What's been happening!

Well, lots of things have been happening since my last post.

First of all our daughter Jess had to have an operation on 1st June to have a sesamoid bone removed from her foot. As you can see her foot is now all bandaged up and she's got to rest it as much as possible for 2 weeks until she has the stitches taken out. She's very bored, just sitting round the house watching DVDs and doing puzzles books and I have to run around making her cups of tea and looking after her!

On Sunday Paul and a friend did the triathlon which was held at Blenheim Palace. First of all you have to swim for 750 m in the cold lake, then cycle for 20 km and then run for 5 km. It was exhausting just watching!

On Tuesday I went to Centre Court at Queen's Club to watch some of the Aegon Championships with my Mum and some friends. We had a great day and watched loads of tennis, with only one short rain delay. The final match of the day was Andy Murray and Lleyton Hewitt playing doubles together so we had to stay and watch that but sadly they lost! Let's hope Murray does better in the singles.

Sailing again!

We've just spent a great bank holiday weekend sailing with 4 friends around the Solent. The weather was like summer and we visited lots of our favourite places: Beaulieu, Yarmouth, Cowes etc. We watched the container ship coming into Southampton and then followed it up to its mooring at the container port at the top of Southampton Water. We passed oil tankers and bulk carriers too and also the stylish new cruise ship 'Queen Mary II' which is apparently 345 m in length and cost around $800 million to build!

Lymington

Paul and I spent a day down in Lymington yesterday which is on the coast in the New Forest. We often sail there but it was nice to be down there with the car and able to explore a bit more and have a look at some houses. Maybe we'll live there some day! We walked from Keyhaven to Hurst Castle and the picture above shows the Castle and the Lighthouse at the end of the point. Walking on that shingle was hard work!

Walking

On Saturday a group of parents and our daughters went for a great walk from Warborough up Wittenham Clumps and back again to help prepare them for their trek to Everest Base Camp - sadly 120 m of height on the Clumps doesn't compare with Everest but at least we're getting them out walking and having fun!

This was the view from Dorchester up to the Clumps.

Rome

Paul and I went to Rome last weekend to stay with friends and celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary! We visited lots of sights, ate lots of delicious food including fresh mozzarella, my favourite (!) and I tried to practice my beginner Italian. Definitely better than it was!

On Saturday our friends drove us out to the south of Tuscany and I took this picture in Pienza, looking out over the old walls.

Easter Weekend

I've just spent the Easter weekend sailing in a mix of weather - rain, grey cloud, fog and sun! This picture is us leaving the marina at Bucklers Hard in the New Forest and we also went to Chichester, Lymington and Cowes. We managed to eat masses of food and chocolate and celebrated my birthday too.

Stella Plage

We have just got back from 4 days in France, about an hour from Calais on the coast. It was beautiful and a lovely break and the apartment was only 100 steps from this fantastic beach. We ate lots of delicious seafood - mussels and scallops - and visited lots of places including the old battlefields. We managed to fly some kites too but ended up spending hours trying to untie the knots we'd managed to make!