Family Occasion

A much anticipated family occasion took place recently, the wedding of my grandson Stephen to Hayley in the UK, almost the entire family decamped to Kenilworth for a few days of laughter and merriment.
 The sun shone on the wedding party for the whole day, which was wonderful as it was all planned outdoors in the hotel gardens!






Stephen and Hayley are the proud parents of my great grand daughter Aoibhin, a thoroughly mischevious, adorable funny little Miss

 here she is twirling the train of her Mom's dress around her, literally running rings around her.
It was a beautiful family weekend as both families were staying in the hotel together and we got to know each other and have some great memories of a wonderful weekend.

We had time to tour the locality over the few days and Kenilworth is an old English town steeped in history. Thatched cottages,and typical English  cottage gardens were photographed and enjoyed.

 Kenilworth Castle is an amazing ruin, it is closely associated with Queen Elizabeth the First who had a romantic friendship with Lord Dudley who built the castle and she had her own suite of rooms in one of the towers.

Gardens, naturally came into my visit! This is the Elizabethan garden which was lost for over a century but has been brought back to life and planted as it would have been back then

 Our second days sight seeing was the city of Coventry which was not too distant.The ruins of the gothic cathederal stand as a memorial to the Blitz during WW2. Only the outer walls and the tower still stand of this beautiful building, still beautiful in its sombre remains. The new cathederal is built beside it.

The Guidlhall, just across from the cathederal has stood since the 1670s, the roof was set on fire with incenderies on the same night the cathederal was destroyed but the building itself was saved. It is amazing inside, the old panelled walls amd tapestries still survive.
There is one small room off the main hall where it is believed the tragic Mary Queen of Scots was imprisioned for 2 months

 Myself, looking slightly the worse for wear and great grand daughter Aoibhin, ( Irish name, pronounced Aiveen) this was on the day we left to come back home.

Bubbles were distributed (for the children)  as a cleaner and fun alternative to confetti but some of the adults got as much fun out of them!
this is daughter Aisling happily blowing bubbles, pretending they were for the little one!

Well we are now back home, gardening etc ongoing and I will catch up in the next post.