NYE

Well, well, well it's New Years Eve already, gosh before we know it, it will be Christmas again.
We had a great time this New years eve. We had a party to go to at friends nearby and the theme was a Space Oddity. I was coming down with a cold and lacked enthusiasm of any sort, but Ricardo the Magnificent had ideas of going as Flash Gordon! How could I let him out do me? So we spent the day making pairs of matching yellow velvet hot pants and mantle things for our super powered shoulders. Richard even bleached his hair but it ended up looking a little reddish rather than the platinum it said on the box. We had such fun making those outfits. As you can see by the photos my shorts were a lot tighter than his! When he tried his on over the top of his long underwear, all I could think of was some sort of cartoon character, maybe Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse. I thought even if the party is a dud, we will have had a ball anyway.

I've got no idea how I got my hair to stay so poofy! Here we are ready for anything.

The party was great. At 11.30 we ditched it though and raced along quiet country roads to a Church nearby to join our more sober friends for midnight bell-ringing activities.

Jeremy made sure we did the whole thing according to bellringing protocol. At first we rang for 10 or 15 minutes with bells half muffled (Muffles are leather pads fitted to a bell's clapper to reduce the volume. They attenuate the bell's strike note whilst retaining the hum. By only muffling the clapper on one side you get an 'echo' effect as blows are alternately loud and soft. Bells fitted with muffles in this way are said to be half-muffled). Then as 12 midnight approached Jeremy raced up the stone spiral stairs and took off the muffles. Richard then rang the heaviest bell (the Tenor) for 12 strokes before we all kicked in to ring out that glorious sound all through the quiet village of Great Ellingham. Here we are flushed with success and a little bubbly. If you look closely you can see my yellow shorts! Hair slightly less poofy now though.

Happy New Year to you all, my blogger Buddies.

More birthday

The birthday continued this weekend. (At this rate I think I could cope with a year of birthday celebrations).
As well as mine, we had William's and also Humphrey Bogart, William's dog (Humphrey was 100!). Here he is cutting the cake.It was the most beautiful day out but there was a lot of fun to be had inside the boat With Clarissa and the Zebedoodle and our lovely friend Grace. It was one of those times when your friends from very disparate groups all get to meet each other and you're hugging yourself as they actually GET each other the way you wish they would.

We went out in the boat on the sparkly water. There were just thousands of Damsel flies, and dragonflies some iridescent green and some blue. It was absolutely heavenly.
P.S. Not my photo click on it to go to the link

THE WEDDING

At last the big day arrived. The sun shone the smoke cleared and all the world looked beautiful for Mardi & Macgreg's wedding. Here are the first bridesmaids heralding Mard's arrival. How can I explain how special these two people are...Mardi & Macgreg are an inspiration with their blended family and it was profoundly emotional to see them tie the knot.
Mard has had a hard time ... her beautiful Dad "Biggy" died last year and her daughter's Dad committed suicide in 2005. Macgreg's Mum died in 2002, his Dad died a long time ago. There was a lot to remember....
When she & Macreg got together we all waited with baited breath to see if such an amazing pair would actually tie the knot. Here is Macgreg waiting for her too.
First came the littlest bridesmaids....
And at last the girl we all wanted to see most, on Biggy's partner Ced's arm. This was when I started crying and I didn't really stop.You can see here what a big thing it was for them... but they were so keen to be there. at last some relief with sisters, daughters and friends.
Unfortunately I missed the dove free-ing bit with the camera by seconds, but this is moments later. That's the wedding blanket they both knitted hanging over the Beverly Hillbillys chairs.
Next up was THE PARTY, at their groovy new (to them) 7o's house... it was 70's dress and boy did people take it to the limit.
Finally we all let our hair down. People were on the dance floor from 5.30 pm!!!!
Bless you my wonderful buddies. I can't think of anyone who deserves more happiness.

Ricky Royale and those swingin' crown jewels

Yes it's happening again. The Ricky Royale trio is prepering to lift the roof this Saturday night 17th January at 8pm at East Harling Church.
Be there or be square.There will be special guests including that songstress of soul.......me.
Come on down.

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends

Things have been pretty hectic around here. For the first time I managed to get presents to the Post Office to get to Australia in time for Christmas....Hooray.
Then all day Saturday we baked.... here are the choux puffs for the birthday cake...before they went into the oven... After they came out. Alongside "Mastering the Art of French cooking" the cookbook that changed my life way, way back in the 80's.
Ahhhh that Himalaya of happiness...the Croquenbouche. With toffee and sugared almonds to break your teeth on. Guess whose birthday it was????
"The Party Girl" Clarissa. Here's a picture of that stunningly handsome bloke with the long hair...Ricky Royale next to her Royal Birthdayness.

The suprise guest was Ben, up from London via a surf stop in Cornwall. I do love a Big man with a Small boy.
There were songs sung by Master Russ, & magic tricks by Monsieur RoyaleAnd then a lot of sleeping on the couch....or trying to at least.

Happy Birthday Darling Clarribelle.

Zeb's birthday!!!

Who would have thought that the tiny bundle we never thought would make it through the night
would make it through all the way to being a bonny bouncing baby of two whole years old.
Happy birthday Zebedoodle.
We kicked off the celebrations with a walk to the river for champagne and cake. (Made by yours truly and with a special back to front 'Z'!!!Whoops.)

In the darkest days of Zeb's beginnings I'd try & buoy Clarissa by telling her that one day he'd be crawling and then one day he'd say Mumma and soon enough he'd be off on his bike on a paper round. Well, here's his first bike, all singing all dancing and highly dissaproved of plastic. Better get ready for the paper round.

Then we went on to the proper party...there was camping....
And music with Uncle Ricardo...

Clarissa has been gardening with her friend Megan and together they have produced one golden courgette specially for the party.....
Time for some lazing around in the tent with Jazz the cat...

Then maybe some jelly...

A great time was had by all. How on Earth are we going to top it next year?

Random thoughts

I haven't blogged for a whole week. Lots has been happening but there has not been much time to get it down on screen.
I thought I'd show you a couple of photos of Zebedee and his gorgeous Mumma Clarissa. He's doing well and is almost 2 years old now. Very Summery in his green outfit.

We went to a Summer Soltice party last night. It was amazing to be outside in light til 10 pm. Here's Zeb's dad Joe looking like the true hipster that he is.

And here..... Zebs Uncle Rob looking tres post-hippy chic.

We're not very good at staying up late any more so here is a more up to date photo of Ricardo relaxing in our new (to us) really comfy (and free) new chairs.
Lets hope my new best friends from here (Hi Mike) don't drop in to assess our taste.

I've been asked to make 20 cushions exclusively for Interior Selection and I can't wait to get stuck into it with the gorgeous fabrics that I got from there on Thursday.

I'll show you the fabrics just as soon as I can get some time to photograph them.