First things first!

No trip back to Blighty would be complete without a taste of the things most missed. And so, upon our arrival in Whitby, we sought out a greasy spoon and ordered a Full English. Oh yes. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is not a fried egg on toast, it is a fried egg on .....fried bread - as only the English know how! And, in case you were wondering - this is breakfast

Check out the menu for what we had too much respect for our arteries to order, but would have been oh so scrummy! Bread and Butter and a mug of tea with that, pet?

A Wedding, a Baptism and a Birthday.

The Good Life started here!

A little of what you fancy......

Our Winter House Guest has long since moved outside, shaken off those inside winter blues and shown us what she is really made of!

Sweet nothings

Mummy and daughter hanging out on the bleachers watching son at hockey practise: daughter is climbing up and down the stairs, taking risks and causing other spectators to gasp and reach out to stop the potential fall. Each time Mummy chides her daughter with a firm "hold on to the handrail, please," daughter smiles, throws her arms around Mummy's neck and kisses her cheek. One time too many and there is a telling off. Daughter kisses Mummy then hangs on. "Whisper in ear Mummy,"
"Ok, sweetheart," delights Mummy.
"Poop head." whispers daughter.
"Hmmmmm" says Mummy.

Later on, the same again.
"Whisper in ear, Mummy,"
"Ok, sweetie, what is it?"
"Poop head."
"Why don't you whisper something nice in Mummy's ear, poppet?"
Daughter pulls away, cocks her head to one side and thinks for a moment. A gleam in her eye, she says, "Whisper in ear, Mummy,"
A cautious, "Yes?"

"Nick Junior!"

Behind a perfectly ordinary door......

 ...there is a special space for a special little girl.....

 ...where she can take refuge when the bigger kids get too much and she needs to be alone among the Truffula trees and the Humming fish.

Visitors can stop by......but only when they are invited!

What a difference a few years make!

Jodi and Finn were very kindly gifted some tickets to the NASCAR racing a couple of weekends ago. They both loved it and enjoyed the day enormously. Their memories of the day are a little different and there are fairly obvious differences in what they will tell you was their favourite part of the day.

 

I thought they were going to enjoy seeing these:

One of them did and spent some time photographing them:

One of them spent far more time photographing these:

Can you guess which one preferred which?



(Had I been there I would have spent far more time here:

Dr.McDreamy, for the uninitiated - the spectacular Patrick Dempsey who, when he's not hanging about acting in Grey's Anatomy, is driving racing cars.)