Wetlands and Weddings

The past week has whooshed by. Yesterday we went to Castle Espie, a wetland centre on the shore of beautiful Strangford Lough. It was mild and thankfully dry day. There were a few other HE families with us. We started off feeding the ducks and geese. The children each had a bag of grain; Duncan was flinging handfuls into the pond before tipping the whole lot out, whereas Thomas scattered mere pinches out of his bag and ended up taking most of it home. I suppose the garden birds will be glad! I took Duncan's Major buggy and he sat in it for short periods. Mostly he ran so, as usual, I had a mini-workout too.

We all had a lovely time. Thomas and Lady enjoyed seeing all their buddies and they all ran and climbed and explored. We ate our packed lunches in a building which Duncan described as 'a big house, old house...Hogwarts!' Oh, there was another HP reference earlier, Duncan was chasing a goose when he shouted 'Rictosempra!' then lifted his foot as if to kick it, mercifully missing, whether by design or by mistake I couldn't tell.

Later today, I'm going to my cousin's Civil Partnership. This cousin, A. was the last born cousin of my generation so she's always been the baby of the family. I'm really fond of her and have great memories of the time she and her Mum came over to stay with Gordon and me in our London flat. She was only 11 then, and it was such a blast taking her around London. She was so excited and enthusiastic, loved everything. She even managed to make people smile on the Underground, when she read out one of the awful advertisement puns, and laughed about it 'cause she thought it was so funny.

Anyway, she's all grown up now and in love with a woman whom I had the pleasure to meet at the previous family wedding. I really hope they have a great day, there's going to be a lot of people going and, to be honest, I'm looking forward to the party!