The birth of a camper-van

Today I took our yellow Volkswagen T4 transporter van to a company who specialise in converting vehicles into motor caravans. Calypso Campers will have our van 'Phoebus' for 8 weeks, much to Julia's disgust as she will now have to walk to gym every Thursday. The company insists that their converted vans have names, and John, the manager said that the girls' name of 'Buttercup' was unsuitable for the T4, which is a very solid and dare I say masculine vehicle! Anyway, at least I won't have to put flower stickers on the side now.

The wedding!

Well, we now have a son-in-law! Hannah and Dan's wedding turned out to be a fabulous day with the sun shining brightly throughout. Jonathan's message for the service was a reminder that only Jesus can bring the real joy into a marriage that will give growth and balance to the love and giving of each other that is so essential to this divine institution. The reception at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park was a wonderful time to make new friendships and meet up with family and friends that we hadn't seen for years. You can even listen to Hannah's wedding march that I composed specially for the day on Phil's music link.

Log-chopper and bottle-washer!

Lynn has travelled to Portsmouth for the week for Hannah's wedding preparations leaving me in charge of the girls for a few days. I thought I would post a few piccies to show that all is under control! As I write, Julia is busy cooking 'her' meal and Lydia is ... was practicing her clarinet. I have reduced a tree to fire-size logs and we are still praying about the garden wall. Things seem to be improving a bit and all should be under way by the time our eldest daughter is wed!

Listen to my music

I have added a link to the 'Sibelius' web site where you can find some of my music listed. You will need to download 'Scorch', a free download from Sibelius in order to listen to the music. It is an interesting site with LOTS of music on it!

Build a yacht!

There are many reason why I love my wife, but one of these is because she knows what I am like! Lynn recognised that I needed a project of some sort to work on and suggested that I look at building a yacht again. Well, I don't need telling twice and after perusing the study plans of the Richard Woods designed 'Gypsy', bought some 10 years ago, I took the plunge today and bought the plans - much cheaper than expected as I bought them as a computer download. Anyway, buying the plans is the easy bit; I expect the building project will take about 5 years - which should keep me busy!

Collapsed Wall!

Well, the wall finally collapsed! Fortunately there is a good builder on the case but the financial damage is yet to be determined! The wall is not insured, but it looks as though we will be sharing the cost of repairing the wall with our neighbours below who own the property as a holiday home. The cost is likely to go into many £1000s. Never mind, there is no use storing up treasures on earth; and as Romans 8v28 says ".. all things work together for good to them that love God ..".

Visits for Regatta

We have just got through the 2008 Dartmouth Regatta weekend where the crowds both by land and by sea seemed to surpass any previous years when we enjoyed this annual event. Julia, after much training with the Guides (with Jireh acting as safety boat) took part in a rowing race where her boat came 4th - well done Julia! Unfortunately for the masses, both the free-fall parachuting and the Red Arrows displays were cancelled due to low cloud. We had Lydia's friend from Portsmouth with us. Molly keeps Lyd busy on msn every night as they exchange important messages, so it was good to get them together to allow them to send important messages to their mutual friends! Also, we were delighted to have a brief visit from Hannah. This will be her last visit home as a single woman! On Saturday night we took Jireh out to watch the fireworks from whilst afloat on the river. Unfortunately, the same low cloud that cancelled the Red Arrows somewhat veiled the fireworks, but it was fun anyway. Things have quickly returned to normal although we have just found out that the wall that holds up our garden is collapsing; this sounds expensive!