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Hemel Hempstead with Lyn and family - 90th birthday celebration

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  What a stunning view it is from Lyn and Norman’s house over the slopes and forests. Fortunately, the temperature has dropped and evenings are perfect for eating on the terrace on top of the garage roof . It’s lovely to be back again. There was plenty to be done to prepare the seating for the family gathering the next day. It would have been a simple task on flat ground, but the ant hills under the lawn made finding flat areas for tables and chairs quite challenging! To say the least! Anyway, success. Norman and I also had a lot of laughs, and swearing, erecting the tent for the drinks. It’s quite a tricky job for two people, and even once the tent was up, it was impossible to find a place to hammer in the pegs to stabilise it. Luckily, it stayed up. Andrew and Ali brought an incredible tent with them, providing shade for the majority of the party. Great. The caterers did a phenomenal job - quiche, salmon, salads and hundreds of new potatoes. I think they were catering for twenty ...
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Cheltenham to the Cotswolds with Dennis

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How wonderful to see Dennis’s smiling face again.  Cheltenham is not a super exciting place ( it was a break for me before heading to the Cotswolds by bus, but then at the last minute, Dennis decided to join me). Marvellous. Great company and the flexibility of a car.  So we headed out of the very hot town to the hills, and Broadway tower, which dates back to the very end of the 18th century.  It was closed, but we had a fabulous view over the beautiful Cotswolds escarpment. It was a very pleasant temperature there too! We decided to eat in the tourist trap village of Broadway, at the Swan. It seemed a good idea as we sat at our table with outlook over the village green, and also when our plates of roast pork and beef arrived, but actually it was a dreadful meal, with very hard, dry potatoes and vegetables and virtually no meat. Foolishly we didn’t send the plates back, but it was so poor, and pricey, that when I got home I wrote. Amazingly, we were offered the chance to ...
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Liverpool and Crosby Beach (Another Place Figures - Gormley)

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 Back in Liverpool after more than a decade I think. The last time was with Ceri for a fabulous couple of days . At that time, it was such a trip down memory lane, remembering all those amazing teenage years of Beatles, Beatles and more Beatles. Sport and the Fab Four were foremost in my mind. It was a sensational time to grow up. However, the first two days of this visit were to see other sights, and on the recommendation of the hotel receptionist, and knowing how wonderful our Christchurch library is, I visited the Liverpool library, which reminded me greatly of ours because of its incredible architecture, light and staircases! The restoration was completed in 2013, a few years before ours, at a cost of 50 million pounds, possibly a similar amount. The 1860 s facade was preserved. The Picton Reading room was preserved and is just a marvellous place to visit as a tourist, reader or student. It was being well used. Floor to ceiling books! Whilst the old library and its often rare b...
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