suigeneris

Wednesday Launde Abbey The day dawned grey with showers forecast for bits of it and we debated water to go today or tomorrow and finally after lunch decided we’d head out to Launde Abbey. This is a wonderful old Abbey and retreat centre right out in the country set in some beautiful gardens. The weather treated us beautifully and it was actually sunny for the whole time we were there. It was about a 50km drive east of us. Again beautiful countryside, for a moment I’d feel like we were driving though NZ country and then we would come upon an English village or a road sign pointing some really quaint place name and then it was obvious. We went first into the walled garden - it was enormous and a real mix of vegetables and ... read more

Monday Market Bosworth & Leicester The plan was to have a low key day and not travel far. Off to Market Bosworth to poke around their pretty and sometimes quirky gardens, then to the alpaca farm which had a cafe and gift shop. Market Bosworth is getting gussied up for the annual prettiest town competition - still not yet in its full glory. Robin took us to look as this cute garden and we chatted to the owner who told us all the critters in it were from “The Gruffalo” book. Then we were off to Snarestone to then Alpaca farm and cafe, Mum and Robin checked out all the wools and we decided to stop for a light lunch - orange and parsnip soup - quite delicious! Just before we left there was a call ... read more

Day 2 Family reunion Ann (cousin) and her daughter, Lisa had organised a get together of as many family as possible. We headed off around 9 for the drive to Ludlow which took around 2 1/2 hours and arrived early for our family lunch. The table was already groaning with enough food to feed an army. Some of John’s donations for Samara’s Aid were stashed in Dave’s shed so we loaded them into the car before the mob arrived. Initially it was just their 2 daughters and their children but gradually more and more people arrived. I finally sat down to tally up the number the next day and calculated there were about 24 people there from 4 generations - ranging from Mum @ 87, to Janet’s latest granddaughter of 2 months. I stole little Isabella ... read more

The arrival The wheelchair duly arrived for Mum in Birmingham airport with 2 very friendly and quite funny chaps there - one young fellow being inducted and shadowing the other. The younger chap was very chatty and we got quite a lot of his life story! Arriving at the luggage carousel, the only luggage that came around were the same 2 suitcases which circulated about 3 times. This was depressing, some other luggage finally arrived but it was from Frankfurt, the flight after ours - so off to the lost luggage counter - sure enough ours was still in Zurich. Forms were completed and she said they could send it via Munich and we should get it that night. Rob and Jerry were waiting to collect us and we headed to Ibstock. We managed to hold ... read more

Monday 24th August, Derby Shopping day today.I wanted to get our vodafone sim cards sorted and the girls were dead keen that we helped Robin buy some clothes. Apparently someone had given her some money on a card at Debenhams, a big clothing store in the middle of Derby. Along the way we went to a couple of op shops. Altho' the idea was to get Robin new clothes from D's in Oxfam we saw a lovely green skirt, it had a really interesting hem line and was her size, only 5 pounds. I had to bully her in to it - but everyone who saw it thought it looked great. Off to the mall, there Robin introduced me to LUSH - they make gorgeous soaps and creams etc out of natural products, wonderful names and ... read more