More deck, then some playtime

We worked all day on the deck, then went to the Coach and Horses for a drink with Bettina, Ole, Casper and Anna Louisa. It was a really hot day today (around 75 F in a sheltered sun lit spot, probably more like 65 F in the wind or shade) and we spent it digging holes for the beam posts and then starting to drill out the old concrete/ brick steps. Hard work!

 Casper came over and 3 of them went to play football at the village green, then Bettina came round and offered to take them all down to the Coach and we could meet them there. Great idea! It was just coming to the end of the day and starting to cool off a bit, and it felt so indulgent to ride our bikes down the lane to the pub and enjoy the garden with our friends.

 Meanwhile the kids were drawn to the sand box, as always! We rode bikes home, which is always a bit of a struggle since it is uphill going home. So there was a bit of grumbling but we made it.

A great day, all in all.

Long lost friends

My long lost friend Polly and her two kids came to visit us this afternoon on their way to a ski holiday in France! They fly out early tomorrow morning so will stay at a hotel in Gatwick tonight, but they made time to stay a few hours with us and it was sooo good to see them. Its been 5 years since the last time we saw them!

 Joe (7) was especially keen to use the hammer to help out on the deck while Rhiannon was in her element looking after Florence (4).

 They stayed for dinner and then headed off in their awesome van.

I really hope its not another 5 years before we see them again!

Day 4 of Operation Deck

Today we got a lot done in the morning under gorgeous sunny skies.

Football camp

Rhiannon has been working every day at Burnt Wood, and then yesterday and today Tryfan has gone to a football camp at Uckfield College which was hosted by the Brighton football team. It has been gorgeous weather - perfect for deck building, horse work and football! Now its the weekend and I don't have to juggle work and decking for a couple of days. Nice.

Operation Deck

We decided to not going anywhere interesting or fun, and instead to Build a Deck at home! And when I say "we", I mean actually all of us 4 Lewises in the house. Work started yesterday when Rhodri and the kids did the measuring of the space and then Rhodri ordered a bunch of supplies. Then today a load of wood arrived, the kids transported it all around to the rear of the house, Rhodri went out and bought a new tool (referred to now as his "new best friend" but which is actually a Makita SDS drill), I did some sweeping and prep work, and then the first bits of ledger board went up against the house.

The way it is supposed to go is that you just put one big long piece of wood and that becomes the ledger board, but in our case there are quite a few complexities - like the air vents, the breeze blocks, and the water outlet - which mean that we have to do several small ledger boards and they all need to be level with each other. A good start to the project, anyway!

18 years

Today was our 18 year wedding anniversary!
It was a fairly normal Monday except that Rhodri was up north in the Peak District all of yesterday afternoon and also all day today. We picked him up from Gatwick airport (where he was returning the rental car) and then drove straight out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary.

We went to the Old House Inn, where I have been a few times before but none of the rest of us have. Decent food, cozy atmosphere, a bit pricey but it was a special occasion after all.

Burnt Wood Farm

A couple weeks ago I met a lady called Jacqui who runs a livery / farm down Tanyard Lane near us, and she said that Rhiannon could come and "muck out" on weekend mornings and through the holidays, so we will be taking her up on that!

Yesterday and today she went down there by herself on her bike (J and I texting each other to confirm arrivals and departures of Rhi). So far so good! 

G-Buck at the rodeo

Right now Grandma Bucky (G-Buck) is visiting Aunt Judy in Arizona for a little change of scene, and I received this great photo of her sitting in the bleachers watching Uncle Joe and cousin Molly compete in a rodeo event!

Apparently Molly won $100 at this event - well done, Cousin.

Clothing boutique

Today was the last day of school for two weeks and now the kids are off on Easter holiday. Woohoo! But first, this evening, there was a clothing boutique sale put on by the PTA at Mary's house. Everyone had been donated clothes for months before the event, so there were a lot of nice items for sale on racks scattered around her house. Entry fee was 5 pounds, and included a glass of prosecco. It was a fun evening which lasted 7:30 - 10pm. I came away with quite a few items and in fact was even wearing many of those items as we left so I didn't have to carry them. It was a great way to end the month. And although I had planned on walking to/from the event, I did manage to get a lift both ways from Claire who I never really see, so that was fun as well. 

Trip to Paris

My new manager is based in Paris, so I went to see him this week - out Wednesday morning, back Thursday night - very civilized! I stayed in a strange but nice little "boutique" hotel near the office which was very close to the Eiffel Tower. In fact on my one night there, I took a stroll to to see it after dinner. It was a relatively warm evening after a really beautiful day, and there were loads of people just sitting around on the grass and on benches near the tower in small groups, hanging out and enjoying life. I enjoyed being able to just wander on my own, though it would have been wonderful to be there with loved ones in a little huddle on the grass as well.


In the actual office where I've been working these two days, there is an historic part of the building which has an old photo of the Schlumberger brothers making some downhole measurements, and next to the photo are the actual holes in the ground which are shown in the photo! Pretty cool.

So tonight I took the Eurostar train back from Paris to London, except that there were a lot of delays along the way which meant that I wouldn't get back home until after 11pm. I made the extremely spontaneous decision to grab my stuff and run off the train when we arrived into Ashford! It hadn't even occurred to me to do this until the train was slowing to a stop already at the platform. I figured I could take a taxi from here straight home and still shave an hour off my travel time. It was exhilarating to do this! And the taxi driver that I found who would take me turned out to be this interesting self-proclaimed "odd jobs man" called DAZ. When I said where I wanted to do and asked if it was too far for him, he didn't flinch and said that he regularly took people as far as they wanted to do - including northern England and even Spain! He drove a mini-bus that he had kitted out to be more of a disco party bus with a big sound system and disco lights in the back. Awesome! This was a nice way to end the trip, and what makes it even better is that tomorrow is the last day of school before Easter holidays and the last day of the month as well. Bring it on.

Mother's Day

This morning Rhodri and Tryfan had to go a rugby festival all morning, but they still brought me coffee and toast in bed along with some gifts. I got an orchid and also some onion bulbs to plant. Then Rhiannon made me a proper breakfast and gave me her present, which was an aromatherapy set and flowers.

Around 11 am, Rhiannon and got the bikes out with the intention of riding down to Burnt Wood Farm on Tanyard Lane. However, it started out not all that great because when we tried to pump the tires up a little bit more, we couldn't get the needle out properly and totally deflated the tire. We spent about 10 minutes thrashing around, and then it was Rhiannon who said, "Hang on, let's think about this." And then she took the pump and needle and figured out a way to get air into the tire without letting air out. Result!

We rode down the road til we got the farm, then turned around and rode back. We mainly were seeing how long it took to ride there and back. It was a gorgeous morning and we had a really nice outing.

In the afternoon the boys came back and we worked in the back garden. In fact, today was the first mow of the year! So exciting. I tried to mow the lawn last weekend and the mower wasn't working so I was extra happy to be able to mow.

It was a great day all in all.

Happy faces

24 hr Survival Event

Rhiannon's class have been studying  Shackleton's journey and Antarctica
Today was a long awaited "Survival Event" that her teacher organized. It started with a morning of bushcraft skills with "Bushcraft Buddha". They lit fires and ate crickets and had a grand time!

Then during lunch I helped Rhodri set up the lavvo and some expedition training equipment at the Danehill Recreation ground across from the school. Then after lunch the class came to learn about proper survival skills with Rhods!

Next up: the whole class is going to spend the night at the school!

Bible art

This week there was an art challenge to create something that represented something from the Bible. It was open to both children and adults actually, but I didn't participate (and neither did Rhodri). My girl Rhiannon, on the other hand, had a very specific vision. Can you tell what this scene is from the Bible?

The rules of the competition were that the submitted entries couldn't be degradable over time. So although Rhiannon's entry was made of cake and marzipan, she took this photo and printed it out as her submission!

Obama Llama

"Obama Llama" is the code phrase that Auntie Sions and the kids made up last year when she was looking after them for a weekend. It means: I'm stressed and I need your cooperation!

So today after swimming when I was frantically trying to hang up laundry, help Rhiannon with her art project, make dinner, and tidy the house in preparation for some girlfriends that I had invited over that evening, I was being a little bit snappy and stressed. Tryfan came up to me and said, "Mom, is this an Obama Llama situation?". I had completely forgotten about this phrase and what it meant, so he reminded me of it and I said YES, it is!  And then Tryfan (bless his heart) said, "What can I do right now that would be the most helpful for you?"  Seriously. Those exact words. It brought tears to my eyes, I tell you. And even now as I am recounting the moment my eyes are welling up. I have such thoughtful, sensitive, sweet children. And although in this particular moment it was Tryfan who stepped up in this way, there have been plenty of occasions when Rhiannon sees that someone needs help or that something is amiss and she takes the initiative to help the person or sort the problem without being asked. 

Netball tournament

Today Danehill played in the finals of the regional netball competition. I wasn't able to attend the match, but apparently they played well enough to place 2nd overall!

Zoey, Rhiannon, Sophie, Agnes, Jed; Iris, Georgia and Amelia

Breakfast science

Rhodri is away this week, having left yesterday and due to return next Monday night (March 20th).

This morning we kicked things off by having pancakes for breakfast! Normally unheard of during the school week but since today is Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday), we went for it.

But when we got the Nutella out to be one of the selections for topping our pancakes, Rhiannon discovered that there were weird little white bumps on the Nutella. We decided to not eat it, but instead to get out our investigation materials! First the hand lens that Uncle Phil gave to them for Christmas 2015, which proved interesting but didn't answer any questions. So then we busted out the microscope that Grandma gave us for Christmas 2014 (i think!). We put the weird white blobs onto slides and had a look. They were definitely some kind of bacteria and probably not a good kind to eat! Then we had to go to school, but it was fun to kick the day off with some breakfast science.

Hockey girls

On Sundays Rhiannon goes to play hockey (field hockey) at Ardingly College.
Rhodri and Tryfan leave for rugby and we girls leave for hockey at the same time, then we reunite back at the house around 1-2 pm.  Rhiannon just started playing in September and then moved up to the big kids pitch in January. We had several sessions that were canceled due to poor weather this season, but when it is on, she does have a good time. Normally I either go for a walk with Bentley and our neighbor Jane (whose son Mark also does hockey), or else I go for a run by myself. The woods and countryside around Ardingly are lovely. Then I get back to the pitch in order to catch the final 15 minutes or so of the practice.

Here is Rhiannon with Aggie (Agnes), her friend from school who also goes to hockey.

Quiz night

Tonight was the annual quiz night hosted by the Nutley Squash and Tennis Club, where we are members. In recent years, Rhodri has gone to represent the family at this event but this year I went instead. And guess what?! We came in 1st place out of 13 teams.

Sing!

Today Rhodri was out all day so the kids and I got stuff done around the place and then we went into East Grinstead to watch the movie "Sing!" We discovered that the cinema sells 'Pick a Mix' candy and they sell by volume rather than weight. Cha-ching! Although we chose the smallest size, we were still able to strategically load a LOT of candy into it, compressing as we loaded.

We had a really fun time together and the film was great too!
In fact, since today is my sister Heidi's birthday, it feels especially appropriate to celebrate with laughter and candy!

Last day in Llandudno

And we spent it at the beach.

This morning (late morning) was low tide and the sun was shining, so we all went down to West Shore to the beach.

 It was so wonderful to play in the sand, collect sea shells, explore up and down the beach a little, and just enjoy the sunshine and the texture of the day.

Later on we met Nain for lunch in town and then we all did a bit of shopping before going back home for our last meal of the holiday.

Down the slate mines

Today was rainy and cold and we decided to spend it underground in the Llechwedd slate mine in Blenau Ffestiniog.

We had an amazing tour down below with a charismatic and engaging tour guide.

After the tour, we went to a nearby pub for lunch and then came back to Llechwedd to spend an hour at "Bounce Below", which is an incredible arrangement of trampolines that span a few of the caverns on various vertical levels. It is just so cool.

We all got pretty tired jumping and running and sliding and chasing during the hour on the trampolines, though. It was a truly great day and we hope to go back another time to do their zip wire and other adventure activities.

While we were away

... the troops had a good time with Nain and Taid! They went to visit Caernarfon castle, about an hour away from Llandudno.

I think they also got to play with their cousins Leusa, Rhyddid and Brython AND they got to have fish and chips for lunch. Everyone won during these two days and one night! Thanks Nain and Taid.

Lake District outing

Yesterday morning Rhodri and I left at 9 am to drive 2 hrs and 10 minutes up to Kendal in the Lake District. We met with one of Rhodri's clothing company supplier and spent the afternoon looking at the new collection. We were treated to a delicious lunch and dinner by the sales rep, so that was nice for us! We stayed at "Castle Green" http://www.castlegreen.co.uk/hotel-rooms.aspx and it was lovely.

This morning we checked out and then went for a longish hike from Patterdale near Ullswater. It was a really misty rainy day with mostly terribly visibility, but we had fun anyway.

It was a bit of a slog in the end but at least we were edging round the lake on that stretch. Once we got back to the car, we just piled in and headed down the motorway to Llandudno and arrived in time for a slightly late dinner this evening. In the meantime, we received some photos from Rhiannon that showed the fun that they were having in our absence!