Into the Mountains

Before we left Kana'apali we made some more lei, this time with leaves from the ti plant.


We left the beach for the mountains of Haiku.


Our bed & breakfast was surrounded by almost jungle-like vegetaion & the owner had decorated it with some lovely Hawaiian trinkets.




There was a beautiful, traditional Hawaiian quilt on the bed & many strange noises outside.

Flowers, Birds & Breadfruit

These birds wandered around the grounds of the hotel making the most amazing noise.


This breadfruit fell from a tree & very narrowly missed Paul's sleeping head.


This little fellow had a very sweet song which he treated us to every morning from our balcony.


Every few seconds one of these frangipani blossoms fell from a tree creating the most amazing smell & making free hair decorations. Yey!


Couldn't resist adapting the hibiscus for this purpose too.

Weaving & Playing the Uke

Here's Paul learning how to weave a bookmark.

>
Our finished articles.


Along with surfing, aloha shirts & great cocktails, Hawai'i has given the world the ukulele. We got to have a beginners' lesson & learnt about 10 chords. By the end of the hour we could strum away to 'Hey Jude'. Great fun!


Our ukulele teacher also turned out to be a master weaver. Here's one of his bowls.


He taught us how to make an angel fish decoration for our cocktails from palm fronds.

Hawai'ian Honeymoon

We had such a great time in Maui. Here's a taste of what we got up to:


The first of the three places we stayed in was Kana'apali. Our hotel was very keen on promoting native Hawai'ian culture so we got stuck straight in with some lei making classes.


Next, a bit of exploring. We found beautiful plants & flowers growing everywhere. Even on the beaches.


A spot of Hula dancing after lunch.


We found out that there was a colony of green sea turtles living right by the black rock on the beach. Even a nervous snorkeller like me couldn't resist this & swimming with the turtles turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. They were about four feet long and swam up to within two feet of us. Amazing!


Beautiful sunsets every night. Just gorgeous!

Our Wedding

Sorry for the long absence. I've been a bit busy getting married & going on honeymoon & have only just got around to blogging again. So... here are few snaps from the wedding:


Here we are rigid with fear outside Islington Town Hall before the event. We'd been so relaxed in the run up to the wedding it was a real shock to find we were both so nervous on the day.


Feeling much better now that the serious bit is over & we can get on with the party!


We took a routemaster bus with all our guests from the Town Hall to The Green in Clerkenwell where we had our reception. Here we are arriving.


Choosing what to do for our first dance was a bit tricky. In the end we decided to mix up the old and the new and Lindy Hop to 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' by The Smiths.


Love + Family & Friends + Music + Champagne = A great, great day.

Bunting

I spent yesterday finishing up some little jobs before the wedding.


The most fun of these was assembling the last of Anne's beautiful handmade bunting to make decorations for our reception.


Ribbon, glue, otters, ribbon, glue, birds, ribbon, glue, cats...

Lovely, Lovely Colleagues

Wednesday was my last day at work before our wedding and my fantastic colleagues really bowled me over with their kindness. They wrote lovely things in a card for me & gave me some vouchers and these beautiful, beautiful flowers. Aren't they gorgeous!


I also received some wine, a card and a special letter from the library's most mysterious employee known only as 'The Lady'. No one has ever actually seen 'The Lady' except Ken our security guard but through him she is able to perform great acts of kindness. I love the lady!