A week in photos – Helicopters and Snow

Well this is it the start back to a normal life – almost that is. Poor Mag he has been in the wars, from having appendicitis and getting emergency surgery to having a kinked bowel in the days that followed. Now Mag has a painful condition called gastritis -which is inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines.

We did however manage to get out last weekend before his latest condition got bad – on Saturday Mag and I went to the shopping centre while Roy took the other children swimming. While we were there we noticed a helicopter outside, and a very cold man guarding it! They were doing a prize draw thing for a free ride on Valentine’s day. We got talking to the man and he seemed a nice chap – so we went and got him a big mug of hot chocolate to warm him up. He was really grateful and allowed Mag to sit in the helicopter in return, it made hiss day and after all he had been through was nice for him.

On the Sunday we were going to head to the retail village but the weather reports suggested that we should not risk the journey. It was snowing so we took a drive a couple of miles up the coast to Crawfordsburn Country Park. There was snow on the beach!

Situated within Crawfordsburn Country Park, on the headland to the east stands a wartime relic, Grey Point Fort, a most interesting and unusual visitor attraction with great surrounding views. This gun site was built to protect the mouth of the Belfast Lough from enemy invasion and now houses a little military museum. Centrepiece is a 12ft by six inch diameter naval gun which was installed in 1992. It is nearly a century old and was brought from Spike Island in Cork Harbour which also had a defensive fort. Grey Points two guns were sold for scrap in 1957 after the disbanding of the coastal artillery. (source visitbritain.com)

Other than the trips out last weekend we have been virtually house bound since then. Waiting for a break in the weather and waiting very patiently for Mag to get better.