Sunday June 9, 2019

Got to love time changes. I was awake with the birds singing outside of my window, I checked the watch – still on Canadian time, as was my phone. I decided to go back to sleep until I heard someone else get up.

I heard Chris getting up so I jumped in the shower and headed downstairs for breakfast. Shelley was already downstairs and it was only 6:30!

We decided to go for a walk up to the Town (not a village) while everyone got up at the normal time on a Sunday morning.

Wirksworth is an old Derbyshire Market Town with lovely sandstone brick buildings. Shelley is such a joy to travel with, she is so enthusiastic about everything and is so pleased to be here.

As we wandered through St. Mary the Virgin Church yard, I noticed one of the wardens looking at the notice board. I ran over to him and asked if we could go inside. The Church was going to have a service at 9:30. Oh dear I hoped he didn’t think we wanted to join the service. We could go inside as the church is open to visitors during daylight hours. Obviously during church services you wouldn’t wander around. We had a good half hour to view the inside and the beautiful stained glass windows which some were replaced in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The warden told us a little about the history. The original building was built in the 9^th Century but most of the present day church was built in the 13^th Century.

After we got back to the house, we had another coffee and then Joy, Wendy, Baz, Shelley and I went to “The Woods”. When my Mum died she requested that a tree be planted in her memory. We requested “No flowers, donations to the tree fund”. Enough money was raised for us to plant 9 trees. One from each of the 6 children, one from the Grandchildren and great grandchildren, one from Mum\’s  friends and from my Dad. They were tiny saplings when we planted them and now they are beautiful trees.

The Woods are a green burial site. After Dad passed his ashes joined Mum\’s. It is a beautiful peaceful place.

They have a beautiful quiet area, with a fabulous piece of art – the Dandelion.

We went back to Nikki and Joy’s house, where Nikki had prepared a buffet lunch to feed the 5,000. Perhaps not the 5,000 but definitely enough to feed the family with lots left over.

It was great to see all my nieces, their hubbies and the great nieces and great nephew.

Shelley was amazed by all the different accents. I had forgotten that we would have a few different accents for her to listen to. My nieces are from Nottinghamshire, Joy has a Derbyshire accent, Baz (my brother-in-law) has a broad Stoke accent and Nick (Lyndsey\’s hubby) is from Liverpool. I wish I could download an example of all these accents but I can’t. Of course, the funniest was when someone mentioned Shelley’s accent, who didn’t know she had one.