Donkey!

Guess who I met today! Keith is back from his hard life in Barbados for a few weeks as he has had to have an operation on one of the vertebrae in his neck (an old skiing injury, don't you know!) and I popped down to Reading to see him and to take him out for lunch. We had a wonderful catch up - we decided that it was probably 5 or 6 years since we had last seen each other.

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And for those of you who don't know - Keith's nickname is (was?) donkey. Not for the reason he would have you believe but because of his skiing prowess. A little tongue in cheek I'm sure, as I seem to remember him being a lot more elegant than me.

Summer - briefly

Sunday almost felt like summer. While Luke was off getting sun-stroke on his St John's duty at the motorbike scrambles, Joe, Elaine and I went for a country walk. We started by the church at Kirby Bellars and followed a public footpath across to Asfordby. On the way we crossed a lake by a very narrow causeway and followed the River Wreake for a while. It was wonderful. Joe and I had our tops off, trying to get a bit of sun on our skin before we reach Corfu (next week).

We walked through Asfordby then headed across country back to Kirby Bellars. On the way we found a little wooden jetty on the river and had a break there to dangle our feet in the water.

Luke, meanwhile, was helping (by directing the ambulance) with a guy who broke his back and he also encountered a dislocated finger. All day in the sun took its toll however, and he ended up feeling a bit queasy and headachey when he got home (although he rallied magificently later on!)

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Woodland Avenue Street Party

On Sunday (29th June) the entire street was closed off for a street party. This was the brainchild of a recent arrival to Woodland Avenue, Heather, who thought it would be a good way for residents to properly meet each other and have a bit of fun.

After a beautifully sunny morning, the party was due to kick off at 2pm just as the clouds started approaching. Nevertheless the bunting went up, the tables were laid out, the "Road closed" sign and cones went up, and the band started to play.

Just as all the food was laid out and people started to tuck in, the heavens opened! We had food in our garage and in our hall, and pretty much everyone squeezed into our conservatory. Dan, our local musician, brought his guitar and - joined by another guitar and violin - entertained us with Irish folk music as the rain poured down.

Fortunately the sun came out later and the party resumed in earnest. Here are a few photos.

Visit to Hook Mansion

It was a couple of weeks ago now, but we finally got to visit Mike, Freddie and Katie in their wonderful (and enormous) new house. The weather wasn't great while we there but there were enough gaps in the showers to allow time for trampolining, eating ice-creams at the Old Basing fair and going for a lovely walk along the canal to Odiham Castle.

It was paradise for the kids - a whole meadow to explore, a den in the bushes and a mower to drive!

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