Holidays, holidays, holidays...

Really, really, really must get on and book a summer holiday. Since, this has to be in the school holidays, I'm pushing my luck by not booking anything yet. Where's the year going, by the way? Can't be nearly June, surely?? I've posted a picture from last year - Bay of Roses in Northern Spain - as a reminder to GET IT SORTED.

Another Castle...

Bank Holiday Monday was a bit dull and wet in the morning, but the afternoon was better, so we visitied another castle. This time, Portchester Castle, just west of Portsmouth. It's one of the kids' favourite places and is a pretty good castle. The outer walls are Roman - it was built as a shore fort to protect against the Saxons - and there's a later keep with great views. Surprising number of people around, but I suppose it was a Bank Holiday...

Zoom Picture...

I'd like to get some better pictures of myself here. Unfortunately, I don't have any!! (It's not my usual practice to go around taking pictures of myself...) Playing with a photo editor, managed to crop from one of the pictures from below, at higher resolution, so will have to do for the moment. I think a click on this piccie will give a decent resolution.

Actually, I've just clicked on it, and it's alarmingly high resolution! Please be prepared!

Two Years...

Today is exactly two years since Jen died. In some ways it seems like an eternity and in other ways it seems no time at all. I'm never sure how key dates like today will be (also Christmas, birthdays, wedding anniversary). Today has been OK - a normal sort of day; its been fairly busy because the kids have stuff on after school, but that's fine I think. At other times, raw emotion can just hit you out of the blue, with sometimes the smallest things bringing memories flooding back.

I decided to see if I could convert my powerpoint of Jen's life (which I made for her thanksgiving service) into a video format and have posted it to the blog. This was a brief history of her life in pictures, so it will only mean something to people who knew her. I've tried to reduce the picture quality to make the file size manageable.

Struggling with photos!

I wanted to post another photo with the last blog, but I seem to be having problems with getting the photo layout as I want it. This was just a random photo taken near Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower peninsula. Photo was taken in August 2006, so it's a bit old!

Favourite Places Nearby

Thought I'd catch up with a few places we've visited recently and see if I could add some photos. Three weeks ago we spent the day at Hurst Castle in west Hampshire. Great Castle - strange mixture of a Norman keep with lots of later (especially 19th Century) additions. Kids love it because it's a bit of a maze. Only drawback is it's not very accessible - it's on a shingle spit sticking out into the Solent (great views of the sea out to the Needles). Either a 1.5 mile walk along the spit (which we walked on the way out) or a 15 minute trip on a small ferry boat (which we did on the way back!) The first picture shows my two children at the start of the walk along the spit (they were somewhat less enthusiastic about the walk 30 minutes later...) The second picture show the view from inside the castle. Stupidly I didn't take any pictures of the castle from the outside! Since we're English Heritage members, it's free admittance for us. It was a good day - I hadn't been there for over 20 years! And it has a cafe with OK coffee, which is always a bonus...

Another favourite place is Swanage in Dorset, which is about an hour's drive away. It's got a lovely old-fashioned, unspoilt feel and a nice, sandy beach. There's also Durlston Country park on the south of town which is another good place for walks with kids. Lovely (safe) paths along the cliff, a dolphin observation hut (never seen one in many visits. Dolphins, that is. Clearly I've seen the hut many times...), a lighthouse, and of course a cafe with "OK" coffee (as you may gather I'm a bit fussy about coffee). The third picture shows us at Durlston. It was a cold day, which is why I'm wearing a slightly silly hat. Not sure exactly why Anna is proudly holding a cheap plastic frog with an extendable tongue.

Another week

Funny how time seems to pass much quicker the older you get. When you're a kid, each year seems to last for ages and ages, summer holidays seem really long, school terms seem to drag on, etc. I'm only commenting on this 'cos I can't believe another week has passed by. Where did it go? I don't seem to have done anything particularly useful (or exciting) and yet here I am on Friday evening again. Sorry - very uninteresting post...