Maritime Festival (June 30), Colds, & Lots of Rain!

Re-enactors Teaching a Dance at Maritime Festival

The end of a week’s struggle with the heavy cold! I had to nap every day this week, and the first half had to take it very easy during the days, especially with a lot of difficulty sleeping (combination of my cold and Elizabeth waking up various times with her cold).

Tim got the cold on Saturday. We did manage to go to the Belfast Maritime Festival on Saturday (June 30) despite our colds – though it was a little disappointing as one of the tall ships wasn’t there (one we hadn’t seen last year), and the Continental Market was smaller than last year.

But we did get to go on board the Jeanie Johnston tall ship for the first time, which was a fascinating experience, as she is a lovely replica of an 1840’s-50’s Irish immigrant ship, and below deck there was a lifelike display of immigrants sitting or resting in wide bunkbeds, and authentic posters on the walls of rules and advice for immigrants.

She really was delightful, with rich, glossy wood and tall, graceful masts. Also it was good to hear that, unlike many immigrant ships, no one ever died aboard her. Our guide said that this was partly owing to the skill of the doctor on board, who was fully qualified unlike many “doctors” aboard immigrant ships, and also to the limit of 200 people that the captain imposed, in contrast to the 500 often crammed onto other immigrant ships. The captain, apparently, was a very humane man and had high standards of cleanliness, which really helped as well.

I had imagined the immigrant ships a lot bigger, though she certainly isn’t small! They had 4 people sleeping per bed – not lengthways, as I expected, but across the width. People were certainly a lot smaller back then!

At the Continental Market, always a fascinating place with food and craft stalls from all over Europe, we didn’t see the lovely, natural French bar soaps from last year, which have lasted all year and helped Tim’s eczema so much, but we did buy some really nice all-natural room fragrances. Yummy!

We felt even worse on the Lord’s Day so all of us stayed home. By then the kids were starting to come down with it. Thankfully, after that, Tim was able to go to work all week, and the kids haven’t been too bad with it.

Though the cold hasn’t been fun, my jaw has continued to be just about normal, and my mood has stayed pretty steady. On July the 1st I cut down my Seroquel to 0 tablets, as instructed by the doctor, and so far it’s gone well! I’ve also just completed the most normal cycle, 34 days, that I’ve had since last October! That’s very encouraging. Praise God!!

Our weather has continued to be very showery, as it has since about mid-May. It hasn’t been much of a summer! The ground is almost always wet and it rains every day. This is because the Jet Stream, which usually sits to the north of us this time of year, bringing rain up there, is sitting right over the UK. There has been serious flooding in parts of England and Belfast. Thankfully as our house is near the top of hill we don’t have any flooding here.

With all the rain and sickness, I still have lots of bedding plants to plant out and have had very little chance to enjoy my garden. The strawberries have really suffered, with many going moldy in the wetness, but we still have managed 4 or so nights with bowlfuls of strawberries and cream in the last few weeks!

Today I’m a bit tired still but the cold is gradually wearing off as each day goes on. Last night was my best night’s sleep in a week!

Hopefully tomorrow Tim’s family are coming here to celebrate Tim’s Dad’s 90^th birthday (which was July the 4^th!). We’re planning to go out to a restaurant for dinner at lunchtime. I’m looking forward to it! I'm so glad the Lord has enabled him to live this long! With my grandfather dying in May at close to the same age, I’m sharply aware that each moment we have with Daddy Davis is very precious.