Abbeywatch: 26th August, 2018........Blustery Bank Holiday of Birthdays and Families!

As I sit here typing this, the rain is belting down, the wind is howling, the air temperature is 12 degrees Celsius....yes...it's August Bank Holiday again!!! After a hectic but wonderful few days, we decided to put on boots and waterproofs and head to Furness Abbey (so atmospheric in this type of weather) and it didn't disappoint!!

William Wordsworth felt it too.....

Here, where, of havoc tired and rash undoing,
          Man left this Structure to become Time's prey
          A soothing spirit follows in the way
          That Nature takes, her counter-work pursuing.
          See how her Ivy clasps the sacred Ruin
          Fall to prevent or beautify decay;
          And, on the mouldered walls, how bright, how gay,
          The flowers in pearly dews their bloom renewing!
          Thanks to the place, blessings upon the hour;
          Even as I speak the rising Sun's first smile
          Gleams on the grass-crowned top of yon tall Tower
          Whose cawing occupants with joy proclaim
          Prescriptive title to the shattered pile
          Where, Cavendish, 'thine' seems nothing but a name! (From At Furness Abbey 1844)

The beck isn't much better though, is it!! I walked right along it on the river bed!

We've had a weekend of family events- Frankie passes all his GCSE's, even getting some good grades, and he became sixteen so we had a big 'family and friends' meet up and it was lovely- thanks to everyone who came up to see him and us and made his birthday weekend special- he's busy making 'thank-you' cards as we speak!

Here he is four days old...….

….. with his sister when he was two.....

...and with some of the family at his sixteenth party!

Happy 50 something birthday to my sister today too (the blonde one at the front)! She was the blonde, popular. sporty one and I was the quiet, bookish one (on the far right)! No, my dad was not Roy Orbison!!!!

Thanks to my sister-in-law too for this lovely addition to my new kitchen (she did 'launch' the kitchen a couple of weeks ago by spilling a bottle of fizz everywhere!).