Ant and the Cotswolds

Posted on October 9, 2014 by John

imageWe went to visit friend Anthony Knights in his picturesque cottage near Evesham. Jan shares many old friends with Ant and they spend a fair bit of time catching up. I share interests, including model aircraft, fishing and golf, so there’s lots to talk about.

We pat the dog, Meazle, an ageing staffy, who is pleased to see us. We help feed the three chooks in the back garden and Jan gives one of them a cuddle.

Ant takes us to Broadway Tower – the highest castle in the Cotswolds (it says). It’s a folly rather than a castle, in my humble opinion!

“Broadway Tower was the brainchild of the great 18th Century landscape designer, Capability Brown. His vision was carried out for George William 6th Earl of Coventry with the help of renowned architect James Wyatt and completed in 1798. ”

It’s a tiny tower, but looks lovely in the landscape. The weather is a bit breezy and cool, even more so at the top of the tower. Fabulous views over the surrounding countryside on a very clear day.

We go into Evesham for an Indian meal in the evening and Ant brings along his friend Jane. Good fun. Next day Ant serves up a huge cooked “full English” breakfast – yum. We head for Broadway again to visit the Ashmolean Museum’s little outpost there in an ancient c0ttage. Some interesting old furniture and paintings.

Then to the pub for a pint and back to Ant’s place for more chat, some music and tea. Then it’s farewell and a terrible drive back through rainstorms and lightning down the crowded M1.

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Dining with friends

Posted on October 9, 2014 by John

We spent a lovely evening with Richard and Sarah and Bob and Julie at the Griffin in Higham Ferrers. The company was excellent, and most of the food was good!image

They messed up Richard’s order, but at the end of the meal gave him a voucher for 50 quid to come again, so he was mollified.

Richard and Sarah had spent the weekend on the Norfolk Broads on their sailing boat  – we had a memorable trip with them a few years back on that boat.

Note the clothing. The weather turned cold and rainy after Muriel’s party, proper English Autumn!

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Muriel’s 90th birthday – balloons, cake and lots of fun

Posted on October 9, 2014 by John

We were at Higham Ferrers bowls club at 9am to prepare for the big occasion. We had the booze, the food was delivered on time, the balloons were set up and everything was ready. Best of all, it was lovely sunny blue-sky day.

image imageMuriel was set up to greet everyone at the entrance at noon. There were 50 guests and a few extra kids, family and friends.

Muriel’s cousins had come up from down south with their spouses. There were lots of neighbours – and lots of people in Higham count Muriel as a friend. The prosecco was flowing, the bar was open serving draft beer, and Jan was in the kitchen cooking up the food that came from the caterers.

I was running around serving drinks and taking photographs. Julie and Bob Lymn helped out as waiters. A good time was had by all, especially Muriel.

Some of the neighbours asked permission to use the bowling green and as the season had ended, it was ok for people to run around on it. They had fun.

Everything worked out really well, so we were relieved!

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Down the pub with the lads

Posted on October 5, 2014 by John

Thursday evening Julie and Bob picked me up in Julie’s new car (Peugeot) and took me to the Lilacs pub at Laverton. Richard Lovett and Mike Sanders turned up and we decided to have a few beers. High quality real ale and high quality conversation.

It’s lovely to catch up with people and swap tales. Richard has been doing some exciting sailing along the German and Dutch coast in a friend’s yacht. Mike has been building bigger and better model helicopters as well as tending to the needs of four grandchildren.

imageProper English village pubs are great places with interesting characters in them and good beer. There are no TVs of course, unlike Australian hotels and American bars – a pleasant change.

Pic taken with the new Olympus OM-D E-M10 see here for details. No flash needed.

(PS. I solved the problem of transferring files from an SD card to a USB stick. I went to the local PC World superstore and when no one was looking I made use of a nice laptop with a card slot that was on display. Easy!)

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English summer, still

Posted on October 2, 2014 by John

Jan is in Cambridge, working, and I’m enjoying the last of the English summer. The sun is shining on Higham Ferrers and it is a balmy 20 degrees. The forecasters warn that cold air is coming from the west and temperatures will drop to 16 degrees on Saturday.

At least there is no rain forecast for Sunday – Muriel’s party day. All arrangements are in hand for the party – balloons, food, cake and importantly, the booze!

Re Muriel, a man has been to look at the old boiler. He says she may qualify for a free new central heating boiler under a Government scheme to cut down carbon emissions.

Jan and I have bought her a new flat-screen TV for her birthday, a bit bigger than the old cathode-ray tube model it replaces. We had a man from Virgin (cable) TV come to fix it up. (I don’t understand these English Scart leads!) I hoped they would give her a new hi-definition box, but you have to pay more for that and she won’t want that.

However, the new TV is a triumph, excellent picture and sound. I’ve persuaded her she can use the remote to switch it off as the standby power consumption is tiny. She used to get up and switch off the old one manually.

Now we have to get rid of the old one. It’s too heavy for me to carry, so I’ll have to persuade a neighbour to help load it into the car and take it down to the tip.

I’ve already been to Kettering tip. Bob Lymn treated me to a trip there because he had to get rid of some garden waste. It was very exciting, although it seemed a bit incongruous to be unloading clippings from a Porsche Boxter! Good old Bob knows all the best places to go around here.

I’m typing this in the Beans cafe in Higham, it has good IMG_0078-0.JPGcoffee and excellent wifi!

I’ve bee copying some of Muriel’s old photos with my new camera, hoping to display them on a TV at her party. I’m a bit stymied because I have no computer to copy them from the SD card to a USB stick, but I’ll figure something out. iPads are a bit useless sometimes!

 

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