A Life of 90 Years

What's in a life that has lasted over 90 years? A lot!

Yesterday we celebrated Dorothy Harrison's 90th Birthday. Dorothy is Marc's Auntie Mary's mother. We celebrated with a lovely luncheon party at a beautiful barn. There were lots of family and lots of children and loads of great laughs.

Simon Bastow, Marc's cousin and Dorothy's grandson, gave a beautiful tribute reminding all of us of what an incredible individual Dorothy is (as if we could forget) and more poignantly, what an incredible life she has lived. She left home for her first day of teaching the day after the UK entered the second World War.

She is a prolific letter writer and a keen observer of sport, especially golf and tennis. Her mind is as sharp as a tack. She is never shy to express an opinion about the latest shenanigans of our politicians and their policies. The camera she is holding in her hand in the photo (left) is at least 50 years old and she wields it like a pro. She loves my children like they are her own great- grandchildren.

We were honoured to join her and her family in the celebrations and really enjoyed meeting family members previously unknown to us. We have made some new friends and hope to keep in touch with them. The lunch was delicious and the weather was beautiful. The children had a fabulous time and enjoyed playing with all the other children (with the small exception of Abigail's scrapped knee, which she has scrapped again this morning whilst helping mummy and daddy in the garden).

And to Dorothy, thank you for setting an example on how to live a life wholly, content and happy.

Tea at the Bastow's

Afternoon tea in England is a fabulous tradition. No where is it more fabulous that at the Bastow house. On Sunday we were invited round to the Bastow home for afternoon tea. Hurray, say I!

John is Marc's Uncle. He is Veda's big brother. Sebastian is incredibly fond of John mostly because he is very good at building things with legos. On Sunday, John and Sebastian constructed the most amazing garage complete with a (non working) generator on the roof. You can see how Sebastian might be particularly smitten with John.


Mary is John's wife. She is very talented at just about everything she undertakes. She is a fabulous golfer and very crafty. For Christmas she knitted clothes for Abigail's dolly. She also made beautiful quilts for both the children when they were born. Sebastian's quilt is still in pristine condition. Abigail on the other hand can't make it through the day without taking her quilt just about everywhere she goes. On Sunday, Mary took the opportunity to make some emergency repairs to the quilt. She was even patient enough to try teach Abigail how to make her own repairs. that's a good thing. Abigail will need that skill when she needs to make repairs after she has left home to go to university.

Dorothy, Mary's mum, lives just round the corner from them and she came round for tea as well. Dorothy will be celebrating her 90th birthday in April. She used to be a school teacher and is still just sharp as a tack. She gets a bit frustrated though because her hearing unfortunately, isn't as good as it used to be, and she struggles to keep up with the conversation. this is particularly difficult when 2 children are running around like crazy maniacs!



Mike, Mary's brother, lives with Dorothy so obviously, he also had a cuppa or two with us. He keeps up with all the sporting news and keeps us informed of all the latest stories from the newspapers. Few things happen in the world without Mike bringing them to our attention!

Tea was delicious! Biscuits were Divine! Thank You for the conversation!

If you fall off a horse......

get right back on. Well, Sebastian learned that lesson on Sunday morning. He had his very first fall. Manni was trotting and Seb must have been day dreaming because he was soon on the ground. He landed on his bottom and was not injured. He jumped right up and got right back on the pony. No fear, no tears, just stubborn determination and a keen appreciation that he must pay attention. All important lessons for life.

We went to IKEA on Saturday which is sooooo much fun. My sister loves IKEA and they don't have one in Colorado. She is sooooo jealous of me! I hate to admit it though....on Saturday we were wholly uninspired or shall I say, IKEA was uninspiring. We have a long list of desirable items but IKEA had nothing that captured our fancy. We left having bought nothing on the list. Of course, that didn't mean we left empty handed, which is even more frustrating!

Sunday we had afternoon tea at the Bastow's. I have loads of photos to share. Unfortunately, I made the leap into Windows Vista yesterday. Marc is upgrading our operating system and has not loaded all the programs I need to import photos from my camera's memory chip. As soon as that is complete I will update my post. ETA=Sometime tonight before he goes to bed!!!!!!