We had a lovely long weekend with Chris Lucy and girls. They arrived at Thursday lunchtime, and after an afternoon of various indoor activities (Grandpa Coops discovered that he is really getting too old for Twister,) Chris decided that a brisk autumnal walk was in order. We all headed for the top of Croft Hill for a dog walk, and somehow ended up at the pub in Croft! It was almost dark when we left, – luckily I had brought head torches and dog-lights.
Friday was a glorious sunny day. Chris and Lucy went shopping. The girls had their nails painted by Grannie Chas, before helping Grannie bake a Swiss roll. After lunch we all headed for Blaby where Chantal and I had discovered an “Adventure Golf” course – sort of landscaped crazy golf. There was some serious cheating going on by the girls –not the younger girls, but the two older ones. Apparently using your club to push the ball to a hole counts as one shot. The Tilleys popped in to see Andree on the way home – during the visit Chris muted Andree’s TV and forgot to un-mute it, resulting in an urgent phone call from the Mother-In-Law after he left – she was getting vision but no sound. I get that from The Wife sometimes….
We had fireworks on Friday night – nothing too explosive, just about 20 smallish ones pushed into the ground, but the girls enjoyed themselves. I think that next time it will be Grandpa Coops’ turn to do the firework shopping – I think that the girls are ready for higher noisier ones. After the fireworks we sat at the end of the garden around a roaring chiminea eating hot dogs, with mulled wine for the grown-ups. During the morning I had carefully constructed a windbreak from old fence panels, but I failed to forecast the change in wind direction, and it was a bit draughty. After the girls had had a bedtime story and gone to bed, the grown-ups settled down to a very noisy game of Scattegories – a word game that involves thinking of words beginning with the same letter that link to specified categories. The links to categories were distinctly dubious. Lucy demonstrated an expansive and imaginative vocabulary, writing down words that have yet to appear in an English dictionary. The Tilleys were impressed by the place mats with hunting scenes which Ruthie kindly gave us when we were in the States, insisting on posing with them for photographic purposes.
The Tilleys all headed north on Saturday for a day with the Hands family in Leeds, returning late, but not too tired to watch the recorded Strictly Come Dancing once the girls had been put too bed. The next day the girls reported having a wonderful time with their Yorkshire Cousins at the farm that is the setting for Emmerdale, followed by Pizza Express – perfect!
On Sunday Andree and Keith joined us for a roast dinner before everyone headed home – a nice convivial family dinner to finish the weekend. See photos in “Our Recent Photos”
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
