En route to Devon for a week's holiday, we stopped at Stourhead to see the autumn colours. It was extremely busy and standing in the queue to order a drink we passed the time of a day with the couple in front of us.
Having drunk our coffee we decided to walk around the lake.
It was a beautiful sunny day and the blue sky gave strong reflections of the trees in the water. I took quite a few shots although not many trees were turning red. Midway around the lake we met the same couple again and this time had a longer chat. We told them we were on our way to Torquay and discovered that they would be going there too later that week.
As we parted again I realised that I could have asked them for a portrait. No problem as it turned out; we met them a third time further on. They were happy to agree to my request and I discovered their names, John and Amy. I asked them to stand in the shade near a hedge with a spindleberry tree with pink and orange berries and where some leaves were also turning pink.
John told us that he and Amy were both widowed and have now been together for 5 years. Amy was one of eight siblings and they each have a large extended family which keeps them very busy. Most spare time is lavished on their large garden but John does find time to play golf.
Before he retired John ran a printing company and was also interested in photography. Amy had two careers; firstly as a marketing manager for Trust House Forte; secondly she re-trained and practised as a podiatrist. She used to be a keen painter and her watercolours hang on the walls of their home.
As so often happens in these circumstances, my subjects were also interested to know about us. After mentioning our pastimes, I said that I was waiting on a review of my book of my dad's PoW diaries by the local paper in his, and our, native Ipswich.
This prompted Amy to remember that her late husband was also born in Ipswich and his family lived in the dock area. When the treacle storage tanks received a hit in the war, he and the other local children were quickly on the scene with whatever containers they could find to collect some free treacle. Imagine their delight in those days of austerity.
John's memory of WW2 was his father being in the troops in the latter part of the D-Day landings.
It was time for us all to be on our way. John and Amy had had the foresight to take a picnic (including one glass of prosecco each) with them; we found the queue too long to stay for lunch at Stourhead and set off to find another eatery en route.
On Boxing Day, John and Amy are flying to Australia to his niece's wedding and to catch up with his branch of the family there.
Bon voyage and a sunny Christmas!
see this and related photos in The Human Family group
https://www.flickr.com/photos/150442566@N07/37612365561/in/dateposted-public/
