Alice and I bake quite regularly these days. After our holiday in Northern Ireland in June Stuart tends to take goodies into work from wherever he's been on holiday (I think his whole team does it). We forgot to get anything whilst there, so Alice and I made these Northern Irish delicacies. 15s. So called because they have 15 digestive biscuits, 15 glace cherries and 15 marshmallows in them. They are so yummy.
In July Whitley Bay had a sandcastle competition. We were amazed at some of the sandcastles which we were built. We thought it finished at 2pm and so went along after church and sat and had our picnics first. Then, once I'd registered we realised we had 15 mins to build it!!!! It was no-where near as elaborate as most of these. We were so impressed with the standard. 
I think this car came third. Notice not too many children doing the building!!!!
It was great to see the beach so full!!
We built a Timmy from Timmy Time (who is a little lamb with a lot to learn, from the makers of Wallace and Gromit and Timmy is Shaun the Sheep's lamb). We were never going to win with this effort!!! We must get there earlier next year and go with a plan and really try harder!!! It was a lot of fun and great to see so many people enjoying themselves!!!
Alice was bought this umbrella for Christmas and this was the first time she got to use it. We have had rain, but any time we've gone out with the umbrella, it's stopped. However, this was a real downpour. If you click on the picture you'll see how heavy it was raining.
Last week we had a clan Grant holiday in Staffordshire. Stuart's dad was 70 in May and this holiday was to celebrate his birthday. Ian, Marion (Stuart's parents), Catherine (S's sister), Simon (C's partner), Lily, Jasmine (Simon's daughters), Stuart, Alice and me all stayed in a cottage near Leek.This is Alice and Nana drawing in the cottage garden.
Alice and Grandpa birdwatching in the cottage garden.
We went to a rare breeds farm. Mostly sheep and goat, some chickens and peacocks and a few pigs, to keep Stuart happy. Alice and Grandpa feeding the goats.
There were a few wee bikes and ride on carts etc to go on at the end. This was Alice's first attempt on a bike. The bike was a perfect size for her and she did really well riding around on it. Guess what she'll be getting for her birthday next year!!!???
Stuart, Alice, Lily, Jasmine and I went to Gulliver's Kingdom, which is an adventure park for younger children. Lily is 12 (with black flower in hair) and Jasmine 9 (long blonde hair). They were about to go on a ride which went straight up and then dropped back down again. We did these types of rides before lunch!!!!
Before May Alice wouldn't go on these types of rides!!! She went on loads of rides last week. This was a wee ladybird ride with Jasmine.
The elephant ride with Stuart. The one, you can pull the lever to go up and down. We all had a great day!!!
Stuart, Ian and Simon went on a hill walk and so we girls went to Monkey Forest. 
This monkey is the oldest at 29!!!
Stuart having a think!!!!
Sweet picture of Nana and Alice.
We went on a wee steam train on the final day. Alice pulling a funny face for the camera!!!
An update on the subsidence. About 6 weeks ago part of the tree next door fell down in the wind. About 20 foot of the top of the tree fell onto their fence and shed. People walk their dogs all day long under those trees and so thankfully no-one was there at 7.15 am.Anyway, the council are now saying that a eucalyptus tree in our garden is also a likely cause of the subsidence for the three houses. When we dug up the roots under our house and the tests were done there were no eucalyptus roots just poplar roots. Since May our house has moved 8mm, which doesn't sound a lot but when whole sections of the house are moving in one direction and other sections aren't, this causes huge amounts of damage. The council are saying they want to do investigations near the eucalyptus to establish if there are any roots near it!!!!!!!!! If you dig a hole next to a tree you're going to find roots!!!
We contacted our local MP and he has written to the council and they are coming back about our tree in our garden!!! I spoke to our insurance person the other day and she is going to talk it through her manager and see what the next step is. It's obviously difficult to talk about it too much, as this blog is fully public and it might need to go to court!!!! So, a year down the line, we are not much further forward in this being resolved!!!!
The pic below is from our neighbour's tree that fell down.
Will try not to leave it 2 months before the next post!!!
