Today we have had a day out with the medieval group to Uncle Roger’s – otherwise known as Roger of Lancaster’s Armourie. Roger is the brilliant guy who makes the swords and armour that our group use and he very kindly offered to host a day for us all to go and ‘fettle with the metal’ and make or mend armour. The lads were very happy to  spend the day in his workshop surrounded by so many tools and Bev and I did a bit of embroidery, made cups of tea for everyone and Bev had made a fab chilli for lunch.

Here are some pics of the boys ‘ grand day out!

 We all had a lovely day so big thanks to Roger. We always have a lot to do in the off season during the winter in terms of repairing and making new kit for re-enactment so this was a very useful day.

Am having a happy day today despite some fairly major problems at work but I’m sure it will all be sorted eventually thanks to my excellent colleague Julie. I am still on track to go part time from Monday so Friday will be my last day in this role which is very liberating – hello new me. Have now no idea where things will take me which is very strange as up until recently I had a very clear plan for most of the rest of my life but have decided that I like this fate thing in some ways. Bit scary but lots of positives.

Excellent weekend which has put me in a very good mood – here is a pic of us all outside the little castle.  Nearly all of the group are there – apologies to Luke who was absent . Don’t we all look lovely in our costumes!

They really are the best bunch of people in the world and I am so lucky to have them all. We have such a laugh together and support each other and they are like a big extended family. I am starting to feel like some kind of normality is returning as we are now back at work and the kids are at school from next week – the holidays have been lovely but it is time to go back to real life.

It’s going to be strange for all of us as there are big changes ahead – me and work and the whole embroidery business,  Ellie with her A levels and moving away to University next year and Jake with starting his GCSEs. But they are so fab, strong, kind, caring and really good company.

Hope that wherever you are you are having a happy day too – take care and be strong.

Apologies for the lack of recent posts but we have had no Internet for the last two weeks! It is amazing how much we have come to rely on it – no-email access (except at work but I am too busy there to write personal stuff) no just being able to look up things when we need it. Technology is so wonderful when it does work but we have really come to rely on it which is quite scary. For most of last week we did not have a computer that worked either which was a big shock to the 13 year old addict! Thankfully that is now semi-sorted as we had a broken monitor so have had to swap the other monitor to this PC.

The re-enactment season has now started – we had a very cold and wet show at Bolsover Castle last Sunday but huge thanks to the 800 odd (mad!) people who donned their wellies and came to see us. I have spent most of this week drying out the kit, the tent, the bedding, the hangings etc. and am now packing everything for this weekend when we shall be in North Wales at the beautiful Boddelwydden Castle near St Asaph. Hurrah for being outdoors and pray for some nice weather this weekend!