Easter Holidays with the granddaughters

Tuesday Abigail and Eleanor arrived for a four day stay. I always love it when they come to stay but feel so exhausted by the time they leave!
They like to plan their stay, so the first thing was to use the calender boards they made and add as many activities as they can into each day.

Donning aprons I had brought them back from Spain they prepared the dinner [ with a little help]
A gammon joint was put into the oven by Abigail, while Eleanor prepared the jacket potatoes.

Jacket potatoes filled with cheesy mash, gammon and vegetables made for a yummy dinner.

A visit to Abingdon Park, which was so crowded it was hard to get near any of the swings etc,
but they had fun with Granddad on this twirly thing!

Eleanor taking a dive!

Eleanor making two bunny bags on the Singer Featherweight.

Abigail making a quilt block on the Brother sewing machine.

Well done Abigail on this great block.
Made by sewing four sets of  two charm squares together 1/4" around all sides,
then cutting on the two diagonals.
Re-arrange the new pieces to make this design.

Filled with  Easter chocolates, Eleanor did a wonderful job making these bags.

Eleanor playing with stickers and cards, while Abigail works on her crochet.

Abigail's first piece of crochet, she has managed chains, double stitch and treble stitch,
including Granny stitch [ well I think that's what it is called.]

Off to the gym for Rhythmic Gymnastic lesson.

Abigail at the Royal Albert Hall

After lunch we set off to collect Richard, Jacqueline and Eleanor and were on our way to the Royal Albert Hall. As I have a blue badge disabled ticket we were lucky enough to get one of the only ten free parking spaces right outside the door of the RAH.  We found a bar to have a sandwich and soft drink before taking our seats in the Choir circle, the only seats Jacq could get. As the performances were in the round we were fine but had a limited view of the arena.

Albert watching over the Royal Albert Hall

Arriving at the Hall

24 dance schools took part with over one thousand children, and Abigail's dance school were to be the last to perform.

Sitting in the Choir stalls

At the interval we stretched our legs and I asked a nice friendly usherette if there was any chance we could move as we had limited vision, a couple of minutes later she tapped me on the shoulder and we all followed her to an empty box she had found us with brilliant views of the whole arena.

A move to a private box with a great view

The whole show was wonderfully organised and of course Abigail was THE star, and her group performed to a very high standard.

The finale

Even amongst 1000 children we found Abigail [ see the arrow!]

The Royal Albert Hall

Today is such a special day, Abigail our eldest granddaughter age 11 years, is performing with her ballet school at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

She had to leave early this morning, so I 'borrowed' her Mum's photo from facebook to show you her getting ready to leave.

We will be leaving this afternoon to see her performance tonight.

Abigail getting ready to catch the coach to London

Home a week

I cannot believe we have been home a week and I have not found the time or energy to write on my blog!  We have however been very busy in the garden, widening the drive with a triangle of slate pieces, building a wooden wall to hold the earth at the front of the house in a better position, clearing out one compost heap and closing down the other one, plus a myriad of gardening jobs.
On top of all this the gales earlier in the week blew the side fence down, luckily we have found someone to come and replace it on Monday.
I'll take you on a tour around the things we have done [ maybe not the compost heap !!] when the weather improves and I can get out there with my camera.

Yesterday was our monthly IAM meeting, and as Shirley was off celebrating her Golden wedding, Pauline joined us for the day. The day went so quickly with all the chatter and cake eating, plus quite a bit of crochet, quilting, knitting, tapestry and lacemaking was achieved.
Here are just a few of the items that appeared for the ever popular "Show and Tell".

Dorn's Linus quilt

Penny's Easter bags

Jenny's cuddly hooded waistcoat

Pauline's table runner

Clare's blue bag

Clare's machine embroidered poppy cushion

Ann's baby crochet blanket

Some of my granny squares [only about another 70 to go !]

Splish Splash in the Land Rover !

This is our last full day on holiday in Norfolk. It has rained all night and although still raining we decide to travel the Byways and BOATs following a route in a magazine.

We start near Holt and soon find ourselves going through the first of many Fords, some a lot deeper than others, some quite scary and all give the car a good soaking. I manage to get out at some of them to take photos.

The journey takes us past Walsingham, so we stop and walk through the grounds to the Chapel. It is very peaceful. The Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham was established in 1061, when according to tradition Richeldis de Faverches prayed that she might undertake some special work in honour of Our Lady.

She built a replica of the house where , in Nazareth, the Annunciation took place. Over the years it has become a favourite place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics. Today over 250000 pilgrims and tourists visit the site annually.
The final leg of our journey takes us through yet another Ford, this one quite deep and wide, at the side of a mill where the water rushes in. I'm really glad Chris does not break down in the middle I would not have liked to get out and paddle! The sun has now come out as we make our way back to Heacham.

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43 years

25th March 1972, what a happy day.

Chris and I celebrated our 43rd Anniversary by shopping in Kings Lynn and then having lunch at the Brewers Fayre in West Lynn. Just a nice relaxed day.

 

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The Bumpy ride

Tesco car park was the chosen meeting place yesterday morning with Martin, a member of the Green Lane Association. Chris had corresponded with him through the group and he had offered to take us "off roading" in his part of Norfolk.

Most of the route was through The Brecks and boy was it bumpy. The soil is so sandy that is wears away into a roller coaster of a lane. A few deer scamper away from us deep into the woods. A sign saying we are entering into Suffolk means we are now far from home, but the forest gives way to some pretty countryside, the bumps continue!

A quick stop for our packed lunch and we are off again down very narrow lanes that scratch both sides and the roof of the car, not that you'd see any difference to the already scratched paintwork.

At one point we have to find a diversion as someone has Fly Tipped a load of household rubbish right across the lane, Martin says he will report it to the Forestry commission. Sadly this is not an unusual sight and with the high cost of dumping stuff legally it seems to happen more and more.

We say goodbye to Martin and make the hour long drive back to Heacham. It has been a good day and interesting talking to Martin about his adventures. Chris offered to fetch local fish and chips for dinner, needless to say I do not argue and we eat them watching TV trying not to fall asleep.

 

 

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Crochet progress

Monday was a laid back day, we went for a little drive around the countryside and then relaxed watching Top Gun on TV. I did more blocks for my crochet project, so here's my latest photo taken on the spare bed. It seems to have come out a funny colour as the bed cover is white, the wool silver with cream and lavender flowers!

Thought you might like to see the view from the cottage, the swimming pool on the right belongs to the house next door, then the golf course and finally the houses along the sea front, and the sea. The sunsets have been spectacular but so hard to capture with my little camera.

 

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A Laning Adventure

Packed lunches made and the sun is out (even though it is not very warm) we took off on a Green lane adventure in the Land Rover.

The start of our journey was Holme next the Sea, and armed with 71 Tulip map references we headed for the countryside. Many of the tracks and lanes took us through amazing scenery and a few suprises.

The peace and quiet along these off road routes are so enjoyable. Dog walkers, horse riders and bird watchers all say hello as we pass them, being very respectful of their enjoyment.

Unlike many of the routes we drive nearer home there was not a single gate to leap out and unfasten. The wildlife consisted of hundreds of pheasants and an awful lot of hares. In fact I have never seen so many hares, including watching a pair "boxing".

Along one single track road we came across Bircham Windmill, sadly it was not open or I would have been tempted to buy bread flour to take home. Further along we passed the ruins of the 12th Century Church of St Mary, which was excavated in 1998 by the Time Team people. Also along the route we saw towers made of four pillars of bricks, what they are for is a mystery to me.

Anyone know the origin of this stone, it was far from any road along a narrow grassy track? I must try and find out why?

It was a really nice day out, but we were both tired when we got back to the cottage. I again manged to cook a meal in the Aga then it was a TV evening.

 

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