Mid-summer in the UK

Sunday tea club celebrating Manu's 70th birthday

We went out on the Saturday evening of the last blog, into Birmingham, to meet Manu and Crystal, H&I, Reuben etc to celebrate Manu’s 70th birthday. That’ll be five weeks on the trot! Not the venue he had planned, we walked in (Alberts Schloss), elbowed our way through the crowd to them and said we couldn’t stay. It was so loud, so busy, so hot, unbearable! Fortunately they were of the same opinion, so we headed to the outdoor area of the London and North Western at New Street. Much more our scene!

Me and birthday boy Manu

We did indeed meet Jonathan and Lucy with Charles at Watford Gap service station. They had been up to York where Charles had led the gun salute for King Charles Birthday. He was the one doing the shouting, we are all very proud. They had then packed him up in Sheffield at the end of his three years of University and were on the way home. It was a quick stop, but we got the forms signed. Monday therefore we could go into Redditch and send them off and pay the money due. Shame for the lady in the bank, trying to ask all the sensible questions about whether we were happy to be paying this money? No. Were we being coerced! Yes... she was very good!

Charles sent us this photo of himself at the kings 21 gun birthday salute in York. He's in the centre holding a sword vertical. Hard to think he's a grown man in the army now, it doesn't seem five minutes since we were digging sandcastles on the beach!

Monday we had a live Monday Club, beer and curry before Tim went to Cuba with the family. We are glad they’ve gone away as we are at theirs for a fortnight looking often Ruby mad dog and Stimpy shouty cat. It’s lovely to be away. I can’t say we are doing nothing as Brian is working on video cassettes out of the loft at Birmingham Road, transferring old family videos to DVD and the to the computer and on to YouTube. A slow process! Brian's done five so far, if you'd like to look at them click on these links:

Brian's mum and dad's 40th wedding anniversary in March 1988: https://youtu.be/M1_Tbourotw

Brian's son Stuart's last holiday in June 1997: https://youtu.be/9LyvBtrow3c

Silent movie of Brian and his family around 1960 (He was five): https://youtu.be/0iMzVv8rY3M

Brian's daughter Fiona's 18th birthday in August 1997: https://youtu.be/-DHfH0OUt6E

Brian's mum's visit to her brother and family in South Africa in 1990 or 1991: https://youtu.be/y2a4pUDcddU

Helping Manu remove the old roof on the garage of their new house in Sutton Coldfield. It was dirty work!

Wednesday we went to give Manu a hand on their new house, not demolishing the conservatory, that’s coming down on its own, but reroofing the garage to make it weathertight! Obviously these things get worse before they get better, so we took off the old felt before making the front and sides a lot sturdier for him to put new felt back on!

A welcome beer in Tanworth in Arden after roof demolition. Why Tanworth in Arden when his house is in Sutton Coldfield? He was having work done on his campervan at a garage there and it was (sort of) on our way home, so we gave him a lift

Thursday we went out walking again with Denise and Paul, from the house, along the canal to Bromsgrove railway station in Finstall, two trains with a change at Barnt Green got us back to the house for a quick freshen up before a meal at the Red Lion. Another lovely day. See our Relive video with more photos: click here

With Denise and Paul on our walk from Alvechurch to Bromsgrove, down the Tardebigge lock flight on the Worcester and Birmingham canal

Friday a friend of ours came round for a little advice, after reading the last blog he’d messaged to say his dad had died unexpectedly a fortnight ago and could he have a chat. Not that we are experts, but having just been through some of what he’s got to do we were more than happy to see him and five whatever assistance we could.

On one of the 58 lock gates (30 locks) that make up the Tardebigge lock flight. Its the longest flight of locks in the UK raising the water level through 67m (220 feet) over a distance of 3.6km (two and a quarter miles)

Unusually friendly sheep came over for strokes

Sunday we arrived at Tim and Jill’s and spent a very pleasant evening with them before their early departure to Manchester to catch their flight, with their grownup children, Ellie and James, and James’s girlfriend. Ruby hasn’t taken long to get us trained, so the daily routine is Brian goes down to make coffee, Ruby hares up the stairs, with a present, to see me, hares back downstairs for breakfast which is gone in a second. Outside for ablutions then up with Brian, into bed, letting us chill for an hour or so. She then gets a bit twitchy, so once round the field while Brian does breakfast, stopping to harvest raspberries for the breakfast fruit on our way back in. This calms her down for a short while while we decide which walk to go on. The new, easy walk is lovely (click here), out the back of the new housing estate and through the woods. Today though we went to the marina at Willington and had a lovely walk along the canal before stopping for a sandwich at the narrow boat cafe (click here). Stimpy is not as young as she was, the jump onto the work surface for her food bowls is more of a haul of herself up which is very impressive, though I think she knew Brian was trying to video her and did the best jump we’ve seen all week. She is still very talkative, though I’m not sure I always understand exactly what it is she wants. Today I got the message and got the ham out of the fridge.....

Taking Ruby for a walk round Tim and Jill's field with Ruby looking back at their house wondering where Jackie is

Our time is flying past, I hope it’s going a bit slower for Tim and Jill et al.

And then there was quite a nice sunset last night. 'Red sky at night, shepherds delight' they say, and indeed it was, today was quite pleasant, just a bit windy

Taking Ruby on the easy local wood walk. We're just walking through Tim and Jill's front garden to get to the  road (some way off behind us) at the moment. We feel quite posh being here, its nice having wealthy friends! Just a pity we have to bring the neighbourhood down by parking our old car on the front!

Ruby waiting for a treat on our wood walk

Stimpy cat enjoying some fuss on the sofa with us

My daily routine of sit-ups is not easy when a dog wants to know what I'm doing and decides I'm at the right height to lick

Press-ups are no easier!

On our walk round the marina at Willington today

And then along the Trent and Mersey canal past the town of Willington

We stopped for lunch at the narrowboat cafe at Willington. Where was Ruby?...

Under the table hoping we'll drop something

Ruby does seem to like jumping into water (as most dogs do). This lake was a bit deep, good job we had her on the lead to stop her going in too deep

Jackie does like to do her trick with the flowers of bind weed (Convulvulus). She picks them, holds the stem and squeezes so the flower pops out while saying 'Nanny, nanny, jump out of bed'. Ruby seemed to appreciate it

17 year old Stimpy cat making her giant leap for cat kind to get onto the kitchen unit to eat her dinner. Some days she does it better than others, today was a good day. It has to be up there to prevent Ruby dog from scoffing the lot