Bedgebury outing

This morning we celebrated the last day of the month by going to Bedgebury Pinetum to meet some of Rhodri's other cycling buddies for a family mountain bike outing. 

Rhiannon, Sam and Tryfs with their ice creams after the ride.

It was pretty fun but also hard work encouraging the little guys on the uphill sections. Rhodri and the men split off to do the difficult single track routes while another Mum and I took all the kids on a "family circuit".

What is this monstrosity?

Rhodri has started building a shed from scratch in the back garden. I've been teasing him about it because work is very slow going and it might be a long time until we have a functioning shed. Anyway, it is good to be making some use of the space that is overgrown back there. Right in the middle of the back garden is the ugliest plant in the world. I don't want to call it a tree because it is more like a ridiculously overgrown and dense, dark bush. 

Monstrous bush-tree dominating the back garden with Rhiannon for scale

I think we are going to try and remove this monstrosity. Rhodri has started cutting off some of the lower limbs and chopping them up, but this "thing" is absolutely enormous and ugly. We'll have to get some professional help to remove it.

Joy in Kristiansund

After our lovely weekend in Copenhagen, Rhodri and I said goodbye at the airport on Sunday night - he flew home and I flew to Kristiansund, Norway for a few days of work. I was there to work with our "small boats" instructors on some computer stuff, but they took me out in a small boat to show me what they use the them for (mainly zooming around the mother ship, transferring people from one place to another or else practicing man overboard drills by throwing dummies in the water). It was apparently the most beautiful day of the whole year, and I felt so lucky to have a chance to zoom around the islands for a few hours.

Kitted out in work suit, life vest, gloves and helmet

Looking back to the downtown Kristiansund waterfront

I even got to drive for a little bit!

Kristiansund and the tour I went on with my colleagues

It was a really great and short trip, and it was made extra special because one of the instructors (Stanley) used to work with Rhodri back in 1996-1999 when Rhodri used to work on seismic ships. Always fun to hear stories about the old days...

Me and Stanley

I flew back last night and then have a busy rest of the week lined up to see us through the end of May. What a fantastic month this has been!

The Pen License

Rhiannon has been working very hard at her penmanship so that she could earn her Pen License at school. This is an actual license card that is given, along with a brand new pen, to someone who has demonstrated through their school work that they use tidy, neat, legible handwriting all the time. Sophie is the only other Year 3 student who has one as of yet, and there are some Year 6 students who don't have theirs yet! So Rhiannon has been working really hard to prove that she deserves her pen license. Finally the day came!

Rhiannon receiving the Pen License from the Head Mistress of the school.

Copenhagen

Rhodri and I escaped for a weekend in Copenhagen! Sioned offered (or was persuaded) to come babysit the kids all weekend while we gallivanted.

Walking down Nyhavn on Fri night

We flew on Fri afternoon, checked into the hotel and then took the metro into the city (10 min ride away). We just explored on foot and eventually found a place to stop for an aperitif (Amadeus Music Cafe) and then it started pouring with rain so we moved inside, then found a sushi place to have dinner, then made our way back to the hotel for dessert.

On Saturday, we had breakfast in the Sky Bar at the hotel and then rented bicycles from the hotel and rode into the downtown area to spend the day pedaling around exploring stuff.

Exploring by bicycle

 It was really fun to just pedal around with all the other people on bikes without any stress or fear of getting hit by a car. We stumbled upon the famous Noma restaurant and tried to have a drink and snack there, but they have a waiting list that is several months long so we just loitered outside for a bit and then pedaled away.

Me in front of the world famous "Noma" restaurant - notice the beehives on the grass behind!

Beer and nachos stop near Nyhavn on Saturday afternoon

 It was a beautiful day and we were so grateful to have a chance to be out together in the wide world exploring a new and interesting place that neither of us had ever been to.

View of our crazy-looking hotel "Bella Sky Copwell"

We didn't go see the Little Mermaid statue, and we didn't go on a canal tour, but we did think of coming back with the kids to ride bikes around town and possibly rent a canoe to explore all the canals next time!

Canal where we had coffee (left).

On Sunday we took the metro back into the city to go to the Naval Museum, which was very interesting. We spent a good couple of hours there and even found these clothes that we could try on!

At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel to get our bags and then headed to the airport. Rhodri flew back home and I went on to Kristiansund, Norway for a few days of work. It was a really great weekend and we are so grateful to Sioned for making it possible!

Village Fun Day

Today was the long-awaited Village Fun Day on the "Jubilee Green" next to the village hall. It was a perfectly mild and slightly overcast but bright day. We hadn't planned to staying at this thing all day, but that is what happened in the end.

The three amigos: Rhodri, Gordon and Mark

View of the whole scene from the main road

Rhiannon looking after William

After the village day finished around 5pm, Gordon and Anne-Marie came over with their tribe of boys and we sat outside enjoying the good company and fair weather. Sunday rose clear as anything and it was such a treat to simply appreciate the sunshine and blooming flowers.

View of the back garden early Sunday morning

Eurovision 2014

Rhodri and I watched nearly the entire Eurovision Song Contest tonight, and it was really great! There is no equivalent for the mixture of different cultures in one place. This year it was in Copenhagen, Denmark where I happened to be a few days ago (by pure coincidence!) and the hosts put together this video that explains a little about the contest. I love how random this "12 Point Song" is!

There were some truly entertaining performances - among them, the Polish entry "We are Slavic" which featured some busty ladies churning butter and handwashing some clothes; the Russian entry with twin girls that had their hair tied together and then ended up on a see-saw (after hair separated); the Greek entry featuring someone doing fancy trampoline moves in the background and then the whole band got on to jump as well; the Swiss entry featuring some dazzling whistling talent, and then the French entry "I want a moustache"

Quick visit to Denmark

I took a very quick business trip to Fredrikshavn, Denmark this week. I flew Gatwick - Aalborg but had to transit through Copenhagen (where Rhodri and I will be visiting in a couple of weekends time) on the way there. I didn't recognize her at the time, but I actually walked straight past this very strange looking person who went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest (Conchita Wurst).

Sunset stroll along the beach in Fredrikshavn

View of the stern of the vessel "Columbus" from the quayside.

View from the stern of the Columbus back to the quayside

Spectacular colors on the way back to the airport Thurs night

Funny sign at Aalborg airport

It was a short but great trip, and I had an especially enjoyable taxi ride with a Palestinian guy who has lived in Denmark for the past 28 years (moved when he was 2 yrs old), married to a Serbian lady with 2 kids who are magazine models! I felt so lucky to be out in the wide world meeting interesting people.

Camping in Dorset

This weekend we went camping in Dorset with our friends Chris & Roland and their kids Max, Nicky and Phillip. We got up early on Saturday morning and were on the road by 6am to arrive at the campsite just before 10am. We were camping at a place called Brig's Farm, and it was a fantastic place to camp.

Breakfast time with the troops

We set out for the beach in Lyme Regis first before heading over to the closer beach of Charmouth.

Picnic on the beach in Lyme Regis

It wasn't all that warm (as you can see from the clothes we are wearing), but the sun was shining and we were all so happy to be in this part of the country that none of us had ever been to.

We found some lovely ammonite fossils

The kids enjoyed hunting for sea glass - they are easier to find than fossils but just as fun!

Great times on the beach

It was a super weekend: the kids had a great time together jumping on the trampoline at the campsite, hunting for sea glass, playing with Bentley and the farm dog Aggie, and generally being kids out in the fresh air; we adults had a great time staying up late talking by the campfire while the kids slept.

Actually, the weekend started out terribly because within 5 minutes of arriving to the campsite on Saturday morning, Bentley had found a patch of badger poo to cover every inch of his fur coat with brown smelly nastiness. Bad Dog. So on Saturday afternoon before our friends arrived, we went to the beach in Charmouth and Bentley spent about half and hour in the waves chasing rocks that Rhodri threw for him. Bentley also got a sand and seaweed bath to try and scrub out some of the remaining poo. On the way back to camp later, we stopped to buy some dog shampoo and then Rhodri took a shower with Bentley to make him smell decent again. Anyway, after this episode the rest of the weekend was fantastic! We drove back to Chalfonts yesterday (Monday) morning because this was a public holiday.

Beautiful springtime view

We have had some moments of beautiful color and light recently. All the plants and trees are in bloom, and it is just so wonderful in southern England right now. Here is the view out to the South Downs from our bedroom window:

Indulgement

This week we indulged in purchasing some new dining chair cushions. We've had the same crappy cushions for many years now, and they are stained and flattened beyond repair. I say indulged because we ordered these from Ikea and had them delivered. We figured that the £9.00 delivery charge on these 8 cushions would actually save us in the long run because if we actually drove to Ikea, we would come home with more than just 8 seat cushions! Anyway, come visit us to try out the new cushions!

Today was also my brothers' birthday and we were thinking about them all day. 

More bluebells

Bluebell woods are just so magical. I can't get enough of them!

Bluebells and general goodness

We went for a Girls (and dog)-only walk today in the woods near the school and Emma showed us the most amazing patch of bluebells! Photos don't do it justice really but we'll try anyway.

There were some rope swings dotted throughout the woods and the girls did some good swinging!

Easter!

On Saturday morning, we had a little egg hunt and celebratory Easter brunch with our closest homies Emma, Sophie and Oscar. It was a mild but cloudy morning with lots of chocolate and plastic eggs hidden throughout the back garden. We actually didn't dye any eggs this year for the first time in history.

It was such a fun and lovely morning. Rhodri was out riding bikes with his homies, so the morning turned out to be perfect for him too.

Easter Sunday was sort of a mixed bag for us actually. The day started out very rainy and cold and we had been planning to go to church in Danehill with our neighbors Jane, Mark and Toby. So the kids found the baskets that the Easter Bunny had left for them*, then Jane and kids came over to have a coffee before going to church, and that's about the time that we decided to hold our own church service in what we dubbed "Chalfonts Church". (It is really fun having a house with its own name, and which we can morph it into whatever suits our need. Sometimes we decide to go to Chalfonts Cafe for dinner, to Chalfonts Salon for haircuts, Chalfonts Pub for refreshing beverages, and now we've added Chalfonts Church to the mix...) Mark and Toby weren't too impressed, though, as I made them sing along to a YouTube rendition of "Rock of Ages" as our church hymn and then all of us took turns reading passages from the Bible which told the story of Easter. Rhodri, meanwhile, was again out with his cycling homies for a Easter breakfast in a neighboring village so missed out on all the Chalfonts Church fun.

In the afternoon, the rain worsened and we all curled up to watch a movie on the couch for a while but then the sun came out so it didn't feel right to be inside watching a movie anymore. I forced the troops out for a walk in the sunshine and they were very grumpy about it, so the late afternoon involved quite a bit of stomping around and being sent to bedrooms. We had a lovely traditional dinner though which kind of made up for the bad spell in the late afternoon.

* ... We came clean about the Easter Bunny after some serious questions arose about security (how...?) and suspicious handwriting of names, as well as reused baskets from the previous year. This was kind of a blow to them both, but it had to happen at some point.

Seeking bluebells - Part 1

As the final weekend of the Easter holidays, our friends Rob and Macha along with their 3 kids Leonie, Flossie and Teddy came over so that we could go for a walk in search of bluebells.

Rob, Flossie, Rhiannon, Leonie, Macha carrying Teddy, and Rhodri. Tryfan was way ahead hitting things with sticks.

Bentley went for a little swim in what we call our local swimming pool

We did actually see quite a few bluebells though I didn't take photos at this time. We had a great walk meandering through the Ashdown Forest near the Vachery.

Laughing at Bentley who was spraying everyone with water.

Rhiannon especially loves carrying little kids on her back

Pretty much a perfect day

Today was a surprise because Rhodri and the kids had planned an outing and didn't tell me what (or where) it was going to involve. So fun to have a genuine surprise to look forward to! I took the day off of work and we set out in the morning for destinations unknown (to me). Fortunately, the day was clear, stunning, and slightly cool... perfect for north Wales in the springtime. Our destination turned out to be a lovely beach at Porthdinllaen on the Llyn peninsula

We arrived around 10am and walked through the golf course to get to the cliff. In the photo below, we parked on the far left side of the landscape and walked through all the green golfy area, the along the ridgeline up to the end. We took a staircase winding down to the water and then made our way along the shore until we got to the fabulous Ty Coch pub which was one of the buildings in the center of this photo. This is where we had a delicious lunch and played in the sand for a good long time.

Porthdinllaen, with the beach pub we dined at

Another view, further along. 

 Bentley was allowed to be off the leash and he was SO happy to swim in the water and chase rocks. There were other dogs frolicking around as well, and he was happy to play with them. We actually ran into a very old school friend of Rhodri's (Bethan) while we were pottering along the shore - what a surprise!

We walked along the beach back to the car and drove around the coast to meet Rhodri's parents at a special place on the headland called Nant Gwrtheyrn, which is a Welsh Language Learning Center an a very isolated cliffy beach.

Rhodri, Trefor and Bentley at the shore's edge

This was pretty much a perfect day in my opinion and I was so, so happy to be enjoying the fresh Welsh air and sun at the beach with my family.