Our Family 

I suppose my fondest memories of Denbigh are the walks we {me, Amy, you and Ma} would take when going from Colomendy to Nin or Nains. it was always scary when we would walk down the long path which we nicknamed puddle lane after one of our favourite programmes at the time because you would tell us tales about the old abbey we passed halfway down 'puddle lane' and mine and Amy's imaginations would run wild.

 

I remember how you and I would play catch in the back garden of 10 Ffordd Colomendy and you used to bat tennis balls to me with a tennis racket. sometimes i would miss them and they would go over the fence into our back neighbours garden, they never came back until one night when Amy and I had invited friends over for a sleepover in our family size tent. I guess we were being pretty loud at night with our excited chatter and telling childish ghost stories and it must have annoyed our back neighbour so much that she decided to launch all of the lost tennis balls at the tent one after one, it terrified us all.

 

There was the time when Amy and I were so excited to be going on holiday to Cornwall and mum was packing, I guess we were getting under her feet so she told me and Amy to go n find a four leaf clover in the back garden. I think she thought we had no chance but low and behold within minutes Amy found one.  Pa cling film wrapped it to a stone and put it on the welsh dresser.

 

I especially remember Christmas, me, you and Amy would always take walks on Xmas eve whilst mum was busy wrapping presents and cooking up a feast. I loved those walks in the cold with the crisp air making my cheeks go bright red. Amy and I would be so excited that we would whip each other into frenzy. We would wake early on Xmas morning to mountains of presents and a house filled with joy and laughter. The smell of turkey in the air and a lovely Xmas day outfit to wear. There were so many presents, I remember ma being on wrapping paper duty and easily filling black bags with the paper from unwrapped presents.

 

I also remember the many building constructions you took on.  Pa built a barbecue which was made from breeze blocks and grills but more memorable than that was the coal shed you built out of breeze blocks with its chip board top lid which was painted black.  I didn't realise it was wet one day and when climbing on top the coal shed i stood on the lid and fell right through it. So funny!!!

 

Friends names, Erin Jones. I remember she was my best friend and I would roller skate to her house all the time or ride my bike. We had a lot of fun times like going to Denbigh swimming pool and playing in the park in the estate. We used to go to Paul’s mini market  shop with our pocket money and fill bags with penny sweets {sometimes putting more than what we would actually pay for in the bag!}. Sometimes we would buy red hot gobstoppers that would scorch our mouths but for some reason we loved them !

 

Our friend Delyth had leukaemia and when we found out we wanted to buy her something to help so we did a sponsored bike ride where we rode 50 times around the block earning enough money to buy Delyth an electric fan which helped cool her down. She later died, it was heart breaking at the time.

 

I remember going to Nains house after school when you and ma were at work and sometimes Jonathan and Ben would be there and we would play hide n seek all the time. It was always the oldest  v the youngest and sometimes when hiding Jonathan and I would fill our socks with newspaper and leave them sticking out behind the sofa as a decoy to put Ben and Amy off our trail{so funny!}

 

At Nins house Amy and i would love to play dress up in some of Nins night dresses which to us where so pretty they seemed like wedding dresses. We used to swing on the swing on Nins apple tree in the beaming hot sun of the summer. Nin would cook us some of our favourite teas whilst we watched after school TV, this included corned beef,mushy peas and home made crinkle cut chips{yum,yum!}

 

My love for music grew from my papa. he was very much into music and i remember the day he gave me some of his treasured vinyl,  including a picture disc of by the Beatles, an album by White Noise which was really eerie but I absolutely loved the car crash song "young girl with roses in her hair . . . . ". Later, I started buying vinyl and I think my favourite album was a double disc greatest hits by the Carpenters. I quickly fell in love with Karen Carpenters voice. To me it was heaven and some of her songs were so sad they made me cry. In the summer I remember we used to drive to the beach every weekend (now in Devon} and always on the journey we would listen to the Beach Boys. To this day those songs lift my heart and bring memories of sand on my feet and salt on my skin.