Family

Looking at the extras no we didn't stop at a National Trust property on the way to Bristol - we did stop at IKEA and get a load of things that are ever so useful but that we didn't know we needed - apart from the dust pan and brush which I did need and The exile remembered and pointed out to me! I also found  a few things I knew my sister would love, glass display domes and plastic liner for her fridge and kitchen cupboards! I'd already got some of my allotment produce for her so it was going to be a real gift giving visit!
The extras are actually one of the rooms in one of my sisters 6 dollhouses! This one is The Mill House converted into a shop! Before you ask, yes she made the miniature lace at the forefront on the stand, the needlework chair cover, screen, wall hangings in frames, needlework on the frame, quilt, wooden jumper and throw, quilt, flowers, boxes, bolts of fabric! The same goes for the things in the room in the extra! The exile was just in awe at the amount of work and detail in each of the houses, in fact at the evidence of her creativity throughout the house which at present is in an autumn theme with various handmade pumpkins in virtually every room! Even I was overwhelmed by just how much was everywhere and I know how creative she is! I'm hoping one day she will make a quilt for me as there are so many of those in every room too! 
We toured the garden which we always used to do first thing on returning home as a family from holiday, and then as adults returning home for a visit. The magnolias dad planted when they first moved in and then for myself and my sister when we were born are huge!  It was only when I went to the toilet that the emotion of being in the house hit me.  The fold down chair in the shower on which my mum had sat and I had washed her, completely broke me and I had to go back  into the garden for a good cry. Once I had calmed down I went back in and started looking for the slides my parents had taken, I've been intending to do this for many years. Well I found all sorts of things, including my grandparents Paragon Scope with card slides. There were various bits that my sister realised should go in the Family Tree  or our Parents 50th wedding Anniversary Album, so out that came and we poured over that and I discovered that on my dads side we originated from Ireland - there was me thinking some past relative was from Scotland given our name Hamilton! One of our favourite pages is this one of my parents first flat as a married couple. Mum looks like a fifties housewife which she so wasn't! She was a manager for Boots The Chemist and the first woman to be appointed on the Pension Trustees Board! We love the list of things needing to be done and the receipt book dad kept of all the things they needed to buy for the house with their cost. The wardrobe "4 Robe" on the top line of the Coop receipt, is in the spare room The Exile was going to sleep in! We never throw anything out in our family!!! Well mum would but dad would rescue what she put by or in the bins and bring it back inside the house! He was more sentimental and romantic than our mum!
We had a relaxed evening, especially sister and the exile who polished off a bottle of red wine much to the exiles surprise! She had thought with me rarely drinking alcohol now and my sister being so creative and feminine, that alcohol was not going to be a feature of the meal! We told her my parents always had a drink on returning home from work and we always had a bottle of wine with our weekend meals! We  had so many reminiscences over the course of the evening of our childhood, family holidays, my parents personalities, it was lovely. My sister also told me how dad had always wanted one of us to live in Cornwall where he and mum had gone before having us and where we went as a family, the last extra is them when first married. Don't they both look so stylish? 
Tomorrow we get Oscar!