Tulipomania at Dyrham Park

Bert and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary back in January and marked the occasion by joining the National Trust. This past weekend, one of our closest National Trust sites, Dyrham Park, held their annual Tulipomania.

We've had a rough 10 days with Alfie, between colds and viral infections, resulting in allergic reactions, three trips to the GP's office and 2 kinds of antibiotics. I had been very geared up for a few days off of work when Alfie would go in to nursery, but it simply wasn't meant to be. The weather was horrible last Saturday but not raining on Sunday so we knew we had to go and check out Tulipomania and stave off our own mania from being indoors with a poorly child for so long. So, in the car and on to Bath.

Now, I don't mean to sound rude and I know that there is a very limited budget for operating the National Trust sites, hence the considerable annual membership fee, but Tulipomania left a bit to be desired as far as we were concerned. It doesn't help that I worked for three years at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, the largest private residence in North America and a working estate with over 8,000 acres, 20 of which are for azaleas. Every spring, the Biltmore holds the Festival of Flowers with over 90,000 blooming tulips! So, I admit my expectations might have been a bit high. Regardless, Tulipomania as a title seems a bit excessive. It was good to get out of the house and we got some great pictures of Alfie checking out a tree, muddy puddle and tulips outside and some pictures of Bert looking silly but every inch the doting Dad that he is.

We think Alfie might be a bit of a Michael Jordan as he is constantly sticking out his tongue these days. (Michael Jordan is known for sticking out his tongue when playing basketball.)Fine with me if he wants to become a superstar!

Trip to Guildford

The first weekend of spring break we traveled over to Guildford to visit with Alfie's godfather, Danny and his fiance, Mel. The weather was abyssmal for most of the weekend but the company and food was great! Alfie wasn't in top form and woke up at 1:50am. I just assumed that it was 5:30 and got up and only realised once we gotinto the living room that it wasn't quite time to be up. We had a nice walk down by the river and saw the ducks. We also watched all of the crazy folks running the London marathon from the comfort of Danny and Mel's beautiful, comfy sofa.

Baptism Photos

Alfie's Baptism

The latest news is that Alfred Michael Welch was baptised at our village church, St. Mary's last Sunday. In keeping with English tradition, he has multiple godparents. Alfie's godparents are Suki Thandi, Eloise Grobbelaar and Danny Bailey. The latter two were at the baptism last weekend, along with other friends and family. Suki lives on another continent so we thought we'd cut her some slack about attending. It only lasted an hour anyway and that included the regular service. We'll post photos as soon as we get some.
Bert was sick and didn't actually make it to his first born's baptism (he'll obviously do anything to get out of coming with me to church!). He really was in a bad way and only made it down in the late afternoon for a little while to say hello to some people. We asked people to come back for lunch at our house. I was in a bad way by that point too and had to have Janette's help to keep it together.
Anyway, the rest of the family has photos and we'll get some put on soon. It's possible that there are no good photos of Alfie because he was constantly on the run. I had to capture him each time he was needed and can only equate the experience to trying to hold onto a greased piglet. He was not to be stopped. He didn't make a fuss over the sprinkling but did want to hold his own baptismal candle and had to be taken home after the service because he kept demanding more cake. The Vicar took it all in stride though and seemed quite pleased with himself for 'handling' Alfie. It really was a wonderful, touching day.

Update

Apologies it has taken so long to get a few pictures together.

We have had a rather busy month or so.

Alfie is doing great and his vocabulary continues to expand, although "car" remains the no. 1 word of choice.

He is very much into Thomas the Tank and liked trying out his new wellies after a few false starts in north Wales.

He is a very helpful little boy and enjoys watering, brushing etc.