aliholli

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Big Sis and BIL come to Chester werhoooo

How exciting!!!!!!

Big Sis and B-I-L coming to Chester!

So without further ado we headed off to the river for a baked potato in Hickory's

before mozying down the river on the Mark Twain.

I must know the commentary off by heart by now but we all smiled at the story of the witches on Barrel Well Hill. Those ladies suspected of being involved in witchcraft were put in a barrel and sent rolling down the hill into the Dee. If they drowned they were deemed innocent and therefore must be on their way to heaven. If they survived they were obviously guilty and were hanged on Barrel Well Hill anyway!

A little retail shopping followed...

and a look at the Chester Clock..

before the scenic walk along the walls (alongside the cathedral looking splendid at the moment, lovely colours),

and the old "Chester Cathedral Cricket Team"'s ground, back to Orla who was safe and sound in her parking space with noone else near her (!!)

A ride in Orla was a must and she needed a run out so next day we headed off to the Choaks (BIL fancied a trip to Milan)

Meanwhile his wifey had found YET ANOTHER BAG SHOP!! HOW many bags????

As you can see we had a fantastic afternoon!

It was rounded off with a trip into school for the GCSE Art Exhibition, the lure being the free glass of wine that Husb was serving(!) but we were all very impressed with the amount of work the students had done. Shoes featured a lot and the work was mostly textured rather than painted...

naturally we discussed this over an excellent carvery tea where we were looked after by Joy, Kay's daughter.

Brilliant fun! and Sis and BIL seemed to be loving it all too. I'm not sure who made the greatest impression, Orla or Sammie?! They both received a lot of fuss anyway!

(Now then...what do I need to do for my forthcoming holiday...???)

Monday, 11 April 2011

Pre-season cricket dinner

Wareing, Nigey, Bear and Will...

Bob and TC (the colonel)

...not quite sure how this happened...(Possibly had something to do with me giving Bob stick about his new non-stick chewing gum?)

Entertainment by the Deportees (Greenie and Bill!!)

Its always a good night as it signifies the fact that the long winter is over at last.

(and once more, into the kitchen I go with the bread and butter...)

Good luck for the coming season lads.

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

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!

Sunday, 3 April 2011

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

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

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)

Monday, 28 March 2011

"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!