Happy Birthday Hester - see you next week with presents!
Today is the day we head ‘oop North’ for the non event of the marmalade festival in the Lake District. We set off promptly and I drove the first stretch to the National Arboretum near my sister Sophie’s house. We’ve been a couple of times a few years ago but there’s more to see on each visit. We enjoyed a really nice lunch and a walk in suddenly bitter cold wind. This is one of the many monuments in the Arboretum. It is actually very sad as it remembers the many soldiers who were shot for desertion during the First World War. They probably all had PTSD and they were only recently received an apology from the government for how they were treated.
We hadn’t realised it actually closed at 4.00pm so we set off to Sophie and David’s house in Huntington half an hour away. I can’t believe we’ve not seen each other in person for over 2 years - that’s so bad. Isabelle has really grown up and is really pretty at six years old. David showed lots of gadgets to Colin which is bad news! Sophie arrived a little later from work and it was great to catch up. We enjoyed dinner but soon it was time to head off on our continued journey up the M6 to our first night away in the salubrious location of the TravelLodge at Knutsford Service station! At £29.99 rather good value - we’re heading to the Lakes tomorrow via Crosby Beach.
Update on Coronavirus is that it is getting very serious to the extent that Colin bought a bottle of industrial strength alcohol and I had to spend some time wiping every surface in the room... before I realised it should only be used outside or in a well ventilated area. Anybody who has a cold or cold symptoms will have to self isolate for 7 days from tomorrow which makes me glad that my cold is over with from a couple of weeks ago.
Positive - finally caught up with Sophie, David and Isabelle
