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After a brilliant but very hot weekend at Ashby de la Zouche Castle we are now really on a roll with the events and hols and will be off to Tintagel in Cornwall soon followed by North Wales then Spain for sitting in the jacuzzi with bubbly stuff!
Big thanks to the group for their support this weekend – especially to Kerry for coming all the way to get me and Jake and bring us back on Sun. Ellie has come back from Kosovo and has a a really good time – lots of social events as well as the work with the kids.
The pics below are from the event we did two weeks ago at Tewkesbury – you can’t really see clearly from the second pic but the King has the most fabulous goldwork on his surcoat. I love this event as it is such an amazing sight with all the armies and flags and the sheer scale of the market etc. I love, love, love re-enactment and can’t wait for the next two events – especially Bodelwyddan as that will be really special. I will be so sad when the season ends in September but at least I have Nepal to look forward to!
Fighting at Tewkesbury
The King and his retinue
Well Jake is safely in bed in his new room at last – have spent all day building flat pack furniture with him and finished putting up the curtains at 9pm. Still got to have some furniture delivered on Fri and put up posters and move all important gaming chair, Nintendo and Wii back in but is done. Big hugs to the kids for this as they have been fantastic – Ellie painted loads last week and Jake is a dab hand with a screwdriver. And I got to use my new power drill – liberation!
Given the events of the past two weeks I didn’t think it would get done ever but it has – now only the rest of the trashed house to fix! However it will get done and we will get there. I am very proud of my kids for the way they have coped with all this – always knew they were fab and they have proved it. Ellie has gone to Kosovo on her youth education project and she has texted to say she is enjoying it. She is a star and deserves extra big doses of future happiness for the support she has given me and Jake. Jake thanked me tonight for getting his room done despite all the domestic issues – he is such a sweetie.
We will be fine – me and my little family – we are fab and we have fab people around us. Big thanks to everyone who has supported us over the past two weeks and especially to those whose texts and e-mails have made the decorating much less boring!
Am having trouble uploading pics of the new room due to technical problems at the blog end but here is one bit. It is a hard room to photo anyway being an L shape attic and in this pic the carpet looks a bit strange – looks better in real life and Jake really likes it – colour scheme is his choice.
A bit of the new room
Anyway will not be posting for a little bit as have a busy week ahead sorting out stuff ready to be away lots – have three events in next few weeks and a holiday in Spain – mother has just e-mailed me a pic of her in the jacuzzi – can’t wait.
Life is good. Sad things happen but they are outweighed by the kindness of everyone else.
Well the Tewkesbury event was wonderful, weather was not too bad – rain on and off on Sat especially while we were waiting to go into battle which led all the boys to moan about rust – lots of WD40 needed. But it was so lovely to see eveyone again and the fantastic way that everyonewas so nice about recent hiccup. I always knew that re-enactors were the best people in the world and everyone was so kind – I want to especially thank the special friends round the camp fire on Sat – it was magic!
My brother took loads of brill pics so will try and get them from him. On the domestic front have done little except try and paint so poor Jake can have a bedroom again – carpet is coming tomorrow and then will do furniture building Fri and Sun so he can move in then. Then on the bathroom! Lucky I am an independant woman who knows one end of a screwdriver from the other though I am going to have buy my own power drill now.
Will try and take pics of finished build so you can see all my hard work.
Well nearly a week on and the house is full of flowers, chocs, red wine etc and the phone has not stopped ringing and I’ve had loads of visits e-mails and texts to see how I am doing. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of my friends, colleagues, students and family who have been so fab and to the complete strangers (like the women at the bank) who have helped me so much this week. I have been truly amazed and it has really helped.
A long time ago when I was a teenager I read ‘Gone with the Wind’ and since then Scarlett O’ Hara has been a heroine of mine. The book explains it so much better than the film where she comes across as a bit air headed when in reality she is a product of her society as we all are. I based my wedding outfits on the dresses in Gone with the Wind so on August 4th 1990 I was Scarlett O’Hara.
Here I am getting out of the car at the church -
Alison at the wedding
I had lots of attendants all dressed in similar Southern Belle style and had a wonderful day. My daughter was born on the day that Gone with the Wind was screened on TV in 1991 – I had a planned cesearian section so knew the date of her birth in advance but not the sex of the baby so when I saw that the film was going to be on I said to DH ‘if if is a girl then lets give her Scarlett as a middle name’. And it was so we did and she has been Ellen Scarlett Rose ever since. She has often asked me why she has that name and I have told her briefly but this week we have talked about this a lot.
My students asked me a while ago how you get through the really tough days in teaching when everything is going wrong and there is yet another government policy looming and no funding. I told them that I think of Scarlett and all that she went through, how her world changed and she suffered loss and Rhett left her and she still stayed strong and coped and she said ‘tomorrow is another day’.
And now I am Scarlett again, Rhett has gone and like her I have to cope with that change and look after my family. I have told my daughter this week that she is named after Scarlett so she can be strong like Scarlett and so that she will be able to cope. Today I went and bought her a copy of the book as a present for being so strong so that she will really appreciate the power of women. (I also bought Jacob a present as he has been absolutely brilliant as well but it was a book he already had so will have to change it!).
So this post is to say thank you to Scarlett and all strong women everywhere. Not only is tomorrow another day but it is a very good one as we are going to the Tewkesbury Medieval Festival (see events page for details) where we will have wonderful time – pray for fine weather for us please!
I have had a very good day today with some lovely things happening. Yes there has been a bit of trauma and stress (surprise surprise!) but some very good parts as well. Today we had our end of year strawberry tea when all the staff gather to eat strawberries, chat and those who are leaving are given gifts and thanked.
I went today particularly to say goodbye to one of my colleagues who started me off on my full time career at the University by appointing me to a research post many years ago and was delighted to find another old colleague from the past there as well.
Peter was my old boss when I worked for the Adult Education Service, a lovely man who really supported me through my time there and who is responsible for developing my love of Numeracy teaching as he gave me my first class in that subject. I was so pleased to see him as he has just been appointed to a new post in our section to develop research and funding etc. It was a lovely blast from the past and a very nice new beginning for him and me. I told him of my plans for the business and of the slight hiccup to domesticity (he experienced something similar a few years ago) and will hopefully meet up again soon.
Once again today I have had so much support from all my friends, colleagues, students and family so thank you to all of you wonderful people. Life is very good.
I will leave you again with some fabulous work – not mine again as I need to get things sorted and places decorated before I have the luxury of sitting down with a needle I’m afraid.
Blackwork
The only information I have for this piece is that it is Swedish Blackwork though given that it is a black and white picture it could well be redwork but I really like the scrolling patterns on this.
Well build is getting there however progress has been slowed by slight hiccup in domestic arrangements in that DH has left (not coming back ever kind of left!) the family home this weekend. Do not want to share details of this here (except to say this was totally his decision and very unexpected) but we are doing very well considering. There will a slight delay in finishing off decorating whilst I sort out a few domestic things and finances but we have made a start on the painting and it will all be fab soon.
Not really an awful lot else to say at the moment (well lots really but it’s a bit hard to blog about) except to say will be back on track with more tales of derring do in the world of me and mine as soon as poss.
