Family, a funeral and wanderings in Wales

 Home from a few days away, mostly at Nana and Little Grandad's just over the border in north Wales but sadly with trip in the middle of it to my uncle's funeral.

The first full day, we went to Speke Hall. We all enjoyed the maze before the rain set in, then went for a guided tour around the hall, which is tours only until 12.30pm when it becomes free access.  With hindsight we would just want to go round on our own, but timing didn't really allow that with our plans.  The woman who showed us round on the Victorian tour (both K & M would have preferred the Tudor one given the current Shakespeare interest) wasn't hugely engaging.  When she referred to the rather gruesome ghost story she told us that was made up by one of the owners to keep the servants in order as a 'nice story', she wasn't keen on being contradicted by K, who said she didn't think it was a 'nice' story at all, but rather a horrible one!

M in the maze

After the guided tour we headed into Liverpool and had lunch before a much requested (particularly by M) return visit to the World Museum.  No guesses for why she was so keen to go back!

The Quetzalcoatlus with a 12m wingspan in the entrance hall

Megalosaurus

Woolly Mammoth models

 K was particularly keen to go back to the Space section. 

K lifting a very heavy meteorite!

The next day A had things he needed to do with Nana, so after a quick trip to the shops to buy some croc-type footwear I took the girls back to another place they'd been asking to return to, on the way up to Ewloe Castle (where we've been before on a trip that included several Welsh Castles).  They call it 'Nature's Playground' and it's pretty much the perfect mix of water, rocks, trees and slopes for climbing and exploring.

The next day was Uncle P's funeral.  He was a lovely and many-sided man, he was a lay deacon (he married A & me and baptised both K & M), a very good musician, good with his hands (he re-built numerous old cars and motorbikes), a Scout leader and he worked on programmes from Monty Python's Flying Circus to Think of a Number to Antiques Roadshow (where he was working when he was taken ill) and more.  K & M had decided that they didn't want to attend the funeral, so they went off with A and we all went to the wake afterwards.  Although we see my aunts and uncles occasionally it's very sad that it's only at times like this that I see most of my cousins and in fact this was the first time that K & M have met any of them, either my first cousins or their children, and the first time I'd met some of my cousins' other halves and most of their children.  After a short time sticking to their small groups and an indignant complaint from M to my cousin H that her son had called her 'a little girl' all the children were playing together beautifully and had a whale of a time!

Back to the in laws and we spent the whole of our last full day in Wales.  First we visited A's aunty A and discovered that K, who's not yet 9, is now as tall as she is, as you can see!  This is because K is very tall for her age and also Aunty A is also very short!

K & M with their Great Aunty A

We then drove through the World's End, then parked up and climbed up to Castell Dinas Brân, a 13th Century ruined castle. 

It was rather windy!

A rare photo of the 4 of us

A shield bug that M spotted on the way back to the car

Then it was on to LLangollen for lunch, an ice cream and a wander round the town, which didn't take very long!  Then back in the car to the almost unpronouncable (if you're not at least part Welsh - which A is, so he can say it!) but very impressive Pontcysullte aquaduct.

After such a busy day, we had a quiet morning on Thursday before heading back home after lunch.

M & K doing a bit of R&R - reading and relaxing