HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDNA!!

91 !!! Still plenty young enough for steak and ale pie in the Piper (I think it was the mashed potato that won it!!) Happy birthday to an amazing lady!

Mothering Sunday 2011

Mothering Sunday is always the fourth Sunday of Lent.

Mothering Sunday was also known as 'Refreshment Sunday', Pudding Pie Sunday (in Surrey, England) or 'Mid-Lent Sunday'. It was a day in Lent when the fasting rules were relaxed, in honour of the 'Feeding of the Five Thousand', a story in the Christian Bible.

(Hmmmm does that mean we could have had chocolate, crisps, biscuits, cheese and/or yoghurts today then????)

No one is absolutely certain exactly how the name of Mothering Sunday began. However, one theory is that the celebration could have been adopted from a Roman Spring festival celebrating Cybele, their Mother Goddess.


As Christianity spread, this date was adopted by Christians. The epistle in the Book of Common Prayer for this Sunday refers to the heavenly Jerusalem as "the Mother of us all", and this may have prompted the customs we still see today.

It is known on this date, about four hundred years ago, people made a point of visiting their nearest big church (the Mother Church). The church in which each person was baptised.Cathedrals are the 'mother church' of all other churches in an area.People who visited their mother church would say they had gone "a mothering."

A card from Singapore plus the sound of Cub's voice, a visit from the NixenPixen and some fabulous glass earrings from Drake...great ingredients for a great day! And aerobics was busy enough this morning too!

We had a lovely afternoon hunting geocaches in Chester yesterday.We met Nic under the Eastgate clock..





and walked through the Roman Gardens..





and Drakey found the first... a tiny nanocache, werhooo!





Then headed towards the river for the second..



which I found, YIPPEE!



Geocaching takes you to places you wouldn't normally visit and we saw a beautiful cherry blossom tree...




It was a lovely weekend. Thank you all at hollindale.co.uk

ORLA+EDNA+THE RIVER DEE

Edna often used to go down to the Dee to sit on the bench and watch the ducks and boats. However she will be 91 next week and the walk back uphill is now getting too much for her.With the impending visit from sis next month coupled with the ongoing improvements by the riverside, it seemed a good opportunity to go and have a look at how things were shaping up down there. PLUS I HAVE A NEW CAR!

OMG OMG "Edna, you shall be my first passenger!!"




After a little snack in Hickory's we sat on the bench for half an hour. None of the big boats were going out which had me worried as sis has plans for a trip down the river... but

CHESTERBOAT

start up their daily sailings on 2nd April. Traditionally the season starts on Good Friday but this year Easter is so late.



The boats may not have been sailing but the ice cream kiosks were open! Selling the award winning Cheshire Farm Ice Cream.



It was a lovely couple of hours, sunny and warm.

(I'm just dreading the day it rains and Orla's leather seats)

"Orla"

I am looking forward to some smaller fuel bills with the arrival of Orla who was delivered at 7am this morning. Last night felt exactly like how Christmas Eve used to feel in Glenroy Close, I was so ridiculously excited I hardly slept.

She is absolutely lovely and smells amazing (though no doubt will soon smell of dog). She caused quite a stir at Aerobics.



I've put a bit of Dad's famous carpet in the boot to keep Sammie clean and keep mud off the car, it matches the headrests perfectly.



I want to say "I went to Morrisons and bought a car".... that is not strictly true but I DID sit in the demo model outside Morrisons and liked it enough to decide on buying one.

An Orla Kiely one!








Gorgeous song, gorgeous voice, gorgeous car.

Night out at the Mill

I was hot and sweating on a spinninbike half an hour before this...



These lovely lovely PowerPlate trainers are responsible for my lovely lovely arms



the "rabble" haha



Val and Chris



Hel, Mardi 'n' She



Kay overlooking the Blacon lot



Donna!



Kay and Marjorie



Jackie in her gorgeous dress, I want one, I love this fabric.



Gill, little Sue and Irene, combined ages 184

OMG OMG DON'T THEY LOOK AMAZING!



"Hello Dolly"



Aaaah Jude. Smashing person.

The garden tidy up

We have a large silver birch in our back garden which needed lopping... I couldn't believe how big the pile of branches was when I took Gary Ardener a cup of tea out.







It looks much better now.

Naturally Sammie wanted the man to play with Woody.



But she was quite content to lie in her dip.



Gary Ardener tidied up the front too. (Nice car)(Aah Dessie)

Red Nose Day Fun 2011

As usual for Red Nose Day it was "Look Ridiculous Day" at Square One today. I didn't see a single red nose but we all made a big effort to wear something bright and cheerful which was aerobic-friendly and most of us managed the whole class in fancy dress.

I used a lot of hairspray on my beehive. (!)



Kathryn looked like she had put on weight but she assured me it was all ventilation and surprisingly cool in there!



Denise sprayed her hair red.



Theresa is a Dublinner so Guinness suited her just fine.



I did the whole sweaty hour with NOT A HAIR OUT OF PLACE!



I EVEN DID THE PLANK!



I couldn't believe it when some silly cow walked in...



YEY!!! It was Claire, hahahaha (the front half was anyway!)



Jean, Mandy, Kate and Vanessa.



It took me 30 ins to work out who actually was Elvis!




"You put your right hoof in, your left hoof in..."



Lyn, Sue and Lindsey.



Leprechaun Theresa!




They are such a great crowd, we had a lot of fun this morning!



However I need to congratulate Chris Moyles and his team on his world record breaking mammoth radio show which ran for 52 hours non stop and raised TWO AND A HALF MILLION POUNDS for Comic Relief.... WOW!!