I woke up quite early and remembered that the clocks had moved forward one hour. I wondered if anyone else had remembered as it had not been mentioned the previous evening before we all went to bed.

It turned out that everyone had forgotten…

Eventually everyone surfaced. Mr C and I kept out of the way whilst the two young boys of the lady of  the house prepared a mother’s day breakfast for their mum. When the boys had finished their preparations we all enjoyed breakfast sitting and chatting at the kitchen table.

All too soon it was time for us to leave and make our way back home in time to prepare an evening meal for mother’s day. The traffic was kind to us and we had a good journey home.

When we got home we prepared the meal in advance ready to cook at our leisure so that we could relax with our guests (two mums and a dad) when they arrived. It was then time to freshen up and relax after our long journey.

I washed my hair and whilst I was drying it, Mr C had a shower. Then I ran a bath so that I could linger just long enough to be ready in time for our guests. I had only just got into the bath when my mother rang, my brother wanted to bring her round half an hour earlier than we had arranged!! We had, had a different lift arrangement for my mum but my brother had insisted that he would bring her round for the appropriate time so that he could pop his head in and say hello.

The early arrival meant I had to leap out of the bath and rush around to get ready, my brother left before I had a chance to properly say hello to him. This untimely arrival left me flustered and off kilter for the rest of the evening…

The evening menu (sorry no photos):

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Pinwheels on Blinis

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Boulangere Potatoes and vegetables

Grilled Peach topped with a dark chocolate square  and Creme Fraiche and Brown Sugar and/or Profiteroles

I good evening was had by all

We got up early and had tea, toast and orange juice for breakfast before setting out for Leeds Castle with my Brother in Law and family. The day was lovely and sunny, but a little windy making the air quite bracing in exposed places.

We walked through the parkland towards the castle in glorious sunshine, spring flowers lining the grassy lawns with ducks and geese preening themselves in the sunny glow. We enjoyed a tour of the castle before stopping off for lunch time refreshments in the cafe. I enjoyed a little bit of cake indulgence;  ginger and marmalade cake. It was delicious

After lunch Mr C and I failed miserably to find the centre of the maze before time ran out and we had to get back to the ranch for nephews and nieces to do their homework before they needed to depart for a birthday celebration. This left us to have a board gaming afternoon, followed by an early dinner to accommodate two young boys.

After the boys had gone to bed, we retired to the sitting room to watch a film and the cheese board came out…

We had a good run down to kent stopping off for lunch at Cherwell Valley service station. For a motorway service station it has a rather good selection of food options. We both had a Turkey and Stuffing roll off the carvery bar. We arrived in Lenholm around 3pm where we quickly popped into the medieval town to pick up some flowers for our hostess. When then retraced the short distance to  my brother in laws house which was our destination for the weekend.

We unloaded our bags from the car and had a tour of the house then took a short walk into Lenholm for coffee and cakes. In my case it was Elderflower water and Lemon Polenta cake which was delicious. We were then given a brief tour of the quaint village before returning to the house for the evening. Not long afterwards my niece and nephew arrived followed a little later by our hostess and her two boys.

With a glass of pre dinner gin in hand we sat and chatted whilst the evening meal was being prepared. After dinner the youngsters went to bed leaving the older generation to sit and chat a while before it was time to retire for the night.

PS:I am getting ahead of myself, the services we stopped in on our journey down south where Beaconsfield. It was Cherwell Valley on the way back

The few photos I took are organised and ready but I don’t want to start posting about the weekend until after another expedition that we are due to go on tomorrow. More on that later…

PS: there is also a blog post pending on this mornings unsatisfactory attempt to fix the shoddy workmanship on our backdoor