Carlisle Castle

Tom hurries to get out of the rain at Carlisle Castle

The second day of our short holiday soon brought the predicted rain. Knowing that it was going to be a wet day, we had planned to do heritage things. Mark and I have been members of English Heritage for over a decade and we visited Carlisle Castle when we were visiting the Lake District for the Queen's golden jubilee ten years ago. It is a rather impressive structure and we wanted to take the Podlings there since we were staying in Carlisle anyway.

As you can see from the photo, it was a rather wet day, but the castle is remarkably intact for its age ( it is over 900 years old), so we were indoors for most of our visit. It is a truly remarkable example of a Norman castle and you get such a wonderful sense of history as you explore it. Exploring the dungeon knowing the terrible conditions the Jacobite prisoners were kept in and their ultimate fate was particularly poignant.

The Podlings had a wonderful time running about and inspecting all the nooks and crannies. We enjoyed the military museum and the Podlings particularly enjoyed the drop-in crown making session they were running on the day of our visit. The only difficulty was keeping their cardboard crowns dry for the rest of the afternoon!

The Podlings making crowns at the drop-in crown making session. They all had a fabulous time doing this. 

King Tom and Queen Lily showing off their completed crowns 

HRH Princess Emma wearing her completed crown 

To give you an idea of the thickness of the walls, Lily and Emma are in a window recess. I wouldn't fancy storming this castle!

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Lake District Love

Just a few more photos I took on our one sunny day in the Lake District...

Lovely Foxgloves 

A tree in full blossom  

Beautiful blossom 

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The Sundance Kid

Lily at Coniston Water

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Coniston Water

Beautiful Coniston Water 

After our Jubilee picnic by Ennerdale Water, we took a scenic drive across the Lakes to Coniston Water. We knew from the weather forecast that of our two full days in the Lake District, only one of them would be dry. We therefore tried to make the most of our one lovely day and stayed by Coniston Water until the sun slipped behind the hills and it started to get decidedly chilly. I love the Lake District so much!

I brought a punnet of cherries for the Podlings to enjoy by the lake and Lily and Emma very quickly had cherry juice smeared all over their faces! 

 

I love this photo! 

I am not overly fond of this picture of myself, but I have included it anyway. Podheim is our family record and I am working on the assumption that the Podlings might one day like to look back and see the occasional photo of their mother. 

A Jubilee Picnic

We wanted to take advantage of the long Jubilee bank holiday, so the day after Greg and Kelly's wedding we  drove up to the Lake District  for a short holiday. We still wanted to mark the Jubilee even though we were away from home, so we stopped off in Sainsbury's to stock up on picnic food and enjoyed a Jubilee picnic by Ennerdale Water on the Monday afternoon. I tried to pick red, white and blue foods and I brought my trusty Jubilee food flags to stick in the shop-bought cakes to make them look more festive. I actually brought my Jubilee cake stand on holiday with us and carted it along to the waters' edge. We enjoyed our picnic in beautiful surroundings before packing up and heading to another lake for more fun.

The Lake District was wonderfully festive with bunting up everywhere and everyone getting into the spirit of things. On our way back to the hotel in the evening we caught the end of the Jubilee concert on the radio and we even saw one of the many beacons that were lit across the country to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee. Always patriotic, I was prouder than ever to be British that weekend.

Tom waving a Union Jack food flag at our Jubilee picnic 

Enjoying doughnuts with red, white and blue sprinkles 

Yes, I took a cake stand on holiday! My husband is rather tolerant of my little foibles!

Enjoying good food and good conversation with my baby! 

Emma is interested in stones at the moment, so you can imagine her delight at finding herself on a pebbled shore. Here she is inspecting a choice specimen! 

Beautiful Ennerdale Water 

My sweet boy 

Good times!

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Wedding bells

Ladies and gentlemen...the bride and groom!  Photo Credit: Keith Avard

It was with great excitement that we celebrated the wedding of Mark's younger brother Greg last Saturday. Greg and Kelly are such a wonderful couple and we have all been looking forward to their happy day. Kelly is a beautiful lady, both inside and out, and it was with great delight that we were able to welcome her into the family. Kelly looked absolutely stunning and she put a lot of thought into the day in order to make sure that everyone had a lovely time.

Lily and Emma were set to be bridesmaids, but when it came to it I'm afraid to say that Emma flatly refused to take part. I suspect her shoes were hurting as she kept kicking them off in the church and seemed to cheer up when I put her sandals on at the reception venue. Lily did really well as I know she was a little nervous beforehand. She took a real shine to Kelly's adult bridesmaids, so she was happy to go along with them and sit with them during the ceremony. Tom did a great job helping Mark with his usher duties and looked rather dashing in his little suit.

Emma was unfortunately trying to give a running commentary on the wedding vows, so I had to watch most of the ceremony from behind glass doors at the back of the church. Mark and I were both doing readings, so we had to run and do a quick Emma swap part way through the ceremony so I could do the bible reading. When I finished my reading, I ran back and quickly swapped back again so Mark could take his turn. Fun and games with toddlers!

The reception was held at a nearby golf club. Thankfully the weather stayed dry, but it was very, very cold! The Podlings didn't seem to mind and after the speeches and the meal, they played outside much of the time. They were over the moon when they found a bunker. I think they thought they had stumbled across the world's largest sandpit!

Once the music started playing, Lily and Emma wanted to be on the dance floor and we had a job dragging Lily away at ten. She could have danced all night! Despite the long and exciting day, they all behaved beautifully and I was very proud of them.

Unbelievably I forgot to take my camera to the wedding. I'm someone who takes a camera to the supermarket, so you can imagine how cheesed off I was about this! Thankfully, the wedding photographer was none other than Mark's Uncle Keith. Uncle Keith is a very talented photographer who has been doing wedding photography since before I was born. He did all our wedding photography nine years ago. Uncle Keith graciously gave me permission to use his photos on the blog, so all the photos you see here were taken by him. (Hello Auntie Mary and Uncle Keith...it was so lovely to see you at the wedding!)

Congratulations Greg and Kelly on your wedding day!

Wishing you every happiness in your future together.

Lily outside the church before the ceremony. Photo Credit: Keith Avard

The start of the ceremony. Photo Credit: Keith Avard

 

Husband and wife at last! Photo Credit: Keith Avard

The groom's family. Photo Credit: Keith Avard 

Greg is a keen golfer, so we found this photo of the happy couple in a golf cart rather amusing! Photo Credit: Keith Avard 

Lily and Emma were happy to get a chance to sit in the golf carts. Photo Credit: Keith Avard

Whispering sweet nothings in my baby's ear! I love my fascinator! It's a shame I don't get a chance to wear it very often. Photo Credit: Keith Avard

The lovely chocolate wedding cake. It shall remain a source of regret that I didn't manage to get a slice of this lovely looking cake. The Podlings kept me too busy! Photo Credit: Keith Avard

The brothers Mark, Greg and Ryan. Mark is the eldest, but also the shortest of the three of them (although at six foot he is hardly short himself)! Ryan (the youngest of the three) was Greg's best man and gave a fantastic speech. Photo Credit: Keith Avard

Lily and Emma with Uncle Ryan and Auntie Carrie. Carrie is trying to get Emma to turn and face the camera. I'm glad she managed it as at least we now have proof that Emma was there! Emma looked adorable in her bridesmaid outfit, even if she refused to carry out her duties! Photo Credit: Keith Avard

 I love this photo of Mark with Tom and Lily. Tom looked so handsome in his suit. As did Mark in his morning suit for that matter! Photo Credit: Keith Avard

 A rare shot of Uncle Keith (second from left) , the talented wedding photographer. Because he takes the photos, he is never in any of them. I don't think we have any photos of him from our wedding!

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The Olympic Torch

On Thursday 31st of May the Olympic Torch was passing though our neck of the woods, so we got up early to take the Podlings to see it. They will probably not get another chance to see it, so we thought it was an important thing for them to experience. It was due to pass through a nearby town just before nine in the morning and we actually arrived with time to spare. Unfortunately, so did everyone else so we were very much at the back of the crowd! We didn't get a very good photo of it, but we did actually get a better look at it than the photo seems to imply. Emma was quite excited and kept exclaiming "Fire! Fire!" until it was out of sight. It was quite exciting and I'm so glad we got to see it. A once in a lifetime experience.
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