Northleach walk - May 20

Andy and I walked a 4 mile circular walk through 2 tiny Cotswold villages, Hampnett and Northleach. Starting in Northleach we crossed fields, climbed up a steep hill, crossed over a B road and headed for Northleach. Shown in these photos: top left: view of the Norman church in Hampnett where in the late 1800's the reverend took it upon himself to have the chancel stencilled (as shown in the bottom left photo). Reading the history of the church, the locals did not take well to such decoration and started a fund raising campaign to rid the church of the stencilling - fortunately, they were unsuccessful. The stencilling is beautiful! The lower right photo is of the church at Northleach, a much grander church, but not as interesting as the Hampnett church in my opinion. Photo in the top right hand corner is one of the beautiful views we encountered on our Cotswold walk.

Rachel and Tyler returned from their trip to London and we are off to London tomorrow to take in The Lion King. Rachel and Tyler bought tickets for all of us to go (very generous of them) and we're all stoked to see it!

Sunday May 17

Attended the 10:00 service this morning at the church where Mark and Kate are to be married next year. After the service Kate introduced us to the reverend who will be marrying them and discussed various aspects of the wedding including the music. Rachel tried out the old piano and played a few sample tunes for Kate who very quickly welled up with emotion. It is a very pretty parish church built in the 1500's in a most picturesque market town about 20 minutes from Keresley.

Family time - May 16

Mark, Kate, Danny and the twins, Helen & Paul and the girls came up for dinner (17 people in total). Rachel made a Leek Cassoulet and Andy bar-b-qued chicken, all delicious!

Sophie and Chloe (3.5 yrs) have been a bit shy and distant with us so it's been a hard job getting good photos of them! While I do not consider these to be good, they are as good as I could capture in tight quarters with lots of people milling about. Around 8:30pm the special coloring book & crayola markers came out which kept the twins amused for some time. How to tell them apart? Sophie is wearing a headband, whereas Chloe's "fringe" (bangs) are in her face most of the time!

Yorkshire Dales

While the weather was a bit gloomy and overcast and rained at times, there was no concealing the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales.

Coventry Motor Museum

We took Rachel and Tyler to the motor museum - while it's been in Coventry for years, we ourselves had never been. Coventry was badly bombed in the war owing to the fact that the numerous car factories in the city were repurposed to make ammunitions for the war. The museum had a large display depicting the German's blitz on Coventry November 14-16 which effectively levelled the city, killing 808 people all of whom were buried at the Coventry cemetary on the London Road. In the first photo Andy is chatting to a former Massey Ferguson employee, now a museum assistant, who was on hand to answer any queries in the wartime Coventry section of the museum. The top right hand photo was one of the many cars that Andy admired; the bottom left was a depiction of a Coventry street after the war; Andy remembers riding the double decker bus shown in the bottom right hand corner. (that's him in front passenger window)

Dinner with Sally & Alfie

We had a most enjoyable visit with Sally on Wednesday at her home where she prepared dinner. Alfie her dog kept us amused with his antics during & after dinner.

York

Arrived in the City of York today and walked the old city by foot. We plan to drive to the Bronte country and explore the Yorkshire Dales tomorrow before returning home to Coventry.

Oxford - May 13

After touring C.S. Lewis's home, "The Kilns" in Oxford, we grabbed lunch and then headed out on a 2 hour walking tour of the university/city. There are 39 different universities in Oxford and we gained access to Queen's College and Christ Church. The last photo may look familiar to anyone who is a Harry Potter fan!

First photo: photo of the garden from the kitchen window of The Kilns; 2nd photo: approaching Christ Church; 3rd photo: the Hall at Christ Church

Cotswolds Walk #1 - Minster Lovell

Andy and I dropped Rachel and Tyler off at Warwick Castle and drove south another hour to the edge of Oxfordshire where we did a 3.5 mile circular walk (just a little over 5km). It was an absolutely beautiful walk - through meadows, pastures, along the banks of the Windrush River, stopping to view the ruins of an old Manor Hall. Nothing could be more picturesque!

Peeping Tom

One of the things Coventry is known for (besides being bombed mercilessly during the war) is Lady Godiva. According to Wikipedia:

Godiva (or Godgifu) (fl. 1040-1080) was a noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive toll imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur comes from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

After touring the remains of the old and new cathedrals with Tyler today, Andy took this photo of a novelty Lady Godiva/Peeping Tom installed in the town centre's clock. When the clock chimes on the hour, the door open and Lady Godiva appears, riding her horse with Peeping Tom peering on.

Danny's last football match of the season

We were pleased when we arrived to warm weather - mid 20's. After a good night's sleep woke to blue skies and by 9:00 it was about 25 degrees. We went to see our nephew Danny's last football match of the season this morning and we (me, Andy, Rachel, Tyler, Mark and Kate) proudly cheered on the Hawkshill team (and saw Danny score a goal for his team).

May 9 - England bound!

We woke Friday morning to snow - not entirely unusual in May in Alberta, but instead of moaning about it, we were happy knowing we were hours away to hopping the big pond on our way to England. Photos taken while waiting for the boarding call at the airport.

Springtime in Alberta

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful ... what a welcome respite after the crazy spring snowstorms. Andy and I went for a 2 hour walk from our neighbourhood to Carburn Park where I took these photos. (we are breaking in our light hiking shoes that we will soon put to good use when we tackle some a few walks in one of our favourite parts of England, the Cotswolds!) The warm sunny +23 weather was a contrast the last remaining snow clinging to the banks as shown here. It was good to see the trees budding ... proof positive that spring truly just around the corner.

Happy 21st Birthday Lyden!

Lyden's 21st birthday was on April 24 and Rachel picked up this cute DQ cake to help celebrate the day.

Harry Potter Mad!

Both our children were hooked on harry Potter years ago and anxiously awaited the release of each new book. Andy, who rarely reads fiction, was bored one day so he pulled the first book off the shelf and started to read ... and read he did, at last count, he's read a total of 5 of the 7 books in a very short period of time. Now he is in the "inner circle" with the kids and their friends ... he can relate to all their wizardy references and share inside jokes. One day he sought Lyden's agreement:

Andy: "Hey Lyden, don't you think mom is a veela?"

Lyden: "Yep, but only 1/2 veela".

Me: "What's a veela? is that a good thing?"

Boys: "Oh you'll have to read the books to find out."

Needless to say I am feeling the odd man out but that said, I very much doubt I will take to reading to books myself!

April in Calgary

I have heard it said that there is no spring in Calgary, just 3 months of winter & summer battling it out and nothing could be truer! Andy took this photo during a recent spring snowstorm .... one week earlier we sat on these deck chairs enjoying +23 sunshine!

Visions of Venice

Bath

Final assignment from the digital on line class I've been taking.

Week 4 digital assignment

This photo of Jon Voight was taken on set during the filming of September Dawn in August, 2005. Andy worked as 1st AD on the feature and while it hit the movie theatres in the US, it was only recently was released in Canada (video only) at Blockbusters. The movie is based on a true event in 1857 and I recommend you rent a copy & watch it!









Credit:
Jessica Sprague's papers & brush set

UK 2007

layout made from scratch ...
Paper: Jessica Sprague - Beautiful You - coral ; Brushes: English Cursive from Obsidian Dawn, CD swirl; Selenhart flourishes; K Pertiet monogram.

Hoppy Easter

Easter weekend already!

Week 3 Digital Scrapbooking Assignments!

Welcome Spring!!

Hurray, the long dark days of winter have come to an end! Played with this photo in PSE5!

No Place Like Home

Week 3 class assignment

Palm Sunday family & friends potluck

just a few images from our potluck ... my sister-in-law Silvana made the pasta sauce, Andy made fresh pasta - he took turns rolling it out with Christine and Silvana - in this photo Rachel and Christine put the rolled out pasta through the machine to make the linguine, mom brought garlic bread, I made ceasar salad, my brother Scott and Lyden's friend Shane brought refreshments, Rachel's friend Christine a bottle of wine & Rachel and Tyler brought dessert - not one but 2 huge bowls of delicious berry fruit trifle!

After dinner my mother taught Rachel a new crochet stitch for the afghan she is making.

Two more digital layouts!

Wow, am I having fun learning! I can quite easily get lost and get frustrated when I follow the instructions to the "t" and it doesn't work the way it should but I persevere and the results are worth it! It's such a great feeling when it finally works. Off to play more in PSE5!

Farmer's Market

"Beautiful" digital layout

Results from my "mid week" assignment ... when I saw theme of the paper, my beautiful daughter Rachel immediately came to mind.

Digital Scrapbooking - 1st Lesson!

I signed up for an on-line digital scrapbooking class and this is the results from lesson #1.

March Mosaic!!