Congratulations Clare and Joel

We're at Leeds Castle today, celebrating Clare and Joel's wedding. A gorgeous day and a lovely location. We wish them all the best for the future.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from us in Wales! We are staying with Den and her dog, Magic the springer spaniel, in the Brecon Beacons.

This morning we took advantage of the glorious weather to climb Pen Y Fan - the tallest mountain in south Wales. Here is Magic at the top:

A very proud dog! Actually, he found the walk so easy and spent so much time zig zagging about at high speed he could probably have climbed it 4 or 5 times over if only he had gone in a straight line. He may not have felt tired, but it was certainly exhausting to watch!Here he is charging about a bluebell wood yesterday. He certainly doesn't do anything at slow speed:

Joy

More bouquet making practice and much joy because we are off to Wales this weekend to see our friend Den and her dog, Magic. I love Spring.

With lots of weddings (four, including our own) and other special occasions to attend this year, I've been learning how to do my own makeup. There are lots of useful tutorials on the web and there are things that I've learned that I wish I'd known perhaps 10 years ago.

• Sali Hughes is the makeup guru from the Guardian, with honest and up-front advice
  
• Clinique has some easy tutorials for day and night looks
• and I still like Michelle Phan's oldschool videos from Youtube.

See you in a while, with some photos from Wales! Have a great time this Easter.

Maundy Money

The Evans family got together today for a special celebration. Geoffrey, my uncle, had been selected to receive Maundy Money in a ceremony allegedly dating back to 1213 and King John. Originally involving giving alms to the poor, it has now become a symbolic gesture recognising charitable or community service, and is quite an honour.



We all met outside the imposing Great West Gate of Westminister Abbey.



The BBC was televising the service, and so with no photography allowed it was easier to grab some pics from their broadcast!



Here is Geoffrey receiving his money.



And a picture of his money - a £5 coin, 50p coin and 85p of special silver pennies. All legal tender, it could just about cover the tube ride home! Of course, symbolically it is far more than that.

After the ceremony we had a good nose around the abbey:



And got a pic of the Queens seat, and Char posing on another significant seat (although we don't know why New Zealand has a seat in the choristry?). She got to sing 'God Save the Queen' for the first time... with the Queen present!



Meanwhile, the journalists outside were busy downloading and emailing their photos:



And interviewing guests, including mum!



We think he was just a trainee though...



Finally we witnessed the departure of the Royal motorcade, with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh waving merrily. All in all a lovely day, even if the ceremony is a bit bizarre!

In Bloom

We are having a heatwave in England at the moment and it is bliss! These are a few pictures I took on my lunchbreak yesterday in Henley... I nestled myself amongst the wisteria and took a deep breath... heavenly.

Morning Sunshine

We headed to North Wales this weekend to attend our friends' wedding in Aberystwyth, a pretty university town by the sea. It was a lovely ceremony and reception in three languages, and we even participated in the céilidh. The morning after, we woke up early and enjoyed a full English breakfast at our guesthouse on the promenade, then decided to work some of it off by climbing the coastal path. It was a sunny walk with the scent of coconut in the air, gorse blossom along the pathway.

Spring Romance

A few weeks ago, we met our wedding photographer Jimmy (of Blue Print) for a pre-wedding photo shoot. We're both used to being on the other side of the camera so it was a great relief to find that our photographer was easy company and and took lovely photos! We had fun posing around the nearby gardens and in Dave's family garden, too. It wasn't all serious - we spent some time talking about the strange habits of the kakapo , being 'paparazzi stalked', picking our way through the daffodils, and taking turns making each other laugh.

Thanks, Jimmy... looking forward to seeing you at the wedding!