Quick visit to england

We made a lightning visit back to England last weekend, mainly to say farewell (yet again) to Fran & Jen who are going back to New Zealand. However we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drop in on Kath & Mick Walsh who have a house with a view (see above) back in Darwen, Lancashire, where we used to live. Although we haven't seen them for a year or two, it felt like we had only been away a few weeks, although we had lots of news to catch up on. With children and now grandchildren on three different continents, they understood our feelings as we contemplated saying goodbye again to Fran & Jen.

We went on to the Wirral to stay with Jen's parents and took the opportunity to go for a walk in some lovely woodland nearby. This is a strange sandstone rock in the middle of the woods, which is being rapidly eroded by water into deep gullies, the process being hastened by people carving their names all over it.

Unfortunately the clutch of Duck eggs we were hoping would hatch that weekend failed to happen. Not sure of the reason, as they were being looked after by our current gite tenants, who had instructions about keeping them damp etc. Mrs Broody has hatched a brood before very successfully, so who knows what went wrong. The eggs each contained a fully formed, but dead, chick - bit sad really.

We have been able to get lots of stuff done in the garden this last week - more fencing round the bottom field, finishing the bramble cutting on the top bank, and planting strawberries in the fruit cage. Photos to follow when the rain eases up again!