Chris, Lucy and the girls visited last weekend, arriving late Saturday afternoon. They had planned to arrive a little earlier, but Chris found that packing the car in pouring rain took longer than expected. On Monday they were travelling from here to Centre Parks in Sherwood Forest, and so Chris had a lot to fit in the car, especially since he discovered that his rooftop “luggage pod” was at Lucy’s parents about 20 miles away. And there were four bikes to be balanced and secured on a bike rack.
They arrived just as I was leaving for the evening dog walk, which gave the girls a chance to stretch their legs in the evening sunshine, joined by Chris, leaving Lucy to gossip with Chantal.
On Sunday Chantal and I took the girls to Sutton Cheney Wharf, close to the Bosworth Battlefield site, about half an hour from here. Chris and Lucy went shopping in Fosse Park. I think that we got the best deal. The plan was to go for a short trip with the girls, on the Ashby Canal, followed by a walk up to a restaurant at the Battlefield site, and, if timing permitted, a walk down to the “Battlefield Line”, a heritage steam railway to see a steam engine arrive.
When we got to the canal, we found that the narrow boat company website was out of date – they no longer operate short canal trips, and so had to juggle our plans. We took the dogs for a walk along the canal towpath against a strong wind which was making waves on the water, and watched the “ducks a dabbling, up tails all”, which the girls found most amusing as the ducks stuck their bottoms in the air to feed on weeds.
I hope you all know the “Duck Ditty” from Wind in the Willows;
| All along the backwater
Through the rushes tall, |
Slushy green undergrowth Where the roach swim– Here we keep our larder, Cool and full and dim |
| Everyone for what he likes! WE like to be Heads down, tails up, Dabbling free! |
High in the blue above Swifts whirl and call– WE are down a-dabbling Up tails all! |
We had a pleasant lunch at a canal side café before driving to Shenton Station on the Battlefield Line, where we caught a Halloween themed steam train to Shackerstone and back, about half an hour each way, with time to explore the station at Shackerstone, spotting skeletons and bloody arms without a body on our way to the gift shop. With a variety of railway toys and books, the girls chose a soft toy each – a dog and a koala. I also noticed that the girls revelled in the novelty of our own compartment in the railway carriage, especially one decorated with spiders and webs,
but didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm for the steam engine, despite being invited onto the footplate to meet the driver.
We returned home and had time to make pumpkin lanterns before the Tilleys left to go to see Andree, Ian and Svitlana. I told Chantal that I would buy a couple of pumpkins from Leicester, and had already purchased them when Chantal texted to tell me not to bother because she had bought two at Aldi, and so the girls had 4 pumpkins to hollow out and turn into Halloween lanterns. Having drawn the faces to be cut out, the girls found that playing on the Wii was much more exciting than scraping out pumpkins with a spoon, and so in the end this was left to Daddy and Grannie, while the girls has more high tech fun.
My Dad joined us for part of the afternoon and evening, seeing the girls briefly before they went to Whetstone. It was 3 years to the day since we lost Mum, and so we invited Dad over to join us for tea and a chat.
The Tilleys left us on Monday morning to drive up to Sherwood Forest, seeing Keith on the way.
More 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.
