Santa?

Now I know some americans put up their Christmas trees straight after Thanksgiving, but a visit from Santa? That's taking things a bit too far!!
In case you can't recognise the handsome hunk behind the white beard- its Phil trying out the suit for tonight's Christmas concert being given by the Britannia Royal Naval Volunteer Band.

Baby Shower

If you lok at the bottom of my blog you will see a ticker counting down the days until the arrival of Baby Durdin!
Hannah is now on maternity leave, and as they have just moved into a new house I went to spend a few days with Hannah- we weeded the garden, sorted out baby clothes and assembled the cot!
While I was there Hannah had her baby shower,organised by her friend Tora and held at Eastney church, these are some of the pictures.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day in Dartmouth was a bright, sunny,windy day.
Phil and Lydia were parading as part of the new BRNC Volunteer Band, and Julia was carrying the Guide's standard. The music provided by the band really enhanced the parade and was well recieved.

Baptism

The reason for all the visitors was Lydia and Julia's baptismal service.
The churh was full with friends, family and visitors. We had a lovely service ,lead by Bruce our minister.Dan D. helped lead the singing with his guitar, and Phil assisted with the baptism.
A very special and memorable day for us all- especially Lydia and Julia.

Family Visiting

This week we exchanged Lydia for Grandma, then on Saturday Lydia returned with Brad(her boyfriend) and Hannah and husband Dan.Lovely to have the house full, lots of food and lots of laughter!

Bad Blogger!

Here I am again- the bad blogger! I think it took me a long time to recover from the drive to and from Killerton!
I can't believe October is nearly over, it has been a busy month.On the 6th we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary!
The following Sunday Phil and I travelled to Portsmouth for the annual Band Service Memorial Service, we took advantage of the trip to drop in on Hannah and Dan.Phil has been busy on the river and getting the new Naval Volunteer Band up and running.Lydia's boyfriend Brad came to visit for the evening,which involved us in a lot of driving!
Then it was half term!! Lydia had an extra day off,so we took a trip to Plymouth for clothes shopping.Then we collected Phil's mum from the airport at Exeter,she is staying with us for the whole of half term and will share in witnessing the very special event on Sunday 1st November when Lydia and Julia are baptised. Hannah and Dan, and Brad will be here too, so quite a houseful. My next post should include some pictures- watch this space!!

Killerton

Julia and I joined the home-ed group at Killerton House near Exeter( slightly stressful journey there!!). There is a costume exhibition permanently displayed at Killerton- and as you can see- items to try on!!




In the grounds is this 'Bear House', where one of the family kept a bear which they brought from Canada- as you do!!
Rather strangely there is a stained glass window in the bear house.

Near the 'Ice House' was this lovely tree fern.



And in a very drab looking chapel was some beautiful stained glass( Julia took this shot).