Pete and Ursula are finally wed!

Our house and gardens are looking lovely at the moment.

We hold all our 'pre-wedding' meetings over the Winter so when the couple comes back for their wedding (which are only held in May-July and September) they are always taken aback at how beautiful everything is.

The lawn was cut, the strimming done, the roses pruned...

even our smoking area was looking lovely!

We were ready for the arrival of Pete and Ursula.

and boy did they bring a LOT of stuff! Ursula had been shopping...

This was the gorgeous card box. Note the butterfly theme.

The wedding colours were teal and gold. 

Ursula had bought the butterflies and threaded them into the wreath, along with the blue flowers.

The teal sashes on the chairs gave the room a lift. Craig (a potential son-in-law) was given the job of hanging gold hearts on all the lights

and blue flowers too. (i think he passed the test...Craig - now is a good time to propose ;))

Ursula had bought all sorts of things over the last year and personally sprayed them all gold!

Including these impressive candelabras. 

Here is the woman herself (still in pyjamas!) decorating the chairs.

I'm not sure anyone else has done this with the chairs before, this is a Pickwell first!

Take a look at this cake. This was the last time the cake looked like this...

Firstly, friends Paul and Ian decided to make the Groom more representative of how he actually looks...So they gave him a nice, neat bald patch (made out of icing)

As the night wore on and the drinks flowed, the cake people took on various guises..

this was the most 'polite' one i can publish. The others are on my *other blog ;)

Apparently Ursula and her sisters were trying to shield their lovely parents from seeing too many of the choice positions. 

Luckily both were present and correct for the time it really mattered.

Our chef Lee, did another fantastic job. The wedding breakfast was a delicious bbq 

with a whole range of

gorgeous looking salads 

and fresh, crusty bread.

The tables were laid very simply just as the Bride requested for the bbq lunch. Later in the day, Lee served up plump bacon sandwiches followed by pancakes with a range of very naughty fillings.

Ursula had designed some special napkins to have through the day with their name and wedding date.

The gold candelabras in the middle and sprinkles in the colour scheme tied it all together.

The weather forecast of torrential rain over Devon somehow missed us as  

guests (these handsome fellows are the Groom's sons and nephews) were able to spend the afternoon outside, playing croquet and tennis and drinking champagne.

The first dance kicked off the nights dancing and with the dulcet tones of 'the Soulman',

banging out 80's hit after 80's hit, the floor was always full. 

Guests were then treated to a wonderful rendition of 'At Last' by Etta James sung by the Bride to her Groom. He certainly seemed to enjoy it!

The Grease number 'You're the one that i want' ended the night on a high.

Ursula and Peter - i hope your married life is as colourful and bright and hilarious as your wedding weekend x

(Thank you to the wonderfully talented photographer Pete Cox for the more professional pics!)

A wonderful walk to a secret water mill

What a find we had on Sunday! After picking up a leaflet in the butcher's shop about a working watermill and tea room we had never heard of, we set off with our lovely friends on an adventure to find it. The leaflet said a 20minute walk out of Ilfracombe along the coastal path. You can drive straight to it but we thought the walk would help us work up an appetite for a cream tea. They always taste better when you feel you have earned it.

As we got onto the coastal path there was a great view looking back towards Ilfracombe harbour. Next time we do this walk, I am planning to start at the harbour as I had not realised how lovely the coastal path is all the way round.

Ilfracome has a new skate park right by the water.

The children had brilliant fun watching, next time they are all plotting to bring scooters!

This piece of coastline is so spectacular, with the rock rising up out of the water!

The path comes out onto a hidden beach.

We set off with us all wondering if we were going to have to climb Hillsborough (that huge hill a couple of pictures ago).

It certainly looked like it at the beginning but.....

We cheated a bit and took the footpath around the back, past the community orchard. It would be amazing to take the red route one day, anyone up for it??

This path was lovely in a more calm and flat way.

Amazing views of the coastline beyond as you start the descent into Hele Bay (pronounced Heal by the locals).

Here is Hele bay itself, from this point you turn inland.

Crossing over the road, only this little sign denotes the treasure that lays beyond along the river.

Here it is 'The old Cornmill' now owned by the very lovely Cathy and David Jones who took over the Mill and tea rooms a year ago.

Here is Cathy with all of her wonderful home made cakes, Devonshire splits and scones. A number of the cakes and scones made with the flour milled just across the path. Can you feel my sense of excitement, I think I might have to become a watermill enthusiast!!

The tea room is also a gift shop, selling all sorts of lovely locally produced things. I particularly love their spotty china.

Here is the waterwheel in full flow. David got the children on a 'millstone hunt' (counting how many they could spot built into the walls and path) whilst we waited for our cream tea to arrive, what great service!

Something about the sound of the water and the turning wheel is so relaxing, not to mention the lovely and unexpected sunshine. The children tuck in!

Here is Richard's cream tea, the scone was made with wholemeal flour milled at Hele Mill.

I had a savoury cream tea; a cheese scone, cream cheese and homemade red onion relish, yum! I am definitely having that again.

Cream tea enjoyed, let the tour begin!

This is how it all works, why use paper when there is a perfectly good wall!

David gave us a tour of the mill, explaining everything as we went.

David had to explain some quite tricky concepts in a way that could be understood by the six, eight and thirty eight year olds among us, no easy task!

Great excitement was had spotting the little wooden mice hidden around the mill.

This is Molly starting ‘the National Engine’ built in 1928. This would have powered the Mill if there was not enough water. Oh my goodness it was noisy!

This is the only picture I took of our lovely guide and host David. I wish I had got him to pose. He was so warm, welcoming, engaging and inspiring. He captivated our attention and we learnt so much on the way round. He let the children ask questions and have a go at all sorts of things inspired by their questions. They even ended up grinding corn in a pestle and mortar to further understand what corn is made up of.

At the end of the afternoon we could not help buying some Hele Mill flour to take home.

Ooh what shall we bake?

Delicious shortbread, Millie's favourite. What a treat to have found such an amazing place at the end of a gorgeous walk, made all the more special by David and Cathy and their wonderful hospitality. We will be back!!

Iain and Nicola's Wedding

Last weekend the wedding of Iain and Nicola took place in glorious sunshine, a miracle given the wind and rain of the week before. The wedding was truly beautiful with Italian influences (especially on the menu) and gorgeous bright colours of summer with corals, yellows, blues and whites all mixed in with some hints of vintage. So let me take you on a journey through some of my favourite bits and inspirational ideas.

Nicola, her mum, bridesmaid, sister and 'mother in law to be' worked together on Friday putting together all the flowers for the tables and windowsills. They were arranged in vintage cut glass vases, rose bowls and tea cups that had been collected specially over the last year.

The flowers were such glorious colours.
And the mismatch collection of vases and candles looked really effective. Well done girls!

Iain's family went off to Croyde beach to gather sand for the 'lolly buckets', I particularly loved the moustaches and the lips.

Peter, myself and Hannah (Nicola's sister) put up this lovely garland of flowers and glass teardrop lights on the hall chandelier. It looked really pretty with the staircase all matching but played havoc with my vertigo trying to grab the chandalier over the banister, aghhh!

Guests felt really welcomed with local Devon fudge, a fridge full of yummy breakfast and a welcome letter from Iain and Nicola. Brilliant cartoon at the top!

From the menu's to the door tags and so much more, Hannah had done amazingly with the graphic design. What a talanted sister to have!

So with the ballroom looking fabulous.....

and the scene set for love, the guests arrived and they all set off for Friday night at one of our marvellous local pubs 'The Rock'. By all accounts a great night was had by all.

On Saturday morning the sunshine was out and we set up for the wedding in the Italian Garden. Nicola and Iain had hired in these great Chivari chairs and roses tied along the aisle added a special something.

These were placed on each chair...too cute!

Some last minute lippy before the ceremony.

Nicola looked absolutely gorgeous.

Down the aisle she went with her lovely dad Derek.

It was a beautiful service.

Congratulations!! Jamie Bott was their photographer, Jamie is a wonderful local boy who's photo's we love and really enjoy working with. Thank you Jamie for this one! It also shows Nicola's incredible bouquet by Deryn at 'Twigs' .

Prosecco on the lawn and terrace was followed by cocktails....

Nicola and Iain chose to serve their favourite ‘Dark and Stormy ‘ cocktails inspired by a trip to Barbados. They went down rather well, I don't think 4 is a great idea though Matt!!
This super bucket of Chinese paper parasols came in very handy in the glorious sunshine.


They looked really beautiful.

I am devastated that I didn’t take any photos of the food as the Italian inspired menu was completely delicious and had lots of fantastic reviews from the guests. As part of the trio of puddings Lee the chef made the Limoncello by hand in a traditional Italian way which took months, now there's dedication!

The first dance followed by a lot more dancing.

On the mantel piece photo’s of Iain and Nicola documented lovely times that they have had in Devon in the past that has made Devon such a special place for them.

Great idea.....the frame awaits a lovely wedding photo.

Photo’s on a string.

The sweetie table made a great snack stop in the evening.

I wonder what could be in the dressing up basket??

ooh, glow in the dark heart glasses.....you look gorgeous Hannah!!
What a completely lovely weekend, congratulations again Iain and Nicola!

Jubilee Celebrations Part 2

A Jubilee celebration would not be complete without a good old village knees up, organised by the W.I.

There were Union Jack flags,

Union Jack bunting,

Miss Summerville (our kids school teacher) sporting a pair of Union Jack sunglasses,

A picture of our Queen,

and a giant multi-coloured parrot?! What?! I don't remember hearing about that at the coronation!

The event was supposed to be held on the village green but with the dreadful weather, plan b was the village hall. It was packed!

The lovely Sophie and her mates from our local secondary school, made this sign and gave up their afternoon to face-paint our kids.

They poured over books of various designs.

Liza decided on an angel.

I love the W.I. They put on the whole event for no charge and

worked tirelessly to ensure everyone had a good time.

They really got into the spirit..

along with my gorgeous friend Lou (of the home-made bunting fame).

'Captain Coconut' entertained us with his bubble abilities while we all trekked outside to watch our kids perform the may-pole and broom dance.

My Zac (right) had spent the last week telling us how there was 'no way' he was going to be doing the 'Maple (as in syrup) dance'.

So imagine my surprise when i suddenly saw him a hop, skipping and a jumping around that pole! Apparently Mr Thomas made him do it! Good work Mr T.

The guy holding down the pole on the left side is our netball coach. For a small village it is amazing how many girls turn up to play on a thursday.

The may-pole took up half the road so we had to stop the cars and every-so-often let them come past. It was a bit surreal. 

Our Molly did a fab job thrusting each leg out in time to the music with gusto.

After the may-pole came the broom dance for class 4. I don't think i've ever seen a broom dance. It was great!

Ah, the parrot again. I can now see that I was a bit hard on this parrot. To be fair, he IS wearing a Union Jack flag as a cardi. Now that's creative.

Everyone is a bit nuts but I think thats why we love living in a village so much.

We all know each other's 'nutness' and thats what makes it real and special.

A good time was had by all!

Well, nearly all...for some it might have been a bit much?!

Thank You Georgeham W.I x

Jubilee Celebrations Part 1

I might have to write this blog from a personal perspective, rather than a Pickwell-as-a-whole-perspective, as i think i might be the only Royalist here?! 

But Royalist I am and I'm not afraid to say it! I was weeping with the best of 'em at the Royal wedding

and in these times of such sad news everywhere you turn, isn't it wonderful to be able to celebrate the good stuff, the stuff that brings a nation together? 

We put up some lovely (and very tasteful, i might add) bunting, made by our talented friend Lou. 

 We hoped our guests felt good about it, royalist or not?

  

Thank you Lou, our Entrance Hall looks fantastic. 

Even our gorgeous 16th Century Chapel must have known

as the red roses have suddenly come into bloom

and don't they look pretty?

I even bought some 'jubilee tea cakes' for my wedding viewings (although none of them were actually eaten)....hmmmmm...

Steve's Mum, brother, our sister-in-law and our nephew Sam all came for a few days to surf and chill.

We decided to take them, together with some guests (who came last year, so we're more like friends)

through the fields to the 'plateaux' nearby to see the coastal Beacons

there was much anticipation in the air

Zac had his trusty 'phoenix feather wand' in case of emergency

and Liza had her holiday friend Grace (can you believe Liza is actually 3 months younger than Grace - wow my girl is tall!)

and my nephew Sam had with him a ....toilet sign?!?

Apparently Steve made him carry it. I had no idea why and although we like to look after our guests, i must admit i did think providing toilets for 20 minutes of Beacon viewing was a little excessive.

When we got to the plateaux we could see a couple of Beacons to the left along the coast and Clovelly was lit up in a zig-zag shape but really, that was about it. 

This exciting image of fires burning all along the Woolacombe coast line is merely a light trick of my camera! Or is it.......??? Whatever it is they definitely weren't there when i looked with my eyes! (oh, Steve's just informed me they are street lights boooo)

Suddenly we all heard the sound of sparks flying 

and turned to see the real reason for the toilet sign! Yay! A Catherine wheel!

quickly followed by some rockets

Steve once again living up to his nickname of Gandalf..

It kind of made up for the Beacon disappointment anyway :)

The next blog post is definitely worth the wait..it involves a maypole and the WI... oh yes...

The Olympic Torch in Devon!

We waited with excited anticipation for the Olympic Torch to come to our area.

Our four Pickwellians walked miles, along with the whole school,to a place called Knowle, outside of Braunton, in order to see it.

There was much concern amongst the parents, for the little ones, that they would never make it. But Mr Thomas was right...they could and they did!

I was really distracted from my work because Chris Moyles had got me hooked on the live streaming of the torch's journey. Even though all you could see was the road and a coach, somehow i couldn't take my eyes off it!

I decided i ought to really get the most out of this event, so reminded myself of the route from a very helpful website.

Then i looked up the runners. It was interesting that Lord Coe had said that this flame route was really to celebrate youth and sport, so 50% of the runners were aged under 25, but the three that were billed for Braunton were all in their 60's!

Did anyone see the footage of the guy who ran near to the torch and got thrown into the bush? Oh my word, it was FASCINATING! I have watched it 4 times in order to believe it. Apparently he ran into the 'envelope' of security. He won't be making THAT mistake again!

While Tracey was at work trying to drive around to see patients and AVOID the torch as much as possible, Steve, Rich and I jumped in the car (leaving enough time to pick up a take-away latte on the way) and hot-footed it down to the action.

Braunton was packed! Everyone was there (i spotted two of our wedding photographers right in the thick of it) and there was a really great atmosphere.

I have no idea who these lovely ladies were but i just thought they looked great.

Lots of people told me to take a picture of this policeman because it had been so long since they had seen one i ought to capture it on film! (Honestly, that is why i took this...;))

This is Sue. I know that because i asked her. In fact, looking back on it, I gave her a full interview.

I found out that she was really embarrassed because they had got her 'story' wrong, of why she deserved this prized place. It said she had raised £100,000 for the local Hospice, when in actual fact she had only raised £10,000!

I must admit i did look like a proper spod when i delved into my handbag and produced my folded up piece of A4 on which i had printed out the three Braunton runners' stories!

Yes, there it was in black and white. She was right! Oh dear, i hope it didn't spoil her experience. I personally think £10,000 is rather good.

The excitement built as two giant floats with loud music and dancing people brought a real feel of festivity to the event.

Of course it was the Olympic sponsors - Lloyds TSB and Coca-Cola. I waited for my free money and coke..but they never came. A few hand-held twirly things and a union jack flag don't bring the same level of pleasure i find.

I could see the 'envelope' people (in grey) appearing in the distance. Relieved there were no bushes, i quickly realised that if I did get in their way and they threw me aside, at least i'd be in 'Hunter' rather than a manky bush. I could do with some new flip flops.

The large coach appeared with its impressive sign and..

a Police lady rode up on a bicycle and turned the magic key. A rush of gas was to be heard...I could feel Sue's level of nerves and moment of occasion and felt myself become quite emotional!

Suddenly, as if emerging from a cloud of white smoke and all in slow motion, there appeared what can only be described as, an Adonis in white, as the crowd slowly started to raise its volume and levels of excitement, so he raised his left arm aloft with a golden cone and a flame alight upon it.

Oh. My. Word. Nowhere, in all my research, was THIS guy mentioned. Who IS he? WHERE did he come from? What is HIS story? WHY don't i know it?! Steve and Rich, who were watching from afar, (clearly I had embarrassed them with my keenness) were having hysterics observing my sudden change in focus of the camera lens.

Just because i can... here he is again ladeeez...

Before I knew what was happening, Sue was off!

Posing for photos and making her way towards the next lucky runner.. again the tears!!

On the way home the school dropped in on our good friend Sarah who had inadvertently offered to make the whole school (110 children + teachers) cake for the return journey. Not content with throwing a few digestives on a plate (which is precisely what I would do for that number), NO, she somehow manages to produce said cakes and even has them looking like this!!!

All-in-all, a very good experience. Well done the Olympic team, i feel truly connected now! x