family time and france

balloons above the roofline

its been so special to be able to share some much needed family time with those we love here in England, as we've previously posted some of our nearest and dearest are going through some tough times at the moment. Maz' mum has successfully completed a course of chemotherapy and undergone a major operation to over come some cancer cells, my (Tim's) mum has endured the invasive surgery to remove her right hip and replace with a brand new titanium model and Maz' dad is going into hospital at the end of this week to find out whats causing him so much discomfort as well.

eli looking for the balloons!

that said we have had chance to spend time with two of our sons and their wives or girlfriends as well as our three wonderful grandchildren. this time started with a trip down to Bristol to visit Chris and Claire who were house sitting for some friends who were away on holiday and what a house it was too. we enjoyed

noni and claire filling up the pool

playing football in the large garden, fully equipped with 'real goals' which was a hit for me and Alfie (our eldest grandson) who is completely crazy about football, the weather was warm enough to fill up the paddling pools (for the children of course) and we even had a braai on a throw away BBQ which was a feat in itself.

and it's all over!

on our journey down we listened transfixed to test match special where we heard the clatter of Australian wickets on the first morning of the fourth test. incredibly it was all over in 18.3 overs with the tourists making a paltry 60 all out which led to an england win by an innings and 78 runs.

more balloons

what with all the fun time the best part of the weekend must have been the fact that we timed the visit perfectly with the Bristol international balloon fiesta which was held in the grounds the Ashton Court estate just down the road. each morning Maz made sure that we were all up early (like 6.45am which is early for us these days!) to see the multitudes of hot air balloons literally sail (do balloons sail?) over the rooftop of the house. the mornings were all still and clear and it was a sight to behold as balloons of various shapes, sizes and colours made their regal way over our heads. the boys found the minion (was it called Stuart or Brian i can't remember) shaped balloon their favourite, mine was the more traditional ones flown by the french in the 1800's.

BBQ at cosh's

after leaving Bristol we wound our merry way up the M4 motorway towards the notorious M25 (the 117 mile ring road that circumnavigates London) where we sat with hundreds of other holiday makers on a sunny Sunday afternoon as we made our way to meet josh (our middle son) and his girlfriend who we were going on holiday with to her family home in south west France.

haddy and josh in france

our flight from Gatwick to Toulouse was uneventful however as we landed we were greeted by some hot sunny weather, something that we haven't experienced on many occasions during our English summer (although my sister seems to think that it's been the most barmy summer ever but since she's too young to remember the fantastic English summer of 1976 I'll have to forgive her).

Josh's girlfriend, Haddy, has a beautiful home set in rural France which her family has owned for around 20 years, most of the property is thirteenth century (and yes for all our friends from the USA, South Africa and Australia there are buildings and history in the thirteenth century) and built from local stone, some walls are over 1000mm thick and it's been restored to it's former glory by Haddy's mum who certainly has an eye for detail.

haddy's home!

we'd never visited south west France before but we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the area, sunflowers and maize filled the fields, unfortunately their heads bowed after a full summer of sunshine, the tiny roads linked small villages which invited one in to explore their medieval streets lined with family owned shops selling their wares to the locals who make their visit to the butchers or bakers each and everyday.

fresh fish at the market

the feel of the place is something that we seem to have lost in England, our high streets are littered with chain stores with bland or even boarded up shopfronts with superstores enticing people to part with their hard earned cash in their out of town warehouses packed with every item required by the modern English family. in France we enjoyed walking round the local market with our senses overwhelmed by the plethora of brightly coloured and locally produced fruits and the smells of fresh meats and fish all displayed on unstable rickety tables.

we enjoyed a couple of meals out, sharing fantastic french cuisine in town squares and tiny restaurants perched on hill top towns, but we mostly cooked at home, enjoying a BBQ with some family friends sitting under shooting star filled skies and supping locally produced wine.

local produce for lunch

in fact i celebrated my 48th birthday on the Thursday and since France has been producing wine since the sixth century we were eager to visit a couple of local boutique vineyards who were offering wine tasting. the Cahors appellation is famous for the use of the Malbec grape (which is one of the six grapes used in the Bordeaux blends) and is my favourite grape varietal, recently it has become a grape synonymous with Argentina due to it's love of hot sunshine but any red wine produced in the Cahors appellation has to have a minimum of 70% Malbec and is often blended with Merlot which suits my pallet beautifully.

wine tasting on tim's birthday

it was great to chat to the winemaker, hear about their methods and talk about the recent vintages and the best ones to look out for, it certainly was an eye opener and has led us to discuss planting some vines on haddy's land!

after an incredible thunderstorm Dan (Trefor and Mandy's son) and his girlfriend Lucy joined us on Friday and on the Sunday morning we woke early to venture further afield to enjoy an afternoon kayaking down the river L'aveyron, the 12km trip took us around 4 hours to complete, setting off from St-Antonin-Noble-Val we meandered between high cliffs gently down the river, over man made weirs and natural rapids which kept us alert.

beautiful france

as always time flies too fast and unfortunately our week long holiday was over too quickly but as josh dropped us at the airport for our return flight to England we were already planning our next visit to this wonderful part of the world.

(we've updated our reading list on the right hand side of the 'home page' and would inform you of the current Podcasts that we are listening to.

Rob Bells - Robcast
Richard Rohrs - Homilies 
Dr Gary Stevens - History in the Bible
and Pete Holmes - You made it weird)

family time in Bristol

catching up with Arron on Skype!

after our week in Buckinghamshire we made the two hour trip down the M4 motorway to spend five days with our eldest son, Chris, his wife and our three wonderful little Grandchildren in Bristol.

the journey down was uneventful other than the fact that we are extremely grateful to our friends Andy and Val for lending us their little Vauxhall Corsa for the duration of our stay which is a true blessing and one that means that we are able to make these types of trips up and down this green and pleasant land.

returning boot campers!

one thing that we have so appreciated during our time serving in South Africa over the last six years is the fact that we have been able to maintain and even create a relationship between ourselves and the Grandchildren who have all been born since we moved out. much of this could be due to the fact that we have the ability to Skype call as and when we feel the need but we do believe that God has held our family and therefore those relationships which we feel extremely blessed by.

busy wittlers

it's funny being grandparents as you really don't have to do anything to feel very very special, both Alfie and Eli are boys with different personalities, Alfie slightly quieter and defiantly the more sporty, with Eli maybe more adventurous with very little worry about his own safety. Honor is a busy little 15 month year old baby girl who is into everything and has ants in her pants. to walk into their lives every year or so has been amazing and we feel accepted the moment we walk through the door.

capturing precious moments.

Chris and Claire are creative and attentive parents with the children's needs at the forefront of their minds and once again it was great to see them working together to make their children's lives all the more exciting with a broad outlook on life.

We enjoyed many walks and especially enjoyed the one in Leigh Woods which sits above the world famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, which is based on a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1864. Chris bought along the boys adventure bags which contained bug collecting pots, plastic microscopes, as well as string and a pen knife to make bows and arrows to enable us to play in the forest.

Chris runs his own business which includes 'boot camp's' which take place in the park which sits in Victoria Square where they rent a flat, as it was school holidays Maz joined Claire and the boys for a 45 minute session of hardcore work out, I had the honour of looking after Honor, who thankfully slept peacefully for the whole time!

a braai or a bbq?

Undeterred by the weather we ventured out onto the balcony of the flat, a home where the great, if not contentious, English cricketer W.G Grace lived in between 1894-1896, and enjoyed a largely South African style BBQ where we cooked up some Boerewors (a traditional sausage made from beef with lamb or pork instead of the wholly only pork which is the norm in England), bought from the Clifton Village Butchers local butcher who comes from somewhere near Johannesburg. Eli loves Biltong so we bought him a packet and we had a feel of our life in South Africa with all the other familiar products that the store sells.

During the week we also had chance to spend a day with our mentor at his home in Keynsham, once again the time we spend with Mal is the highlight of any trip home and with his helping set out and encouragement thought around our sabbatical time has certainly been key both now and prior to us moving out to set up the Village of Hope.

home of w.g grace

We also had the pleasure of meeting up with a volunteer who spent three months with us last year, Katie lives just down the road from Chris and Claire and we enjoyed an evening with her and her parents in their lovely home, it was great to hear about her trip to Bethel in Redding California where she hopes to return in the autumn.

It was sad to say goodbye on Saturday morning but to know that we weren't rushing back to airport but would be seeing them again for Honor's dedication in a few weeks made the leaving a little easier.