Spent two and a half wonderful (sigh…) days with Jacob. He arrived Thursday and I bundled him back on the train on Saturday, just in time to make the 12pm start for Leicester Poetry Stanza (see link). This was an unusual and slightly longer event as this month Graham Norman had organised us a ‘city walk.’ I’ve already blogged about this and have posted a couple of poems that I’ve written from it, so I won’t go on, but… it was wonderful. Thoroughly enjoyable. I need to do it more often- take myself somewhere new, dedicate some time, and walk with nothing on my mind other than what I see and feel and think during my travels. I used to go out and about, always armed with a sketch book, many years ago, and it’s the same, but now with a notebook and rather than draw, write. Good.
My sis, Jo and Robe, Eves and Joe came over Saturday evening. I bought some yum steaks and sausages, salad stuff and cheeses from my fave shop- East Farndon Farm Shop- and Robe cooked. An indoor Aga BBQ. Lovely. And surprisingly, even after our mammoth 4/5/6 hour telephone conversation that has exaggerated itself into urban myth proportions, we found plenty to chew the cud over and I crawled into bed, exhausted, just after midnight. Woke, refreshed and dewy eyed (ha ha) at 9.30! WOW! Needed that…
Went off to fetch the parents and we all met up at The Bell in Burton Overy for lunch. A fab little pub if you don’t know it. It used to be my local and I love Sarah and Dean. Great pub, great food, great beer, great wine… I had a flaked crab and prawn thing (it was listed somewhat more descriptively, accurately, poetically even, in the menu, but you get the gist) with a sweet chili (should that have one ‘l’ or two?) mayo and a bit of salad to start, fresh, gorgeous, then calves liver in rich red wine jus (don’t you just love ‘jus’), mash, delish veg, pinot grigio, What more could a girl with a sis, her family and their aged parents in tow want? A lift home? That would have just made everything too perfect and I’d have had to pinch myself so hard I may have caused lasting damage- OK- superficial bruising at the least!
Another very pleasant day. I’m a lucky girl. I know it. It’s why I and mine don’t go out rioting. There but for the grace of God and all that…
“Some” of my adorable family… Ma, Pa, Jo, Robe, Eves, Joe… Isaac, Fergus Julius, Sara, Krister, Freddie, Lily, and last but not least, Jacob… Miss you. Soon x
