August and September

Mary and I on the steam train....

After Jonny and Kate's wedding Jeff set off back to France via Amsterdam to do DJ-ing at some wedding gigs and I set off to Fort William with Mary for a lovely girly and sisterly few days walking and enjoying a fabulous trip on the West Highland Railway out to Mallaig.       

Back: me, Valerie and Betty
Front: Mary, Marguerite and Cynthia

The same week Mary and I went to see Auntie Dorothy who was as sprightly and bright as ever.    We had a good blether.    The next day Mary and I also met up with two sets of cousins also sisters.   We had not seen each other for years and it was just lovely.    We met Cynthia and Betty (Notman) from my mum's side of the family and Marguerite and Valerie (Dudgeon) from my Dad's side.    We all agreed a nice big family reunion in 2015 is definitely on the cards.




After Fort William I hopped on the train down to Newark and from there drove back to France with Dave and little Ella and Harry.   We had a lovely trip down which seemed to pass in no time via the Chunnel.    The kids were so good for such a long journey.    Ella and Harry drove us mad though asking (every 20 mins or so) 'are we nearly there?  'how much further is it?' and Dave and I kept them going with 'oh not far, just another 100 miles and so on'.    Then when we did finally arrive (after a full day and evening driving) , Ella said 'oh that didn't take long then'.!! 

We just got back to our house with a few days to spare before Tracey, Joel and Peter, Susie, Sophie, Zach and Daniel pitched up.     Ahhhhhh    

Bed time stories galore.....

This was our dream scenario having them all to visit us in France.     We had never imagined they could all come at once but with a 12-man tent in the garden - why not?   
It was a wonderful week if not exhausting  with many highlights...... treasured memories.      

All ready for the morning.....

Our idea of perfection would be to have them all live here permanently but since that's not going to happen, this was the next best thing......   

Peter with his own room (tent pod) at last....

Sophie likes her wee pod....

Ella and Susie - snuggly

Harry and Zach cosy....

Daniel - so cute cot-in-a-pod!!

my wee riding buddies

It was just so good to see the kids running round and enjoying the garden and the tree house and the pool and riding at the local stables.    Ah perfect.     We miss them all every day. 

Mid September it transpired that I shared this birthday month with several friends so we formed the September birthday club and had a lovely lunch and tea and supper all on one day!

The inaugural meeting of the September Birthday Club

     

One of those annoying tourists.....

That week we managed a day on the beach sans these pesky annoying tourists!!   

Late in September we went for our annual canal boat holiday in north wales.   The journey back to the UK was excellent as we decided to get a lastmin.com deal and stay in Rouen overnight.    What an awesome city.    We managed to do a whistlestop tour and saw the famous cathedrals of Notre Dame, Church of Saint Joan of Arc, Le Gros Horlage and other medieval buildings - fabulous!   Definitely somewhere we will return to.    

The canal boat trip was along Llangollen to the Pontcysylite Aqueduct and we were so lucky with the most fantastic weather for two weeks - blue skies and beautiful autumnal scenes. We even managed to zoom up Snowdon (on the wee train).     It was the most relaxing holiday of the year after a far too busy summer.   

Llangollen canal north wales