Spot the judges

Martha enjoys drama and William is learning Spanish, so following these after-school activities, we collected the children from school. Back at our place, Martha and Oma painted rocks while William mostly walked, ran and jumped on and off the treadmill.

The last time we saw Bic Runga in concert was in a winery on Waiheke, an island just off Auckland, and that was seven years ago. So we couldn’t not see her on her first visit to the UK since then.

She appeared at The Deaf Institute in Manchester and on this occasion, we drove into town.

The support act was Silicon. Silicon is Bic’s husband Kody Nielson, Bic herself on drums and a backing vocalist, Cass. They were good, and on odd occasions, we could see them through the smoke.

Yes, the smoke machine wrangler was over-enthusiastic, and they had the machine turned off for a while.

Unfortunately, we were standing for the whole gig, but near the front. Bic performed songs from her latest album Red Sunset as well as some old favourites.

It was warm but I managed to make a single pint last for three hours. I hope I didn’t ruin anybody’s film of the show by singing along. Maybe I enhanced it?

After the show, we had enough time to queue up and speak to the star of the show. And she was happy to have her picture taken with all us riff-raff.

I was going to tell her how she and I were practically related, but in the end, there was a queue behind and we had to leave. How are we related? Bic’s sister Boh was good friends with Cherie. At Cherie’s wedding to Andrew, Boh kissed him on the cheek. Fast forward several years and Andrew became my sister Pauline’s life partner, in Christchurch, New Zealand. So, is that cousins?

On the way home, we collected Liesel’s Mom from Jean’s house. They’d been out for the evening on a pub crawl or something.

The three of us had a nice walk around Dunham Massey, where the 500-year old oak tree is still standing albeit with even more support. We saw a few deer in the distance, but they were staying well away from people.

I was very pleased with this photo from the day, but I have no idea what it is: I can only assume it was a spontaneous click of the shutter when the phone was in my pocket.

When we arrived at Dunham Massey, I warned my mother-in-law not to sit on any of the benches here, especially in this weather, otherwise she’d turn into a Bright Starts Snuggle & Teethe plush toy.

We walk by these birch trees on every visit, Liesel’s favourite trees. We have a nice picture of silver birches at home too, painted by our multi-talented friend Una.

We must have walked by this stone many, many time before, but this time, we noticed it, probably an estate or parish boundary marker. No idea whether the inscription provides useful information or is just a spot of vandalism.

The rose garden was at its best today too, plenty of colour and some scents. My hay fever stayed at bay, at least for a while. And it was good to see so many bees and a few butterflies.

Unfortunately the little bridge over the small stream is still closed. The stream is narrow enough to jump over really, but none of us risked it. Walking round the ‘long’ way gets in more steps, and we discover even more flowers.

It was fun to witness possibly this cygnet’s first diving lesson. On surfacing, it looked surprised is it shook its head.

The foxgloves are doing well this year, so many different shades of purple of a variety of patterns. Again, very attractive to the pollinators.

And, I think, this would be a wonderful design for a t-shirt.

Oh no, look what happened: she sat down.

Well, we did warn her. She is now a yellow giraffe attached to the bench with a ring.

Liesel and I had scones, well, it’s a National Trust property, after all, while Leslie, somehow restored to her human self, enjoyed an ice cream.

Martha’s cricket team played a match and we went over to Kingsway to support her. While batting, she scored a 6, knocking the ball over the boundary, in the direction of the bar. No damage though, they were playing with a light, plastic ball.

Here she is having just launched the ball into space.

After giving blood again, I joined the family at Jenny’s. Oma and Great Oma had managed to collect Martha and William from school without my assistance. Liesel and her Mom had made sushi rolls again for supper, which we all enjoyed.

According to Wikipedia, Rob Rinder is a British criminal. Oh, apparently I should read the whole sentence. Rob Rinder is a British criminal barrister and TV personality. He is also now a novelist and as his latest book, The Defence, is published, he came to see us in Bramhall, courtesy of Simply Books. The event took place in St Michael’s Church and after dining locally, we joined the queue.

Yes, we’d dined at Trunk and I think we know where the name comes from.

It was an entertaining evening, although sometimes, thanks to the acoustics, it was hard to hear what he and the interviewer, Kay Crewdson were saying. They discussed the book of course, crime, Rylan, courtroom drama, it was a wide-ranging chat.

Thanks to Kay for the photo: we were sitting too far back to take a decent picture.

Let’s have a break from our own antics. Here’s some joy from the southern hemisphere.

I attended another meeting of the WFM Volunteers, in Wythenshawe Forum. Well attended, and what a nice, warm room. Meanwhile, Liesel went over to watch Martha play in another cricket game.

Abney Hall has been on our mental list of places to vvisi for a while and today, we followed through. Barbara came and took Leslie out singing in a choir, and, even though it was a warm day, Liesel and I enjoyed a walk outside. We didn’t see inside the Hall itself, and again, this is a venue we’ll need to revisit in order to see more of the grounds.

We spent most of the time in Abney Hall Park along with 101 dogs and their owners. The coffee bar (the most important part of the visit) was very cute, with a hand-painted but useless map of the grounds on the wall.

We didn’t pay the toll when we walked over the ten penny bridge. Don’t tell anyone.

This is the World’s First Recycled Plastic Bottle Lid Mural Trail! We only saw the wasp, but on another occasion, we will look out for more of these works of art. Designed and created by Plastic Shed in collaboration with local Stockport schools. That is a lot of bottle tops.

Agatha Christie wrote two stories here at Abney Hall, and this bear is named Hercule. Coincidence?

There was a green man in the toilet, which could have been a bit scary if it were a wee bit darker.

One thing I was surprised about was the amount of bindweed growing at this place. It really is trying to take over. But that’s not my battle any more. Thank goodness.