my mum wrote this for our wedding and my dad read it out during his speech!
To marry a countryman, strong and true,
for this has always been her view.
Maria grew up with brothers four,
living for years by the Cornish shore.
She moved to England to live in Sus-sex,
to share a house with Joe and Bex,
while Mum and Dad to Leominster did go,
to retire to a nice little bungalow.
Later she moved in, with Mother and Pop,
and got a job at a women’s clothes shop.
Now Maria we must leave,
to introduce our hero Steve!
Steve grew up near Llandrindod Wells,
by the Radnor Forest, as our story tells.
Not a lover of the great indoors,
he would much rather walk out on the moors.
With twinkling blue eyes, and heart of gold,
He feels most at home in a wide sheep fold.
Working in his beloved hills,
our capable hero has many skills.
Shepherding, building, plumbing, this man
travels to work in a nice white van.
One day he had a call to ask
if he would take on a different task.
Refitting a shop he was asked to do,
shelving and flooring and painting too.
Now in this shop a dark haired beauty
was serving the ladies, doing her duty.
When on her, his blue eyes fell,
his beating heart, he could not quell!
For in this shop, called “Jumping Ships”
He first met Maria, and her luscious lips.
Whenever he saw her his heart would melt,
but she had no idea how he felt!
Some months later he was asked to go
to Birmingham, to a fashion show.
He had to do a delivery, you see
for the shop had a stand at the NEC.
Then destiny gave him such a gift
He was asked to give Maria a lift.
This meant them sitting side by side,
for two whole hours..... What a ride!
Who knows what this might’ve led to?
But another sat there, George, his nephew!
Maria began texting with a mysterious smile,
and then admitted, as she has no guile,
That she and Steve found lots to say,
and they had a date on New Year’s Day.
When he came to the shop with a delivery,
Maria asked, “Can you help me?”
“Can you help me carry these upstairs?”
The manageress was busy with her cares.
Once up there she grabbed him for a kiss!
Did he resist? No, what bliss!
Downstairs her boss had no idea
what was happening up here!
Many outings took place in that van,
This dark-eyed wench and this blue-eyed man.
With stops at many a lay- by,
I really, really wonder why!
As well as this demanding role,
Steve took on another goal.
To build a house for them, no less,
and this he did with complete success.
With his dad’s help, and lots of wood,
he built a house that’s really good!
Now while Maria cooks her stews,
she gazes out at amazing views!
Castle mound, trees and hill,
farms and sheep and a tall wind mill.
We haven’t mentioned Maria’s dog.
Dilly, her spaniel, was all agog.
When she met Steve, she fell in love too.
and loves him as much as Maria do!
Now they have a Alaskan Malamute.
If he didn’t chew the house, he’d be quite cute!
As Maria was planning their green-checked day,
Steve said, “Gingham suits, No way!”
Now our ballad must draw to a close.
Our hero has found his English rose
And as we have seen, since our ballad began,
our heroine has found her country man.
© 2014 Lorna Hogan
Let’s introduce our heroine first,
who this ambition has always nursed.To marry a countryman, strong and true,
for this has always been her view.
Maria grew up with brothers four,
living for years by the Cornish shore.
She moved to England to live in Sus-sex,
to share a house with Joe and Bex,
while Mum and Dad to Leominster did go,
to retire to a nice little bungalow.
Later she moved in, with Mother and Pop,
and got a job at a women’s clothes shop.
Now Maria we must leave,
to introduce our hero Steve!
Steve grew up near Llandrindod Wells,
by the Radnor Forest, as our story tells.
Not a lover of the great indoors,
he would much rather walk out on the moors.
With twinkling blue eyes, and heart of gold,
He feels most at home in a wide sheep fold.
Working in his beloved hills,
our capable hero has many skills.
Shepherding, building, plumbing, this man
travels to work in a nice white van.
One day he had a call to ask
if he would take on a different task.
Refitting a shop he was asked to do,
shelving and flooring and painting too.
Now in this shop a dark haired beauty
was serving the ladies, doing her duty.
When on her, his blue eyes fell,
his beating heart, he could not quell!
For in this shop, called “Jumping Ships”
He first met Maria, and her luscious lips.
Whenever he saw her his heart would melt,
but she had no idea how he felt!
Some months later he was asked to go
to Birmingham, to a fashion show.
He had to do a delivery, you see
for the shop had a stand at the NEC.
Then destiny gave him such a gift
He was asked to give Maria a lift.
This meant them sitting side by side,
for two whole hours..... What a ride!
Who knows what this might’ve led to?
But another sat there, George, his nephew!
Maria began texting with a mysterious smile,
and then admitted, as she has no guile,
That she and Steve found lots to say,
and they had a date on New Year’s Day.
When he came to the shop with a delivery,
Maria asked, “Can you help me?”
“Can you help me carry these upstairs?”
The manageress was busy with her cares.
Once up there she grabbed him for a kiss!
Did he resist? No, what bliss!
Downstairs her boss had no idea
what was happening up here!
Many outings took place in that van,
This dark-eyed wench and this blue-eyed man.
With stops at many a lay- by,
I really, really wonder why!
As well as this demanding role,
Steve took on another goal.
To build a house for them, no less,
and this he did with complete success.
With his dad’s help, and lots of wood,
he built a house that’s really good!
Now while Maria cooks her stews,
she gazes out at amazing views!
Castle mound, trees and hill,
farms and sheep and a tall wind mill.
We haven’t mentioned Maria’s dog.
Dilly, her spaniel, was all agog.
When she met Steve, she fell in love too.
and loves him as much as Maria do!
Now they have a Alaskan Malamute.
If he didn’t chew the house, he’d be quite cute!
As Maria was planning their green-checked day,
Steve said, “Gingham suits, No way!”
Now our ballad must draw to a close.
Our hero has found his English rose
And as we have seen, since our ballad began,
our heroine has found her country man.
© 2014 Lorna Hogan
we wanted the simplest wedding, and a wedding cake seemed to be too much fuss, but when we changed our plans and the amount of guests increased we decided to go for a cake as cake is one of Steve's favourite things!
I knew I just wanted something simple and had a picture in my mind of a victoria sponge (steves fave cake) with lots of butter icing just slapped on top.
I was trying to figure out how big a cake we would need for all our guests when I had an idea of having 3 cakes, rather than tiered, have them sitting on 3 different height logs. I searched pinterest and was amazed to see that some people had done similar things! (I know, I'm not the only one to have such a brain-wave!! haha)
living in the country meant logs are more easily accessible and my lovely sister-in-law found these 3 for me ...
Steve cut them for me (where I asked him to) so they were 3 different heights
I was so excited to lay them out ready for the cakes to arrive the night before the wedding ...
and the cakes?? well my lovely Auntie-Cake-Queen-Jo made them for us! 3 beautiful victoria sponges with 3 different homemade jams in them ... strawberry, raspberry and aprict!
and they were stunning, just what I had dreamed of!
and they tasted delicious too! My cousin Liz, also added a few sparkles on them too!
THANK YOU AUNTIE JO!
I knew I just wanted something simple and had a picture in my mind of a victoria sponge (steves fave cake) with lots of butter icing just slapped on top.
I was trying to figure out how big a cake we would need for all our guests when I had an idea of having 3 cakes, rather than tiered, have them sitting on 3 different height logs. I searched pinterest and was amazed to see that some people had done similar things! (I know, I'm not the only one to have such a brain-wave!! haha)
living in the country meant logs are more easily accessible and my lovely sister-in-law found these 3 for me ...
Steve cut them for me (where I asked him to) so they were 3 different heights
I was so excited to lay them out ready for the cakes to arrive the night before the wedding ...
and the cakes?? well my lovely Auntie-Cake-Queen-Jo made them for us! 3 beautiful victoria sponges with 3 different homemade jams in them ... strawberry, raspberry and aprict!
and they were stunning, just what I had dreamed of!
and they tasted delicious too! My cousin Liz, also added a few sparkles on them too!
THANK YOU AUNTIE JO!
We had quite a few kids at our wedding and didn't want them to be bored, so made up some activity bags for them!
First I saved all the sandwich paste jars that Steves has in his lunch ...
I then cut out cellophane
got lots of bags of dolly-mixture and evenly divided them between all the jars ...
with elastic bands I secured the cellophane disks
I cut out lots of different fabric disks with pinking-scissors that matched the bunting and tied them on with cream ribbon
I made colouring books with a few puzzles in too. I made a few extra so if any of the adults wanted to have a go they could too!
We had pink bags for girls and green for boys ... each bag was made by my mum to save me some time and I individually packed them with the sweetie jars, pens, crayons, card games, stickers, clay models to make, jig-saws, toy cars and tractors and the colouring books
It was lovely to see the kids open them and they were all really well behaved!
First I saved all the sandwich paste jars that Steves has in his lunch ...
I then cut out cellophane
got lots of bags of dolly-mixture and evenly divided them between all the jars ...
with elastic bands I secured the cellophane disks
I cut out lots of different fabric disks with pinking-scissors that matched the bunting and tied them on with cream ribbon
I made colouring books with a few puzzles in too. I made a few extra so if any of the adults wanted to have a go they could too!
We had pink bags for girls and green for boys ... each bag was made by my mum to save me some time and I individually packed them with the sweetie jars, pens, crayons, card games, stickers, clay models to make, jig-saws, toy cars and tractors and the colouring books
It was lovely to see the kids open them and they were all really well behaved!
once upon a time there was a man who fell in love and asked her to marry him
he built them a lovely wooden cabin and they settled in for long and happy life there
they had a little dog who thought she was a bear
but as it was a cold winter they got her a friend to snuggle up to, a little wolf cub who grew into a handsome wolf
they were so happy there together and on a lovely sunny summers day, they got married
she wanted to be the best wife that she could be as she loved her little family so is over the moon to share with you that her own little lamb is due right in the middle of lambing next spring
he built them a lovely wooden cabin and they settled in for long and happy life there
they had a little dog who thought she was a bear
but as it was a cold winter they got her a friend to snuggle up to, a little wolf cub who grew into a handsome wolf
they were so happy there together and on a lovely sunny summers day, they got married
she wanted to be the best wife that she could be as she loved her little family so is over the moon to share with you that her own little lamb is due right in the middle of lambing next spring
Steve built us the loveliest home ever, but it is only small and our spare room is used as a work storage room for me with all my 'making' bits in it ... we haven't even finished decorating it yet! We did manage to put the window sill in and curtains up over the summer when my friend came to stay and squeeze in a single bed, then it got turned into a bit of a wedding dumping ground and now it needs to be sorted so my lovely Steve bought me a vintage caravan to do up as a work room! I am beyond excited about it!!
We had been looking all summer for one but they all go for £700 + even ones for spares and repairs and we just couldn't afford that. This one has been sat at a farm that Steve does lambing at for years and years (about 20ish!) but steve thought it would be damp so didn't even consider it. But the other week he had a proper look inside and guess what, although dated and not in a good way, it was structurally sound and apart from a little leak in one of the sky lights, it was dry and BIG ... oh its a great size! all the room I need!
I went to look at it and thought oh goodness this is going to be a lot of work, but its a price we can just about afford and we are never going to get a bargain like that anywhere else ... so after thinking about it over the weekend, Steve went to check out on Monday if it would move ok (having sat there for years!) and an hour later he was home with it!!
We parked it on the lawn and had a really good look at it ... Oh what had we done!! ....
Steve wasted no time in pressure washing it off, and it transformed it ...
my mum and dad came over on Tuesday and said they would help, which is great cos, oh ... the inside is as disgusting as you can imagine ...
Steve was home not well on Friday, but being Steve, he couldn't sit inside and be ill, he had to be pottering so decided it was a good day to rip out a lot of what we don't want to keep from the inside ...
So he has taken out the kitchen area and bathroom area and carpet ... we are probably keeping the seating area and I will make fresh cushions etc as if you rip out too much then the caravan its not good structurally as a lot of the built in fitting support the walls. I would like to rip it out really though and get a futon or sofa bed in there (although not sure how we would get a sofa bed through the narrow door!!)
mum said I should also show you the fly graveyard thats in the the front window ... I'm not sure how we are going to get them out, but trust me they are not staying!!!!!!
I have so many ideas and plans for Dora ... yes she has a name! ... and I can't wait to get started :) Steve moved her into the work shed today so we can start on the outside as its just to damp at the moment outside.
We had been looking all summer for one but they all go for £700 + even ones for spares and repairs and we just couldn't afford that. This one has been sat at a farm that Steve does lambing at for years and years (about 20ish!) but steve thought it would be damp so didn't even consider it. But the other week he had a proper look inside and guess what, although dated and not in a good way, it was structurally sound and apart from a little leak in one of the sky lights, it was dry and BIG ... oh its a great size! all the room I need!
I went to look at it and thought oh goodness this is going to be a lot of work, but its a price we can just about afford and we are never going to get a bargain like that anywhere else ... so after thinking about it over the weekend, Steve went to check out on Monday if it would move ok (having sat there for years!) and an hour later he was home with it!!
We parked it on the lawn and had a really good look at it ... Oh what had we done!! ....
Steve wasted no time in pressure washing it off, and it transformed it ...
my mum and dad came over on Tuesday and said they would help, which is great cos, oh ... the inside is as disgusting as you can imagine ...
Steve was home not well on Friday, but being Steve, he couldn't sit inside and be ill, he had to be pottering so decided it was a good day to rip out a lot of what we don't want to keep from the inside ...
So he has taken out the kitchen area and bathroom area and carpet ... we are probably keeping the seating area and I will make fresh cushions etc as if you rip out too much then the caravan its not good structurally as a lot of the built in fitting support the walls. I would like to rip it out really though and get a futon or sofa bed in there (although not sure how we would get a sofa bed through the narrow door!!)
mum said I should also show you the fly graveyard thats in the the front window ... I'm not sure how we are going to get them out, but trust me they are not staying!!!!!!
I have so many ideas and plans for Dora ... yes she has a name! ... and I can't wait to get started :) Steve moved her into the work shed today so we can start on the outside as its just to damp at the moment outside.
Hello
I am an English girl married to a lovely Welsh man with a couple of little wild boys. We live in a cosy log cabin high up in the Welsh hills with or gentle wolf, crazy puppy and a wild cat that lives in the wood pile!
I love all crafts, reading, dreaming, selling pretty things and cups of tea. I am trying to live a more healthy, holistic and green life.
I love all crafts, reading, dreaming, selling pretty things and cups of tea. I am trying to live a more healthy, holistic and green life.
Little Wooden Home
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