Berenice left today for a week of walking in Wales, with other walkers by the coach-load destined for Criccieth near Cardigan.
The others went to Snowshill Manor in the Cotswolds. Unfortunately, the camera eluded them, so you'll have to make do with the wiki pictures.
The weather this weekend has been like a mild Brisbane summer's day. The only negative is that there's a bit of haze around, otherwise the pictures would be amazing. I saw dozens of people paragliding from the ridge of the hills - the easterly wind (which more often brings the haze) in the heat would have provided some good updrafts over the ridge. While I've not really been tempted to parachute (from an otherwise perfectly good aeroplane), I could easily be tempted to try this. Maybe one day...
Yesterday (Saturday) was our first day with nothing on for some time. Helen had spent Friday night with Lily. The girls did their orienteering (S) and fashion design for first hobbies, followed by horse riding together. The afternoon was spent playing around on the road, the common, and the creek, on bikes & scooters, with Matthew and Tom from up the road. Joanna played with her flower garden, inspired by the previous day's visit to the Spring Flower Show at the Three Counties Showground. It also inspired her to buy a ticket for the Chelsea flower show, later in the month.
And while we're going backwards, we had a lovely dinner at Beau Thai on Friday night to celebrate the birthday and retirement of a Dstl colleague. Peter and others had many interesting stories that kept us going well past the restaurant's advertised closing time. I haven't known him long, but I hope he continues to come to our Friday lunches, which I seem to be running.
Now that things are a bit calmer at home, we're thinking about our next holidays. There's a mid-term farmstay week later this month, and Joanna's sure to write about her imminent Scotland trip, and Berenice is going to Egypt and Iceland. But what I really mean is holidays that I can take! There's a Scandinavia plan for July. My main aim had been to get into the arctic circle to see a long day, but that's looking increasingly difficult - too far to drag everyone. So we'll probably end up visiting places like Esbjerg, Køpenhavn, Bergen, Ålesund, Oslo, and Stockholm. If we've got time, I'd also like to pay some Bach homage at Leipzig. And Mike suggested that since we're in the area, we should head over to St Petersburg - but that seems way too far away. After a northern sojourn, the only option would be to head south, and there's two such adventures on the cards: an adults-only winetasting at Bordeaux (cheap flights from Birmingham direct to Bordeaux) with Géraldine and Bernard (maybe) for a few days, with some touring around the Dordogne; and also a family Riviera extravaganza, including some fraction of Barcelona, Carcassonne, Marseilles, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Rome, and Pompeii. All in one week?!
Lucky I've got some work to keep me occupied in between the holidays!One quick photo. I'm glad that Christopher watches out for traffic when he's driving.
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