Update 6

August 2012

I seem to have deleted this post by mistake while unscrambling the mess my previous posts got into, and I don't have a copy of it. So if you read it before, it could well be very different this time! I still haven't managed to correct the huge photo in Update 3 though, so can only hope that though it looks awful in Safari it might be better in other browsers. It looks OK on my phone.

This month we finally finished all the niggly little renovation jobs needed on my older son's London house, and it was put on the market. Unfortunately, it appeared on the web site designated as a flat, with the road spelt wrongly and only 4 photographs, so we can only hope for the best.

We looked after my younger grandson quite a bit, and enjoyed taking him to a new playground we found in Limpsfield



Now that he is slightly older, he really enjoys the challenge of things that are slightly different from the normal swing, slide and roundabout, and there are some climbing challenges just suitable for his age, so he loves going there.

We had the usual busy time with my frequent physiotherapy appointments, and our younger son and wife packed up their house ready to leave before the Bank Holiday.



Most unfortunately, they had agreed to exchange and complete on the same day, and a few days before moving day, the buyers solicitors discovered a problem with the Title Deeds. When the house was divided, it was called 78 and 78a. Somebody made a mistake in copying and designated one of the rooms as belonging to house number 76a, which is 200 yards down the road as there is a large park in between! Nobody noticed this for about 100 years, so it was really bad luck to have it discovered on this occasion. Now they hope to move in September, after the corrections have been made.

As my son had taken some days off to move, they just finished as much packing as they could and came down to stay with us for the Bank Holiday. They went home on Tuesday, leaving us just a few days to get ready for our holiday at the start of September.

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Update 5

Later July

Both my sons and their families came to our 50th Wedding Anniversary party, as well as one of Paul's two cousins with children and grandchildren. It was mainly family, along with the Edinburgh friend who had been my bridesmaid 50 years ago and 2 other long-standing friends (46 years and counting!). We were 16 or 18 people, and I don't think I could have coped with many more people. Fortunately, it was a pleasant day, not sunny but warm and we could use the garden.

My younger son and wife, having sold their house, decided to holiday in Britain and took a cottage in the Cotswolds. So they arrived for the party, left for the Cotswolds, and returned the following week. After my son had gone home again to go to work, my daughter-in-law and the children stayed on for a few days so I was able to take my grandson to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum.

He's always been interested in dinosaurs.



He was impressed by the huge diplodocus in the main hall.



I can't think why the museum wants to remove it. It makes such a stunning statement and gives you a real idea of just how huge they were.

We saw everything else, including the animatronic T-Rex.




It's life size and roars horribly while lunging forward and my grandson was terrified of it, in spite of my explaining it was only a moving model and wouldn't get him; then I had the happy thought of going round to the the side of it so it wasn't looking at him and roaring at him, and that was more successful.


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Update Number 4

Early July 2015

Getting closer to catching up!

July saw us even busier with renovating our son's house and garden. It's an hour's drive away, so Paul ended up staying there some nights - he took a camp bed.

We also got the cat back, which made life difficult.



We had acquired a cat quite a few years ago, and had permission to keep her in our current apartment - leasehold properties often have a lease that means you need other residents' permission to keep a pet in a property you own. Unfortunately, we had let the property which we had bought for our retirement, and during the time when we weren't living there, other residents decided to rescind this permission. So we had been obliged to find the poor cat another home. She was very happily living on a farm for some years. Unfortunately, the family with whom she was living rented a farm cottage and the farmer wanted it back. So the poor cat came back, causing many complaints from other residents. I can't think why, she hardly ever left the house. She's 12 now, and sleeps a lot. And she was reluctant to appear in the garden, which is very open, though she sometimes sat on the terrace and admired it. She liked to go out when it was dark and slink about, especially if Paul took her for a walk, as she is besotted with him. She also stayed up at my son's house when Paul was working there.

Fortunately, we were able to find her another home in August - someone we know took her to live with their dog and other 2 cats. We hope this works out.

The main event in July was our 50th Wedding Anniversary, which was on July 16th. I rather belatedly organised a small party - I wasn't certain I'd be well enough. Since my older grandson was still at school in Manchester, we organised it for the following weekend when he would have broken up.

We celebrated the day itself by visiting Hever Castle, where we hadn't been for years.



There was jousting tournament, most of which we missed, but we enjoyed what we saw.



The following day, we went to Battle, it being the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. I photographed the site of the battle itself.



This is the slope up which the Normans charged - it's steeper than it looks in my photograph. I am standing more or less where the Saxon front line was.


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Update 3

April, May and June 2016

Still catching up!

We finished April with another visit to Manchester for my grandson's birthday. As there is a playroom and the railway doesn't have to be put away, railway building has reached new heights!







May saw me finally get a diagnosis for my back problems. I have scoliosis apparently, the consequence partly of my spinal fusion following a car accident 20 years ago, and partly to my breaking 4 ribs 40 years ago in another car accident. Lots more physiotherapy, daily exercises, I'm wearing a shoulder brace and I have a TENS machine to help manage the pain. In the meantime, I can wander about muttering 'Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York...' or 'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse'! (Richard the Third had scoliosis, he wasn't a hunchback.)

We finished May and the start of June with another visit to Manchester for half-term; we stayed in a hotel this time, as my son and his wife are trying to sell their house and it's hard to keep the house immaculate with people living in the playroom and sleeping on the sofa bed. That was our bed at the right side of the photo of the wonderful railway layout. You need to switch the light on if you get up in the night to visit the loo - or you stub your toe and you have to listen to the howls of rage from the railway builder next morning.

Below is the kitchen, awaiting viewers.








It's quite an effort keeping the house this pristine!

Later in the month, the Cambridge friends came to stay with us for a few days. We managed a visit to Standen on a beautiful day.

I won't post any more interior photos here, but below is a new section of the garden, which isn't open yet.









It's still under development, but was already looking good - and quite a lot of the gardening is done by volunteers.

The following day, we visited Ightham Mote for the Antiques Roadshow. It wasn't such a nice day! We had to queue for most of the day so the experts could view the two paintings left to us by Paul's parents.




Sad to report, neither of them is all that valuable.
It was a fascinating visit though - we saw Fiona Bruce and all the experts. But I think you see more of it if you watch it on TV.





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Update 2

February, March and April 2016

Still catching up!

In February I visited a friend in Edinburgh. She, poor woman, went down with 'flu the day after I arrived and had to spend my entire visit in bed. Though my bad back prevented a lot of walking, I did manage a bit of sightseeing. This is photo was taken from inside John Knox's House on the Royal Mile






It's a really nice view up the Royal Mile, and if you took out the vehicles etc it probably wouldn't have been that different hundreds of years ago.

It was hard to take photos inside as the light was so poor, but there were quite a few original fireplaces, like this one.





That's a model on the table.

I developed my friend's 'flu once I was home, but not so seriously. Once I was better, I went up to Manchester for half term. There are no photos from there, except ones of my grandchildren.

In mid-March, Paul came home again but found us all in chaos. My eldest son found himself taking redundancy after yet another takeover of the software company for which he had worked for 16 years. He worked for them before he went to University and during his University vacations, and they offered him a job immediately he graduated. So he'd never written a CV and never had a real job interview - and he'll be 40 this year! It was a severed shock to all of our systems, and the CV writing was a effort. However, it didn't take him all that long to find another job, in Reigate this time, and he started in June.

I see from my photographic record that we had yet another visit to Beaver Water World in March





We managed to see the Beavers this time!

In April, we managed a visit to Great Comp Garden near Sevenoaks, as I was having some remission from my back problems. Great Comp Garden is the creation of the late Roderick and Joy Cameron who moved to the 17th Century Manor in 1957 with the idea of developing the garden into a plantsman’s delight.

They created a somewhat eccentric hideaway in Platt, complete with an Italian Garden, explorable ruins and a garden which I am told now boasts one of the best displays of Magnolias, Azaleas, Salvias, Crocosmias, Dahlias and other exotic plants in the region. None of these seemed to be in flower when we visited - and I've no idea what Crocosmias are, unless they are something to do with Crocus.





This was an Italianate temple hiding away in one corner.
Below are the explorable ruins.




After that we visited Gatton Park, a country estate set in parkland landscaped by Capability Brown near Redhill. The 250 acres of parkland are now owned by The Royal Alexandra and Albert School and the whole park is only opened on a few days a year. We walked quite a way, and admired the view over the lake.



This is taken from what was originally the Manor House, now a school.

Later in the month, we took my younger grandson to Tunbridge Wells to see Thomas the Tank Engine who was visiting Groombridge Station.




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An Update - 1

November and December 2015 and early 2016

This is an update on the end of last year - sadly, I have written nothing for almost a year. Life has just been too full of event. On holiday last year, I twisted my knee and it continued to give me trouble, so walking became difficult. At the same time, I began to experience more back problems as well, so I became a very familiar face to the physiotherapist.

At the end of November, my eldest son and his wife moved down to Hurst Green very near to us, and our next task was to complete the move of all of their possessions, then renovate the house and garden to get it ready for sale.

In early December, we all went to Centre Parcs for a long weekend. My younger grandson just adored the swimming pool area, so it was hard to get him out of it, even to see Father Christmas and his reindeer






In December, I had a small procedure on my knee which involved draining the fluid and injecting a steroid. My knee became much better, but my back and hip became more problematic.

Everybody came to my house for Christmas, so it was a very busy time. The railway builders were very active for about 9 days.




We had to be very careful when walking about!

In January, Paul went skiing without me - I had no wish to put more stress on the poor knee.

In late January, I visited a friend in Cambridge.




This is a view of Corpus Christi College.

I also took some views along the river.




We need to visit again when the weather is better and take a punt along the Cam.

Below is a view of the Round Church, more properly known as The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is one of the four medieval round churches still in use in England.




The church was built around 1130, its shape being inspired by the rotunda in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. Originally it was a wayfarers' chapel on the Roman road known as Via Devana (this is now Bridge Street), but by the middle of the 13th century it had become a parish church. It has been somewhat modified over the centuries, and is now managed by English Heritage. It is a very interesting place to visit.



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End of October

October 23 - 31

Most of October passed in the haze of days that were nothing special, filled with tasks not really worth recording. The trees finally accepted it was Autumn, and the leaves began to change colour.



This magnificent tree is in our front garden. The beautiful golden colour didn't last, of course - the branches are bare now and the beautiful leaves are a nasty khaki coloured mulch which needs to be swept up!

Towards the end of October, we set off for Manchester as it was half-term and we had the prospect of seeing our grandchildren. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great as it rained quite a bit during the week, and both children took it in turns to be unwell during our visit.

Our grandson had been unwell before we arrived, and then his sister caught it, so she became quite miserable. As our grandson was starting to feel better, we took him for some days out. Our first visit was to Heaton Park Tramway Museum, which I had previously had no idea even existed, though it opened in 1980. It's a heritage tramway running old trams as a visitor attraction in Heaton Park. Of course it is calculated to appeal to old codgers like us rather than our grandson, but we thought he might like it, and he certainly did. This is the tram we rode in, built in 1901 for the Hull Corporation


On a freezing cold day, it wasn't at all warm inside the open tram, but our grandson was delighted to watch the ticket collector punching the old paper tickets and quite fascinated by the method of getting the tram to go in the opposite direction by disconnecting the rod from the overhead power lines, changing the angle of it and re-connecting, and having the driver go to the controls at the other end. He even asked, very politely, if he could please drive the tram! The ticket collector explained very kindly that only a few real experts were allowed to drive it, but said if he came on another occasion he would be able to operate the model tramway in the Museum, which was not on display that day. So we promised him another visit, and bought him a model tram in the shop. He obviously enjoyed his visit, as he asked to keep his ticket.

He asked to go to another museum, so we opted for the Manchester Museum as he wanted to see a dinosaur. He was quite excited by this, so he put on a dinosaur costume himself.




So we were able to take a small dinosaur to see a big dinosaur



I think he was a bit taken aback by the size of it. I'm afraid the photo is slightly out of focus, like a lot of those taken in poor light indoors.

After that, he was unwell again and it poured with rain, so that was more or less the end of the expeditions I'm afraid. Towards the end of the week he felt well enough to go to the playground near the house, hoping to find somebody to play with. Unfortunately, it was such a cold day that there was nobody there. After a while, a little girl arrived, but not somebody he knew, and sitting on the next swing to her and hoping to make friends unfortunately didn't seem to work.




Things got a bit better as Halloween approached - a friend came to visit and cupcakes were made and eaten. Then we made a gingerbread house.




It was a bit of a shame that it was done before my son got home, as Paul 'helped' with it and felt he didn't do too good a job on the purple spider web on the roof. We had tried the same thing with our younger grandson the previous week, and our eldest son made brilliant spider webs, which quite put Paul's efforts to shame. Anyway, our grandson wasn't really interested in the artistic merits or otherwise of the house, he just wanted to eat it!

There were, of course, various visits from people in scary costumes, so our grandson felt he had to dress up too.




I felt that was a rather horrid costume, but it seemed to make him happy!

We stayed the weekend after Halloween so Paul could help with a bit more DIY, and came home again on Monday November 2nd.

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