Seeing out July

 Today was the last day of the month, and I was glad to have the chance to see it out properly by going for a 'wine walk' with Naomi and Heather.  We haven't done this for awhile and it was a gorgeous evening for it.  We didn't go too far but enough to feel tired at the end of it.

Garden this year

 It is a pretty sad state of affairs here in the veg patch/ greenhouse area.  Since we really have not had much summer at all, things are not really growing! At least the plants that one wants to have growing are not doing well. Too many slugs :-(

Neighborly visit

We were invited this evening to come for a little soiree at Sonia & Chris's house nearby.  It was great because we never hang out with them, and Naresh and Corinne were there too! We had a fun little evening.  In fact, we had such a laugh hanging out i the little pallet lounge where we used a leafblower to stoke the fire which was struggling with the wet wood. 

Locko and Caro

This past week has been really special because we had our very old and long lost friends Caroline and Locko come stay with us!  They were on their way home from sailing in the Caribbean, and we had such a brilliant couple of days with them. You can see that they brought the lovely weather with them! We went on a couple of nice walks, did some wine tasting at Bluebell Vineyard, and went out to dinner at the Coach & Horses. 

Just Annie

I took this when Suzi and I were out for the walk and I really like the colors and patterns in the sky and land, and also on Annie Dog herself! Sometimes its hard to get a photo that shows her colors. 

Suzi comes to visit!

My dear friend from UCSB rowing days, Suzi, and I have been talking about her coming to visit for such a long time.  We did manage to cross paths back in Feb 2020 when she and her family drove up to Santa Barbara to see us when we were there, but she had never been here.  So we hatched a plan for her to detour on her way to Germany this summer and she arrived Friday!  It was so awesome to see her this weekend.  We started with what has become "the usual" Friday Fizz & Crisps at the Roebuck pub where I have been meeting Cat and Emma B after work on Fridays.  It was actually lovely weather for once, so we sat outside.

Although on Saturday we had Ian and Angela's wedding, on Sunday Suzi and I managed to go for a gorgeous walk at the top of Firle beacon.

It wasn't super warm, but the sky and the lighting was spectacular.  What a treat to share the day with Suzi.  I'm so grateful that she came to see me.

A Sussex countryside wedding

Our friends Iain and Angela got married today at a ceremony and reception at their impressive house nearby.  Tryfs is good friends with Orin (Iain's son from his previous marriage), and they have kept in touch over all these years despite not going to the same school since nursery school.  The wedding ceremony was the briefest we have ever encountered, and it really was all about the reception!  We sat with our friend Mel who had gone to school with Iain and lives near us.

Here are some goofy photos of the 3 of us. Really wish that Rhi could have been in this photo session too!

Anyway it was a fun afternoon / evening where we met loads of new people and had a good time dancing the night away!  Meanwhile, Suzi who had arrived yesterday was able to spend the day in London and get there and back using public transport, so that was good.

New storage facility

Rhodri's company has inventory busting out of its seams, so he has taken the decision to rent a storage unit at the nearby equestrian facility which has converted some stables into units.  Ideal!  I helped him move stuff in today.

 

Gap year start

Today we took Rhiannon to the airport to see her off (again).  This time she is headed to Santa Barbara to do her gap year before starting university.  She has a gloriously loose plan of: 1) getting her drivers license,  2) getting a job, and 3) enjoying life in California!  We are really glad that she is able to go do these things, and in the relatively safe network of my family, since she will be living with Grandma Debi and across the street from Eric and Kristin. Nevertheless, it was difficult to say goodbye when the moment arrived in the Gatwick South Departures area.

New sign at the house

We have had a very sad looking sign in front of our house for quite a long time now.  Finally now this week Rhiannon and Rhodri worked together on an improvement.  Here is the work in progress..

Old friends in Milan

Yesterday I flew to Milan for a 2 day workshop, and I was able to see my very old friends Aldo and Vito!  They drove from Piacenze to my hotel near Linate airport and joined me for dinner in the hotel.

I had a lovely flight over the Alps on my way! What a treat.

Love Supreme / Chiefs Day

This jazz music festival at Glynde has been going for a few years now, and each year it is better.  I haven't been to it in 9 years and Rhodri has never been, but Tryfs went last year and again this year.  It was sunny but blustery weather throughout the weekend.  Tryfan camped for the whole weekend, but Rhods and I attended just for the Sunday afternoon session, which felt really good since today was Chief''s Day.

We heard some great bands, and I think this first one was my favorite, Balimaya Project.  We also saw the Black Pumas, Joss Stone, & Kool and the Gang.  My friends Emma and Kelvin were there, and in fact they had an extra "Supremium" ticket that they let us use.  It was fun to see them, and while we were walking around together I bought an awesome leopard kaftan which I'm stoked about.

July 4th concert

I've known for many months now that Morgan Wallen was due to play a concert at Hyde Park in central London today on the 4th of July.  I had resisted buying tickets to go see him, waiting to see how things shook out.  But yesterday I realized that I really didn't have a good reason to NOT go see this great country musician in central London with my homegirl Rhi!  I was so happy that we did this.  It was a really fun and memorable afternoon and evening together.

At one point Morgan left the main stage and disappeared in the crowd, only to resurface on a pop up stage quite close to us! This was really exciting.

One of the really fun things about our Morgan Wallen concert experience was this Irish girl named Faith standing next to us.  She was so chatty and fierce but funny, and every tall person who tried to budge in front of us, she would gently but firmly help them to relocate.  It was hilarious to see her in action and also really fun to enjoy the music next to her and her friends!  But of course the best thing about this event was spending it with Rhiannon. My heart feels full when I think back to this night.

Tryfan goes to Prom

 Even though we just got home this afternoon, Tryfs was able to quickly turn it around and get all dressed up to go to his Prom tonight.  Here are some photos from the action...

By all accounts it appears as though he had a great time!

Ischia - traveling home

It was sad to end our holiday on lovely Ischia, and it would get worse before it got better, but we did eventually make it home.  On Tuesday we had a pretty impressive storm for a lot of the day, which made for a beautiful sunset and a dramatic conclusion to our trip.

Wednesday morning was sunny and warm, and we left the hotel on time, got to the port and caught a ferry back to Naples.

In the background is Vesuvius which looks like it is steaming although I think it was just dramatic clouds in the vicinity.

We pulled up next to an enormous cruiseliner in the port!

Then we took a bus to the airport and arrived with 2.5 hours until our flight departure. Perfect!  But then after checking in, we saw our flight was delayed by 1 hour, then 2 hours, then 3 hours, then... cancelled.  yikes. So we joined the hundreds of other people to collect our checked baggage and figure out what to do next.  We couldn't get a flight that would get us home to England that night at all, but Rhiannon found us a flight the next morning that got us to Luton airport which is a train journey from home, so once that was sorted we found a place to lay our heads.  It wasn't in the nicest part of town...

In fact, it was pretty dodgy. But at least the 4 of us were in the same room which was clean and had air conditioning and a bathroom in the room, a television, WiFi and a lock on the door!  Good enough! We watched the Euro game of Portugal vs Georgia where Georgia won 2-0! 

Today we made it home, safe and sound, and it was such a nice feeling to be home!