Birthday boy and chief fan! Paul thought I was getting up for work as normal, but actually I was scheming. I made bacon and french toast for breakfast and laid out a treasure hunt of his presents and when he came down to say goodbye before I went off to work, I broke the news that I had arranged a day off and we were off for a day out instead - can't believe I didn't give the game away, as I usually do!
And so we headed off to Castlewellan Forest for a walk around the lake, then Newcastle for a dander/dig on the beach and a wee ice cream. I think Lucy thought it was all for her, but whatever the excuse, it was just a great day together and we were left saying, why don't we do this more often? And determined to make it a regular thing...
Learning about velcro-like burrs
A few days after the official birthday, we were blessed with a visit by Paul's two sisters, Mhari and Barbara and Belfast brought the sun out to welcome them. We had a fantastic day just chilling out, sitting the garden, introducing them to that Belfast institution Maggie Mays, wandering through the Botanic Gardens (with the compulsory stop at the swings) and generally just relaxing. It was great. Here's farmer Lucy inspecting our Mange Tout seedlings
And Barbs trying out hte hammock...
Lucy's aunties keeping her on trend...
And a few other pictures of us getting settled in to live in Belfast.
Bedtime story from Granny and Dawn Marie (another Julia Donaldson classic and Lucy is gripped)
