The height of summer

In between finishing off my sermon for Sunday and having lunch/doing my share of the cleaning/thinking about some church stuff I have been blog hopping and found Julie Kirk's recent post about

Julie is a very talented scrapper and storyteller. She is a lovely person who helped me out with queries about H's choice of Uni as I noticed from a layout in Scrapbook Inspirations (RIP) that she worked in the department he was thinking of applying to. Yes I am that stalker. And when she relates stories about funny things she has overheard I often wonder if my son said them. And then remember that if he is not in lectures he is in his room so, doubtful. And now son 2 is likely to be heading to the same place and course so I'll have even longer to think this. Except son number 2 is unlikely to say much even in the lecture hall.
Another lovely thing about Julie is that she is the perfect height of 5'2" and a bit. When you are 5'2 that extra bit is all important. Once I was measured at 5'2 and a HALF. I suspect I am slightly less than that really though.
Here I am with absolutely no comparison so I could actually be 6' 2 standing next to a really high hedge

but I am not.
I may look a little self conscious here. I was helping Phil set up for some shots and mucking about when I noticed people staring and that's when he pressed the shutter. Ta mate. I am also not supposed to show this photo as it is from my parents 50th which Phil is editing. Aren't you, Phil?

I always thought I would be 5'7. My mum and dad are both 5'7 so I expected to be too. Without realising at that point that 5'7 is small for a man. And that my mum's brother is smaller than she is so genetically I was hit both ways. Its the Welsh thing. It took me YEARS to come to terms with the fact that the expected growth spurt would not come. And now I am heading for my 50'schances are that at some point I will shrink a bit. To add insult to injury, now Carys has reached at least 5'3 I am the smallest in my family. Again. Although both lads are not going to be as tall as their dad so that's the Welshness coming out again. Sorry boys