We Got HITCHED!!!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed... Something Blue!

 So, for those of you who know us well you will know that we have been together now for just over 13 years.  Again, those of you who know us will also know that I’ve wanted to be Mrs S for long enough.  And those of you who don’t know (probably because I’ve called him ‘my husband’ for long enough), I’ve proposed every leap year day since 1998 – so that’s four ‘official’ proposals and countless dropped hints over the years and each time a refusal or a swift change of subject.

Did I ever think in my wildest dreams that he would say yes this year?  Nope.  So, when at half past six on the morning of 29^th February this year I mumbled from under the duvet “before you go to work, I’ve got to ask you if you’ll marry me.. I know you’ll say no but I just wanted to ask.”  He said “Yes, OK – but one condition; we do it in secret and don’t tell anyone until afterwards.”

Do you think I’d argue?  No way!!  I have joked so many times over the last 13 years that if he ever said yes I’d do it whatever the conditions... “I’ll marry him in a bus stop wearing a bin liner if he’d just say yes.” 

So, quick thinking me suggested that Easter might be good as we’d already booked our caravan holiday in Norfolk and our fab friends Mark and Michelle would be with us and could be our witnesses.  What a great idea!  So, since 29^th February I’ve kept the biggest secret of my entire life... and anyone who really knows me knows that I’m totally rubbish at keeping secrets!!  

As a three year old girl I spent the afternoon baking with my Mum and icing a cake for my Daddy’s birthday which was the next day, we hid it in a tin and put it on the top of the kitchen cupboard... “don’t tell Daddy until tomorrow”.  So, Daddy comes home from work... what’s the first thing I say?  “Daddy, Daddy it’s a secret, I can’t tell you about that cake in the tin up there!”  See, useless!!

I can’t tell you how hard it’s been to keep this particular secret from everyone.  Firstly my sister Jill, she’s my best friend in the whole world; I’ve so wanted to tell her!  Nightmare – we had a spa day for the girls and for Mother’s day.  What did Mum ask me?  “So, did you propose to him on leap year day?”   Now the other thing I find impossible is telling a lie, I don’t know how I did it but I didn’t tell but I also didn’t fib; I told Mum that of course I asked him – I just didn’t tell her what his response was! 

Then, I was running in a cross country race up in the Lake District and staying overnight at my Dad and Jool’s house... it was sooooo hard not to say anything at all.  It was my birthday in March and I had a lovely birthday lunch in Harrogate with Mum, sister and brother in law, nephew, brother and sister in law and nieces... how hard was that to keep schtum?  Then, my brother Sam rang me to see if they could pop in on their way home from their holiday in Centre Parcs... OMG!  This is all in between going running three times a week with my lovely friends Carol and Caroline and going to numerous crafting classes and events with my other great friends Monica, Linda and Lorraine.  It’s also been a nightmare chatting to my neighbour Dianne and not spilling the beans.

Well, now the secret’s out!  We got married at 11.15am on Tuesday 10^th April at Fakenham register office while on holiday.  In attendance were Michelle and Mark Elliott and Milly, Molly and Barney Elliott (doggy bridesmaids and page boy) and Mr Mo (doggy usher).

Something old: earrings

Something new: dress, shoes, bag

Something borrowed: Michelle’s hanky! (clean)

Something blue: my dress

All I need to do now is practice my new signature!!  For those who don’t know my new surname is Szczecinski (pronounced Sheshinski) I think Andrew will still call himself Mr Greenwood from time to time!!

Tropical Island Girl

Isabelle has just been on a Caribbean Adventure with her friend Barbara....

Our adventure began by flying out from Manchester to Chicago, then Chicago to San Juan in Puerto Rico.  We had a night here before boarding the Royal Caribbean ship Adventure of the Seas.
Our itinerary was:
Day One, January 9th; Welcome aboard, lunch and embarkation, sail away.
Day Two, January 10th; At sea, captain's welcome reception and first formal evening.
Day Three, January 11th; Bridgetown Barbados. Carlise Beach, showtime before dinner
Day Four, January 12th; St Luci. Shop till you drop girlfriend!!  Cool Art, Hot Ice show (ice rink) and casual dining
Day Five, January 13th; Antigua, it has 366 beaches - we chose Dickinson Beach on an organised trip, formal dinner this evening
Day Six, January 14th; Philippsburg, the capital of St Maarten.  Shop till you drop again - wow this place was blingtastic!
Day Seven, January 15th; St Croix, largest of the US Virgin Islands.  Beach day with the 'gang'.  Casual dining then karaoke final - Angie blew them away!  Last goodbyes to all our new friends...

We had a last day and night in San Juan, an opportunity to catch some more sunshine by the pool.  We also managed a quick foray to Old San Juan for some carnival action.

Blog update to come with more details but for now here's a slideshow.

Winter Schminter...

Well, Andrew is suffering seasonal adjusted disorder (SAD)! He's just not happy at all in winter and I think we are both dreaming of warmer weather and the start of the caravanning season.

Thoughts of longer days full of walking and fishing are occupying our minds just now and we've got all kinds of plans for various trips and adventures.

Hedgerow Foraging at it's best

Last year I was determined to collect sloes from the hedgerows and make some sloe gin.  So I joined forces with good pal Ian and together we got a good haul - Ian has his uses coz he's got a walking stick which we used to get to the bigger sloes at the top of the hedges.

Anyway, the sloes were picked and the gin was bought and Ian took them both off to his laboratory (garage) and after a year of shaking the jar and then leaving it alone (the hard bit), finally the brew was bottled!    Off we went to the Lake District for a little holiday and we took said bottle with us.. by heck it is grand!

So, you can imagine that as the hedgerows are particularly fruitful this year it would be rude not to pick more sloes! Off we went again, stick in hand and got a marvellous harvest which are now in the demi-john in the lab.  It's just a waiting game again.

Chickens enjoy some corn...

Each week our chickens get a treat... this week it was a corn on the cob..

Ian was very inventive and put a tent peg in the cob so we could hang it from the mesh of their pen to save it from getting covered in grit and muck.

Any way, they love their corn!

The Good Life ... it's happening!

A bit of a retro-blog because lots has been happening in the garden and by the time I get home I'm too pooped to blog!

Anyway, we've been and got the chickens!! Last Sunday actually so they've been in residence for a whole week now.

Well, before we got the chickens we had to build a nice safe enclosure for them to free range - I say 'we' but really it was Ian and Andrew who did lots of hard work. This is only stage one and a temporary measure because they've got a grand design for the real enclosure.

So, last Sunday we went to Outgate Poultry and bought four chickens; a blue, a speckledy, a sussex and a black. We brought them home and got them in the coup, we were all giddy but the chickens were really shy. They took a couple of days to find the confidence to come out. the blue one was the first to come down the ramp and into the run.

We haven't officially given them any names yet but I call the blue one Bluebell and I think it suits her.

They've had a lovely week settling in to their new home, they've entertained us with their antics... a couple of escapes, standing on the roof of the coup.

But today was the best antics of all... Bluebell laid her first egg!! Who's a clever girl?

Later on when we went round to the garden we noticed that there were actually five chickens and not four. A little bantam black chicken had appeared from no-where. It had a very lovely day being part of the flock, eating and scratching about. Anyway when Ian went to close the coup for the night it had disappeared! Let's see what happens tomorrow in the crazy garden!

Update.... the bantam (seen here on the left scurrying away from the camera) had returned this morning after obviously roosting somewhere else last night, so let's see if she gets accepted as part of the flock and decides to stay, or whether she is just here for the free lunch!

Oh, in between chickeny things we've also been planting things (shallots, beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, a whole range of squashes, cucumber, sweetcorn, courgettes, onions, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, leeks, parsnips... the list goes on and on).

First trip out in new caravan....

.... not as planned but hey!

Planned to go to Hinderwell with our good friends Mark and Michelle for the Easter long weekend.

Isabelle was just getting the caravan packed up when Mark phoned to say that the site was flooded and we had been cancelled - nightmare! We knew we would never get another booking so late in the day with it being Easter so we were all feeling a bit down to say the least.

We all started ringing round every site we could see that looked half decent to no avail, everywhere booked up. We were gutted. Then, Michelle rang to say that a site in Thornton le Dale had a pitch for one van for the whole week and should they take it - we agreed that they should take it and we'd stay at home. We'd just settled down for the rest of the evening when the phone went - it was a chap ringing back to say they'd had a cancellation at their site if we wanted it! So we jumped at the chance..... it was all the way to the other side of Howden!!!! (about half an hour away). Didn't matter that it wasn't a long journey, it would be just a good chance to test out the new caravan and find out how to work every thing.

So, we packed up and went to Brenda House caravan site for three nights. The great thing was that we got to explore some places which are on our doorstep that ordinarily being busy people we wouldn't have done. We had some lovely walks with the dog right from the site and we also went to Wheldrake to visit the nature reserve but it was flooded. The caravan is fantastic and we had a very relaxing and peaceful break. Just missed Mark and Michelle, but we're really looking forward to May now.