When I looked out of my living room window on Saturday morning I was saddened to see a large broken branch lying on top of the fence underneath ‘My Oak Tree‘. Then on Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of a chainsaw…  Tree doctors had been called in to remove the damaged limb. This was quite some operation as the branch was also lying in among the other branches of the tree. The branch had to be brought safely to the ground avoiding the nearby bridle path. The removal and tidy up operation took over 5 hours.

Around mid day the procedure was interrupted by a sudden violent downpour of rain. At this time I was sitting in my living room, and as the rain stopped I was taken by surprise when I noticed a low flying plane through my window. From the angle where I was sitting it looked like it was about to land in my back garden…  I then remembered that one of the local pubs was hosting their annual ‘Help for Heroes‘ charity event and that the plane was doing a fly past.

We have recently started to tackle our back garden and get it back under control.  Last bank holiday Sunday we picked up some plants for the patio pots to give us a bit of colour in the summer months.

Whilst planting up the pots I heard the rather distinctive throaty humming of a petrol engine plane in the skies above.  Shortly afterwards a Hawker Hurricane with D day landing markings came into view.  It circled around and then did a few aerobatic maneuvers before flying off into the distance.  We were left wondering why it was flying in our sleepy bit of the world.

It was only later when driving to my mum’s house for dinner, that I realised it must have been part of the ‘Help for Heroes’ charity event that was taking place that day.  It was organised by the landlord and lady of a pub (The Plough Inn) which is near to where my mum lives.  As we drove past the vicinity of the pub there was a crowd of people and there were crowd control barriers to stop anybody spilling out onto the road.  A marquee had been erected outside the pub and there was a handy fish and chip van nearby for those in need of a bite to eat.

Lined up in front of the pub, which was adorned with camouflage netting, were four armored vehicles; a Spartan, Sultan, Ferret and Scimitar. I recalled recently seeing a fire engine outside the pub and after briefly wondering if there was a problem I noticed several firemen on ladders putting up the cam netting.

We could hear the revelry carrying on into the evening whilst we sat in mum’s conservatory after dinner.

Well done the Plough Inn for arranging this community event that generates donations of money for such a worthy cause.

The bear then proceeded past the window and in through the main entrance to our building.  A few minutes later he walked into the office accompanied by a human carrying a bucket to collect money for the charity ‘Help for Heroes’.  It was only after the arrival of the bear that we received an email advising us to expect his presence in the building.