Just Keep Swimming.....

 I have been remiss in not blogging about something - apart from reading, of course - which has occupied a fair amount of my time over the last eighteen days!

DD4 went on an activity/adventure holiday with her school at the very end of the summer term and absolutely loved it., even the bit where they went kayaking in the sea under very close supervision. Considering she does not like particularly like being in swimming pools or doing anything other than paddling in the sea, we were heartened by this show of interest and decided to strike while the interest remained keen, signing her up for one-to-one swimming lessons at the pool in BlogTown. To our delight and hers, she has suddenly taken to swimming like the proverbial duck to water and has made remarkable progress in the six lessons so far. She has one final lesson in this "block" on Friday next, and can now do front crawl, back crawl and breaststroke.

Two weeks ago, the Hubster and I decided that she would get more benefit from the lessons if she was actually swimming much more often than once a week, so some investigation revealed that instead of paying £4 each for an hour swimming session, we could purchase a weekly pass for £12 each which would entitle us to make as many one hour visits a day or week as we wished. Obviously much better value, so I purchased two weekly passes so I could take her to the pool about fifteen minutes walk away from our house.

I had a bad experience during a school swimming lesson when I very nearly drowned, which gave me a fear of any water deeper than my own waist, and my own swimming has always been limited to a few assays at breaststroke then a gradual sinking to the bottom of the pool, so I  really did have to gird up my loins to take Munchkin into the vast expanse of water.........

Her new-found confidence and knowledge has rubbed off on me, and she has taught me how to float effectively on my back;  eventually the busy nature of the main part of the pool inspired us to go to the sectioned-off area for "real swimmers" who wish to do lengths of the 25 m pool. I wondered if I could do it too, and from struggling to complete  two lengths in the course of an hour, I have gradually improved to the point where I have managed 33 lengths of the pool in one hour, which is the equivalent of half a mile, at the end of last week. She and I have great fun swimming and are at the pool at least five days out of every seven at the moment.

I am very, very slow at swimming and can only manage a  highly modified front crawl due to limited movement in my shoulders and elbows, but I am swimming and feel so much better in terms of health and fitness. I have not lost an ounce of weight, but do actually have something approximating muscles rather than flab.....

Munchkin  can easily outswim me, and even if she gives me a head start of almost half a length, she can still beat me to the  end of the pool!  She will be having regular compulsory swimming lessons when she starts at the local Comprehensive School in September, but as I know from my own bitter experience, these do not make much difference to anyone  who is not already actually able to swim reasonably well. Hopefully Munchkin will be in a position to benefit from these school lessons now, which she would not have done if she had not had the one-to-one lessons. They were not cheap, but have definitely been worth every penny.

Once the girls are back in school and our normal busy routine  recommences, I hope to be able to continue swimming as often as possible because it is making such a positive impact on my mobility and general health. Finding time for that swim session is going to be well worth it, even in the grim winter months when my joints normally seize up and my muscles ache constantly :-)

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Busy, Busy!

Sorry about the lamentable lack of posts; our very dear elderly friend and adopted family member, John, has been very unwell indeed and was admitted to hospital, so much of my time has been spent visiting him, phoning the hospital and fighting to get him the best care possible while he has been in the hospital.

Exhausting, stressful but so very rewarding when he is now in a rehabilitation ward and likely to be discharged home again next week, much to our delight.

DD4 is going on a school-run activity holiday next week, so we are gearing up for that and getting things packed. She's also been having swimming lessons and is making good progress  as well as having lots of fun. DD3 is struggling with the intense heat here, especially as their compulsory school uniform dictates that all the girls who wear skirts must also wear navy tights (nylons) which is not much fun when the temperatures are reaching 28C  and the school only has AC in four of the rooms, even though there are 1600 children there. The female staff, of course, can wear what they like and are not wearing tights in this heat. Thank goodness the school term is very nearly over and the girls will soon be able to just relax at home and stay cool.

Yesterday I had the joy of having DD2 and her wonderful boyfriend Rob send the day with us, along with my "grandpug", Bertie. We had a great day, chilling, chatting and enjoying the cool shade in the back garden and laughing at the tortoise trying to stalk Bertie...... before heading off to visit John in hospital in the evening.

Next week is likely to be the last Latin class until September, so I really am hoping I will be disciplined enough to do a little study every day and not forget  what has been so laboriously learnt these last few months!

I have a veritable mountain of books to review and an equally large heap of ironing, so I really should tackle the ironing while it is still cool here at 7 am...........

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Apple Blossom

After the recent dreadful weather, I was worried whether I had lost all hope of further apple blossom  appearing on my precious tree.

As you can see,  my worries were needless!

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Busy Busy!

It's been a busy week at The Garden Window and will likely be busier still....

DD3 is off on a school Geography trip to Italy in the early hours of tomorrow morning, taking in Naples, Pompeii, climbing up Vesuvius (on her birthday!) and then heading to Rome, where she will visit the Catacombs of St Sebastian, lots of historic sites, St Peter's and the Vatican museum. This is half-term week, so DD4 will be home and I hope to do some fun activities with her to cheer her up, as she will undoubtedly miss her sister greatly.

This weekend is the local kite festival, so we will most likely head up to the Park with our own kites in tow and join in the fun, as we normally do every year. Hopefully, photos will follow soon!

We have two viewings of our house, which is up for sale, and my mother-in-law is also moving back to our town next week so we can keep a closer eye on her now that her health is sadly failing.

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Mrs DoomHamster Has Landed!

After an interesting flight to Denver via the northernmost reaches of the world, Mrs DoomHamster is now safely in Colorado, reunited with her beloved husband  and ready to start her exciting new life there :-)

Quite whether America is ready for the Celtic DoomHamster is another matter altogether, of course............

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Mrs DoomHamster Departs

Well, our beloved DoomHamster is leaving Wales today and travelling up to England, where she will fly out to Denver tomorrow to permanently rejoin her husband at long last.  The last two days have been filled with visits to family and friends to say goodbyes.

As you can imagine, her two youngest sisters have been very tearful last night and this morning as they said goodbye to her, for they will not see her again for another year.  I am travelling with her  - by coach - to the airport to keep her company while my husband holds the fort here with the young ones; we have a hotel room booked for tonight and she checks in for her flight mid-morning tomorrow.

I will be on the lunchtime coach trip back home to Wales while she crosses The Pond for a joyful reunion with Mr DoomHamster and the start of a new life and a new adventure together.

Prayers for safe travel for us both would be much appreciated...

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Crossing The Pond

Now that all family members have been officially told, I can formally announce that our precious eldest daughter, Mrs DoomHamster, has got her emigration Visa and will be flying to the US to rejoin her beloved husband next week.

It is going to be a bitter-sweet  last few days for us as a family; we are all thoroughly delighted for her and Mr DoomHamster to be reunited after a long separation, but we shall miss her as much as we have missed our dear son-in-law these last twenty one months..........

And so The Big Adventure begins...... prayers for travelling mercies for her would be greatly appreciated!

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Thinking About Mum

I cannot begin to articulate how difficult I still find it to go to Mum’s house, almost a year after her death, and  still feel surrounded by reminders of her life, even though the house is almost completely empty.  About 90% of her possessions have been shared with other family members, friends, charities etc. 

Yet each time I go there, I seem to find more and more hidden surprises tucked away in nooks and crannies, a constant reminder of her life and death, and the gaping great hole in my life where my mother should be.

The last kitchen cupboard needing to be emptied contained mugs and cups. A few items were coming back to our house, some were in good enough condition to be taken to a thrift shop, some would be kept and a small number needed to be binned, but everything needed to be washed clean first, after a year of sitting unused in the kitchen.

 I stood by the sink, carefully washing each piece of my mother’s treasured china with a dishcloth and soapy water, wiping, rinsing and wiping again and again until it was sparklingly clean, and realised that I was washing it as tenderly as though it were my mother’s fragile body.  I cared for it because she had cared for it, and this was the last thing I could do for her, to dispose of her possessions with the same sort of  care which she had expended on choosing and purchasing it in the first place……

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Our Trip To London - Part Three

We kept seeing the most gorgeous old buildings!

And this plaque commemorating Sir Richard Westmacott in South Audley Street; he was a famous sculptor who did the reliefs on the Marble Arch and the first commemorative statue of Admiral Lord Nelson.

The Grosvenor Chapel again.

And inside....

A detail of the arch.

The Rood Screen and High Altar.

A very bad close-up of the Rood.

There were several icons dotted around the church......

And the plaque outside to say that American troops worshipped here. The Chapel maintains strong links with the USA to this day.

We sat down in Berkeley Square and enjoyed the sunshine, peace and birdsong....

The trees were lovely.

Can you see the face in the trunk, where the left branch joins the main trunk?

The end of the Changing of the Guard.

And lots of tourists taking photos of the Guards entering the Barracks!

                            This is a much more normal shot of tourists around Buckingham Palace!

Big Ben  - or rather, the Elizabeth Tower which houses Big Ben :-)

This pretty little shell-encrusted building was in a square

 we walked past, and caught our eye.....

And this was my calzone for lunch, at an Italian brasserie close to Victoria Station. It was delicious and kept me well filled on the long journey back home to Wales.

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Our Trip To London - Part Two

Our second day started bright and early, and a quick walk to the American Embassy, where Mrs DoomHamster had an early appointment. I stayed with her until she was called to go in through the perimeter checkpoint.

As I watched her walk into the security  kiosk, I turned and shot this picture of the view from President Reagan's statue. The visible spire on the left is that of the Grosvenor Chapel, a closer shot is below.

A random street sign, high above eye level.

Walking back to Marble Arch to take some unhurried photos while Mrs DoomHamster was at the Embassy, I went past the memorial to Animals In War in Hyde Park. I was on the wrong side of the road and the traffic was roaring by, so it was impossible to get a shot without cars in it......

Marble Arch itself. Only members of the Royal Family and select members of the Army are allowed to drive or process through it.  It was originally built in 1825 as part of the ceremonial entrance to the newly rebuilt Buckingham Palace, but was moved to its present location in 1851, when the rooms inside were allotted as a police station until  1968.

And the fountains in Hyde Park.

Not far away is the site of Tyburn gallows, where so many Catholics were martyred for their Faith in Tudor times. The plaque which marks the site is on a busy traffic island and I did not feel brave enough to cross over and visit it; now, of course, I wish I had.......  close to the site of the original gallows is the Tyburn Convent Shrine. 

This is the crucifix outside.

I popped in to the convent chapel to sit quietly and  pray for Mrs DoomHamster and all my dear family and friends. There were half a dozen other people praying, and beyond the choir grille was one of the Sisters in silent adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament; the Sisters take it in turns to pray in the Chapel, 24 hours a day. 

The Chapel is open to the public from approximately 6.30 am to approximately 8 pm. Despite the enormous volume of traffic thundering just a few feet away, the Chapel was a  veritable haven of peace and holiness, and the loudest sound was birdsong from the Convent's cloister garden on the other side of the Chapel, and the  occasional rustle of the Sister's habit as she almost imperceptibly changed position kneeling on the prie-dieu.

The Sisters do guided tours three times a day, but although I would have liked to have seen the shrine and the relics of the 105 Catholic Martyrs beneath the Chapel, I could not stay until the first tour at 10.30. I did not wish to impose upon the privacy of the Sister and my companions who were all in prayer, so no photos inside the Chapel.

When I left the Convent, I walked past the Anglican Church of the Annunciation; sadly it was not due to open till 10.30 but I did take a photo of the War Memorial crucifix, which was decorated with a  spray of flowers and some candles. 

This is one of the crosses which adorned the wall of the church.

 

I made a very quick detour to the huge Marks & Spencer store in Oxford Street to search for a particular dress for DD2, but unfortunately they only had ridiculously tiny sizes and ridiculously huge sizes in stock. As I was looking at the dresses, my phone rang and it was Mrs DoomHamster telling me she was out of the Embassy in record time and had retrieved her mobile phone etc from the obliging pharmacy near the Embassy who will happily store items you cannot take through the Embassy's security checkpoints, for a very modest fee.

This very nice church is the Jesuit Church in Farm Street, though this is the east end as approached through the Mount Street Gardens, and a very ornate side door.

Inside is absolutely remarkable. It is a Pugin church, and really quite stunning.

Some of the marble statues  had typed labels stuck on to their bases with sellotape to identify them, but this one did not. It is possible St Thomas More, but I was not sure......

This is St Winifred.

    And the Seven Sorrows of the Mother of God.

The vaulting was lovely.

This is the main nave roof.

Looking west to the back of the church.

And looking east to the enshadowed  sanctuary and the shining High Altar.....

Just above the Sanctuary arch was a lovely mosaic.

Each phrase of the Ave Maria was in a decorated roundel between the nave arches.

In a side-chapel was  a replica of the venerated  ancient pilgrimage statue of Our Lady of Montserrat in Catalonia, Spain.

And a lovely crucifixion in marble.

To the right of the High Altar was the statue of Our Lady

And to the rear of the Church was St Edward.

Another view across the church.

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Our Trip To London - Part One

Updated to add that the quotation (one of three) is on the wall of 21 Davies Street, London :-)

Monday 5th March saw us on the road to London.  We were sitting right at the front of the coach, and this was our first view of the approach to London.

The blue onion dome on the left is that of the Russian Orthodox  Church Abroad 's Cathedral in Chiswick.

We alighted at Victoria Coach Station, and it was only a very short walk on a crisp, sunny day to Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty The Queen had arrived there after being discharged home from hospital just a short while before and the flag was flying to show she was in residence.

She was being well guarded inside the Palace gates and outside them too.

The main gates are quite something to see.

Atop the gates are these regal lions, and some rather lovely lamps.

The tourists had abandoned the area for lunch, and it was very quiet.

I have no idea how this man  got in my picture; he must have been walking very quickly as he wasn't there when I focused the shot :-)  London is full of lovely architecture, often when you least expect it.

I wish I could remember where we saw this; I will check with Mrs DoomHamster and see if she remembers. "Where man obeys without being presumed good, there is neither liberty nor a native land."

We passed some exquisite and extremely expensive antique shops. In one of them was the above mosaic, and we are still trying to work out whether it is an authentic Roman mosaic or a modern joke :-)

  

This is the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of The Holy Family in Exile in Binney Street, almost opposite the super little Italian restaurant where we had a very late but wonderful lunch. The building work in the front of the cathedral made it impossible to access, sadly. 

Outside Selfridge's 

This made me chuckle.

President Eisenhower.

The American Embassy, Grosvenor Square, at twilight.  The eagle and the Stars & Stripes.  I was careful  not to photograph the armed guards patrolling the perimeter.

Part of the Berlin Wall, enshrined in the park outside the Embassy.

President Ronald Reagan

It was getting dark and President Roosevelt's statue did not photograph as well as I would have liked.

A nearby shop had a pair of elephants that were at least six feet tall.

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