William and Kate's wedding day

A very special day today for a certain Kate Middleton.....

Went to a party with friends and had lovely lunch in the garden, popping into the sitting room now and again to watch the wedding on the telly.

The garden was full of birdseed, bunting and blossom....

All the choirboys at the wedding looked angelic...

Then, later that evening, back home, there was the annual bun throwing taking place. (Well, we are English after all)... Here the town dignitaries are getting ready to throw. Ready...

Steady......

GO!

Whoops, nearly forgot what the day was about....

Greys Court

Went with Felicity to Greys Court, near Nettlebed - crowded today as it's a hot Easter bank holiday Monday - but worth the visit. Lovely grounds full of wisteria, tulips, pansies, and of course masses of bluebells. We went through the little wood following 'the footsteps of Sir Felix on his gentle path', watched by the many kites flying overhead.

oh, and a Ha Ha.

and a figure carved in wood with a bird on his shoulder and a poem on his back.

Buscot Warriors

So - my grandson is out in China and visiting the Terracotta Army....so - well, I've been to Buscot Park near Faringdon. So there.

bluebells and peacocks

Off to the Arboretum - spur of the moment decision as it was a glorious day and I had heard that the bluebells are out...and of course there are the peacocks too...

....and indeed they were, the bluebells and the peacocks. Not being very mobile, this place is perfect, a walk round the bluebell wood with several stops to sit on benches and admire the expanse of blue.....

....the colours here are amazing...

Sat on a bench are read Ted Hughes in the sunshine, surrounded by peacocks screeching, but they do give you a fright when they sneak up behind you....

Begins at 'Visit to the snows of Calgary'

As I was away for over two weeks, this has been split up into mini-blogs. Scroll back down (and possibly back to 'older posts' to the entry headed 'Visit to the snows of Calgary' and then work your way back up to the last entry when I left to go home.

Leaving the snows of Calgary

Looked out of the window on the last day a little sadly, knowing I was leaving my family for who knows how long, yet again.

Left snowy Calgary on an April day, to fly all the way home

to find that spring had arrived, and I went for a walk down by the river to look at the swans and admire the colours

The end of a lovely holiday.

This and that

A few sundry pics for fun - this first one is looking out of the window at the Harley Davidson diner.

One of my little chandeliers with pretty reflection - in N's kitchen

Lovely lift floor indicator at Banff Springs Hotel

Interesting T-shirt seen though window of shop in Banff - where we bought a T-shirt (not this one) for Josh.

Heaath tucking into breakfast almost as big as he is.

Snowboarding

We went to watch Olivia snow-boarding (quite difficult to find her among all those on the slopes until she got close)

This looks a bit like a film set.

Ah, here she is!

Natalie's Magical Mystery Tour

These little darlings above are called Gay Bombs, and as I feel an explanation is called for, it is below. Beneath that are other wonderful glass items from an exhibition I went to with Susan.

The full story goes like this - Natalie decided that, as she was at work, she would send Susan and I on a mystery tour - there were several envelopes to be opened at various times, and we were given directions how to get to places but not what they were! We were also given $20 for the first venue, which was a huge second-hand store called Cat's Eyes and you could fill a bag for $20 - we were there for AGES it was brilliant, crimpelene heaven - fifties, sixties, you name it they had it in brilon, nylon, fur and furbelows. From there we were directed to a lovely 'natural food' cafe, then an envelope contained something for me that I had to wear in public - it was a sash with BIRTHDAY GIRL on it!!!! I wore it everywhere, and on being wished a happy birthday I said it wasn't but that at my age every day was my birthday. Our next stop (still wearing the sash and taking photos) was the brilliant blown glass exhibition above.

Susan and I had such a great time and bought crazy clothes and had a lot of laughs. Thank you Natalie.

Face and body painting

Had a lovely time with Liz, who kindly gave up some of her birthday to show me how to face (and body) paint. Her daughter Chloe generously lent her body (!) and has allowed me to put the results on here.... My effort is the right side of her face as you look at it, not bad for a first attempt I think.

Liz has some wonderful colours, which make you want to be quite adventurous and bold, and different ways of achieving different effects.

I decided to go it alone on Chloe's back as I had the image of sea and fish in my mind, and this is the rather wonky but fun result.

Good fun. Thank you, both.

More outings including Banff

We had a lovely visit to Banff, where Heath wanted to see the really important stuff. Sweets. Then a bit of sightseeing.

Back in Calgary, going downtown..

to visit the Glenbow Museum, where this horse reminded me of the wonderful production of War Horse back in England.