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Annabel's Family

Toddling around the garden.

Annabel's Family
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Chris & Bethan’s Wedding at Penarth Pier ...

A whimsical wedding with train travel and seaside joy

Chris & Bethan’s Wedding at Penarth Pier Pavilion
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Kirstin & Matt's pre wedding photos in the ...

Chasing blue bells in Malvern.

Kirstin & Matt's pre wedding photos in the Malvern Hills
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Alex & Christina’s Wedding at Rowheath ...

Alex and Christina brought their love of birds and the natural world to their wedding in their home town of Birmingham. They got married amongst the farmers market at All Saints Church Kings Heath, then moved on to their party at Rowheath Pavillion in Bournville, one of our favourite Birmingham venues.

Alex & Christina’s Wedding at Rowheath Pavilion, Birmingham
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Welcome Baby
Welcome Baby

Cheese and Wine and Kirsty



We've just had a lovely couple of days with Kirsty. During which we visited the ducks, drank tea, went on a bus adventure to Solihull, watched High School Musial and had a hair braiding lesson. Autumn seemed to come with Kirsty (which is good, because it's her favourite season) and we celebrated all this with a spot of cheese and wine.


Cheese and wine Menu:
Marks & Spencers goats cheese,
Marks & Spencers soft and creamy brie,
Snowdonia cheeses amber mist (whiskey) and red devil (chilli)*,
Ben's mystery 18 month nutty cheese,
A bottle of sparkling wine on ice,
A bottle of red decanted,
A jug of mint water
Black olives
Some of Lidl's finest rye breads,
Marks & Spencers posh olive crackers,
and strawberries.

* which we bought in Llangollen during the Eisteddfod.






Coomb Abbey County Park



Autumn seemed to arrive at the exact moment we drove across the threshold of Coomb Abbey county park, a tried and tested venue for bank holiday family outings near Coventry. We normally spend most of our time chin-wagging and don't see much of the wildlife. This year was no exception, though we made some new discoveries, including sheep, an old pet cemetery, and a peculiar wooden carving of a girl attached to a heavily-pruned tree.





Abersoch Detective Agency


Huge thank you to the Abersoch Beach Mission team of 2011. We had such an awesome time. So thanks to each one of you for all your wisdom, courage, inspiration, faithfulness, enthusiasm, patience, prayer, fun, eagerness, aerobics, welcoming, volunteering, leading, studying, encouraging, listening, dancing, singing, dishwashing, early waking, fancy dress, chav make-up, flying saucers, action songs, hot chocolate, dramatic improvisation, photocopier fixing, frisbee throwing, car shuffling, den building, floor sweeping, bonfire building, resource buying, moustache wearing, equipment carrying, errand running, venue decorating, banner tying, banner untying, bracelet making, key hunting, garage foraging, garage locking, prayer letter folding, communal teeth brushing, exhaustion-beating hugs, emergency murder mystery script writing, sticky toffee pudding and marzipan.*



*Not to mention all that work you did with the children, young people and adults.

[Our Wedding] The 'Moon


Having booked our honeymoon in January we were well excited to get flying by the time November rolled around. 



The day after our wedding we had a mini breakfast celebration of being together for 7 years, then headed over to nom's parents where some of our guests were gathered for food and chatting. They bullied us into opening loads of lovely gifts. Its a tough job...


We took the train to Manchester, stayed over and then flew to Marrakech!



We stayed about 15 mins drive outside of the city and could easily hop on the shuttle from the hotel to go wandering around the city. 

 


We arrived a few days before Aid El Kabir, which gave us the rare opportunity to play spot the weirdly transported sheep. It is a Muslim practise that each family should have at least one sheep killed for the festival. As we took the shuttle from the airport to our hotel we spotted our first sheep: being transported on the lap of a man riding a moped.



Our first trip into central Marrakesh was "eventful": we did a spot of shopping (managing some mild haggling) and just as we were wondering what to do with ourselves next (looking a little lost and bemused) were approached by a local offering to show us a Berber Market. He began to take us through the maze of back streets until we were no longer confident of our ability to find our own way back. We were more than a little nervous. 

Eventually, having walked past plenty of residential areas with everyone getting ready for the holiday celebrations the next day, we came to a tannery split across both sides of a road. There was a pungent smell and several wide wells filled with coloured liquid for dying the leathers. Our guide kindly recommended we could take pictures and encouraged us to sniff the leathery bits covering the floor, before introducing us to the owners of the leather shop. 

We were taken downstairs into the selling room, seated in chairs on the furthest wall and shown a huge array of hand-woven rugs. Having been bribed with some of the worst mint tea we experienced during our whole trip, the sellers asked what our favourite colour was and proceeded to show us all manner of different yellow rugs. They demonstrated the rugs' flame retardant properties by holding a cigarette lighter to the edges and assured us that they were completely machine washable. After much protestation we managed to escape, having paid about £30, and clutching a meagrely sized red rug.

Having been reliant on our "guide" thus far we then had to pay him to take us back to the central square and his service as a whole. Relieved to finally recognise the market place we'd barely began making swift moves toward our return coach before we found ourselves trapped once again, this time by Fatima, a street henna artist who insisted Nom had a pattern done on her hand: "Just one, for luck". She then demanded £40 for the "privilege"; we paid £4.

In retrospect we can highly recommend the Moroccan Lonely Planet guide book, which retells what it calls the "faux guide" experience, right the way from the point of initial contact to the rubbish tea. It also advises that you do as the Moroccan's do, which is to completely ignore any calls from sellers and entertainers. This seems cruel but even a polite "no thanks" is a foot in the door for Marrakech's highly skilled barterers.



 

During Eid (which our hotel chose to explain this to the English Folks as "the Muslim Christmas") the vast majority of places were closed. We enjoyed being forced to stay in the hotel and make the most of the swimming pools and all inclusive bar. 



We picked up a copy of Grahame Greene's "Our Man in Havana" in the airport, which Malc read to me (over a g&t or two) while we were away.



This is our favourite gate in the city walls: "Bab Nkob" (snigger). Notice the holes that cover the old city walls; these were originally put in to aerate the clay as it dried. "Look at all the bullet holes!" a surprised British lady on our coach shouted to her husband.



The Jardin Majorelle is a key tourist attraction. Formerly a private residence, it was designed by Jacques Majorelle and was bought and refurbished by Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. An interesting mixture of Islamic and Western designs, its distinctive feature is its use of bold blues and yellows on everything from the plant pots to the exterior of the house.


 



 





Our decision to go all-inclusive was a huge bonus, as our hotel offered an extensive choice of food, including a few Moroccan specialties we were previously unaware of. Our favourite mealtime options included: beghrir (previously featured on this blog), the tea table (which offered fresh mint and dried rosebuds), custard slices, spaghetti, fried fish, balsamic squid, and beef carpaccio.








Our favourite market catchphrases: "changes colour like michael jackson", "it is time", "117 takes you to heaven", "bloody marvellous!" and "See you later alligator".







Aparently on Sundays the locals often head to the Menara Gardens not far from the city walls. According to the locals' stories in this building people had their heads chopped off and dropped into the pond below. The park was lively on a Sunday afternoon with people strolling amongst rows of olive trees, others selling food and drink, and animals standing for photographs.







Turns out that snail soup is highly palatable and worth buying a second bowl.





We left this parting gift for the hotel house keeping staff, who'd kept our room supplied with an ever changing display of folded towels.

[Our Wedding] The 'Ding Part 2


Wedding cupcakes by Charlie-Rose


Malc: Suit Slaters, Tie Tie Rack, Shirt Marks & Spencer, Hankie Oxfam (plus hand embroidery), Nom: Dress Homemade, Headband Sophie Dahl (from Her Dandy Wolf). Balloon: a gift from my little sister.

Lighting by David Baxter
Gorgeous food by Syd the Chef


Our photographers constructed a simple, sweet photo booth for our guests to mess around in. The guests diligently obliged and then Sam turned the photos into this:






Our first dance was a fairly pimping Strip the Willow accompanied by our live band (four friends from beach mission and a new friend who called the instructions). I got to dance with every man present (and Malc danced with every woman) twice as we weaved our way down the line of assembled friends and relatives. Constantly spinning all that way was a bit of a epic adventure but I loved it, though I do remember yelling "Please help me I think I'm going to die" to one of the guys near the end of the first lap.










Our wedding photographers were: Sam Kelsall, Jessica Adams and Jack Adams. The final photo by Laura Street. 
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