Spring Finally Arrives!

At long last it seems spring has finally arrived.  We have had a lovely sunny weekend and the blossom is now flowering on the trees.

It hasn't been the best of weeks.  I have had a couple of big events at work to organise and on Monday was told my job (among several) is being made redundant.  Consequently I have not been sleeping too well and have spent most of the week feeling exhausted and queasy.  It was nice to get to the weekend and to have some time to distract myself with the family and the home.

We had a really busy day in the garden yesterday.

The boys and I stained the decking.

While David repaired the rendering and painted a dirty looking wall.

 

I then stained the outdoor table.

All the wood is now a lovely shade of orange much to the amusement of our neighbours. 

Yes - We have been Tango'd!









It has been so nice to be outside soaking up the warm sunshine.

Nat had fun in his little ladybird tent.  I made him up a little picnic to enjoy.

 

I slept much better last night, thank goodness. What a shame we have to go back to work tomorrow.

David's Birthday in Caen

So we had an evening drive down to Portsmouth to board the Ferry for Caen

We were allowed to drive on early and could check right into our overnight cabin which was cosy but with a window.

We dumped our bags and went to explore the ferry.  We found the soft play area for Nat and had a quick browse in the shops purchasing a magnetic GB sticker for the car.

We went out on deck and watched as we left Portsmouth and headed out accross the Channel to France.

Back in the cabin we settled Nat into bed and read him a story and David and I enjoyed a glass of wine.

We were due to dock at 5.45am so had set the alarm on David's phone for 5.15am to give us half an hour to get dressed and back down to the car.

It was a bit of a fitful nights sleep for me as I was tossing and turning all night.

Then at 4.45am the sound of music blaring out rudely disturbed us.  I threw David's phone up to him in his bunk so he could turn it off.

Turns out it wasn't his alarm but the boat piping music through the radio system to ensure people were awake and getting ready to disembark an hour before we docked!!

Had to wake a very sleepy Nat and get him dressed.

We were obviously in Caen very early so we drove into the town centre which was quite a drive from the ferry port.  David parked up outside the castle and we enjoyed a breakfast of crossiant, pain au chocolat and homemade strawberry and vanilla jam and ginger citrus marmalade.  The food wasnt French as I had bought it in Tesco and had taken it with us in the car.  Nat was asleep.

We then drove to Arromanches where we found a cafe that was open for a cup of coffee.

Then we had a little walk along the beach and collected a few shells to take home as a souvenir.

We then went into the museum where we learned all about Operation Overlord the Second World War 6 June D-Day landings and how the Allies had constructed a floating harbour and towed it all the way from England and had engineered a system to sink old ships and to flood huge concrete blocks to form a breakwater and harbour so that not only supplies could be landed but also troops and tanks and armoured vehicles.

It was really fascinating and very interesting.

We then drove up a hill to a circular 9 screen cinema where we watched a film about the D-Day landings.  It was mostly footage from the various allies and the sound effects of gun fire, ack ack guns and bombs was really loud.  It is really amazing to think how brave those young men were that went off to war without question and bravely put their lives on the line for the sake of our country and freedom.

The scenes where the allied troops entered Paris were incredibly moving.  The crowds of people cheering and welcoming them were huge.

I have been to Normandy before on a school trip and as part of that trip we visited one of the war cemeteries with the beautiful white marble crosses and stars marking each grave.  That was a very poignant moment too but I think at the time I was too young to fully comprehend the complexity of the detail and planning behind the D-Day landings.

Anyway we couldn't stay too long in the museum as we had Nat with us and there is only so long that a three year old's interest can be maintained.

We therefore spent the rest of our short trip in Festyland park where he had great fun on all the rides.

Not sure who is having more fun!

It was the beginning of the season and quite a cold day so not surprisingly it was not at all busy and there were no queues for anything which was great for us as we only had three hours before we needed to head back to the Ferry.

The embarking process on the way home was painfully slow.  Passport control seemed to take forever and we were still queuing half an hour after the Ferry was supposed to have left port.  In the end they waved a load of us through without checking our passports and we joined another queue before driving on and parking the car.

We didn't have a cabin on the way home but parked our things on some reclining seats in one of the lounges.

We had taken some food with us and I had packed a small birthday cake and some candles for David.  I noticed there were sprinklers everywhere inside so thought i had better not risk lighting the candles inside the boat so we had to try and find a wind free corner out on deck where we could light the candles and sing happy birthday to David.

It was a very long day and we docked an hour late then managed to choose the wrong queue at passport control and had a stupidly long wait for no apparent reason.

Finally got home just before mid-night.  We dumped all our stuff in the hall and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep.

It has been good fun and David has really enjoyed his mini-cruise to Caen but it has been quite tiring and I am glad we have Sunday to recover and get ourselves straight again!!

Mini Cruise to Caen . . or was that Cannes?

So when my husband asked me if I wanted to go on a mini cruise to Cannes for his birthday I thought mmm, I've never been to the South of France so that would be nice.

However, it turns out I completely misheard him and found we were actually going on an overnight cross channel Ferry to Caen in the north of France.  Apparently thats the best that our limited budget could stretch to.

David has been beside himself with excitement all week.  I was struggling to build up quite as much enthusiasm.  It has been bitterly cold here and has been snowing every day this week.  The thought of a rough ferry crossing and a miserable day in the drizzle in a french town was doing little to entice me.

Nat, however was very excited to be going on 'a boat!' and looked at the Brittany Ferry online video "oohing and aahing" in all the appropriate places much to David's satisfaction.

Seb has broken up from school for the Easter holidays and has gone off on holiday to Istanbul in Turkey with my parents for ten days so it was just the three of us heading off on our exotic 'mini-cruise'.

David worked from home Friday so we could have time for dinner before getting on the road to Portsmouth.

David had asked me to get some food in for our trip which I had duly complied with.  He clearly hadn't trusted me to buy enough tempting nibbles as I noticed he had also purchased and packed a bag full of biscuits and treats.  We were only going away for one night and one day as we were catching the 4.30pm ferry back again the next day!

However, we were taking the car and therefore felt obliged to fill the boot with enough food and spare clothes to equip a small army.  I also had to pop a few birthday presents and birthday cake and candles in too.

Poor David (due to a lack of good ideas from him and devoid of any inspiration from me) has this year ended up with lots of birthday presents that were just what I wanted.  Oh well next year he will have to be more explicit when placing his birthday gift requests.

Anyway after receiving a 'solar-powered Waving figure of the Queen' for my mothers day gift i figure he deserves a taste of his own medicine.  I do actually love my waving queen very much, if only because Nathaniel is so taken with it that he tells me every day, (without fail), how much he loves my 'Queen' and how beautiful it is.  He regularly brings it over for me to admire and compliment.

I had put it in pride of place in a suitably sunny spot in our consevatory.  Imagine my 'dismay' when Seb and Nat - playing football - knocked it off the windowsill and it broke into three or four pieces.
'oh no!  What a shame!!'

And just imagine how delighted I was when my father took it upon himself to take it home and glue it back together for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Nat for my lovely Queen - yes it is my favourite present and yes it is very beautiful!

Anyway lets hope that David gets great pleasure from the string of outdoor multi-coloured lantern lights and the firepit that he never knew he wanted!!

More about Caen in my next post!

April Fools Day

Yesterday was 1st April therefore April fools day.  It somehow seemed to creep up on us by surprise so we didn't have the usual string of pranks from David and Seb this year.  Just a balloon in the toilet planted by David.

It was a dry but cold day but we took advantage of the opportunity to restain the tired looking arbour in our garden.

David spent Friday pressure cleaning it and getting rid of all the green and dirt that has accumulated over the past few years.

We popped into Homebase to buy some deck stain and picked one that was buy one get one half price.  Should have known by the fact it was on sale that there might be something wrong with it.

The tin described the colour as Autumn Gold but when we opened it at home it was distinctly orange.

However, by the time I realised this, David had already started painting the beams of the arbour so there was nothing for it but to carry on.

We all took a turn at painting the beams, bannisters and decking.

Our neighbours were rather bemused at the colour but helpfully kept reassuring us it 'doesn't look too bad!!"

Anyway it also needed two coats not the one coat promised on the tin so we were pleased to get it finished.

We then enjoyed hot cross buns and home made lemon curd before clearing up and getting changed for dinner at my parents house.

It has been a busy and productive bank holiday weekend and nice to only have a four day working week this week too.

Nat had his first day at nursery today.  I made him a litttle bag to put his obligatory three spare changes of clothes (apparently they do a lot of messy play and go outside in all weathers!!)

Gosh my baby is growing up so quickly.  Won't be long before I am waving him off to school!