Grandma and Gramps in charge

Well, we have done it, and no disasters.  Our grandsons were golden for us; no grizzling, lots of laughter, good night's sleep.  James only woke twice, which was a simple dummy problem: fortunately Mary-Ann had mentioned in passing that he goes to bed with one in his mouth and one in each hand.  I had assumed the ones in the hand were in case the one fell out of the mouth, but our little boy, humped up in the cot and scrabbling frantically with dummy in mouth, settled immediately when his empty hand was sorted.  And this is the child who didn't have a dummy at all as a baby!

Joe chatters endlessly, but was very happy to let us make grandparents' errors when they were in his favour: two or three breakfasts, playdough every evening after tea, letting me choose his clothes in the morning.  James also chatters but unfortunately the lack of consonants causes us some difficulty in interpretation.  This doesn't worry him at all: he very quickly pointed out to me that his toothbrush does not live on the window-sill but in the pen-pot, that his bath was hotter than he likes and that he wanted more cranberry wheats - and more, and then more!

The car journeys to nursery were great fun, the satnav lady providing a whole new vocabulary: 'proceed to the highlighted route', 'when possible, make a U-turn'.  Saying 'all right' in response to the left turn command caused great hilarity, and counting the exits on the roundabouts was educational.  The noisiest game was 'boing boing' as we lurched over the numerous speed-bumps on the private road to the nursery.  We were in the middle of this game when Joe phoned on loudspeak to see how we were getting on, and finished up joining in the boings.

On Saturday we went to Dawlish with Mary-Ann and Dom, after James's sleep.  It was cold but sunny.  The black swans were nesting in a cordonned-off area of the river.  The tide was out and the sun was still on the little beach at the very end of the prom.  Joe enjoyed a bit of rock-climbing, with Mum to coax him up the last bit of the slope, and Gramps to see him down the other side.  Their seats were still in our car, so we had to sing all the way home to keep them awake: they added 'five jelly-fish' and 'ten green bottles' to their repertoire, and Joe suddenly realised that the person calling out 'one fell off' controls the song.  After the third time of all five jelly fish climbing back onto the dish, we just had to start on something else!

We stayed for Mary-Ann's special slow-roasted lamb on Sunday, then had an amazing journey home with no hold-ups.  We miss them already, and won't see them before James and Megan's wedding at the end of May.  Hopefully it will be nice weather and the boys can enjoy the sand-pit and the playhouse.

Thank you Mary-ann and Dom for letting us share your children.  I know you missed them, but I hope you will feel able to do it again some time.

Goodbye to Rose

Rose died very peacefully in the middle of a conversation with Glenys and Sheila on Jan 21st.  We went to Wales last Wednesday (8 Days ago already) and the funeral was on Thursday.  As is the Welsh custom, we took the coffin into the little hillside church on the Wednesday evening and had a short service at 6 0'clock which Bob took.  Joe arrived by the skin of his teeth, having come straight from work and manoevring his motor home up a winding, stone-wall-edged track which is an inch or two wider than his vehicle.  Having got half way up he decided it was not the road he remembered, and reversed down to the road again, only to find it was the right road!  Getting back down again afterwards was not so good - he caught the side door on a sharp bend  and did some more damage.  The last time was when we were all together in Devon last summer - I don't think family occasions are good for it!

The funeral was beautiful.  It was conducted by a priest who knew Rose well, and his address was poetry.  Not only that, he had written words to 'The day thou gavest Lord is ended', a hymn to Rose, for all of us to sing quietly as we sat and reflected.  I couldn't sing, and I don't think I was the only one.  I hadn't expected to cry: it was an expected death, and peaceful, and she was ready to go so my overall emotion was one of thankfulness for a life that had come to completion and left such a legacy of love.  But beautiful words always make me cry, and there was no despair or anger in the tears so I guess they were good ones.

Roy, Joe, Luke and young Dav carried the coffin into the churchyard, and we were very proud of them.  It was a harder thing to do than they had imagined, both physically and emotionally, but we were all grateful that she was lowered into the ground by those she had loved, and who loved her.  She wanted to go to Joe, and she has, and her earthly remains now share the little plot of Welsh hillside where his were laid 19 years ago.

The church was packed with family and friends from far and near, and with local people who had come to know and love her over so many years.  We adjourned to a local restaurant, Tregwyllan, for a superb tea and many conversations, memories and renewed acquaintances.

Dave and I stayed on at Clogwyn until Sunday. We had intended to help with the inevitable clearing up after a death and a big family do, but Sheila and Bob were really just wanting to flop and unwind, so in the end we mostly helped them with that!  Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and we all went out to Seiont Garden Centre just outside Caenarvon.  We did buy some odds and ends for the gardens, but primarily we went to sample again the excellent cuisine of their Mill Restaurant.

The journey home was again spectacular if somewhat long.  There had been snowfall overnight, and the first half hour was spent taking repeated runs up the slope to Cefyn Gwyn and slithering back again.  Roy and Rachel had tried to get their car up to leave it at the bottom of the lane ready for her night shift at Aran Hall, and they were stuck too.  Roy went to get buckets of sand, and young Dav appeared with a bucket in each hand.  I only saw him stop once, but when I tried to take one of the buckets from him to sprinkle ahead of our tracks, I couldn't lift it!  What Rugger does for a lad!

We set the satnav to 'easy route', assuming that would take us via the A5 rather than over the pass, but after an hour and a half we still had 232 miles to go, and when we got round to retreiving the map from the boot we discovered we were so far North we were on the same latitude as Joe and Sal.  We had been thorough a blizzard, and travelled on some snow-packed roads, so a cup of tea and a Staffordshire oatcake seemed like a good idea.  Thanks Sal!

The snow cleared by the time we got to the Toll, and we saw hardly any until we got to Norfolk, where there was still a sprinkling.  Dave had stopped for me to take photos on the last journey, but this time I had been warned that we were going to keep moving whatever happened.  I am really surprised at how good the photos through the front screen were.  I remembered to set the camera on landscape so it didn't focus on the drops on the windscreen, and actually I think they are quite atmospheric because they are so obviously what we experienced as we went along.  You can get a snow-scene from the internet, but not the snow-scene we were driving into in our car.

If you think this blog is unduly detailed and reflective, consider that my annual appraisal is due in just over a month, and this is my study morning.  Remembering last week is much more rewarding than falling asleep over some irrelevant article in the BMJ!

The photos of the tea at Tregwillan are not too bad.  I could have done with a wide angle lens to get more people in, but it gives a flavour.  The last ten photos on the link are from Dave's camera, so go back in time again. Have a look.

Love to all, and a million thanks to the family at Clogwyn for all their care of Mum and for your fantastic hospitality.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daveandannebasketts/WalesFuneral#