Flowers from the boys!

 The facebook status of one of our sons:

Would love to congratulate and thank his parents for the 30 years of marriage they celebrate today. 'Matthew 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.'

I reached for my hankie....

The three boys sent us these, classy or what?!!

Lilies and Roses with a small pearl in each centre, for our 30th...

And the Lilies are perfumed....

 

After my previous post which included our song The dh has his suggestion of the song which takes us into the next chapter, posted on his facebook page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqOMuR5Z530


and then the card...

So just to say thank you to everyone who has commented and helped us celebrate 30 years, I'll shut up now!

You're still the one...thirty years on!

 Thirty years on....


Our Song......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXtc-TH0Iv4


10 things I would tell my "newly married" self, 30 years on:

•  Your marriage will go from strength to strength, there are adventures to be had!

•  Marriage is not 50:50, sometimes it is 90:10 on either side due to outside influences past or present and the time will come when you no longer need to "unload your issues" at ridiculous hours of the evening

• "This too will pass"- 120 hour working weeks when you spend evenings and weekends alone with small children.

• Enjoy the fact that you both have very different personalities and learn from each other! 

• Don't talk to him when he is reading in bed....

• Always feed him before you tell him something that will cause irritation, when he arrives home.

• He has totally  different "love languages" from you, try and remember that (constant note to self)

• Map reading in cars will cause major stress if you are the navigator....but Sat Nav is on the horizon!

• He will introduce you to growing stuff, dogs and chickens and you will tell him about India....

• He will always love you, just the way you are and will encourage you to become who you were made to be!

Who knows what the future holds, the next 30 years?!

One thing is certain, our marriage has never just been about us.....

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

Ecclesiastes 4:12

God has always been our third strand...without His transforming work in our lives, I wonder where we would be today?

KIdnapped! Sunday morning- Long Mynd

The morning begins with secret Road Map peerings away from prying eyes... and zoom lenses...

and much speculation whilst P and S play  "the procrastination game" which involves much windscreen spraying and wiping, oil checking and secret smiles....

giving nothing away...

Oh here he is again...has to be fiddling with something

S gives the "okay, everyone come over here" gesture....what's coming....

It turns out...a 5 mile walk...I've learned NEVER to ask now, just do it and don't look like a wuss...

OOh look, who's under the bridge acting out  3 Billy Goat's Gruff...trip trap trip trap...K plays her part as lead goat....

S climbs up a rock face which totally freaks L out and I can hear her telling R catagorically that if she is expected to "climb up there, I am turning 'round and going back".  Thankfully S has chosen the path of most resistance... for to our right there are alternative steps to negotiate...so up we climb and I have the final scene of the Sound of Music in my mind.

R and D consult...I stay out of it, probably wise...

of for goodness sake, he even brought a flippin' compass.....

Onward and upward.....there is a point at which a girls asks directions from someone on his way back...so why did the girl have to ask? No comment.... Of course the guys knew the right way....they had a compass and a map after all....

No words needed...I think R was chasing sheep and looking for hidden post boxes at this point....I didn't discover the "almost  an entire fleece" he had shoved up my coat sleeve until the following day....

A brilliant weekend with great friends who I have the privilege to have in my life....So  when's the next one,then?!!!!

KIdnapped! Saturday afternoon Blists Hill

Blists Hill: Victorian Town:

Signs of the Victorian Times! Here are a selection that made me smile!

SSo as not to bore you too much, I'll just show you the Victorian Doctor's house, which incidentally had a veg garden with chickens and a pig enclosure (if we had more land...sigh...).  The Doctor's wife was sitting by her open fire sewing a tapestry.  Her knitting basket on one side with wool items in various stages of development! I felt quite at home...

The Consulting Room:

TAll consultations written down, Doctor's handwriting legible?! Sorry it's a little too small to read easily on here, but believe me I had a good read!! 6d for a consultation or no charge in some cases....Stuart Smith wanting his 2nd opinion...1/6 please!

Nice.......

There was a framed painting in the small waiting room in the house. I wrote down the name of the artist:Luke Fildes and did some research when I got home.

"Fildes’s painting was inspired by the death of his son and the professional devotion of Dr Gustavus Murray who treated him. But this work shows the moment when a child shows the first sign of recovery. The redeeming light of dawn is shining on the child.In order to make the picture convincing Fildes constructed a cottage interior in his studio. He began work at dawn each day to catch the exact light conditions. The image of an ordinary doctor’s quiet heroism was a huge success with the late-Victorian public."

 Here's one I made earlier...the item that looks like a hand drill on the middle shelf is a Blood circulator....what the heck.....

Oh and the kitchen, homemade jams...yep, as I say, quite at home!

I loved the whole experience of wandering around a working Victorian town, with characters in costume going about their daily life!  We will definitely go back and aim to have a sepia photo done at Smitheman Studio Photographers next time!

Ended the day with K and D going off to buy and prepare dinner for us, followed by an unplanned (by us) Jackfield Brass Band concert in a courtyard near to the Youth Hostel. Lovely end to the day!

Kidnapped! Saturday morning.

Saturday breakfast...there is always one exhibitionist.....love 'im....

Not the Ironbridge, but I liked the plaque attached to it:

See what I mean...

The motley crew minus S and me!

I just loved this mid terraced cottage with the lavender growing out of a sieve and a Morris Minor parked in front. The garden was an ordered chaos, if that makes sense!

Everyone needs a couple like this in their lives!  Might regret saying that re the male of the species...

Oh, here we go again.... "Saturday Morning Fever" comes to mind!

Yeah..straitjacket...don't be fooled by the pout....he's into Am Dram...

Follow my leader to Ironbridge...learned to identify a chaffinch call on the way!

First sitings of the town....

and the Ironbridge itself!