Two in One

This post will have to cover two weeks rather than one. I'm a little tardy but I have a good reason. Last weekend I was in England visiting my sister and this weekend we have visitors from England ourselves, so I have been much occupied.

It was lovely to be with family again for a few days. My sister and I are close but we don't have much chance to see each other. She is always so busy, as am I, but I felt the time between 'sightings' had been too long so I booked myself a weekend trip to England courtesy of (Sl)easy Jet. Flying into Luton meant I wasn't too far from where my sister lives and she was able to collect me from and take me back to the airport.

We had a marvellous few days of catching up and talking ourselves into dehydration. Given the general inclemency of the weather, there wasn't much incentive to go out, but we did manage lunch at a nursery where Sister bought two fruit trees as a leaving gift for the school where she taught for more than twenty years. I thought it was a lovely idea, especially as she is having a sign engraved saying 'May the fruits of your labours be ever bountiful' (or something similar). She hopes the children will be able to watch the trees flourish, flower and fruit and that they'll be able to pick, eat and cook the produce – she taught cookery and art as two of her subjects; hence the interest in the trees' (and the children's) future development.

Here are a few photos of the lovely walk we managed to do on two afternoons. The light was particularly appealing with sunshine highlighting the warm yellow facades against a rather stormy sky. I must say England is so pretty. Driving around the country lanes up and over hills and through the numerous picturesque villages was such a treat.

A magnificent oak tree

Sunshine before the rain

And again

I love the light through the trees

I arrived back late Monday night, but had to be up early on Tuesday for work. Meanwhile, Koos had been away to Moldova on another photo mission. He came back on Wednesday evening, so we were up late again talking and comparing travels. Thursday was another busy work day, after which I was relieved to have Friday free to make our way to Zeeland to meet our Wandering Snail friends who are over in Belgium for a similar visit to friends. We said goodbye to them in Terneuzen in 2011 and I blogged about it here, but they've since been back with their narrowboat and spent another couple of years further north in Holland. Brexit permitting, they hope they'll be back yet again with the Snail for more touring in Europe. I hope so too.

As for the current state of life, the weather is typically autumnal at the moment: no comment. Work is typically autumnal too. That aside all the children are gearing up to Sinterklaas, that uniquely northern European celebration, while the rest of us are winding down to the end of the year.

For all my blogging friends, enjoy the lead up to the end of 2018 and I'll be back with more desultory news from this small corner of the Netherlands soon.

Have a great week, allemaal!