New church hall

Our new church hall is coming on nicely over the last few weeks.
I am keeping a pictorial record of the progress on computer.


This photo was taken on the day the Sunday School children, rector, churchwardens and I helped to dig the first sods on the site.

We had an information evening for the parishioners back in May to explain the plans etc.
On that occasion the plans were on display for all to peruse and the financial implications were outlined.
Ronnie, David and your dad are members of the sub-committee.





Now the builders are ready to put on the roof trusses so it is beginning to take good shape.
The front section has two toilet areas and a store.



We look forward to having the new facilities in the near future.
It will be used for e.g. vestry meetings, Mothers' Union, Sunday School and any other small gathering.

Bluegrass Omagh

Time again for the Annual Bluegrass Festival at Omagh.
On Sunday we went down to the sessions in the park from about 2 p.m. onwards and then Dad, Rita and I had booked for the evening gospel concert.
Unfortunately it was drizzling all day so it was muddy underfoot and raincoats and umbrellas were the order of the day.

Here are the "boys" outside the log cabin.

There were two groups on stage for the gospel concert - first the Malpass brothers whom we had seen there before, a couple of years back. They come from Goldsboro, North Carolina.

From left to right, Dad Chris, brothers Taylor & Chris Malpass and Clyde Mattocks

The Malpass group was excellent - they do some Hank Williams stuff and close harmony gospel.
With hairstyles like those they must do Elvis tributes as well.

.The Kenny & Amanda Smith band

The Kenny & Amanda Smith Band is also from North Carolina. They play a lot of good bluegrass but their material tends to be more contemporary in style. They were very good too but I preferred the Malpass Bros.
I'm still hoping that Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will come back to this event sometime.

The Auld Lammas Fair

We went by bus to Ballycastle yesterday for the Auld lammas Fair.
It was a lovely day with just one shower when the waterproof jackets had to go on.
There was a big crowd as you can see in the photo.
These American Indians from Equador are always there selling their CDs of pan pipe music and jewellery. Sometimes they play for the crowd too although we didn't hear them play on this occasion.
There are always plenty of horses on offer. The sellers sometimes ride them to show them off to potential buyers. Many of them would be travelling people.
Of course there is the obligatory dulse and yellow man on sale too. This sign amused me. Note the use of the punctuation! Of course dad had to buy some "yella'man". It works wonders for your fillings!
This is my favourite shot of the day which shows Ballycastle beach. It looks secluded but behind me the noise is deafening - BBC radio broadcasting, line-dancers, street preachers, funfair, etc. etc.

Tall Ships Belfast

We are just back from a trip to Belfast today to see the Tall Ships. The festival runs through from today to Sunday. The weather was just perfect and we enjoyed the day. The last time we saw tall ships was with you and Jen up in Portland.


There were two of these blow-up people one at each end of the bridge.
This man reminded me of some of the strange people we saw in Edinburgh around festival time.
We went on to this ship called the Sagres. It is a Portuguese ship and is the largest one there.
It is 88.9 metres long and weighs 1950 tonnes.

The beard!

Well, here is the beard. We will have to do some trimming now and get it into shape for the "Twelfth" tomorrow! What do you think?

Scottish Highlands

We returned from our trip to the Scottish highlands last night. It was a lovely trip although the weather was not always the best. We travelled over on the Stena Line HSS ferry early on Monday and then met Dodds coach at Stranraer. We stopped off at Ayr and Perth on the journey up to our hotel at Carrbridge, near Inverness. Parts of the village were used in the filming of the "Monarch of the Glen " TV series. This interesting bridge was just across the river from the hotel.
We visited Drumnadrochit where there is a Lough Ness Centre and outside, the inevitable "monster" - albeit a plastic one! How disappointing when I expected to see the real thing!
On Wednesday we had a lovely trip on the Jacobite steam train from Inverness to Mallaig. It was a round trip of 84 miles. One particularly good part was going over the Glenfiddich viaduct.
Mallaig is a small fishing village looking out to the Hebrides.





Not far from Ben Nevis we visited the famous Commando Memorial in memory of the members of that elite regiment who died during World War 2.

Good growth

My garden is doing really well now. Keeping the rabbits at bay is the biggest struggle. They are very fond of the cauliflower plants and also the strawberries. Luckily they don't seem to like the broad beans or the potatoes. We have been using the lettuce and green onion tops already.
In this dry weather I try to give them plenty of water.