It meant that everything was a lot more stressful and worrying, and time was going very very fast!
And time is still going fast now as I write this, 6 days before Due Date, so I will rush to get everything done & out of the way before the Big Day...
We returned to wonderful weather in the Isle of Man, which was a perfect temperature after the heat of Mexico. We'd seen it was in whilst we were away and we felt very jealous, but we were glad that it stayed for our return:
Having failed with the weather on a trip to Cregneash before we went away, I was pleased that the weather was perfect for another trip down, for the 70th Anniversary of the opening of the place as a museum. The entertainment was a bit irrelevant to us, though it was nice to hang out with friends we found there. Then we went up the hill to put a sight on the radar station and the neolithic burial site (impersonating dead people as we did so):
We went on a walking tour of Peel and the Cathedral, which we all enjoyed. Finn, as usual, was trying to take over the tour with his own chatting, but we survived. We see the guide most mornings walking up Michael Street as we leave for school, so it was nice for Finn to learn who he was so that now he can shout a 'hello!' to him as we pass. Worth noting that Finn's coat was completely unnecessary - but he insisted 'in case it rained.' Which it did not and we had to carry it for most of the time.
I had the rare pleasure of another time out walking the Manx hills. This time it wasn't an excessive day-long affair, but rather a long summer evening. It was again very fun, borrowing a friend's (novelty IOM Post Office) cap, traipsing around through fields to see a place where John Wesley stayed, and then on to see a 'giant's footprint', which was not very large...
Finn and I had our own exciting Manx trip out, to the back of Peel Hill to see Chibbyr Pherick (St. Patrick's Well), where the saint is supposed to have landed on the Isle of Man, and from whose waters you could apparently get a cure for your problems. The well was dried up though, but it was still a lovely walk. Finn got stung by nettles at the well site, just as a woman walked past and she leapt in to apply dock leaves to cure him. We wondered together afterwards if that was actually St. Patrick in disguise, rushing to heal him - Finn was left unsure:
I have now taken on the weekly shop, which I do on the weekend with Finn and Orry. It is something which they happily accept and we can have fun doing it (they love a list and a series of finding & getting tasks!). Which is good because Cori absolutely hates the task! One weekend they decided to go as fire-fighters, which raised a few smiles from those we passed:
There was also much great, if unusual, drawing from Orry, such as these strange masterpieces:
Tenuously linked to art, the boys delighted in my showing them how to edit pictures in my phone. It was a joyous thing when we completed the pictures, we sent them to Cori, and the boys darted off to watch and laugh with her as she opened them!
Cori found the greatest cardigan ever, seeing it posted on facebook by a Second Hand Shop in Peel and messaging them to hold it for her. Win!
The weather held, and so we decided to go to the beach, and it reminded Orry of the character in one of his books, Toddle Waddle, who also goes to the beach, so he wanted to go dressed as them. I think that he & Cori did a pretty good job:
A good time was had in the water too, with a body-board, even if the boys didn't really know what they were supposed to be doing with it!
Whilst on the beach, Cori took the opportunity to take a shadow-selfie of her bump:
We had our first (rather later in the season than last year) summer hang-out to the late hours on the beach. We'd planned to go for a chippy tea and a swim etc., but we inevitably met friends and it merged into just a jolly time where friends and family mixed and merged, and before we knew it, it was 10pm! A fun time was had though:
Also with the good weather came more of the parents & children hanging out on the fairfield opposite the school. These pictures should show some of the fun which was had there with friends such as Nora here:
The final real event of June was the Viking Boat Races at Peel. I'd missed them the year before (though Cori had taken the boys), so I was excited to see them this year. However, I shouldn't have been - as Cori had warned, it was a remarkably unremarkable event if you don't know any of the racers and are not intending to drink. It did, however, get the boys out of the house, which was a good thing:
After that we went up north to put a sight on granny and the cousins (who are out of their house and in the flat, as their renovations go on). There is nothing to report of that, but there is a rather lovely picture from our drive home via the Cronk which probably acts as a nice way to mark the passing of midsummer and the end of June:
No comments:
Post a Comment