Noah turns 6 in wales!
Well its finally summer here, its Wimbledon season, time for garden parties and Pimm's! What is Pimm's you ask? - Well I had the same question so I decided to pick myself up a bottle of Pimm's #1 from the display stand in Waitrose this week. It seems to be a classic 'English' drink that is gin based and most often mixed with lemonade and garnished with cucumber, strawberry, oranges and mint. It seems to have some level posh'ness associated with it .... Makes me feel like I should have a cardigan wrapped around my shoulders while watching a game of polo perhaps...
Anyhow...here is a video of me making this drink with color commentary from Abbie who is sitting behind the Iphone...
Some strange fog was resistance to burning off today but it was still a fun day at Southerndown. You can see the strange mist in the background of some of the shots. Also take note of our 'sand art' and Abbie's practice shot for swimsuit modelling. Hunter and I actually went out and braved the waves and cool water today - there were some good rollers coming in and I was trying to teach Hunter how to body surf.
Abbie was asked to tell her playgroup today all about what the 4th of July is and how we celebrate it in America. She was very excited! We will be celebrating tomorrow with a BBQ/party at some American and British friends. Kelly decorated the cake pictured below for the party!
We had a nice week and decided to hit the beach this weekend both days. You have to get out when the weather is good because you don't know when you will get it again...
Aberavon Beach - Port Talbot (Saturday Jun 8)
Southerndown Beach - Our Local Favorite (Sunday June 9)
We have Wisteria around the house here in a few places and its booming right now. Its a very pretty flower but looks even nicer with stone as a backdrop. The first 3 photos were taken early morning. The second two were taken 'after school' in full sun. You can see Preston in the first shot and the boys hanging off the upper deck in the second.
One of the things we like here in Great Britain is the history just in the homes that people live in, and how many houses don't even have a number - they simply have a name based on some historical use/reason. Our house is called 'Churchfarm'. That the first line on our address... thats it. Sort of strange given that its actually a converted barn, but there is in fact a church around! Its not obvious and is now property of the cattle that graze around it but here is the actual church that was part of the Clemenstone Hamlet and estate area at some point in history. Its a couple hundred yards down the road from the house up on the hill. I took these shots while walking the dog about 5:30 AM (days are long in june!)
The lanes around our house offer beautiful countryside walking/jogging especially when the weather is nice.
Kelly is still up in London with Hunter so with good weather the remaining 4 of us had fun around the house.
Picnic lunch in the courtyard
A walk in the field beside our house after lunch
A walk to the "wishing well" down the road (one of the kids favorite places)
Noah picked up a baseball bat for the first time today and once I showed him how to hold it, he made contact on his very first try! This video was maybe his 10th swing.... he was probably about 5 for 10 at making contact at this point... not bad considering he has never held a bat before! Will have to get him playing little league once we are back stateside.