‘Let’s just tidy up the Laurel bushes’

Things grow so fast in the garden and this year it seems with our crazy weather; hot one day and wet the next, everything has gone mad. Les having trimmed the leylandii hedge at the back of the drive decided that we should also trim the laurel hedge. It had become a little overgrown I admit, but when the chain saw came out and branches started falling to the ground, I was a little concerned. But like a bad visit to the hairdresser when the once long tresses start getting shorter and shorter so the laurel hedge was trimmed. First this way and then that until – well it’s nearly all gone.

Two days of clearing up and 5 trips to the trip with the waste followed and we now have a short but tidy hedge. At least we won’t have all those awful leaves falling this year and the undergrowth has been cleared away for some new shrubs to be planted. ‘It will grow back again’ Les said. I’m sure that’s what the hairdresser said!

Can't wait for the Paralympics

For two weeks I have to admit I was glued to the TV. From the fantastic opening ceremony to the last note of The Who at the closing one I was hooked. London looked wonderful and our athletes did us proud. All those years of hard work and dedication paid off with our fantastic medal count. It’s funny really as we are not big sports fans; football never gets a look in on our TV, but we got caught up in the occasion of it all and for two weeks were part of a proud nation. Everyone we spoke to was talking about it, over heard conversations in the street or shops were about the Olympics. Close by in Flint we have a Gold medal winner in the shape of young Jade Jones who won hers for Taekwondo. I am looking forward to seeing the Gold post box that must have been painted in Flint to honour her and of course the stamps.
Following on from the Tour de France Les and I got our bicycles out and have attempted the odd ride or two. We didn’t think we could have been more thrilled than when Bradley Wiggins won the Tour and we weren’t expecting such excitement in the Velordrome during the Olympics either. Fantastic!
But now they are finished and everything is flat again. Why ? Not because of the end of the Olympics but because the newspapers and media have now reverted back to the usual depressing negative spin on everything.
Can’t wait for the Paralympics to start –we might gets some good news again.

Covering a window seat

Yesterday was a miserable day, wet and misty all day so I decided to spend it productively and recovered the window seat in the Rose Room. We are very lucky to have a great mill nearby called Abakhan at Mostyn where you can buy almost anything to do with crafts: knitting, sewing, crochet, patchwork, embroidery etc. You name it and they sell it. They also run great courses and we have had several ladies stay with us in the B&B whilst on them. One lady even brought her own sewing machine and set it up in the bedroom to finish her work.
A while back I managed to pick up some fabric for the window seat but put it away waiting for just a day to make the new cover.

I even made the piping to go around the top edges.

After a whole day and much of the evening it was finished – and I must admit I am pleased with the results. I still have enough to make a couple of cushion covers – but luckily today the sun is shining so the sewing machine has been put away for another day.

'We had a nice March'

On our recent holiday we took the caravan over to France and then drove up to the Dutch/German border to a lovely little place called Well in Limburg. We camped right by a lake Leukermeer for about 8 days and spent some time with both my sister who was also visiting the area and my cousin who lives just over the border in Germany.

We had mixed weather – when I say mixed there was some sunshine mixed in with the rain and the thunder storms. And despite the weather we had a lovely time. Holland is so clean and tidy and flat so we took the opportunity to do quite a bit of cycling. Everyone cycles in Holland form the very young to the very old and it seems that bicycles have the right of way on most roads. Cycle routes are everywhere and every route that we took was well signposted and picturesque.

We also spent the last few days just south of Dunkirk; we were pleasantly surprised at this lovely part of France. We like most people had only previously driven through to get further south, but it is certainly worth a look. We spent a memorable afternoon touring the Blockhaus at Eperlecques close to where we were camped. This was the site where the Germans were planning to launch the V2 rockets during the 2nd world war. Luckily the Brits bombed it and stopped that little game. But it was an incredible place still full of eerie atmosphere and an engineering feat that has to be reluctantly admired even after all these years.

Back home in Wales I can’t say we have enjoyed any better weather than whilst we were away. Although I know it’s not my fault, but I always feel bad when guest arrive in bad weather. However I don’t feel quite so bad now. It seems that the weather is pretty bad throughout most of northern Europe. Everywhere we went it was commented on and in Holland we were told ‘We had a nice March’, ‘so did we’, I said. In German we were told ‘We had a nice March’ and of course in France we were also told ‘We had a nice March’.

Please can we have another nice month or even two? July or August or even September, but let’s hope that the whole of the year doesn’t go by without another ‘nice’ one.

Memories of another Jubilee

So it’s been a milestone weekend and apart from the weather a great success. We managed to fit a couple of Jubilee ‘things’ in over the weekend and of course yesterday was my birthday.
I always wondered why I was told that I was a Coronation baby – although it happened on the 2nd June 1953 and I didn’t pop out till the 5th, this weekend made me realise that such an important occasion would have had the country in a state of excitement for much longer than just the day.
However the Jubilee I really remember the best was the Silver Jubilee in 1977 when the street where my parents lived had a party. My Mum was one of the organisers and I remember weeks and weeks of planning by the ladies. The tables and chairs stretched all the way along the road and everything was decorated with red, white and blue, much like these last few days. We had sandwiches, pies, and sausage rolls with a fantastic cake, and jelly and ice cream for the kids and a barrel of beer for the men. There was a lorry parked across one end which played music and we all supplied our own LP’s, and took it in turns to change them.
There was also a fancy dress competition for the children and I remember my brother all dressed up as a Knight. I had spent hours painting a coat of arms on a shield for him and my Mum had made the costume. The annoying thing was that his friend won, he had also come as a Knight. But the judges didn’t realise that in desperation the day before he copied my brother’s idea and his Mum went and brought him his costume!! These days you can go into many shops and buy complete outfits for dressing up but then, a bought costume just wasn’t heard of – it must have cost a fortune. It still annoys me all these years later. It was a great day though and everyone in the street was happy – everyone was a friend and all the doors to the houses were left open for anyone to pop in and get more food, or go to the loo.
A lot has changed in the last 35 years but I think this week end we saw much of that British spirit on display again – long may it continue.
Next year it will be my 60th – can I call that my Diamond Jubilee do you think.

Jubilee Cup Cakes

Ok so its wet today after days of lovely hot and sunny weather. So I decided to start thinking about the Jubilee weekend and as we are full up with guests I thought I would try my hand at some Jubilee cup cakes. Here are the results. If you want to make them I just used a 4 egg sponge mixture with extra baking powder (half a teaspoon) and then played about with the icing. Hope everyone has a lovely long weekend and that the weather stays fine for all the many celebrations that have been organised. Happy 60th to Her Majesty.

Is being busy the key to happiness?

Have you ever volunteered for anything before? If you have then you will know that once you put your hand up it tends to stay up for a very long time. The last few weeks have been hectic it say the least!

Added to the usual business of running a Bed and Breakfast Les and I have been heavily involved in the local Twinning. We are ‘twinned’ with a small town near Rennes in Brittany called St Grégoire. This year is our 10th anniversary and last weekend we had nearly 70 French people visiting Holywell to celebrate the fact. We had a fantastic weekend, but the organising has been incredible and all those involved worked so hard to make it such a success. Finding new hosts is always a challenge but this year we managed to find lots of new lovely people willing to give up their weekend to entertain our French friends. All of them have said they enjoyed the experience and let’s hope they develop lasting friendship like Les and I have over the years.

Unfortunately during all the excitement I have developed a bad knee and have had to curtail my antics at Erddig house volunteering with the education department for a while, which is a shame as I enjoy working with the children so much. I also help with Flintshire Tourism and try and keep their website up to date. It was Lucille Ball who said ‘If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it’. My days are full of cooking, cleaning, making beds, organising, planning, negotiating, chatting, shopping, typing, emailing, telephoning, checking and booking, meeting, greeting and ironing. Oh and trying to find time to knit and paint and garden and have time for friends and family. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. When you hear me moan that I am a little stressed or under pressure – don’t sympathise too much as really I’m having a blast.

Some years ago before working for myself I used to sit my office in Chester bored with the job I had been doing for many years. It had become repetitive but at the same time increasingly demanding and I felt resentful of the time I spent there - I constantly wished for something different. So when our life changed and we started running our B and B we also started getting ‘involved’ with more and more things locally.

I thought I was busy then – huh! Busy I maybe but enjoying the madness of it all! So be careful what you wish for it may just come true.