Mikey D

Our walk on Saturday.

We met this beautiful cockerel shaking his tail feathers.

Golden Wedding - a celebration of 50 years!

This is the lovely hotel where we celebrated M&A's Golden Wedding.

We arrived on a glorious day, the blossom was gorgeous. We enjoyed melon, carvery and trimmings and fresh fruit or apple pie ( a generous portion!) and coffee and mints - and cake too!

It was a lovely afternoon. We won the (very obscure) quiz too!

Then Mike and I walked from Wappenbury to Eathorpe - what pretty villages. I think we walked 3 miles, probably only enough to walk off a roast potato! A perfect Saturday.

The Orange Tree

I had a surprise lunch with A at The Orange Tree at Chadwick End.

It was a sunny day and we spent 3 hours eating pasta with blue cheese for me and tiger prawns for A. Then coffee and more chat...

Afterwards it was time to go home and make dinner!

Lovely Bellis daisies - I love their little pom-pom heads.

Lemony-lemon Curd

Made this curd for Easter for both sets of parents and for us too...

4 lemons - grate the rind & squeeze the juice ( I got really big juicy lemons from the market)
4 eggs
4oz butter, warmed slightly
1lb sugar

Put sugar, rind, juice, butter and beaten eggs in a basin on top of simmering water.
Stir, stir and keep stirring til thick. This took much longer than I anticipated.
Pour into warm sterile jars. Label & refrigerate. Serve on toast or with fresh scones and cream.

Here's the clock at Carnforth Station....still have to rent the movie (Brief Encounter) from Lovefilm..and watch it again.

My show there was not successful as the organiser had double-booked which was shocking as there were only about 12 stalls! Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. Apart from that we had a fab weekend.
Walked on the beach at West Kirby, walked around Port Sunlight - now that IS a cute place! Lord Lever (Sunlight soap etc) had 41 architects to design the houses for his workers. There is also a fabulous gallery there that he had built as a memorial to his wife.

Robins

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree
Up went Pussy cat and down went he
Down came Pussy and away Robin ran
Says little Robin Redbreast "Catch me if you can!"
Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall
Pussy cat jumped after him and almost had a fall
Little Robin chirped and sang and what did Pussy say?
Pussy cat said "Meeow" and Robin jumped away.

We have a robin nesting in our bush - it's very exciting. I'm hoping the cat from along the road does not find it...

Cats

In case there is any confusion, there are 3 different cats shown here. The first is in Kenilworth, the next 2 are in Glasgow and none of them are officially mine!

Man of Action!

Sunny!

Well, the rest of the week has been glorious - like summer. I bumped into Lynn with her 2 daughters so that was really nice, I lay out on the lawn reading and snoozing and having a drink - perfect for April 5th. Bought a sheet and pillows at the charity shop (and of course a stack of books) We went to N&Bs for a yummy dinner last night - chicken with roast potatoes, garlic, bacon and veg. Still thinking about it today...
Today has been busy - all go - since before 7am despite it being Good Friday. Mike was up early to go to work so I just started my work too. Lots of cleaning, de-cluttering, packing away plus I baked a cake to take to A&E's tomorrow, spoke to my lovely mum amd my lovely mum-in-law and this afternoon I met Mike and I went to buy my Navman - hopefully that will make my working life much easier.
We both did some work in the garden and then we had salmon with veg casserole. Looking forward to our weekend away very much and also my fair on Monday at Carnforth Station where Brief Encounter was filmed - can't wait to see it and then of course I will have to watch the movie again.

Wednesday

Half way through the week and it's not so sunny. My mum and dad are at my cousin's holiday house in Rothesay (Scotland) and they have been sitting on the beach soaking up the sun and eating breakfast on the patio!! They certainly have the best of the weather, I feel I am in the wrong country right now.
Anyway, last night we went to see a fabulous play. It was called "I, Witness" and it was about Easter week, the events leading up to Jesus' death. It was much more lively than I expected - there was a Cilla-like chat show host taking comments on what had happened, a late night politics programme and lots of market-place banter. Our friend Dave was in it and was great as Barrabus, who may have been the first convert after Jesus' death. It had just the right mix of crowdpleaser lines and seriously moving parts. Perhaps it will have to tour...I'd certainly love to see it again.

Took a little time...

Had a lovely few days in sunny Scotland. Saw various people - lunch with Abi, Auntie Rosie came over, coffee and caramel shortcake with Karen, far too much food at Primo with Jo and Linda and a very late night!, and my fave place to eat in the west end - Stazione with Helen.
Also visited the Country Living Fair in Glasgow with my mum (my dad treated us to the tickets!) We had a really nice day out...met some bloggers, bought dahlia bulbs, cupcakes books, was given felted soap (truly gorgeous!) topped up on Thorncroft cordials as I had run out and they are wonderful - pink ginger, my fave and this time trying out cranberry & hibiscus too. Mum chose elderflower.
On the Saturday I did a school fair which was very well organised particularly for the kids then I drove home. On Sunday we had Mike's aunt, uncle and cousin over which was lovely as I didn't know them and we had a great time with them - good conversations.
All last week I have had a stall in a nursery and although it was fun and very nice I was totally shattered! Lots of early nights last week and a lot of pottering and long baths at the weekend.