Norma's son

Norma's son, Kyle, has lived in the UK for the last 10 years, so while she's over she tries to see Kyle and his girlfriend, Emma, whenever she can. This year they had taken a few days off and we got to see quite a lot of them. 

 These first photos were taken in Kyle and Emma's garden when we went round for afternoon tea one day.

 Kyle is Norma's eldest son - her other two sons, Ciaran and Caelen, still live in South Africa at the moment.

 We also went round to Kyle and Emma's for Kyle's birthday on the 9th.  He had decided to have a braai/bbq and was relieved that the weather held out for him :)

 Opening presents

 Mum came with us but Dad stayed at home as he hadn't been feeling well that day.

 Norma

 Craig, Claire and Alice

 Alice enjoyed the breadsticks that were put out

 Her t-shirt was quite appropriate as it said "Daddy's little sweetheart"

This was taken round at our house on a different day when we had Mum & Dad and Kyle & Emma round for a braai/bbq.

Still working through the photos so there should be more to come :)
xx

Alice Rose :)

I know it's been a while since I posted any photos of Alice so I thought I'd make up for it with this first batch.  These photos were taken on 03 July and since then she seems to have grown even more and her hair is definitely thicker.  I'm just going to work my way through the photos editing them and I'll post as I get to them.  In the meantime, here's our precious little girl - I know, I'm such a proud Grandma ;-)

 I love these little feet and hands :-)

 She'll go up on all fours but she's still not crawling. If you try and show her what to do she'll just collapse onto her tummy lol!

 Cuddles for Mummy

 This is what she wants to do all the time now - walk holding hands (our poor backs!)

Alice and Daddy

xx

Trip to Oxford (Part 3)

Christ Church College

After our tour on the open top bus, our final stop in Oxford was a visit to Christ Church College. It's difficult to put into words what this college was like - it is absolutely stunning! You can feel how old the buildings are and you can't help but think of all the famous people who have studied there and walked those halls (including Robert Peel, William Gladstone, David Dimbleby, Rowan Williams and Richard Curtis).  I hope that the photos below give you a sense of what it is like.

Walking in the lower gates, this is the view - absolutely beautiful!

Like a picture postcard :)

Norma and Emily at the fountain

The Cathedral is truely magnificent and I could have spent longer looking around.

Detail on the ceiling

One of the stained glass windows

The rose window

Emily taking a few final photos before we left

Out the gates and back into the centre of Oxford and time to find our bus stop again.

And this photo is for Norma who loved taking photos of bikes leaning against walls.

We thoroughly enjoyed our couple of days in Oxford and took far more photos than those shown here ;-).  I think the next place Emily and I would like to visit is Bath. Not sure that it's going to happen these holidays as Claire goes back to work soon and I'll be looking after Alice.  Might be one to think about for October holidays??
xx

Trip to Oxford (Part 2)

On Wednesday morning we were up early, had breakfast in the restaurant, packed up again and headed back into Oxford. This time we drove to the nearest Park and Ride, parked the car and took the bus into the centre (and saved a small fortune in taxi and train fares!) We went one stop too far on the bus, however, and ended up at Oxford Castle - which we hadn't even known existed.

There were a couple of school/tour groups there while we had a look around.

This sculpture (?) was on top of the restaurant at the castle. It wasn't until I uploaded the photo on to the computer that I could actually make out all the detail in it.

Late on Tuesday afternoon we had decided to hop on one of the Open Top Bus sightseeing tours but didn't get to go the whole way round. I checked the tickets and saw they were valid for 24 hours so we decided to do the tour again on Wednesday. Fortunately the tour bus stopped near the castle so we were able to hop on and complete the rest of the tour before getting off in the centre again.

Most of the photos below show the skyline and the detail on the buildings. I loved the steeples, the weathervanes and the chimneys.

Look at all the detail on the buildings :)

I was so pleased these gargoyles came out clearly. I love the detail in the faces.

If I remember correctly these busts were on the fence posts around the Sheldonian Theatre

Signpost

Bicycles at the station

And finally, the tour bus after we'd hopped off. After our tour we hit the shops again (especially the Cath Kidston store which was having a Sale).  The finally it was on to Christ Church College - but that deserves a post of it's own.
xx