April 17th was Andy's 12th transplant anniversary - I cannot believe how the years are flying by... its always a thankful day for us and a day of reflection...we take off and go walking, but that was a bit difficult this year as I had sprained my ankle 3 weeks previously, so we packed a picnic and went to Rufford Country Park
Andy set up the picnic spot...
We chatted, read our books, had a lovely picnic lunch courtesy of Marks and Spencer (they have some fabulous ready made salads - I had lochmuir salmon, Andy had feta cheese and falafel) then we went for a gentle stroll around the park and up to the abbey...
The weather has been exceptional lately hasn't it, and people were out in droves... ususally we like to be alone and quiet, but this day it just felt right to be among crowds - strangely enough, we had all the 'space' we needed for our reflective moments :)
Later on, we called in to see Marilyn....
And we rounded the day off with a BBQ with our dear friends, Stan and Shelley...
The rest of our 'holiday' has been a round of visits, being visited, reading (for essay purposes!) shopping for wedding shoes (achy achy achy feet!) and Andy was a guest speaker at St Helen's Church for three nights during Easter week.
Easter day arrived and with it, my last original Coffee Light Frappucino (double blended of course) at our favourite Starbucks - Xscape, Castleford.
Now you might not think much about it, but I only drink water, hot or cold, and the Starbucks Frappucino mentioned above.... oh, and the occasional glass of wine...
So its a big deal to me... I have written and pleaded with Starbucks to bring back the original, because the NEW way of making a coffee light frappucino is nowhere near as good .... is that because its the lighter version? it actually tasted like water - when I told them this they put in two extra shots of coffee but that made it taste smoky... it wasn't nice at all!
Having said that, Joanne, one of the Barista's at the Xscape branch, spent some time yesterday, trying to make a frap that I could drink, she was so helpful because she knows that I have drunk this drink for nearly 8 years ( I am a creature of habit.... plus it tastes nice!)
I was definitely 'all frapped out' after this tasting session! (Our three children will find this hard to believe and I'm sure after they read this they will ring me with some jokey comments!)
I hope you all have had good Easter holidays and didn't eat too many eggs... of the chocolatey kind :)
It's just over three weeks till our youngest daughter's wedding so there's an atmosphere of excitement building in our house. It means I won't be in creating mode for a while longer yet, except for some much anticipated painty, inky respite at AFTH for the Dina workshops in a couple of weeks :D that will give me a whole two weeks to get my hands nice and clean for the wedding....
