Fortieth Wedding Anniversay

Back in February we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary. On the actual date we were in Devon for our grandson, Gilby's birthday party. After the fab space party we all went out for an anniversary supper. 

It's not easy to get all our family together, our eldest daughter and family are missionaries in South Africa so they weren't able to join us and the rest of the family weren't able to get together until March when our son organised a great meal out in London at Roka, an amazing Michelin star contemporary Japanese restaurant. 

We met up at the London Museum where the grandchildren enjoyed some time before going on the the Barbican area and then moving on to Canary Wharf where the restaurant is.

The meal was amazing, we all enjoyed the food including the children who all love sushi. The atmosphere and service all added to the great time had by all. 

Grandpa and Ptimrose were trying to avoid the cracks in the pavement 

Eugene enjoyed some special time with Auntie Amy and the children always love being with their uncles 

As well as it being hard to get everyone together it's also hard to get everyone to look normal, I did say 'nice faces please' but clearly some one didn't hear me

They gave us a lovely big table right near the 'all you can eat' buffet 😊

Mothers Day UK

Mothers Day is  a time of mixed feelings for me, I miss my mother and MIL so much and am so thankful for all that they were to us and our family. I also miss seeing my daughters but know that they are celebrating their own mothers day with their children, those in SA celebrate the day on the same date as those in USA. On Saturday we took a trip into London to meet up with our sons and DIL and enjoyed a lovely brunch together. 

1976

I was sent this photo for Mothers Day all the way from SA (thank goodness for 'whatsapp')

Joe and Jesse are i the centre, our adopted grandsons, baby Hudson has been with our daughter and SIL for over twelve months now, we are praying that there will be an adoption in the near future. The two girls are living in a children's home at the moment and sped time with our daughters family, they would love to adopt them too at some time.

I received beautiful hand drawn cards from the munchkins below :)

Gilby Skipp

Primrose & Maggie

They look different in this photo but they really arent!

West Watch

We have just spent a couple of days down in West Sussex at one of our favourite places, West Watch. WW is a trust which owns some properties on beautiful land on the edge of the Ashdown Forest. WW is a Christian retreat and we usually make a couple of trips a year down there. The retreat is run by our dear friends Doug & Joy. We are related through marriage, one of their sons and one of ours are married to 2 sisters. We are blessed to have them as part of our family and we always have a great time when we visit returning home fully refreshed! 

The trust has a centre which is used by church groups..eg youth groups etc and there are also a couple of cottages which are for full time ministers to use. We always stay in the cottage at the left of this building...our bedroom window overlooks this beautiful garden, the woodland and fields which are also owned by the trust.

There is a fire pit and great walks to be had in the surrounding forests

Our very special friends.

birthday

Last week just as I was feeling quite sad I received an email from my dear blogging friend Hadley  to say that I had won her give away! That brought a smile to my face and even more so when my wonderful gift arrived on my birthday!

 as usual my photo doesn't really do this justice, the patchwork and stitching on the beautiful purse and key fob is brilliant, the little piece of Liberty fabric will be included in my Liberty quilt when I get to making it and the chocolate...well I'm about to go downstairs and eat it right now!

 This was my delicious birthday desert at Raymond Blanc's Brasserie in our little town

 The bluebells are out in Ashridge Park so I went to take photo's with my new Canon camera that hubby bought me, sadly the weather wasn't good and so they don't look their best but the smell after the rain had fallen was amazing.

so all in all even though we have been having a sad time just recently, my birthday was special. I share it with my sweet daughter in law and so the night before we spent the evening with  our son and daughter in law and her family. I had lovely gifts as always and even an ipad mini but I'm not to say who that was from :)

bags more

I made two more bags this afternoon, the blue one is much the same as the last one I made but with different handles. The top one is from the 1970's Daisy Chain fabric I bought earlier in the week. Both have cotton wadding between the layers to make them more sturdy. 

I just found out that my son will have some photo's in an exhibition of punk fashion in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York...will show you when they are exhibited :)

quilt request

My son sent me this photo and said he would like a quilt just like it.....interesting choice. I have told him he will have to wait until after Christmas, cant see me fitting it in any time soon. 

A Day in London

We have spent a lovely day in London, strolling around. I enjoy just snapping shots here and there.

 Maltby Street Market  is in Bermondsey and within walking distance of London Bridge station...lots of interesting food stalls and some nearby markets stalls selling second hand stuff

 I'm usually lagging behind the boys with my camera and I just follow them from one eating place to another...they know all the best places to go

 The Shard

 Lovely cake stall at Borough Market

 London Bridge