A New Granddaughter

Yesterday evening Tess gave birth to an, as yet, unnamed baby girl. All is well, and she is a second shared grandchild for Jackie and me. Ever the cryptic wit, Mat, when giving Becky the news, said ‘Mum’s got 2, Dad’s got 7’. He left her to provide the solution: ‘a girl’. My other two grandchildren are a young man and a boy.

There are two reasons that we cannot visit them immediately, one quite bizarre.  The first is that I am probably now the only reasonably germ-free member of the party.

Five days ago, at the Shoreham Air Show, a plane failed to come out of a downward loop, and, exploding, crashed onto the busy A27 road which is our route into East Sussex. Continuous torrential rain has hampered the clearance of the wreckage and discovery of charred bodies of cyclists and motorists. The route therefore remains closed.

The first of the following pictures was my view through the patio window at around 11.30 this morning; the other three Becky shot of her car being directly pounded by the rain and sprayed with gutter-silt by passing vehicles.

View through patio window

Rain on car roofRain thrown up by truckRain thrown up by blue car

The accident itself was unusual enough, but the extent of the rain, shown by these photographs show just what is hampering investigators, and sending holidaymakers home in droves this week. At Mr Pink’s yesterday evening, a family incongruously clad in summer clothes, were buying fish and chips for sustenance on their way back home to Stockport, 250 miles away. They had given up.

The perversity of our weather was demonstrated three hours later, when the skies cleared, and the sun emerged.

Butterfly Small White on bidens

Small White butterflies frolicked among the bidens.

Ginger lily

In the ten days I have remained indoors the ginger lilies have bloomed,

Raindrops on apples

and the well-watered apples are ripening.

Pasta bake 1JPG

This evening, Becky produced a delicious deep 15″ ham and vegetable pasta bake for our dinner.

Pasta bake 2

Four filled dinner plates,

Pasta bake 3

didn’t make much of a hole in it.

Ian drank San Miguel; Jackie, Hoegaarden; and Becky and I, Teroldego Rotaliano riserva 2011.

71 comments

  1. Premium news is the birth of another grandchild; tragic news of those killed and injured from that crash…And that butterfly has a great face as well as all else. Rain! How we long for it after our horrendously dry Oregon summer with wildfires.

  2. Ah, congratulations on the new baby. It’s nice to have some happy news this week, after Shoreham and then today the killings in Virginia.
    Hope you’re both feeling better very soon and you can get to visit your new family member. Photos please!

  3. Big welcome to baby:

    Greeting (Leonard Bernstein)

    When a boy is born, the world is born again,
    And takes its first breath with him.

    When a girl is born, the world stops turning ’round,
    And keeps a moment’s hushed wonder.

    Every time a child is born, for the space of that brief instant,
    The world is pure.

  4. A baby shower! Well, congratulations on your grand-daughter. And the apples, the butterfly and your recovery. What a wonderful world, even when punctuated by tragedy.

  5. How wonderful to hear you are again grandparents, lovely news! According to a Goggle search, number one name for girls in 2015 is Emma, followed by Olivia, Ava, Sophia, Isabella. It’d be so hard to pick a name, I love them all. I always thought, if I ever had a girl, I’d name her ‘Raquel’ I always loved the name and I think there’s not too many around. When I worked, we had a company phone directory of over 5,000 employees but there wasn’t a single ‘Raquel’. I hope you’ll get to meet her very soon, how exciting. Congratulations and best wishes to all.

    The Air Show accident sounds devastating. My gosh. This seems to happen so often at these events. I’ve never been and honestly I’m too scared. Loved the butterfly on the Biden’s, you’ve gotten so close.

    1. Many thanks, Boomdee, for such a full response. I think you are right about the frequency. The awful think about this one was that it struck a busy main road.

  6. Congratulations Derrick – to you all!
    Great photos – I see England staying true to form with the rain then the change! The garden looks good even in the rain! As for supper… Well! Wow! 🙂

  7. Oh congratulations, congratulations! What a joyous event to have a new addition to the family. The apple looks scrumptious. And sorry to hear about the accident and all the rain. However, soon you’ll be kissing that baby.

  8. Congratulations, what a wonderful blessing to have a new granddaughter, sending my best wishes for all! <3 My daughter is expecting in February, and we should be finding out whether the baby is a boy or a girl around the end of September. By the way, you're the first to hear of this, as I haven't shared about it on my blog – nor with many others for that matter. It was unexpected and not planned, but I'm excited to become a Grandma! 🙂

  9. I am running very behind Derrick and thought not to comment today, but there is no way I shall pass by the birth of a new grand child with a mere ‘like’! Congratulations to the joint grandparents and new parents.- a new baby is such a wonderful gift! I am sure the story of why you could not meet her immediately will eventually pass into family folk-lore and be accompanied by the thought that even when in the midst of life, there is death. What an awful tragedy for all involved!

  10. Oh Manny congratulations my friend, for your whole family! Such happy, lovely news! Photos to come! Well done all! Glad tidings of celebration, felicity and health for the new born. Xxxx

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