Normal service is now resumed

It's been a while since I wrote on my blog, there's been a lot of things going on here and I just wasn't in the mood to write on here for a while. But things have calmed down a bit now, and hopefully it'll stay that way.

A couple of weeks ago on our way to take our dog for his dily walk we spotted what looked like a scene from Time Team in a field we passed. We were quite intrigued but didn't really think much more of it. The following day when we went past there were loads of signs saying open day, so we decided to go and have a look. It was an archealogical dig, as a few finds in the field had led people to believe that there was a Roman site there. Their finds were correct and when the field was excavated a number of Roman finds were dug up. The guy that was talking to us showed us a piece of pottery that they could date back to between 140AD - 160AD, it was the bottom of a pot which was in 2 pieces. One piece was found one day and the 2nd half 2 days later. Impressed in the clay was the makers name too, which is quite rare, we also learnt how to tell the difference between expensive pottery and normal househld pottery back in those days. It was fasinating, just a shame that it wasn't more widely known about, I've got a couple of friends who would have loved to have seen it, but we couldn't get hold of either of them. For anyone that would like to read more about the dig, there is a blog here >>>>>> Tai Cochion Dig Diary

We've also been off on our travels to a friends wedding last weekend. This time we stayed in Leamington Spa my old home town with my oldest son, his girlfriend and her daughter. My sons girlfriend and I get on really well, so quite a few nights were spent cackling late into the night lol.

These two pics are of the dig down by Menai Straits.

Home sweet home

Arhhhh it's always good to be back in your own home. I had a great time while we were away, but there's always that longing to be back home again.

We left here on the Weds with the sun blazing down on us, when we were about 9 miles away from my daughters house we got stuck in traffic and my daughters car started to overheat the last thing we needed on a packed motorway !! I quickly turned on the heater full blast and luckily we managed to make the bit of our journey without mishap, but we were both boiling hot as we daredn't turn the heater off lol.

Weds afternoon we went over to Acocks Green to see my son Ben and friends Martin and Mandy. We had a lovely BBQ while we were there too. Thurs we went off to see my friend Emma and her boyfriend Steve. Emma was going to cut my hair for me and my daughter was Jenny was doing a tribal dragon tattoo on Steve's arm for him. We also rounded off the day going to see Rich my oldest son and his girlfriend Georgie, so all in all it was a lovely day. Friday we dropped my daughter Jenny off to do yet another tribal dragon tattoo on the cousin of Steve, while me and my other daughter went to visit an old friend of mine who I hadn't seen for almost 15 years. That was a real blast from the past, and we had great fun catching up with all that's gone on in each others lives. Then it was off to my oldest sons again, who funny enough only lives just up the road from the friend I hadn't seen for a long time. While we were there Jenny did yet another tattoo of my sons childrens names on his arm, and his girlfriend cooked us a lovely taco feast for dinner ...it was yummmmmy !!

The weekend of course had been reserved for the festival we planned to go to. The highlight of this day was that 6 out of 8 of my kids managed to make it there, and also we got the chance to met up with lots of old friends. One of my sons Jed, had injured his back moving some scrap metal and was in agony for most of the weekend, as he's probably the most active out of all my kids, it was sad to see him in so much pain. By the Sunday the pain had eased off a little thank goodness. All in all it was a great festival and two of my friends Jo and Sharron are coming up to see me during the summer too.

As photo's have been a little low on the ground here's a selection from our time away.

Two of the four tattoo's my daughter did.





My lovely friend Jo



My daughter Jenny and all in pink is my grand daughter Jo and her two children ...my great grand children.



One of my favourite photo's of the weekend, my daughter Jenny with son Jed.



My son Rich and his girlfriend Georgie



and finally me and my mate Al.

Fantastic festival !!!

After working flat out on the guitar for a week, I thought I deserved a treat, so Friday found us driving the familar route down to my oldest daughter in Bromsgrove, in preparation to go to a festival for the weekend.

The Peace Festival was held in my old home town of Leamington Spa, and was somewhere I used to go on regular basis for many years when we lived there. The plan was to met up with old friends, some new ones off a forum I use, and met some new random people. For once the plan went perfectly lol.

The weather was amazing for the whole weekend, so long as you enjoy hot sunny weather ...which we do. For a small sized festival, this one packs in a huge amount of things to do. One main area for bands, a smaller area for bands where there was also poetry, and talks about various global issues, loads of workshop tents, display area's for dancing, alternative therapy tents and loads of very reasonably priced stalls.

It was brilliant to met up with some old friends that I hadn't seen for years, and catch up with all their news and to do the same in return. A little more nerve wracking for me was meeting up with some people from a forum I go on daily, but I needn't have worried they were all lovely !!

Some pics of old friends to start with















Friends off a forum













And a couple of new random friends.