Bishampton to Bristol via Alvechurch

Fish, chips and beer by the sea with Iain and Bev

How has a fortnight passed?

Medieval weekend was a good mix of craft stalls, food and then lots of cosplay, people, tents, dogs, archers, armour and all sorts. Our visit was slightly curtailed as we wanted to get over to Warwick to see Fiona and James, just returned from their honeymoon, and Becky to celebrate her 22nd birthday, via the dogs so they didn’t think we’d abandoned them.

Monday seemed to be teeth day, Brian was just about to leave for his appointment in Leamington when I was contacted with a hygienist cancellation, sadly in the opposite direction. Fortunately when they rang in the afternoon with another cancellation he was back so I could get to Rednal. Long distance dental visits for both of us, but hey!

Evesham's Medieval market

Happy 22nd birthday Becky! Nice gathering in Fiona and James' back garden, LtoR: Fergus, Chris and Janet (James' mum, who also announced their engagement that very day - double celebrations!), Fiona, James, Becky - birthday girl, Jenny, Laura and Jackie

Evesham town and river walk before the rain arrived

Tuesday was our last full day, but before cleaning we thought we’d take Cookie and Cracker to do the Evesham town walk. It all started well, until the rain came in, we were about halfway around, so lots of sheltering under trees, in a hopeful fashion! Not that it did much good, clothes and dogs all needed washing when we got back! Donna and Keith arrived back about 04.00am and amazingly managed to get into the house without it being brought down by excitable dogs. They spent the rest of the night with mum and dad, but were outside our door when Brian got up to make coffee, then in for their morning cuddles and snoozing as ‘normal’. This makes us very happy as we know we’ve done something right. Apparently they were waiting the following morning too when we weren’t even in the house. Last walk and a leisurely breakfast before back to mums. We shall miss these dogs.

At the start and end of our walk, by the Hampton Ferry, one of the few crossings over the River Avon. Apparently its a very old crossing, originally to allow monks to cross the river from the old abbey to get to the area where Hampton village now is, where they used to have fields of fruit and vegetables. BUT WAIT!! Did you see it? Look closely, there a car in the river....

Its a real accident, although no-one was injured. The ferryman told us it's been there for a few weeks and he is waiting for someone to recover it. To be fair, there is a sign on the road warning of a river ahead and a sign that says it's a passenger ferry only!

We quite liked this riverside sign on our walk through Evesham. Pointing to the right at the bottom it says 'Decision time, toilets 75yds or 750yds' (that's 68.5 to 685m for our continental friends or 225 to 2250 feet for our USA friends, 'cause you don't use yards)

Look at this bird that Jackie rescued after it flew into the conservatory

Our excitement for the day was clearing out the utility room ready for a new boiler to be fitted the following day, we know how to live! New boiler fitted, we shopped and Brian had a biopsy after his skin visit the previous week. As usual it was a ‘just to be on the safe side’ so hopefully all will be well. It was right on his eyebrow, so in itself not particularly noticeable, it’s just the black eye that developed after! (B: she took a photo of my black eye and stitches, but I declined to post it here!)

Mum and dad geese guide their six youngsters along the canal in Alvechurch

A baby starling sits atop Paulines giraffe in her back garden

Gardening, a visit to the Redditch food fair and general pottering for mum while we finally made it to see Acoustic Roots, an open mic night that has been run in the village by Paul (from our trip to Jordan) for years. We were made very welcome, and were pleased to see John, though he didn’t stay long, as seats were whisked in for us down at the front with Brian and Hazel. I have to say I enjoyed it more than I expected, five acts with half an hour each, in a completely packed village hall. They actually had to turn people away. Bumping into Jan and Paul led to a coffee invite for Monday which we were glad to accept, lots of chat, time just whizzed past.

I just love this old postcard we found when clearing out Paulines (Jackies mum) utility room ready for the new boiler fitting. It's of Birmingham's Bull Ring centre in the 1960's. It's very different now, the church remains on the left but everything else you see there is now gone

We found this old photo of Jackie too

Wednesday down to Easton in Gordano sitting for Bev and Iain for three and a bit weeks, four cats are sadly now down to two, Millie and Tinsel with the passing of Shadow and Mr. Pickles. Two laps and two cats though does work well and Tinsel has come much more out of herself, which can only be good for her. Lovely to catch up with B&I, fish and chips and beer with a view of the Bristol Channel and lots of chat! Fabulous. We took them to the airport on Thursday in sunshine, which lasted till about mid afternoon the following day, just in time to rain on Fridays jubilee celebrations. We had made it to Portishead for their event seen a few bands and had a pork bap before the rain set in. Today we are hoping it might clear in time to visit Pills celebrations this afternoon. Whatever happens, it’s lovely to be here, it’s a great place to be.

Back to Evesham and our town walk with Cookie and Cracker. The hill you see here (and explained on that noticeboard Jackie's reading) is significant: it is the site of the battle of Evesham that occurred on August 3rd and 4th 1265 between Simon de Montford, the Earl of Leicester and Prince Edward and is very important in English history. Why? Picture the times, King John had been forced to sign the Magna Carta by rebellious barons in 1215 in an effort to curb the power of the king and establish rights for the people. The struggle continued after his death eventually leading to civil war. Earl Simon captured King Henry III and his son Prince Edward in 1264, governing England for a year and setting up the first representative parliament. Simon was heavily outnumbered and was hacked to death near this spot, leading to the crowning of Prince Edward as Edward I. However, Simon's legacy lives on in the form of representative government  that, today we know as the House of Commons

I wanted to put this photo of a woodpecker feasting on peanuts in Donna and Keith's back garden. Isn't he (she) fabulous?

In Portishead drinking beer with Iain and Bev. Jackie wanted to sample one of the beers and got it in a miniature tankard!

Portishead Jubilee Festival on their show field before the rain started. At the far end was a stage with lots of youth rock bands playing under the banner 'school of rock'. They looked around the 14 to 18 age group, some possibly younger, but they were pretty good (some not so it has to be said). Great atmosphere, lots going on, it's just a pity persistent rain set in for the afternoon

There was even a tame T-Rex there. Oh, wait a minute, he seems to have an extra pair of legs!

Brace yourself, here's a selection of photos of Millie and Tinsel cats, our current charges. This one's Tinsel sleeping on our bed this morning

She thought the camera was quite interesting so came to have a closer look. You can see here strange right eye that is permanently dilated. Whether she can see through it or not we don't know, but suspect not

Not sure she likes posing for the camera though, perhaps she's afraid I'll steal her soul!

However, she does enjoy strokes

Millie has a similar interest in cameras. That perfect shot of her sitting was ruined before I could take the photo

After much effort I did manage to get this one

A more common sight is this though. Millie sleeping

And Tinsel sleeping (but aware of Jackie's presence) in her favourite out-of-the way spot by the stairs