Wedding, Grafton trip. Home.

G'Day,
I have been away for a bit over a week attending my beautiful niece's wedding in Grafton. We drove up there, Pete drove the caravan and I took David's car as we couldn't all fit in one vehicle. Dave's car is newer and nicer than my old car, and as he has lost his licence I was chauffeur. He has a black commodore with mod cons. Including cruise control which I learnt how to use, good for keeping to the speed limit and avoiding speeding fines. Pete and I slept in the van as I am a princess when it comes to my bed. It has to be just right or it is Just not right!
The wedding was lovely but of course a busy couple of days for all involved. I was general gopher, (go for) on the morning of the wedding and did the first reading during the ceremony. Cass is lovely and tried to give everyone jobs to do so they all felt included and a part of things, which was nice. Her dress was stunning as were the brides maids. Hers was ruby red , beaded, shot silk looking like and 18Th century ballgown, and the girls wore black. When she walked down the isle i got all teary. I don't cry at weddings and had to pull myself up real quick to do the reading. I do get teary over babies and new life though. I was not happy with 2 of my children's behaviour. My eldest is a boring, cranky, self spoiled, stick in the mud and my daughter got drunk so she missed most of the reception . Not funny, not impressed.
On the way there we dawdled and took the coast road through Sydney and stopped at Cessnock to visit the Hunter Valley Gardens. I have wanted to go there for the last couple of years since seeing them on a gardening show. ( we tried o visit there once before but it was a 40 degree day so we gave up on it) They were great, well worth the visit. I didn't feel so dumb there as I knew what the guide was talking about with my bit of garden knowledge. Lol. I took lots of photos.
Second night we stopped at Forster in an apartment. A very nice apartment !!! But we probably should not have paid quite so much. It was 2 bedrooms, 2 and a 1/2 bathrooms and a big balcony which overlooked the town/ocean beach. We all had a turn in the spa bath and I over did the bath bubbles a bit. I only had a little bit of water in the bath but when I turned on the spa they overflowed. Shhh! don't tell the owners.
At the wedding I met my 2 great great nephews for the first time. They came down from Brisbane. Jaiden is 7 and Caleb is 2 yrs old. That's pretty bad that I haven't met them before isn't it. Brisbane is a long way away. I also got to spend some time with my great niece Ivory who is 14 months old. She is a real cutie and I think she will be a strong willed little person next year when she reaches the 2yr old phase. She had a few days of being handled by different people during the lead up to the wedding and was pretty tired. At the wedding when they were doing the speeches she was really funny because when people applauded she thought they were clapping for her and sat up and looked around proudly and smiled from behind her dummy (pacifier). So cute! I spent time with my 2 sisters Thelma and Ellen, the brides mother, and saw my niece Janelle whom I haven't seen for about 6 years since my Dad's funeral.
They have had a lot of rain up there on the nth coast, the Clarence river was quite high and everything was lush and green. Diffrent plants to what grows around here too, I collected some seed pods to bring back. Grafton is known for it's Jacaranda trees which were in flower but not at their best because of all the rain. I need a magic wand to get the rain back here where we need it, they have got enough up there. It is also hotter here than on the coast despite it being further north that us, the temps were in the low to mid 20's while we were there.
That's all of my ramblings for tonight, I have another few days left to organise the potter's club dinner so I will be busy and get back to this blog later.
Bye . Love Linda.