The week-end
Saturday was a day of pottering in the garden (mainly Adrian: he repainted the wooden window boxes, and then put in lavenders and trailing fuchsias) and running errands and taking pictures of tulips (moi).
In Homebase I bumped into Lynne and her mother, and so they came round for a cuppa and a chat in the afternoon.
You might remember that a while ago I was rather upset at the news of Lynne and Jennifer (2 neighbours and friends) breaking up and moving away. Lynne decided to come back and live in the area, possibly on the estate. Well on Saturday morning she put an offer for one of the 2 flats in the old school, at the bottom of our small back garden. She really loves it and we are keeping our fingers crossed for her! It’d be simply wonderful to have her so near.
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We spent Sunday afternoon with Ross and Jim. They invited us round for light lunch, followed by a walk to a local open garden and then by high tea. It was all very pleasant!
Open gardens are very popular in spring and summer and a great means of collecting money for charity (entrance fees, teas and cakes, plant sales).
It is also an opportunity to experience middle-aged (and older) middle-England.
One can be forgiven to imagine that such crowds would be all “please”, “excuse me”, “after you, I insist” but the reality is that it is more like the 2 vomiting ladies in Little Britain (without the vomit, normally).
As soon as the garden opens, everybody rushes to the stalls selling plants to get the best ones, taking hours to choose them and forming a human barrier impenetrable to any latecomers.
The same applies to where tea and cakes are sold. The tradition of queuing is definitely dead, and the “old dearies” even seem to have less time and patience than everybody else.
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Both Saturday and Sunday evenings were spent working on Adrian’s family tree. We contacted someone on Ancestry.co.uk who appears to be a descendant of Adrian’s grandmother’s brother. I hope he’ll get in touch.