July 2007
Mum's birthday was brilliant! We all went to The Mayfly - a pub right on the River Test. A stunning setting and fabulous food. Penny (my farmer friend from Wales) walked in and promptly met someone she knew from the tiny town near her farm! What a small world. It gets better - Mum's cousin is a retired vicar or something and lives in the same area in Wales. Turned out they all knew each other!
After an enormous lunch we walked around the common while the kids ran, paddled in the stream and attempted to catch tiddlers. In time honoured fashion we took some bread in order to feed the ducks but actually fed the enormous trout that live in the river. We played Pooh-Sticks. For ages! Simple, childhood memories and fantastic weather made for a wonderful day. I know Mum really enjoyed having everyone together again.
I did a LOT of gardening for Mum. She's finding it hard to keep on top of the amount of work required in her large garden and doesn't have the strength to complete many tasks. I pruned, hacked, dug, and spent an inordinate amount of time waging war on the bindweed that is beginning to take over. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
However, I didn't enjoy the surprise of the light evenings. I'd totally forgotten about them! In Japan it gets dark at 7pm in the summer and about 6pm in the winter. Lovely! Rhiannon's logic is - if it's not dark, then it can't possibly be bedtime.
Penny and I spent an evening catching up on life, the universe and everything at Lainston House - which is where Tim and I got married last year. We pledge to continue this tradition as it's a wonderful place.
Penny and me at my wedding:
On another day, I reluctantly accompanied Tim and Rhiannon to Paultons Park. As you already know from my previous post about Disneyland, I do not like these overpriced places. And boy, are they expensive in the UK?! I was horrified at the costs of everything. Japan is supposed to be expensive, but we spent far more in the UK than we do here. For one thing, entry fees to most places here, such as museums, gardens and so on are minimal. And drinks etc are usually vending machine prices - 120yen max (approx .50p at that time) rather than £5 for a coffee. Outrageous. But again, the weather was fair and as you can see, I managed to crack a smile for the camera!
Tim took Rhiannon swimming while I had a business meeting with the woman I write for (mentioned in this post).
She appointed me as the monthly Gardening writer - I was thrilled! But I wasn't allowed to write under my own name, so have to come up with a pseudonym, "in case anyone complains"... WTF?! Ah well, whatever, it's a job of sorts. It's a shame I can't add it to my portfolio. Therefore Rose Henfrey was "born". Henfrey is a family name from eons ago - Arthur Henfrey was a reknowned botanist with connections to Charles Darwin (which could explain a lot about my interests) and, although I haven't found the connection to our family, many of my ancestors carried his name.
So, yes, if you read and enjoyed any of Rose Henfrey's garden articles, thank you - that was me! If you Google "Rose Henfrey" you can read some old articles I wrote.
I can reveal my pseudonym now as I was recently and abruptly dropped from this position - my favourite of all the regular columns I wrote. The pretext was something along the lines of a change is good... Are you sensing a tinge of bitterness?! You'd be right!
Anyway, moving on! I accomplished a lot of shopping ready for Tim to take back with him; Winchester is good for some of that, but most will be bought in Exeter, especially the kid's clothes. We visited hyper-markets and had a whale of a time! "oooh look, Chocolate Hob Nobs!!!" "mmm, brown bread". We feasted and over-indulged on all kinds of British staples.
And yes, we got our bacon sarnies and fish and chips. Heaven! It's funny the food items we missed but didn't realise until we saw them again.
