Two years!!!

At the end of our honeymoon I turned to my new husband and said, in slightly disbelieving-excitement “Do you realise we’ve been married for a whole week?!?“

The ring goes on!!

This morning before he headed off for work, L and I looked at each other and said together “We’ve been married for two years!!!“

So happy and oh yeah – the kiss was about to come! 😉

The time has gone so quickly it seems impossible that we’re celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary already!

Isn’t the black-and-white with the one bit of colour wonderful?!

Being Mrs M, waking up next to L every morning and enjoying more hugs in one day then I used to get in a month is now so natural, so right that I find myself amazed that it’s only been two years!

It’s wierd the way passing time leaves you feeling that way.

We were both so glad that so many of our family, friends and church-family were there to celebrate our marriage with us!

Nana and I on my wedding day!

My sisters and I – love you!!

I love how happy we are! 🙂

I put the socks and converses on after we got to the park and saw a long-cherished dream realised!! 😀

It was so much fun taking these photos on the swings!!!

One of my hubby’s favourites!!! 😀

Oh yes, and after all this time, I finally have an album of most of my favourite wedding photos (um, 200 plus of them … ! 😛 ) and tomorrow am going to give my best friend R her completed chief-bridesmaid gift … let’s just say that I wasn’t the most organized bride in history … 😉

I’m nearly out of photo storage space on my blog and haven’t yet decided what to do about it (any tips?!) so used photos of our wedding that we’re already stored on here – complete with the captions I added March last year!

Happy 2nd anniversary L!! 🙂

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never ends.

1 Corinthians 13 v 4-8

Apples, apples, apples …

A friend from church was giving away crates of cooking apples from her garden.

My own one-person apple cooking marathon ensued…

Luke put in a special request for a spiced apple cake … rather yummy, though I do say so myself!! 😉

After a bit of research, the purchasing of vinegar and jars, followed by lots of chopping …

… and many hours of simmering and stirring …

I ended up with six jars of Spiced Apple Chutney!

These were followed a couple of days later by four (and a half! 😛 ) jars of Apple and Blackberry Jam!

These goodies (except for the apple cake, surprisingly!! 😉 ) are now stashed in the bottom of my wardrobe (aka: cool, dark place!) to mature …

Yummy, yummy!!

I’ve received one chocolate suggestion so far – thank you! – so keep them coming!! 🙂

It’s going to tell a story …

Here’s what I’ve figured out for myself. My life is going to tell a story whether I intend it to or not. It’s going to tell a story that says: This is what a follower of Jesus is, this is what they are about, this is what they believe, this is what they think is important. Because this is going to happen and can’t be stopped, I better make sure I know my role and my job description: A Christian is a living explanation.
~ Charlie Peacock

I haven’t been able to get this thought out of my head for the past couple of weeks … along with the next thought – so what am I going to do about it?

What does this quote make you think about?

October BBQ!!!

Today the temperature in my city reached 24C/75F.

Today the date on my calendar read 3rd October.

What happened to the weather?!?

I read this on the BBC weather news website:

“The record has been broken for the highest temperature (UK) recorded in October – now at 29.9C (85.8F). It was set at 14:42 BST in Gravesend, Kent, beating the previous record of 29.4C (84.9F) recorded on 1 October 1985, in March, Cambridgeshire.”

October in England is cloudy .. lots of rain … high winds … thunder storms … chilly evenings … the first of that year’s cuddling up with a blanket … the return of slipping into cosy hoodies …

This October in England is blue skies … not a drop of rain … warm breezes that just stir my hair … hot night with the bedroom window thrown wide open … evenings where I have to tie my hair up while cooking dinner, to stop it sticking to my neck … not being able to cuddle L for more than a few minutes of a film, or we just get too hot! … pulling back out of the wardrobe the cropped trousers I’d thought I wouldn’t need until 2012’s summer …

Yesterday afternoon we went to a friend’s BBQ … on the 2nd of October!!! Hello, but when was the last time you wanted to spend the whole afternoon sitting in your back garden cooking, talking and eating with your friends?!? Um … not unless I wanted to get wet, cold and thoroughly miserable!! 😉

The Cathedral Green has turned back into the city’s beach and England’s beach are once more full of sunbathers …

Not … please note not! … that I’m complaining! 😉 It did feel like summer, sun and warmth came and went again very quickly this year, so who am I to grumble at an extra week of summer … even if it is in October!! 😛

What is the most unusual heat wave you’ve experienced?!

Rostormel Castle

Meet Rostormel Castle!

It sits on top of a hill, overlooking this beautiful Cornish valley.

It’s full of gates …

… stone stairways …

… and amazingly massive …

… kitchen fireplaces!!

I, for one, am so very glad that I have a nicely contained electric cooker to make meals on, rather than a monstrously large fire!! 😛

Autumn gold

I love autumn!! I like every season as it comes round it turn, but I have a special soft spot for autumn … I like it just a little bit extra … its beauty takes my breath away just a few times more … I enjoy its uniqueness just a touch more often …

If there is one time during the year that I am guaranteed to make more photos (hard to believe, huh?!? 😉 ) then it is, without a doubt, autumn! I find new beauty in every fallen leaf, new joy in every new splash of colour … new photo opportunities in each new sign of the season …

A conversation I had with myself today sounded something very like this …

“Oooh, that leaf is beautiful, why did I just put my camera away? … Because you already have more than enough photos! … But this is so amazing! … That’s what you said about the last one! … This will be the last photo I’ll take, then I’ll walk off … That’s ALSO what you said about the last one!! … But if I take it from this angle, it will be unlike any of the other photos I’ve taken so far!! … And what exactly are you going to do with all these photos?!? … Oh, I don’t know! I’ll find SOMETHING to do with them … Uh-huh …”

I’m so glad I live in a country where each of the four seasons are so clearly defined … I’d hate to miss out on any of them … but yes! Especially autumn!! 😉

Just a few weeks before we started dating, L gave me a conker that he’d found in the park by his old house and, thinking of how much I loved autumn, he picked it up to give to me … I tried so hard to persuade myself it didn’t mean anything more than a good friend thinking of me in a hard time … I’m so very glad it was much more!!! 😉

Of course, my love of autumn has nothing, absolutely nothing, to with the fact that my birthday falls bang smack in the middle of this season …

Nope, my partiality for the sound of October is not determined by my birth date …

… I refuse to accept that my partiality for the combination of red, yellow, orange and brown has anything to do with the 17th …

… well, ok, so maybe I’m slightly influenced because in October I get to have cards, presents, cake and candles …

… oh yes, and a celebratory bottle of champagne with my hubby …

I guess it’s just a good job I know that I love my the season of my birthday so much because of the season, not because of my birthday, eh?! 😉

I love autumn!!

I love taking photos of autumn!!

I don’t see any need to change this …

… I don’t see any need to share all of my photos and if I did, you wouldn’t have to look at them all, right?!

He he he Don’t panic!! 😀 I really am not about to overload you with even more photos then I already do!! 😉

But hey, so what if no one ever sees the photo?!? Di you enjoy taking it? Did you appreciate the beauty and creation of the object in front of you??

Then, in my opinion, the photo has already fulfilled its purpose and is in no way wasted!! 😀

Which is your favourite season and why?!?