Some special moments and memories from 2022, one from each month of the year. The photographs are taken from a calendar that I created for myself and due to the printing deadline, December’s photograph is also from November.

1. The Inclined Plane, Coalport, 2. Lichfield Cathedral, 3. Local Pathway, 4. Llangollen Canal Nr Chirk Aqueduct, 5. violet’s Tea Room Bridgnorth, 6. Waddesden Manor, 7. Tewkesbury, 8. Sandringham Church, 9. Attingham Park, 10. The Long Walk, Windsor, 11. The Guild Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, 12. Stratford-upon-Avon

We enjoyed our final breakfast with a window view over the Thames, making a full set of breakfasts with window views. Before checking out, Mr C parked the car at the back of the hotel near to our room so that we could load our cases into the car easily. As we were loading the car, two buses came down the narrow street, one of them hoping to park in the space next to our car. The space wasn’t quite big enough and we weren’t quite ready to leave. This led to the buses doing manoeuvers and the two drivers having to wait at the end of the street until we had handed in the room keys and vacated the space we were parked in.

We visited Waddesden Manor, a place that has been on my ‘To Visit’ list for many years but we had never been in the right place at the right time to make it happen. There is a lovely long walk to the manor where you catch glimpses of it through trees until it reveals itself in all its ‘French Renaissance château’ glory.

I wasn’t disappointed. The house and gardens are stunning, although the pools for the fountains were empty of water and the aviary was only partially accessible due to painting and refurbishment. This just means we will have to visit again soon.

We explored the gardens before eating lunch in the Stables Courtyard where I chose blueberry and lemon cake accompanied by elderflower presse. After we had eaten, we made our way to the manor for our timed ticket entry slot. It wasn’t a busy day so we were able to enter the manor early which turned out to be a good thing due to the numerous rooms and displays on offer.

We left Waddesden late in the afternoon and programmed the SatNav for home. Shortly afterwards the SatNav responded that there were delays which would add an hour to our journey. We had hoped to pick up a ready meal from one of the motorway services but the SatNav found a quicker route which meant we bypassed all of them. Back in our home town, much later than planned we purchased a Chinese Takeaway meal from Sainsbury’s, which, after unpacking our cases, we enjoyed with a refreshing glass of wine.