Roundup / Cambridge

I know I haven't posted for a while but we've been fairly busy. I had a birthday towards the end of May which was lovely and I got quite spoilt :)

 I now have my first Grandma mug from Alice 

 Claire and I met my friend Alison for coffee and cake in the morning which gave Ali a chance to play with Alice

 In the afternoon the family came round for (more) tea and cake but I didn't actually take many photos. I did get a few shots of Alice and Tyler - he was so sweet with Alice and such a help with handing out plates of food to everyone. Alice thought it was wonderful to have some little people around.

 Alice loves her Jumperoo and has been getting lots of use out of it - it's certainly been a good buy!

 This little toy has to be part of the appeal - it has material wings which she chews/sucks on all the time.

 Emily's half term was this week and we decided to take the opportunity to go on a little trip. We went to stay with my SIL in Thetford. They moved up to Thetford a few months ago and this was the first chance we'd had to go and visit. The  above photo was taken in our room for the time we were there and Beth was happy to see Emily again :)

 On Wednesday morning we caught the train into Cambridge. I warn you now that there are quite a few photos because we loved Cambridge - it's such a pretty place and the buildings are beautiful!

 One of the reasons we wanted to visit (we had been once before in Winter but it was too cold to fully appreciate everything then) is that Emily has her sights set on Oxford or Cambridge as her main choice of University. She's started looking early to get an idea of the Universities she likes (still 4 years before she'd actually be going to any) and I see nothing wrong with setting your sights on the top two :)

 The next few photos are of some of the colleges - mainly Kings College which I just love!

 Kings College

 Kings College on the left with the town on the right.

 We then went on a punt down the river - this was our punt coming in to the side for us to board. I was impressed that neither Emily or I fell into the water lol!

 I had been a bit unsure about the ride but am so glad we went because it was great fun and our punter gave us a running commentary on the different colleges we passed.

 Can you imagine this being your Halls of Residence? What a pleasure!

 The Bridge of Sighs, named after the one in Venice, which joins two parts of one of the colleges. We were told the only sighs heard were the sighs of relief or disappointment from the students who have to cross over the bridge to get their exam results and then back again.

Once the tour had finished, Emily and I crossed one of the bridges and walked along the opposite bank thinking we would cross back over at the next bridge.

 Unfortunately the other bridges were closed because students were writing their final exams and no tourists could enter so we walked round and back in to town again. It did mean we got to see Kings College from the other side of the river - another photo opportunity :)

 Crossing back into town we got a good view of the wooden bridge. 

By the end of the day our feet were aching and we were exhausted but I would do it all again without any hesitation. It was so nice to go somewhere where everyone was friendly and you felt at home as you walked around (even if you didn't know where you were going!).  Our next trip is likely to be to Oxford so we can have a look around the University there too. I imagine there will be more trips to other University towns in the months/years to come - what a good excuse to see some more of the UK! :)

And I'll end off for now with this photo of our lillies. They really have multiplied and are stunning this year. It's just a pity they don't last very long and will have gone over by the time Norma gets here in three weeks.

Now I've got a lot of blog reading to catch up on. I may not get a chance to comment on everyone's posts but will certainly be trying to catch up from where I left off.  I also have Project Life to catch up on as well - I could be busy this weekend :)
xx

New Grandbaby :)

Yesterday Jon's daughter Michelle and her husband, Matthew got to see their baby for the first time. Michelle is now 13 weeks pregnant and was sent to have a scan after seeing her midwife on Thursday. Baby is doing well and they were able to see his/her heartbeat. Such exciting times - again :)  How lucky are we!

Roll on 22 November, we can't wait to meet you little one xxx

This week

We tend to have the TV on first thing in the morning and we watch Daybreak. I like to see what's on the news and find out what the weather's doing and we quite enjoy the banter of the presenters. It's fairly light hearted and often gives us a laugh which, in my book anyway, is a good way to start the day.

There tends to be an item that would appeal to children just before 8am and on Wednesday they had The Wiggles on. As soon as they started singing they had Alice's attention :).  Later that morning Claire thought she would see if there any other programmes which Alice might like to see how she'd react. The next programme coming up was Dora the Explorer so we switched over and waited for it to start. It was so funny, Alice pushed herself up to standing at the end of the couch and was glued to the TV! She waved her arms around and chuckled and fake coughed (her latest attention seeking/happy thing to do lol!) Needless to say I had to get a photo to catch her reaction to her first chidren's programme :)

 More serious once Dora had finished

 Yesterday morning when I went outside I couldn't get over how many roses had come into bloom! The scent from this rose bush is wonderful - we can smell it as we walk out the back door and I wish I could bottle the perfume!

Close up of one in bloom

 Another day or so and this one will be the same :) 

Then a final photo of Alice just before she and Claire went in to town this morning. She also got to wear the little cardigan I finished the other day, for the first time. :)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend
xx

Rescued

This morning, as I went outside to take our next door neighbour's little girl a present for her first birthday, Mac was making quite a bit of noise down next to Hugh's car. When I looked over to see what he was miaowing about I could see he had a bird in his mouth! That's the only problem with this time of year, young birds who aren't very good at flying become fairly easy prey for the cats in the neighbourhood :(  Normally we wouldn't worry about Mac catching them, as he tends to be a bit slow, but today he proved he can catch them as well as his sister - who is much faster!

Anyway, back to the story.  I managed to shoo Mac away from the bird and called to Claire to grab me something to put the bird in. The only thing she could find was a milk formula box so, with the box behind it and my iPhone in front of it, I managed to ease the bird into the box. It didn't look hurt (I think Mac was still playing with it) and it soon calmed down once it was in the box. I made a couple of phone calls and it was agreed that the best thing to do was try and put it back close to where he had got it. Once Mac was fast asleep on the chair, I took the bird out to the trees at the back of our house and set the box down next to a hold in the fence. It jumped onto the lid and hopped down, slipped through the hole in the fence and fluttered into the bushes. I hope it survives now and escapes the other preditors in the area. 
xx