Showered with flowers

A couple of weeks ago I received this beautiful bouquet from my DD2, it came with its own glass vase and and a box of delicious chocs.
We were going away in our new motorhome, Connie, and I couldn't bear to miss a couple of days without them so I took them with me, just because I could. Perhaps I should explain, since my DH became semi retired we've adopted this new moto "just becaues we can", it seems to fit our new life just right :-)

As we'll be away in France for my B/day I decided it would be nice to go out for Sunday lunch last W/E, so we took ourselves and our DD's to a lovely local pub called the Cider House.

And here I am with my lovely girls, our son and his wife couldn't make it this time, but we will see them in July.



And the girls and their Dad.



I had some lovely cards and presents, chocs, and more lovely flowers, plus a subscription to Embroidery magazine, which I've wanted for ages. I even had a lovely hand made card from some of my Grandchildren.



And from my DH I had this delightful mini sewing machine, small enough to stow away in our motorhome, so no excuse now not to get on with those Diploma samples. It really is a sweet piece of kit and it matches the upholstery in the motorhome. I've read that under the JL bonnet is a Janome and I'm not surprised, for something so small it handles really well indeed.



So thanks to everyone for making it such a lovely early birthday.

And on to Taunton

After we left Cardiff we went straight to Taunton in Somerset for a camping/motorthome holiday with DD2 and 4 of her children.


Setting up DD2's enormous tent.


One hour later, all done and ready for the wine.

We had a brilliant holiday doing lots of things we’d wanted to do, but not really had the time, or the inclination, as you don’t when the children have grown up.

We went on a lovely Steam railway trip from Crowcombe Heathfield station, which was about a mile from our campsite to Minehead. It took about an hour and was a lovely nostalgic trip for me, as I used to go to school on steam train, and wave to the drivers as the train passed the end of my garden.


The walk to the station was OK but there were some very tired legs on the way back and not just mine.


Here comes the train at last.


All aboard!!!


Posing for the camera.

It was quite a cold day on the beach but the children had a great time even if Mum was feeling the cold a bit, after loosing all that weight.




But the children didn't notice.

I was also lucky enough to get to see Face to Face, an exhibition of textile pieces by Stitch Textile Artists a group that my tutor Sian Martin formed in 1999, which was being held in Taunton. The work was very inspiring and as a distance learning student it was lovely to meet my tutor in person and have a good chat.


Sian's piece, which I believe was inspired by the birth of her granddaughter.


Music Hall Veronica Broadley


I don't know the artist, but I was drawn to this piece as I had worked with a face recently on my course and this reminded and inspired me.



We only had one day where the weather was really overcast, and it would have to be the day we decided to visit Dunster castle, which sits on the top of a very high hill, and I think that day the wind was probably coming straight off the Arctic Tundra. Still, the children enjoyed doing the NT quiz and playing the historic games that were on show for the day.



On a couple of the really warm days we had lovely BBQ’s on the camp site and had toasted marshmallows and strawberries dipped in chocolate, something I could definitely get used to.

Another real treat was organised for us by our DD when she took out a 3 day membership for the site gym, which had a wonderful spa, sauna and steam room, very welcome at the end of a day’s busy sightseeing and walking.





We found a great local small seaside resort where there was a craft shop that was supplied by several local makers and had wonderful knitted goods and children’s dresses, so of course we had to have nice long visit there while Granddad looked after the children, as you can see above they had a great time.

We also had a wonderful lunch there too, all home cooked to order.



On our last day we went back to Minehead as our DD was determined to have proper fish and chips, as she hadn’t had any for over a year. We had a lovely day on the beach and all came back tired but happy.



And while we were there I made a few sketches for my coursework and you can see what they were for here if you're interested.





It was a great holiday and lovely to spend quality time with our DD and her children, thank you to all of you for making it such a special trip.