best Time for a bath on the garage roof!

32.....

     ......and spent it in Tibet.

       Happy birthday Selina. 

      We spoke to her on her day. 

      She was in the hotel garden, surrounded by a hoard of drivers who had never seen or heard of "FaceTime" before, and couldn't quite believe their eyes.  She had to move away from their waving hands and squeals of excitement.  Once she found a hidden corner she called again and we were able to chat, although more quietly to avoid attracting attention.

     They are due home in 2 weeks and back to work a couple of days later.  Pete will be working hard to find a new job and getting that garden back under control again.

      John is heading to Hong Kong, a donkey needs a carrot to lead him on, but with John an apple does the trick.  He has got the chance to attend the Apple conference...so Hong Kong it is then.  Sara is joining him for a few days and then they will be flying back together for a few days before flying off again to Spain for a lazy week in the sun.

      Darsh and I are going to France next Wednesday to stay with Sal and Dave for a long weekend, poor Joe is going to his dog-sitter, he will be fine when he gets there, but not happy when he sees the suitcase though.

       Charlotte will be the only one here, working hard as usual, I wonder if she will water my greenhouse for me?  Perhaps not then.

      We spent the bank holiday weekend quietly at home, very quietly because I hurt my back lifting up a very heavy.....pair of socks!!!!  The weather was good too, not that I could do any gardening.  We sorted through piles of Darsh's papers, so at least something was achieved.  And we went for a drive on Monday afternoon.  We ended up eating do-nuts at Polesworth market, buying a new hose-pipe.....woo wee.....and a bottle of my favourite perfume.

 

Found these in our sorting out....

       ......bought them for Selina's birthday many years ago, probably 20 years ago.  How many fights did they cause?  Sara wasn't allowed to touch them, cos she was well....Sara, and Charlotte couldn't be trusted to put the pen back in the correct position after she had used it.  Selina insisted that the pens were always kept in the same order as they were in when she got them...always.

       100 sticks of trouble they were then, now off to the bin. 

      Do you remember just how expensive felt tip pens use to be?  I remember  when I was at school one pen cost me more than a weeks pocket money.  You used to buy them individually then.  They never came packs and were treated like gold dust by us primary school kids.  No felt pen today is ever as precious as back then.  How I envied the child who had a pencil case full...and she was the daughter of the local art shop owner and allowed as many pens as she wanted.  Times change, but my felt pens were the equivalent to John and his Apples, and the Tibetian taxi-drivers with their admiration of FaceTime.  So I guess everything also stays the same if you see what I mean.

The happy knitter....

......guilty?

     .....not in the least!