Just as I was about to leave the school the fire alarm sounded. The school was evacuated and the roll call taken which meant I was delayed until the all clear had been given.

I walked home the long way round in glorious sunshine.

On the way to Chester we realised that the museum that Mr C intended to visit is closed on Wednesdays. After being delayed by roadworks and diversions and very slow service at the Grosvenor garden centre just outside Chester we decided not to visit the city. Instead Mr C took us on Welsh mystery tour where we spotted the Inn with my name. Mr C parked the car and insisted I took a photo.

Eventually the mystery tour led us to Denbigh and signposts to the castle. We navigated the extremely narrow roads to the castle to find that it too was closed on Wednesdays.

Maybe we should rule out Wednesdays for future days out!

My Parisian Popsy arrived a couple of days ago and I couldn’t resist wearing her to host a birthday dinner. My England dress would have been more appropriate, the main course was roast beef!

Heloise Print Detail from Popsy website

Recently we have been visiting my mum after I have ‘been to school’ but today that proved difficult. Just over a week ago I noticed that our hot water cylinder had developed a leak. British Gas assessed the situation and confirmed that we needed a new water cylinder but before it could be replaced it needed to be built. Today was the day for it to be fitted and because we knew the work would take several hours we expected the engineers to arrive fairly early in the morning.

Lunch time arrived, the engineers had not.

After lunch I left for my afternoon of volunteering at my local school, helping children with their reading. I wasn’t needed for the whole afternoon so I phoned home to check on the engineer situation, they had only just arrived! Not wanting to disturb the work in progress by shuffling cars and vans around I chose to walk ‘the long route’ home and visit mum tomorrow instead.

Several hours later normal service had resumed, we had water, hot water and heating again.

I had a morning meeting to discuss the Attingham Park social walks of which I am one of the walk leaders. We discussed previous walks and the walks scheduled going forward.

It was a perfect day for a walk so after the meeting had finished I set off along the mile walk in the direction of the walled garden where I sat for a while soaking up the sunshine. After my dose of vitamin D I resumed walking along the mile walk taking a detour to the suspension bridge and the walks beyond. I chose to walk along the river before taking in the woodland triangle and then the bluebell walk through the deer park back to the mansion.

I was pleased to find that the Lady Berwick tea room was open. I chose the scone of the month, rhubarb and ginger which I enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine. So peaceful and perfect.

Mr C has recently retired and today, I managed to persuade him out of the house for a local walk around Apley Woods. After leaving the woods I led him back home taking the long way round. Although in a familiar place he wasn’t quite sure where he was until the local shops came into view. Then rather than take the direct route home he decided on the most scenic route home.

It is our intention to complete the Telford Coronation Walks but today wasn’t the day for one of those.

Today we had lunch at The Granary, Weston Park. Lunch was ‘Gift Experience’ from Christmas 2024 and we had intended to use it on one of our holiday adventures last year. That didn’t quite work out so we chose somewhere local where we hadn’t dined before.

We waited until Mr C retired so that we could enjoy a leisurely lunch. As you can see the sun put its hat on to celebrate the occasion.

The dining experience was well worth the wait.

Mr C has recently retired and this was the first opportunity to explore what retirement is about. We were pottering around and catching up on certain household projects that required a trip to Shrewsbury.

Then, with all the time in the world, rather than lunching in Shrewsbury we took a leisurely drive through the countryside to Boscobel House. The food options in Boscobel’s café were mostly sweet rather than savoury, but the sun was out and the birds were singing; a perfect day for lingering outside in the sunshine.

We learned, from the lady who served us in the café, that the small pile of crumbs on our table had been left there on purpose to attract the birds. The tasty treat was obviously appreciated, a sparrow landed a few inches away from me assessing the possibility of a duck and dive crumb grab, only to be scared away by someone that had spotted the sparrow from the table next to ours.

After lunch we enjoyed the gardens with their lovely spring blooms. We couldn’t venture further afield because I was wearing ‘town shoes’! I always have at least one pair of walking shoes/boots (and socks) in my car. I need to get another pair to leave in Mr C’s car

On the way down to breakfast, I noticed an empty bottle of alcohol that I had seen a couple of days ago on top of a table, and that had been tucked under the table the following day, was still there.

Once again, it was a self-service breakfast. The bacon had been under the heat lamp for too long and it had dried out and become inedible.

After our failed attempt at visiting Arundells the previous day we considered visiting on our way home. But that was not to be, because it is closed on Wednesdays. Instead, we decided to visit Coughton Court where we knew that the family had recently taken over day to day management of the property the National Trust after several years of the Trust managing it. The Throckmorton family lease Coughton Court from the National Trust who currently own it.

There had been a bad crash on the motorway causing a long delay which meant that we arrived at Coughton just in time for lunch. We found that Magnus Birch Throckmorton, the latest Throckmorton descendent was helping in the café. He got chatting to us about various things including the National Trust and how the National Trust had looked after the family and the property.

After lunch we visited the house first, where I forgot that the priest hole was part way up the spiral staircase which I had elected not to climb. I am fascinated by priest holes so we will have to go back.

We walked around the gardens, including taking a pathway on the nearside of the river bank, although it was a little early in the year to see them at their best. We were told that the best time to visit the gardens is in June.

On the way home, Mr C spotted a sign to a farm shop. We got there just before it closed and he was able to pick up the ingredients for Spaghetti Bolognese della Casa.

Breakfast was self-service and, as we had come to expect, there were only a few others in the breakfast room.

We drove to Salisbury to visit the Cathedral and tick off a third Cathedral of our trip in my Cathedral passport. It has been a long time since our previous visit and I had forgotten how lovely some of the Cathedral’s features are.

We had lunch in the Cathedral café where I chose mushrooms on ciabatta which was very tasty. I purchased a couple of guidebooks and a pin badge before leaving. We were hoping to visit Arundells, the former home of Edward Heath but we arrived to find that it was guided tours only on a Tuesday. Our HH membership does not cover guided tours which meant we would have to pay £15 each. We decided to leave Arundells for another day when we could explore the house at our own pace.

We returned to Winchester and had afternoon refreshments in that Cathedral’s café. It seems we like our Cathedral Café refreshment breaks. Suitably refreshed we set off on a walk to find a quiet pathway and secret garden that we had enjoyed our previous visits. We found the pathway but the entrance to the secret garden eluded us.

Our route took us past the Bishops Palace and Cheyney Court and through the archway to the delightful church of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate which is always a joy to see inside. The route also took us along the River Itchen which was flowing fast after the recent rain. We also walked past remains of Nunnaminster & St Mary’s Abbey which I had completely forgotten about.

We returned to our hotel to find that the booked room service had not taken place (again). Our early morning cuppa had resulted in one of the teabags bursting leaving the contents of the bag in the bottom of the cup. We could easily have sorted this out for ourselves but to make a point Mr C went to reception and requested new cups along with missing tea, milk, sugar and biscuits!

Later we dined in The Royal Gurkha where I chose chicken shashlik, the best I have ever tasted. Mr C chose a spicy lamb dish which was hotter than he is used to; it brought tears to his eyes.

After dining we called in at the nearby Wetherspoons, which we knew would serve good wine and beer and would be open until (at least) 11pm. We had no intention of being sent to our room early like naughty little children for the second night running. We were able to chill out in a lovely vibrant atmosphere watching the world go by.