Happy 40th!

40 years ago, today, I came home with this…

 

Tummy ache… and…a son! 

Named Nicholas John. And when the nurses said that he was ‘a good ten pounder’, I almost died! Actually, he weighted 9lb 6 ozs and I do know that it was somewhat uncomfortable…but I also know that 40 years later, it was so well worth it! 

Born with very dark brown hair, by the following summer, he was very blonde! And he continued to be so. Unlike me!

It wasn’t long before school came calling…

Sixth Form came and went…3xAs at A Level..not too bad!

And off to The University of Exeter…

After 3 years, graduation…B.A. Archaeology…

  And then a further graduation..M.A. Archaeology

I think he worked hard… and played hard…!

And then came some travelling and some gadding about..

Not forgetting his love of TUFC…

And his love of Lizzie!

In 2018…a wedding…! T’was delightful!

And then, in 2021, along came…

And today, we all shared in the celebrations…40 years of my lovely son’s life! Lizzie made a rather apt cake…as they recently made it to Northumberland and Nich walked on Hadrian’s Wall…

I would say, a most splendid 40 years… and 40 years of which we are all very proud! 

Here’s to 40 more wonderful years, eh Nich? 

Happy Birthday! 🎉🍰🥂🎉🍰🥂🎉🍰🥂🎉🍰🥂😁

Decorating! (And living in a mess!)

I think we are gluttons for punishment!

Two years ago….we did major work in our new lounge, removing a fireplace and hearth! 😆

First of all the demolition…followed by the plastering…

And then we had a decorator arrive. ( My other half hates decorating!) We chose the colour, ‘Atmosphere’, a lovely pale duck egg.

And it looks good; it’s calming and it does give a good atmosphere to the room!

We’ve since changed the furniture and we are happy with the end result.

After a few months, we employed the same decorator to paint the kitchen, which originally had plain white walls. So we chose a pale yellow, slightly lighter than the ‘Dayroom Yellow’ of the dresser.

My daughter painted a mural on the end wall…

And that all done, we took a break as we had other things to do, even though the rest of the house really needed decorating.

Fast forward to just under a month ago…and here we go again! We employed the same decorator to do our bedroom, hallway, stairs…and two bathrooms! A mammoth task!

The new shabby chic look! 

We had to sleep in the lounge for a few nights!

We chose a colour called ‘Cool Melon’ for the bedroom. You can’t see the colour too well in the photos, so here it is.

And then for the hallway and stairs, we chose…

And on Thursday, it was all finished! Phew! 

 

 

 

Back to normal blogging and a ‘jolly’!🤣

This morning, we had what we call a ‘jolly’…a trip to The Avon Mill Garden Centre, which is not far from Kingsbridge. Greeting us were these ‘corkers’!

 

It was lovely to have a browse, both outside and in.…after a cup of coffee in the cafe, of course. The cafe also sells all sorts of food gifts etc…

And then we had a wander around outside…

 

The main reason that I went there for was to look here, the Devon Artisan Hub. It’s a lovely shop full of locally made items and I like to find things that are unique and different to give at Christmas…

Beautiful, hand crafted, wooden items were on display…

Last year, I actually purchased one of these Christmas trees, made from old, local maps.

After browsing in the Devon Artisan Hub, we went into the gift shop…where Christmas seems to have well and truly taken over!

I don’t usually like to think about Christmas until 1st December but I do understand that businesses need to make as much money as they can! For me, though, it’s a tad too early!

However, they also have a good range of garden tools as well as other garden items…and plants..but I didn’t manage to take any photos of the plants, this time.