We both understand how lucky we are to see our sons grow up and become fathers, and even luckier to have good relationships with them and their partners so we can see grandchildren. Jane’s father didn’t live quite long enough to meet me, let alone see all that has followed.
As last year, we spent a month in Edinburgh to spend time in a city we love and to see our growing family there. Coincidentally (since we had made the rental booking well over 9 months before), our visit started a day after the birth of a Third Grandchild (TG) in Edinburgh. Like last year, our Bristol family were able to join us for one of the weekends. Plus, this year, our Youngest Son (YS) and his wife were also able to visit for a weekend; last year a storm grounded them in Belfast.
Dean Village, Edinburgh From Dean Bridge
It was marvellous to have all our immediate descendant family in Edinburgh over the period of a month to welcome TG into the world. Her parents seem to be coping with the new arrival very well and TG is a gorgeous little granddaughter.
First Grandchild (FG) loves his new sister. We picked FG up from pre-school a few times. It was lovely to hear him chat about his day on the way and then to see that his first act upon arriving home was to give his sister a big, loving hug and kiss. He seems so proud of her.
First Grandchild, So Proud Of His New Sister
FG also loves Second Grandchild (SG) from Bristol. FG was generous to his cousin with his toys and the two of them played well together. SG was very excited by the whole experience of travelling to Edinburgh, staying with us and seeing his cousins. It all warmed our hearts.
Our New Grandchild. What A Treat!
That YS and his wife could make it over from Belfast for a couple of days was unexpected because their new business had only been launched a week before. Both have been heavily involved in securing grants, harassing slow, overstretched builders, chasing Council planning and building regulations officers, pressing the landlord for services, securing materials and preparing the media for the launch. Although they have been consistently positive, the last few months have undoubtably been stressful for them.
However, the launch of Nellie Studio, a very smart osteopathy and Pilates studio (take a look at the website!), has been a great success and they felt able to join us and admire TG. We have watched the hard work and determination needed to get the business established with a degree of anxiety and an inability to help much. However, the space they have constructed looks great, teachers and customers seem very happy, and we now expect to see the business grow amid a bit of fun. We certainly had fun with them in Edinburgh.
Youngest Son’s Wife’s New Osteopathy and Pilates Business
As ever, we had a great time in Edinburgh and that time cemented in our minds how lucky we are to have lived long enough to meet the people our sons live their lives with, and the lovely children they have produced with them.
We are currently in Edinburgh for the second of our annual, month-long, winter stays to continue to build our affinity with the city and, this time, spend some time with a new addition to our Edinburgh family. In the days before we left for Edinburgh and all the excitement there, I visited two museums – in Cheltenham and in Bristol.
Winter Near Our Home – But With Snowdrops Emerging
I demonstrated a hint of senility recently as I bought the wrong trousers online. That error led me to a rare visit to Cheltenham via foot, bus and train. There, I could exchange the trousers face to face rather than go through another online and postal exchange which I would probably have messed up. Having completed the exchange, and given I was under no time pressure, I thought I would take a look at the The Wilson Museum which I only became aware of through a recent advert in our local culture listings.
The museum is in a smart modern building but was founded over 100 years ago around the collection of the Wilson Family including Antarctic explorer, Edward Wilson. The museum has undergone some recent restorations and re-organisations and has a pleasant café, educational play areas for children and a few good-sized rooms for permanent and temporary exhibitions of art and artifacts. Given how good and wholesome it was, I felt negligent in not having visited before.
The highlight was a room containing art and furniture from the Arts and Crafts movement. I’ve loved seeing exhibitions of work of this type in the past in London (and especially the William Morris Museum and Thomas Carlyle’s House which I had visited in August and September 2019). What I hadn’t fully appreciated until now was how important the Cotswolds were as a locus of the energy and talent that drove the movement. Many of the main protagonists such as Ernest Gimson, the Barnsley brothers and William and Eve Simmonds, lived in villages and homes we have walked though or past many times in recent years.
Arts And Crafts At The Wilson Museum, Cheltenham
The exhibition was well laid out and had a good combination of very high-quality luxury pieces and very plain but beautifully designed furniture that still bore the hall marks of the movement but was for families with limited means. The latter showed how the movement aimed to bring great design and well-made things to the working population in the face of increasing industrialization and mass production.
Arts And Crafts At The Wilson Museum, Cheltenham
Then, on the day before our trip to Edinburgh, Jane and I stepped up to manage Second Grandchild’s (SG’s) trip in and out of his nursery while his parents attended a funeral and worked in London. Seeing SG is always fun and it was interesting visiting his nursery for drop off and pick up and lovely to see him waving us off so happily.
In between, I walked into the centre of Bristol while Jane returned home to get a haircut. My primary aim was the 2026 iteration of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which was on tour from its home in the Natural History Museum in London and on show at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
I love this competition and exhibition and have seen it many times in London. It was a treat to be able to weave this year’s viewing seamlessly into my local schedule of retired life while helping Second Son and his partner. Plus, there was the bonus of visiting another relatively local museum for the first time.
The Photographer of the Year exhibition didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately perhaps, my favourite photos were the very first I saw. These were aerial drone shots of the tundra by Alexey Kharitanov that contained incredible colour. The remainder of my wander around the exhibition was not exactly anticlimactic but many of the animal shots were, maybe inevitably, rather similar in style to those from previous years and, so, less memorable. One excellent thing though is that all the exhibition is available online and so there was no need to fiddle around with picture taking of the best.
‘Taiga Tapestry’ By Alexey Kharitanov
The rest of the museum had interesting rooms, exhibiting a wide range of art since Medieval times, a large natural history collection, and an exhibition demonstrating the long history of ceramic production in Bristol before it was overtaken by The Potteries in Staffordshire. I saved some areas for another time and look forward to an opportunity to show SG the excellent collection of stuffed native birds and animals.
Views Inside The Bristol Museum
Bristol-Made Ceramics, Bristol Museum
From the museum I wandered towards the city centre and had a ‘smashed’ burger from a street food vendor (Boigers) who do occasional pop-ups at our local village pub. It was another first for me and the burger was pretty tasty though, I suspect, nutrition-light.
My final trip element before heading back to pick up SG, was a brief visit to Bristol Cathedral. This wasn’t a first time visit but it has been over a decade since my last one which I snuck in while working briefly in Bristol.
Bristol Cathedral From The Old Monastery Garden
It is, of course an impressive building. A helpful and patient gentleman gave me a summary of the history. He outlined how the building has almost continuously evolved over the last 1,000 years and especially since it was taken apart by Henry VIII as he closed the Augustine Monastery that had been at the cathedral’s heart. I had a very pleasant wander around and was impressed with the way the light and airy nave had been extended so sympathetically in the late 19th century to echo the Medieval parts of the building.
Jane and I had a last lovely little dose of SG while starting to receive more photos of the arrival of Third Grandchild in Edinburgh. What a full and exciting day it had been. More excitement to follow!
My Retirement Journey 