Out and about

We've been enjoying some sunny weather the last couple of weeks. Not much excuse for the paucity of updates, but we'll take any excuse going. First we had a visit from our friends Louise and David, Karen, Gayle, Steve and Rebecca and were joined by Kay and Dave for Sunday lunch.

We enjoyed sitting out in the garden in the sunshine, and then went for a walk down Chase Lane and round to the castle to see the horses in the fields. Ben and Rebecca especially enjoyed sitting in Ben's tent.

We've since had a new patio built, to make sitting out even more convivial. Ben absolutely loved watching the guys building the patio, and was very disappointed that they had finished, but we have already appreciated the big improvement.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, we succumed to the traditional English Bank Holiday activities of going to the garden centre, planting things in the garden, visiting local tourist attractions (Charlecote, Mary Arden's Farm), and complaining about it being too hot (no, that one isn't a traditional Bank Holiday activity, but we could have justifiably done so on at least Sunday!).

Firstly, a picnic in the grounds of Charlecote House on Sunday.

Then we had a fun time at Mary Arden's Farm, where there was a weekend of Tudor activities going on, although we did run out of money which meant we weren't able to take much advantage of the Hog Roast - one sandwich between three of us didn't go very far!. Fearing that there wouldn't be any donkey rides at the seaside when we go to Barmouth, we decided to give Ben a taste of this traditional Tudor entertainment!

Finally, we had a visit from our friends Rich and Clare, this time with baby Elliott, who we met for the first time. Ben enjoyed watching Elliott have his nappy changed, and playing the role of elder brother, although he did get upset the one time Debbie had a cuddle with Elliott, so we got a little bit of insight into what it might be like in a few months time.