Weekending

A huge and heartfelt thank you to each and everyone of you who left messages on my last post. 

The kind words were so very much appreciated. It was very touching that those we have never met, but through the wonders of this blogging community have shared so many of our family times over the years, took the time to leave a caring message for us all and especially T.

For T, as you can imagine, losing his brother has been devastating. 

We are trying to support him in every way we can whilst we all work through the emotions associated with our grief.

We have muddled through the weeks since half term when Liam's funeral took place and we have relished the weekends when we can all relax a bit and try and unwind.

S and I spent some time blowing bubbles, such a soothing thing to do, and she was fascinated by a bubble which moulded itself into the shape of the leaf it sat on.

We tipped mixture into small bowls and added a couple of drops of food colouring to each and then blew bubbles at sheets of paper to make some bubble art.

During a conversation with my sister one evening she asked if we had ever done the walk from Swanwick Shore Road. No we hadn't I replied and made a mental note to check out the details. A local walk we hadn't done before definitely needed to be investigated. There was a tiny car park just to the left of these houses although next time we are thinking of taking the train as later on in the walk there is the opportunity of taking a water taxi and then we could complete the journey home by bus.

So with two attractive(!) walking companions

and new star patterned navy pumps

 off we set for our stroll along the waters edge.

When G and I took the train to work the line ran along the opposite side to our walk. It's just behind the row of hedging you can see in the centre of this photo.

I don't know the details of this wreck but on recent reading it would appear there are a few on this stretch of water, maybe something to read up about before our next outing along here.

We spotted a pale blue phone box sat on the pier at the marina, looking a bit Tardis like.

I loved the simplicity of this little wooden boat sat moored on it's own away from the bigger ones.

An unexpected sight was a field to our right which was home to some donkeys and three alpacas

We didn't make it to our intended destination as we turned off the foot path and went into Holly Hill Woodland Park to find a spot to eat our picnic. We did a spot of exploring whilst there and found a rope swing.

A split second after this photo was taken S had fallen flat on her bottom as you can just see in the picture that the wooden handle snapped in two.

We decided to halt our day out shortly afterwards as we realised we didn't have enough time to reach the end of the walk as we had side tracked ourselves with unplanned exploring and we also needed to make a quick dash to Tesco and buy S new trainers for school.

There was some extremely childish giggling done in the supermarket as another customer had clearly decided that the shop models looked a little over dressed!

The following weekend we took ourselves back to Holly Hill as we decided we wanted to see a bit more. It was whilst we were walking down to the sunken garden I remembered that I had been there once before with my dad, the year before he became too poorly to go out. T and I had also visited here with my aunt and two youngest cousins, he had only been about 5 years old and he couldn't remember when I mentioned it to him. You can just see him, the dot of red!

There is a huge lake with picnic spots situated all round it, another visit is due in this summer holiday I reckon.

These stepping stones were met with much laughter, something a bit different to try out.

And finally we are at last weekend. We took ourselves off to Eastleigh for a day of street art events. The young girl who hula hooped with several at once was very impressive and S enjoyed watching her. G enjoyed eating his enormous ice cream! He bought it whilst I was off watching the drummers and when I took the photo he said it had actually been twice that size to start with!

The Wheelhouse was definitely our favourite of the day. The performers acted out their little journey as they propelled the wheel up the road, us audience walking alongside them. The 'house' had windows and doors and cupboards and all manner of odds and ends attached. Some ornamental and some used as props to tell the story of their journey.

Should you ever be at an event they are at make sure you make the time to watch them. S was totally captivated as she watched I was just as absorbed by her concern for the female performer 'fell out' of the wheel and was nearly run over.

There was so much we didn't get to see as well and some of the shops had displays in them. I fell in love with this red, white and blue dress in the window of Oxfam. Unfortunately it wasn't for sale but I really like the simplicity of the design and the big pocket which had a big red button sewn on to it. It had the look of a patriotic deckchair and I wouldn't mind one for the summer.

Liam

During the past few weeks I have written this post in my head over and over again, each version not quite right.

I've come to the conclusion there isn't a right way, for what has happened isn't right.

On 6th May Tony's brother Liam passed away.

He was 16.

This photo of the two of them was taken during our introduction week with Tony. It was the first time we met Liam. Even though the boys had been living apart for about 18 months in different foster homes the bond between them was still so strong.

The children's social worker told me that Liam at 5 years old had told her 'my birth family are like a rainbow, you want to reach out and touch them but they are always just out of reach.'

.

They say that children are resilient and that they can cope with a lot.
This may be true, but for some children they see too much and feel too much.
And the saddest thing is that this pain is caused by those who are supposed to love and care for them.

As the boys grew up circumstances meant that for the past 5 years they weren't able to see each other as frequently but as and when it was possible we made sure they did. And there were phone calls too, lots of phone calls. The boys last saw each other in March.

This week I took Tony to Norwich for Liam's funeral.
I am so very proud of Tony for the way he behaved towards others that day when he was hurting so much himself.

The vicar who took the service at the crematorium knew Liam and spoke about him with true affection. He said how he knew how we all felt cheated at losing Liam because he was such a star, his future was looking bright with the plans he was making and that should we look into the night sky and see a new star shining we could be certain it was for Liam.