Monday, June 21, 2010

Fathers Day and more...

This was going to be a post about Father's day but it's turned into a lot more. If you've got time, read on. If not just whiz through the pictures and know we had a great day with Ricardo for Father's day......
Here is the extended mix..........On Thursday last, the 17th June we drove to the tiny village Church where Richard was baptised in Kelsale in Suffolk to the funeral of his childhood neighbour Tony W.
For him it was a lovely chance to catch up with friends he hadn't seen for maybe 55 years. For me it was a nightmare of grief and fear. Ricardo had taken a sleeping pill the night before and had turned into a groggy, monosyllabic stranger. I have no experience of sleeping pills and their side effects, especially upon someone with liver cancer; I thought his illness had taken a turn and we were about to have to call an ambulance at a funeral. I didn't know a soul at the Church and Richard's wobbly state made everyone a little wary of him. You could see them wondering why were we attending this event? There was no way I could tell them the scenario. All I could see was the widow weeping in the front pew.
After the Church we went on to the tiny pub called the Poachers Pocket where Richard's Dad used to drink in the 1950's before they went to Australia. More memories. As we sat to one side of the beer garden, we managed to talk to the sister of the man who had passed away. To my further distress it seems Tony had died very quickly of liver cancer at the age of 60. Richard and I had to keep quiet and not ad any further grief to a sister's worries. As we drove away, I started to sob and ended up uncontrollably wailing as Richard tried to console me through his soporific haze. How could I explain to him how I was feeling? In the end I calmed down and slept as Richard drove the rest of the way to Heathrow where we had a room booked at a cheap Ibis hotel (which was actually really quiet, clean and nice) in order to wait for our darling ROXI to come and find us after flying all the way from Australia. Never was a daughter more needed!!!! Never was a daughter so amazingly up for the challenge and full of calm practicality. Thank you dearest Roxi.
So after catching up and calming down over the rest of Friday and Saturday we drove over to Wyken Vineyard for a Fathers day lunch. Not quite sure how much lunching would be done as there hasn't been a great deal of appetite lately. We did however manage to eat lunch then walk around the entire gardens then have afternoon tea as well. Crikey.Here is the lucky dad..
and all three of us squinting at that weird thing that appeared in the sky. Is it called a sun?
Roxi caught these peacock chicks with their Mumma. (All these photos in fact were taken by her)

What a beautiful tail.
This rose reminds me of that toothpaste you can get that spirals out of the tube in two colours.

The man himself. Chirpy now as it's the afternoon and all sleeping pills have worn off.

Roxi our shining star.
There are no bumblebees in Australia so they hold a particular fascination for us Aussies.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Ricardo & Joey go boating?

On Saturday we had a few burly friends around for a fairly traumatic event...taking the roof down to the boat. Yes we have a boat 'Roxane' (named after Richard's daughter). She's been a dream for a long time and is having to be finished off to a much lesser extent than either of us would have liked and sold. She is a beauty and one of the reasons I fell in love with Richard was because he was the kind of adventuresome dreamer that had such a boat. She is a 27 foot long symphony in steel, a highly unusual small size for a boat with a steel hull. Called an Akerboom and built in Holland she's a coastal cruiser so not quite ocean going but more than just a river boat. She lies at a place called Isleham on the fens in Cambridgeshire.
I have never even sailed in her. It was always hard to get the time to work on her as Saturdays were the only days we could and only the fine ones at that, which meant half the year (at least) was out because of the weather.
Here are aforementioned burly lads helping to load the roof onto our friend, 'Bladesies' truck.
and here taking down the old ply wood bits that held up the old tarpaulin...
Richard struggled manfully on but was clearly exhausted by such emotionally charged stuff. Having to ask other people to help him with this has been a hugely humbling experience.
At last the roof was up but still needs to be set in place properly.
Checking out the work that's still to be done...
here's a picture from a while ago of Ricardo of the rippling muscles. He's rebuilt the whole 'Super structure' (top part of boat for us landlubbers) immaculately.
and lined the interior so beautifully...
We couldn't have done what we did today though without the help of wonderful, wonderful friends who are willing and happy to give up their time to help. Thank you Jon-boy, Pauly, Bladesy, and Gary.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Big wide world

We went to Cley-next-the-sea on the weekend and had the most wonderful rest. I wasn't sure whether I was doing the right thing: cutting us off from support with no mobile phone coverage but it was the best thing we could possibly have done. At first it was just Cheeky monkey and me going for long walks at ungodly hours in the mornings. A bit sad and lonely but....
...it was so beautiful and peaceful and quiet out there on the marshes...except for all those NOISY BIRDS


Ricardo benefitted hugely from the salty air and lots of rest...
We even managed to get out and about a bit, with Clarry & Yusuf to the Wiveton Café and I had enough make-up on to not look too knackered
Cheeky monkey even got to play some Yarnuff.
The architecture at Cley is lovely and I was dreaming of a Georgian house by the sea...

and the gardens were so beautiful with roses just starting and Columbines everywhere...
On the way home we dropped in at a favourite garden of mine at East Ruston


Unbelievably beautiful.
Check out the size of this peony.