House

We bought the house we were renting. At the end of last year the housing market, in St.Albans anyway, was going a little bonkers. Decent houses were being bought for way above asking price. We were lined up to buy a house, ready to exchange, when the sellers dropped out.

Then our landlords gave us notice that they were going to put the house on the market. We decided to buy it, offering a bid to take it off the market. That worked, and we exchanged late last year. I'm not sure I have posted on this, nor uploaded any pictures of the house yet, even when we were renting it. So here is one, albeit of the back.

Garden makeover

This is what our garden looked like not long after we decided to rip it up.

And this is what it looks like now:

We had a tree removed, the lawn flattened, and new glass put down. Oh, and we had the sun come out for the picture. Don't think that our little arch has half a door on it. I have just noticed that it is the chalet door opened so it looks like the arch has half a door! And if you look carefully, you can see the bounce-a-lene behind the trellis.

Boys get prizes

It was George's year's annual prizegiving last night. He won a prize for science, for his form and played in the band at the start of the evening. Unfortunately, I missed it as I was getting ready for a big pitch. One effect of missing the event was that I wasn't able to take a picture of George getting his prize on stage. So instead I have loaded a picture of George in York with at least three, if not four, beanie hats on. The number continued to rise in the thirty minutes after this photography was taken.

I did, however have my camera for Ollie's annaul St. Albans City football club awards a few weeks earlier. Here he is, with his team, receiving their awards. For easier identification purposes, Ollie is the one in the middle wearing a black tie and holding a yellow pendant.

Molly's 80th

Last Friday, 26th June, we celebrated Auntie Molly's 80th birthday. Molly is my mum's sister. She is quite an amazing lady and has survived quite a lot of tragedy in her life. She seems to get up, brush herself down and just get on with it.

The party itself was at Ponsbourne Hotel in Newgate Street. It was a lovely summer evening and lots of Molly's friends were there, as well as a full family turn out. I looked a little shoddy, having dashed from running a two-day American Express workshop.

For those of you who don't know, from left to right is Anna, Molly and me!