Lucy's mum

She is such a photogenic cat, I couldn't resist sharing this picture. Lucy's mum and brother were very curious when we held a wake for her in their garden, but they didn't seem to mind too much. In fact, her mum Xeni was behaving beautifully for the camera. Lucy was almost identical except short haired, and a little plumper (that's the polite version). The house is so empty without her....

Picture catalogue

As we were so busy packing up to go travelling last year, we missed a whole batch of pictures and stories from other places we'd been, so I thought I might do a little retrospective travelog! Places we really think you ought to visit! Well, our favourites anyway!

First up, Barcelona. I'd read all about Gaudi in my architectural history books but nothing can compare to actually seeing it in the flesh. We didn't make it inside the Sagrada Familia, the queue was miles long! But we did manage to get a tour of his Casa Mila La Pidrera with the most amazing roof and chimney structures.

In celebration of Lucy...23/3/1997-3/4/2009

After a short but incurable illness, we reluctantly said goodbye yesterday to the last of our three cats. Lucy was 12 years old, chosen by Emma when she was a toddler, and has enjoyed her last year as an "only cat" after being a late addition to our two boys, Stan and Ollie. We had a wake for her today and she is buried in the family plot in Alan & Dorothy's garden - they threw her a lovely lunch in their fab new kitchen, and Alan had prepared her a white granite headstone. We are all very sad and lonely, with only Bill the dragon for a pet for now. This is the first time in 18 years we have been cat-less...

We raise a glass again for our beloved friend, minx and bed-hogger - cheers Lucy, we will miss you...

Spring at Waddesdon Manor

Glorious sunshine, 15 degrees of warmth, what better excuse to get out to a National Trust property this weekend. An old favourite, Waddesdon Manor, was well worth the trip today as the flowers made it look stunning. Just look at these beautiful colours...

First day of Spring!

Ah, yes, the first day of Spring is finally here. After 3 winters (our own fault!) we are desperate for some sunshine and this weekend it was glorious! All the windows open, out for a nice long walk, bliss... and we booked our next holiday so something to look forward to. We've booked a week in Cornwall at the end of May, overlooking St Michael's Mount...

For now, though, back to Spring!

Where did that month go?

I logged on tonight and realised it's been a whole month since I updated - where did that go??? Well, to be honest, this has been my first month of being a manager in my team and I've been horrendously busy at work - so the last thing I've wanted to do when I got home was to log onto the computer again! Things are settling down a bit now, the team is back up to full strength since we recruited two new guys, and hopefully after a gap in resource I'll have caught up with myself again by the end of the week...

In the meantime the end of Winter has been and gone, we've had Shrove Tuesday and St Patrick's Day, and the first signs of Spring are here...Hawthorn bushes are now in blossom although the trees are still bare, and we have glorious displays of colour with daffodils, primroses, snowdrops and hyacinths all in bloom at the same time. A real treat - we had a pair of buzzards circling up on a thermal at the end of our garden at the weekend....truly awesome!

Snow day 21

So with no let up with the arctic conditions and several days housebound we were all relieved to hear of a snow plough in the next village Stoke Hammond. (you've probably heard all councills have run out of road salt)...And so it was yesterday the whole village turned out to celebrate our freedom from the freezing conditions (A lorry full of salt)! Aha, school tomorrow at last !! Rumour has it that half term is to be cancelled because of the 'impromtu' half term the bad weather has inflicted on us. How we wish for some warm weather... Surely somewhere it is hot and humid.........or just hot ?

Half Term

It only seems five minutes since Christmas, now all of a sudden it's half term! We had a great day out at the Safari Park today - and lovely to remember that among the last wild animal parks we visited were Auckland Zoo and Steve Irwin's legacy Australia Zoo - by Crikey!

Now only one more week until Pancake Day!

How lucky are we?

For those of you in sunnier climbs, I hope you relish in these pictures of our freezing and hazardous conditions! We had yet more snow yesterday, and guess what, even more today! Emma has been to school for all of ONE day this week, and I have managed only 3 days in work. Congratulations to Claudia on the safe arrival of baby Jessica, I hope she enjoys her first few weeks in the warmth and sushine before coming home! Xanthe, hope the piccies help you cool down a bit!! You're how hot??

Today's pictures are brought to you by Tim!

Thatch characters

We love the tradition of putting straw characters on top of thatched roofs. The cottage at the bottom of our lane has two pheasants on it, you can probably just about see in this picture as the girls go off sledging. But we found a new character today, a puddy cat creeping along this rooftop, complete with whiskers. How cute is that?

How festive!

The holly and the ivy!

Winter wonderland!

I couldn't resist getting my camera out to take some pictures of the village in the snow. It was really beautiful!

Let it snow!

Today we had the biggest downfall of snow for 6 years. This is a picture of our lane as we attempted to get out of it this morning. Having braved the elements to get Emma to school it turned out to be closed so she spent the best part of the day snowballing and sledging with her friends. Tough life eh??

Caught red handed

We thought this was so funny! Half our pond froze over last week and it seems one of the cats who frequent the garden thought it might be a good opportunity to nab a fish...but then after 3 pawprints of progress he or she thought better of it...!

Of course if the ice had cracked it would have made an excellent "you've been framed" moment!

PS this was probably not our cat, Lucy. She is still spending approx 22 hours a day on the lizard tank!

Guess what...

A picture of the three of us wrapped up against the elements. There's something new about this picture, can you guess what? Look closely now! ;0)

Rain stopped play

We tried for a walk along the canal on Sunday after a lovely pub lunch, only to be beaten back by floods! We hadn't realised just how much it had rained this week - the weir in this picture is normally a quiet little trickle but here it's torrenting over the top and into the river. We managed a few muddy fields but when we got to the flooded stile we decided to turn back!

Wicked!

This week Emma had the last of her Christmas presents and spent the evening with a friend at the new musical production at the Apollo Theatre in London.

Sadly Tim and I had to go and lose ourselves in London for a couple of hours so we settled in at a little Italian around the corner - what a hardship eh?

The girls had a lovely time - they said it was - you guessed it - Wicked! ;0)

Castell Dinas Bran

The most amazing views from the top... now back down to town for a well earned coffee!

Historic Walk

Waking up in sunny Wales, we headed off for a 6 mile "Historic Walk" around the countryside of Llangollen. We took in the horseshoe shaped weir designed by Thomas Telford, the ruins of a 12th century abbey, and then walked up to Castell Dinas Bran, reported associated with King Arthur, fairies and a hidden silver harp. To say the sun shone is a massive understatement. For a country that is so often under a cloud of rain, we were truly blessed to have a cold (minus 4 degrees) and sunny day, perfect for walking. We opted to take the steam train back to the car but the 4 miles we did walk were mainly uphill so we still feel saintly!!

First weekend away of the new year...

To herald in the new year we headed for a weekend away to get some fresh air and walk off all those vol-au-vents! We've often headed for the Devil's Kitchen in Snowdonia but at 4 hours it's quite a drive. We've been back to explore a place we often used to just drive through on the way - and at only 2 and a bit hours from home it's easy to get a full weekend away. We've found a great little hotel that sits on an island between the canal (so cold there were icicles hanging down) and river, and is also opposite a steam railway line - unbeatable in terms of location. So, when we arrived we had a little wander around Llangollen, a cute little town on the river Dee, took a drive out to Ruthin, famous for its castle, then checked into the hotel. The railway people recommended an adorable little pub for some real Welsh food - lamb stew and crusty bread - scrumptious! Now, an early night ready for our big walk tomorrow...