Hello again. This time I really am going to keep a record of my day to day ramblings. And this post is just to get it up to date before I start properly on Ash Wednesday. A good day for a new start.

I stopped writing on 21st July 2015. I can see we had the Oxford lot staying with us after the Scottish pair….

 

 

 

 

… and then we went on holiday to Crete.

We had a great time…

 

except John broke his leg on the third or fourth day, so we spent a lot of time sorting his leg out, and contacting insurance for a return flight that would give us an extra seat for his extended leg.

Luckily the hotel was for disabled people, so we we could finish our holiday, but John was no longer able to live in the swimming pool. We had one outing to a fish restaurant on the west coast,  to eat, drink and watch the sunset, but the coach bumped so much over the roads that we didn’t do any more outings. We thought it could damage his broken bones. (Tibia and fibula)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next few months – until March 2016 – were like a prison for John. His only outing was to the fracture clinic to have his leg checked/plaster renewed. We looked on it as our weekly (at first) outing and the hospital cafe was our treat.

 

He got the final all-clear on the 5th April, which was exactly 8 months to the day since he broke his leg, and exactly 55 years to the day since

‘according to Queen’s Regulations I ceased to fulfill minimum army medical requirements’

in other words, he broke his back.

A whistle stop tour through the next few months….

The Scottish lot came down for my birthday. Photos show we had a barbecue one day.

There was a lunar eclipse. Ironically, the full eclipse makes for a rubbish photo, so here is the moon before the eclipse started.

The Oxford lot came up again at the beginning of December. Of course, as John was in plaster we weren’t going anywhere.

 

On to 2016. (and I’ve whizzed past so many photos. Water rails, kingsfishers and flowers as well as the family. Oh well. I’ll do better in 2017. In the meantime – 2016.

Once John had the plaster off he could get in the car again and we went down to Martin and family. As it’s 22.49 I can’t go sorting out photos, but I did my usual birding, creative writing, out with OU friends and Barbara from church. I think John and I went to the cinema/theatre, but no photos to remind me. Oh yes, we definitely saw The Girl on the Train. I decided I wanted to make a miniskirt with a little flicking out base like one of the characters. I designed it myself but it didn’t flick out. I think I would have to make a 6 panelled skirt.

Oh, I did lots of knitting. Starting to design things.

Oh, and I must post a picture of the most beautiful bluebell wood in the world. Outside a village near Driffield.

 

July – Olivia’s 5th birthday. Some shots.

 

 

July also saw the wedding of my lovely niece, Charley, to the inimitable Iain. What a great couple.

In August we went back to Crete, to the same place taht John broke his leg. No photos as we are going there again this year and I’ll post those photos. Also, it is now Ash Wednesday.

Oh, while we were there we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary. We had tried to keep it quiet but the kids told the hotel and we has a slap up meal with champagne and flowers courtesy of the family. So here is a photo after all.

 

In the autumn my lovely sister-in-law, Mag died. She was such a kind giving person. She is missed by us all. We are having a family gathering at Martin’s over Easter, and there will be a big gap. A couple of hours before she died, Kevin’s and Mag’s daughter, my niece, gave birth to Toby, a brother for Lottie. It will be lovely to see him again. We saw him in October, when we were baby sitting for ten days while Martin and Fiona went to America for a gig. Here are the kids together.

At the begging of December John spent two nights in hospital because his hands came out in spontaneous bruising. He couldn’t push his wheelchair so we had to get a taxi to hospital. No cause was found!

We went to Alison’s for Christmas, and had a great time. We met Liam’s girlfriend. Well, he is 16 now. Unfortunately, the photos are not where they should be and I’m too tired to find them. I’ll add some later maybe.

For te New Year M and family came to us. Best bit was going to Yorkshire Wildlife Park. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a season ticket and have been back. I will finish this post with a photo from there. Tomorrow evening I hope to write the blog from an up-to-date viewpoint, and continue to update it every few days.

P.S. I have also lost the YWP photos from New Years Day. This tiger is from my second visit. Bit worried about the lost photos!