Generations

We're in the land of my fathers!  Or my mothers to be precise: Wales.  And my actual mother is here, looking after her mother, while my aunt is away at the Royal Welsh Show (where their texel sheep picked up some big prizes).  Yes, it's very rural around here, and we had a lovely drive from Manchester down through Snowdonia, stopping off at the small village of Aberaeron to meet up with Neil, the vicar who married us, all those years ago.  Some prayer was said at our wedding about us having children so it's nice to know that Neil's still in good standing with the Almighty.

In other news, every baby born yesterday gets a special silver penny to celebrate sharing the day with the royal heir!  I was born on the late Queen Mother's birthday and never got sent a single bottle of gin from her.

Pete with Father Neil.

Pete with his great-grandmother.

Four generations.

Pete with his grandma.

Pete with his great-aunt Liz (and a patriotic outfit).

Earning my keep.

Little Big Island

It's amazing how much you can fit into a Vauxhall Corsa.  Over many years of going to France and returning with close-to-illegal numbers of wine bottles, Hannah and I have perfected the art of packing one of these diminutive cars.  However, even we have been challenged to fit everything, a baby, and us, in.

But with a little re-jigging we set off from John and Laura's on Friday morning and took in Nottingham, Durham and rural Lancashire on our way to Manchester.  While the entire country swelters in sunshine, we seem to be followed around by our own bank of low cloud.  It's forecast to turn into apocalyptic rain and flooding in a few days, true to the British law that good weather has to be followed by equally bad.  Peter: this is your heritage.

See!  It was warm enough to eat ice cream!  Outside!

And cook food!

A quick photo shoot before we left.  Anne Geddes should look out.

Maisey (Meg's cousin/Ellen's niece) seems reasonably impressed with the baby.

Frances realises it might be payback time for all that babysitting we did.

Interviewing Goddaughter Charity for the Davies Au Pair Scholarship Programme.  Hmmm.

Showing his colours.

This is Harry.  I used to change his nappies.

Davies-Weeks conglomerated family.

Three men in a pub - Andy, me, and Stefan at The Feathers, British Pub of the Year 2011 no less!

George judges their fish and chips.

Grey towers of Durham.

Where Hannah and I met, back in the mists of time.  And Pete, the consequence.

If you turn out to be really clever, you might get to study here (could somebody clean the nameplate please?)

In the cathedral cloisters.

An evening drink outside, with Stuart.  They drink outside whatever the weather in the North East.

Next day, next pub, and a prawn cocktail: Britain's greatest gift to international cuisine.

Pete meets Auntie Rachel, his hundredth new person in four days.  But one of the most important, of course.

Reunited by United

We're back in the old country!  And the flight wasn't too bad - it's amazing what a miniature of gin can do for a baby's sleeping pattern.  It's also amazing what the weather is doing here: 28C when we landed!  This just means that everyone's complaining that it's too hot rather than complaining that it hasn't stopped raining for three months.  It's good to be home.

On the BART with all the essentials...

...and the extras.

Apart from having to pay for alcoholic beverages, United was surprisingly good!

You look much better in 3D than on Skype!

I think we can leave Laura to it.  See you in three weeks!

Happy...unconvinced.

What happens in Calgary...

Hannah has returned, flying in from the north as we drove up from the south.  She had a wonderful time in Canada, meeting her new team, learning all about the work she'll be doing on the project, and having a king-size bed to herself with no baby to wake her.

She tells me she was there for work but her photos suggest otherwise.  It was Calgary Stampede Week during her stay, a thoroughly agricultural event that dates back to 1886 and celebrates all things cowboy/girl - they have them in Canada too!  Hannah was required to attend all business meetings in appropriate dress, hence the earlier Dallas-episode-style photo, and returned with many Canadian goodies and a huge shiny Chevron-branded belt buckle.  Now she's talking about moving from oil into ranching.

Despite accusations of being full of rednecks it turns out that Calgary is a civilised place.

Or perhaps not.

This was in the children's section of the agri-expo, and is a model of how a cow gives birth, accompanied by videos (no, you don't lift a lid off a cow's back - that's for you to push on to squeeze him out!)

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.  Here a farmer hoovers his prize cattle.

Sheep turn out to be useful.

Hannah says she knows how Bluebell feels.

The First Nations village.

Check wagon racing.



There's my cowgirl!

Nuptials

We said a very sad goodbye to James, Gen, Frankie and Lexie this morning.  They'd kept us from starving while Hannah was away and made sure we were entertained and happy and sane, but James was starting to claw back some backgammon games against me so it was time to go.

And we had to leave, because we had a wedding to attend.  Like the ending of a bad romantic comedy Pete and I raced through California to get back to the Creek in time to see neighbours Katie and JD tie the knot.  Talking of romantic comedies, it was just like American weddings in the films!  The ceremony was in a beautiful redwood grove, there were loads of bridesmaids, some of the groomsmen cried...it was awesome.

Official announcement.

Apparently people have been getting married in JD and Katie's families for years!



First wedding.

The littlest bridesmaid got wheeled up the aisle in a cart.

Here comes the bride!

The ceremony in the redwoods.

The drinks menu.

Another neighbour, Aaron, with the hefeweizen that he produced for the occasion.

I was going to use Pete to photobomb the official pics, but it was easier to pass him off to various people while I enjoyed the beer.  Here he is with Claire and Eavan.

And Amy.

And Denise.

Taking photos over the official photographer's shoulder makes things easier.

Dinner time.

The happy couple.  Happy because they finally get to have a photo with the most important guest there.

Meanwhile, in Calgary

The effects of exposure to oil.