baby news

Well, first of all, we've had some exciting baby news. Daughter
L in London has just had her 20 week scan and has just found out
that it will be a girl. On the downside is the news that the
placenta is slightly low lying, which can be troublesome in terms
of bleeding before the baby's due (and premature labour also).

Her younger sister R, who lives in Nottingham is nearly due - she's
just found out that the baby is in breech postion (head uppermost),
and is back at the hospital clinic today to see if the baby can be
turned around. Failing that, R will have a C.S. next week. She is
expecting a girl too, so we'll have two granddaughters fairly soon.

Mrs C and I have been baby-sitting this afternoon for our niece, who
went off for a break, and to go shopping in town. The baby boy is
now nearly 6 months old, and can almost sit up by himself. I've
already shown you some photos of him on previous blogs. So we've
been getting in some practice at babysitting.

We had a good weekend in Staffordshire, last weekend. The wettest
day was last Friday, but since then it's been warm and sunny. On
Saturday, we went to see Lord Lichfield's house and gardens at
Shugborough - there was an excellent exhibtion of Patrick's
photos and cameras, and we saw one of the rooms currently used by
the present Lord Lichfield, which looked more lived in (the rest was
good, but was more like a museum/mausoleum). There was one very
funny and affectionate letter from Dame Edna Everage to Patrick in
the photo exhibtion, who had signed herself/himself as "Dame Edna
(Australian Royalty)".

We spent Sunday walking round Lichfield, which is a lovely old
market town, north of Birmingham, and had lunch at Dovestons on
Bird Street, which I can recommend to you ... a lovely sunlit
position, friendly staff and good food.

My main family line orginated in Staffordshire, so I'm aiming to
get back there soon, to look up some of the ancestral haunts and
churches they got married in (in the 1800s). I had some success
when we went to Eyam in Derbyshire, by the way. I got chatting
with a couple of the older residents, who showed me the house
where Laura my great-aunt lived (the family ran a grocery business
there), and I found her sister's grave in the churchyard. St
Lawrence's Church is where Laura married my great-uncle Harry in
1901, so it was good to have a wander round the church too , and
to think about their happy occasion.

PS ... hot news.. R's baby is not for turning (like Mrs Thatcher!).