Friday Smiles 2023 # Week 36

Hi everyone. I am so sorry I was AWOL again last week. I landed back in Spain on Thursday, but on Friday I was so busy unpacking, washing, shopping etc, that I quite forgot what day it was. I warn you this is a very long post, so just enjoy the pictures if it is too much reading!

However I have now sorted out some of the hundreds of photos I took in UK so today I am looking back on two of my visits, firstly to my eldest son in London, and then to my youngest son in Cheshire. Next week I will look more closely at the other places I went to.

We flew into Stansted and caught a train straight to son Jim's house in Sydenham.  This lovely sunset was seen from the train window.

We went to Jim and Jo's first as they live in a very large vicarage right next to St Bartholomew's church where Jim is the vicar. They are the only ones who can comfortably cope with all the 'tribe' decending on them, so on Saturday we had our Family Day. (I think we had 21 bodies sleeping over that night, but I will talk more about that another day).

They had nearly all gone home by Monday so Jim, our son Tom still over from Denmark, and I, set off for The Tate Modern to see the exhibition by Yayoi Kasuma. I mentioned this briefly a couple of posts back but here are two collages I made of the photos.

I wonder how many times you can see us in these pictures, and are you sure which ones are really us, and which are reflections going off into infinity?

In the coloured lights room, we only had a short narrow path, the width of a paving stone to walk on, and yet we seemed to be in a vast area. 

As Jim is a member of the Tate, we were able to go into the member's' lounge for a pot of tea which we took onto the patio outside, where we had a lovely view of the Thames and the magnificent London skyline.

At Christmas someone gave Jim a joke gift of a pink bird somewhere between a duck and a flamingo, which they call Flamin'duck. (I got corrected for calling it 'Flaming duck'!). I made a little amigorumi replica and now both go on all their outings (adventures) and manage to get into many of the photos. Here they are sitting together on our tea table.

We decided to walk along the Thames banks to the dock where we could catch the boat-taxi to Grenwich to eat some street food at the market there.  There is a theme in London this year around the figure of Morph. I am sure most of you remember the plasticine figure that morphed into different shapes and delighted the chidren  with his TV programme many years ago. Well there were statues of Morph all over the place and these two we passed on our walk by the Thames.

I am not sure I would like it on a daily basis, but I enjoyed the hustle and bustle all around us. The Hays Galleria was beautifully decorated, and I loved this old pub with its red paint and colourful baskets of flowers.(My son Tom, and one of my grandsons are walking together in this picture)

We also popped into Southwark Cathedral which is Jim's church comes under. On the path around it we found the stone for St Bartholomew.

We also met Hodge, the cathedral cat. (I said he should be called Podge. I think a lot of visitors feed him!) He wanders around the cathdral, including over and under the altar during services. Someone local has immortalised him in books, pictures and soft toys which are sold in the visitor's shop, and help to raise funds for the cathedral so that they can allow people to enjoy visiting it  for free. 

I saw this beautiful piece of embroidery hanging from a side altar  and these contrasting ancient and modern stained glass windows.

The next day was rather more grey but we took a train in the opposite direction to the little town of Rochester, to visit the cathedral there. I touched last time on the sewing exhibition there, but now I have made a collage of all twelve panels. I hope you can click on it to zoom in, so that you can appreciate all the threads and fabrics used.

But the cathedral had much more to offer than just the exhibition. In the centre of the nave was this huge Black Oak table, made for the coronation from one enormous branch of fallen oak that had been preserved in a peat bog for thousands aof years, and was found in perfect condition by archeologists. The table had been deeply polished and the wood just glowed. It was stunning.

I also appreciated these statues with the archway door in the centre...

this tile pattern on a section of floor...

and these beautiful windows.

At the end of the week, Jim and Jo saw me safely onto a train at the busy Waterloo station. Of course the Flamin'ducks came too.

The train took me to Bournemouth where I was met by my sister Jean, and we spent a lovely few days together. We have many common interests including card-making and crochet, so there was plenty to talk about.

We had a nice day out at Hobbycraft and the neighbouring garden centre where we both treated ourselves to new clothes and handbags, plus a big bowl of delicious soup for our lunch.

I went to see the new extension her daughter and son-in-law have added to their bungalow, and I met Jean's grand-daughter and her five little girls plus their cousin! They help to even out the score with all my boys.

We spent a day with our other sister who lives near-by. At eighty-eight she still lives alone and is looking remarkabley well. It was lovely to have time to really chat together.

Soon I was back on the train again, for the long journey up to Manchester where I was met by my son Ben. His partner Ant is a keen gardener and their beds were filled with flowers of all colours and varieties. He did particularly well with his dahlia's, which seem to have done well everywhere this year. Here are just some of the photos I took in his garden.

While staying at Ben's we did some more retail therapy at a huge M&S sale, which I wasn't expecting.

We also had a visit from two of his school friends' wives and their little children. After lunch we took the little ones to fed the animals at the local farm complex. Tilly liked the goats but Lenny just loved the donkeys and Shetland ponies.

We also had a lovely day out at Bridgemere Garden World. I used to take my boys there when they were little because there was a glass tunnel covering a tropical area with exotic plants and big pools of tropical fish. It has been taken over by a different group now and the tropical part has gone but there was lots to see, including formal gardens three of which won medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. We had a lovely walk around and I have made a scrapbook page of some of the photos I took, including the three gardens  --  The Womens'Institute cottage garden, The Forge, and the Old Potting Shed,  --  and a collage of all the beautiful dahlias that were in bloom.

Of course there were also several well know brands of retailers there so we both parted with some more money, but it was well worth the visit.

Then Ant took this picture of Ben and I as were went to the car to travel to my next destination.

Cogratulations to anyone who is still with me after that marathon.Next week I will show the rest of my visit but that is quite enough for one week.

This week has flown by. We had the good news last night that son Mike had had his long-awaited spinal surgery and today he has been up and is expecting to be back home by tomorrow. I had very similar surgery nearly forty years ago and had to stay in hospital at least ten days until I had my stitches out. How times have changed!

We have had an anxious week with little Leo who stopped eating and was losing weight fast. This was extra worrying as he was only gaining very slowly anyway. The vet found he had an infection which is being treated with antibiotics and he is now eating well again but not gaining any weight. A blood test has shown he is very anaemic so he now has more tablets to take every day, and in ten days time they will test him again. I hope he starts to pick up soon.

But for now I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles and make sure I visit everyone to make up for all the weeks I have mssed.