THE BELLS ..... THE BELLS ..........

I guess we all have good things and bad things about where we live. One of the lovely things about where our house is, is that it's a stones throw away from the 600 year old C of E church, built between 1418-1448,  with evidence of an older church on the same site, dedicated to St John the Baptist. 

The bells ring out every Sunday and for every wedding { if the happy couple have paid for bells !!! } We also hear them a few evenings a week when they practice and they are rung whenever there is a significant celebration. 

I took the above little video at 9.45 a.m this morning, the bells calling people to the Holy Eucharist service { you have to have the volumne up high to hear the bells ! }. I know a bit about the church, not because we go but because our son was a choir boy there. I think I might have told you this but, when he was seven, he came out of school saying the choirmaster had visited asking boys if they would like to join the choir { it was all boys then but they have girls now } and he said he did !!! He went on to get his grades in singing, then a degree in music and now works in the music industry..... he was born with the music gene !

Our garden is going over now but it did look nice in the Spring and Summer !!! 

XXXX

WELCOME 2015 ……….

London excelled itself yet again and brought in 2015 with a bang, helped along by our son and accompanying electronic music that was a mixture of the old and new. The 11 minute display was accompanied by an electronic soundtrack featuring a poignant commemoration of the centenary  of the First World War, with bursts of red fireworks, representing poppies.

Welcome 2015 ….. wishing all of my blogging friends a happy and peaceful New Year. 

videos from YouTube, image via the Daily Mail

OUR SON, THE MIDWIFE !!!!! …..

Our grandchild was over a week late ….. not unusual I hear you say ….. actually, our son was two weeks late and had to be induced, so I know what it's like !!!! 

….. and then, her waters broke and our son took our daughter-in-law into hospital. She had wanted a home birth but her blood pressure was high. Her mum { who had been staying with them } and our grandson decided to come over for a couple of hours. Before they left our son and daughter-in-law came home. Her blood pressure was fine so, it was to be a home birth. DIL's mum { who, by the way, is a midwife}  and our grandson came over to us to stay the night, to give son and DIL a private time for the birth !

Now at home, they rang for the midwife who immediately set off to their house. Meanwhile, our son was upstairs, getting the birthing pool, thinking that there would be hours to kill, leaving enough time to fill the birthing pool  and to have their baby delivered in a lovely calm, home environment !! Then, our DIL shouted to our son that she had to push and, birthing pool discarded, our son rolled up his sleeves and proceeded to deliver the baby !!!!! Our DIL was very calm and helped our son through the pretty traumatic experience of delivering his own baby { along with a paramedic on the other end of the phone  !!!! } I cannot imagine what that must have been like. I did say to him that it must have been a wonderful experience but he said he wouldn't have quite used that choice of words !!

The midwife arrived after the event !!!!

Anyway, Martha Iris, 8lbs 14oz was born and is beautiful.

Here she is with her daddy and big brother and is the most wonderful addition to our family.

Welcome to the world Martha my dear !!

image 1: via google, images 2&3: via me, video via YouTube