This blog seemed to fall by the wayside after my last post in 2012.
Life in Castandet trundled along and now without any canine companions we realised that the world was our oyster!
It's now 2021 and im trying, with the help of memory and photos, to document our life in the last 10 years.
We packed up and left on the 17th October to start a trip back to England. We stayed overnight at the Lemon hotel near Futuroscope. Very basic but i'd taken a meal to warm up in the microwave in the communal kitchen there.
We arrived at the fery port in Le Havre only to discover that we had arrived a day early!Not my finest moment but better to be a day early. Every cloud has a silver lining though and this gave us a day to explore Le Havre which turned out to be a very pleasant town indeed.
My memory gets a bit hazy here as my photos tell me we drove straight uo to Yorkshire from Portsmouth, not a drive that I can remember so it must have been relatively uneventful.
I think we stayed with Ken and Kay for a couple of nights and met up with Christine and David and visited Saltaire and Salts Mill always one of my favourite places to visit having been brought up within a stones throw of the mill.
We visited my cousin Margaret in Rathmell and her brother Peter and wife Jean came over for the afternoon. We had a lovely walk through the beautiful dales countrside for a break to a tea shop before returning to Margaret's.
Next day, 26/10, we left and drove up to the lake district. We stopped off in Windermere which was very crowded and then had lunch before driving on to our hotel in Coniston. The Coniston Inn appeared to be an old country house which had been converted into a very appealing hotel set in it's own grounds adjacent to the shore of the lake.
During our two days here we explored the small town and the highlight of the visit, for Nigel anyway, was an afternoon spent at a farm sale! Lots of old farming equipment for him to marvel at.
From Coniston we drove up to Durham where we were booked in at the Seven Stars hotel on the outskirts of the city for 2 nights. Nigel is starting to research his family history and our visit here was to visit county hall and the archives. As my birth mother was from the area I was also able to do some research.
There's a bit of a gap in my memory here as by the 2/11 we were staying with Annie in Woodbury. I dont think we would have done the journey in one go so I think we may have had an overnight stay in Stratford on Avon to visit my old friend and neighbour Isobel.
The next few days were spent in Devon where I celebrated my 70th birthday.
On the 3rd, my actual birthday, I left Nigel with Annie and Steve picked me up and took me over to Dave and Sheila's at South Chard. The first Saturday of November is traditionally the opening meet of hunts in the UK. My birthday outing was to be to ride to the meet, but not hunt, on Romeo a magnificent coloured cob of Dave's. As soon as we arrived Sheila pressed a glass of whiskey into my hands and introduced me to Romeo. Jan was there and we all had a wonderful ride over to Cotley house. Lots of chat and laughter. So many people I knew at the meet and so little time to chat with them. All too soon it was time for hounds to mive off and I had to relinquish Romeo to Dave and Sheila's granddaughter to hunt for the day. A very special day.
Next day Steve organised a small party for me and Annie kindly let us use her house as the venue. Another memorable day. Annie and Trevor had gone to great pains to decorate the house, so touched to have such good friends.
Next day we were on the road again and had an overnight stay in West Wycombe at the George and Dragon. John and I had stayed there many years ago when we started our house hunting for our move to the area in 1967. A trip back in time the next day as we drove to Naphill to see the house where John and I had lived all those years ago, Claremont, on the common. We also drove past RAF Strike Command where I had worked and the Wheel Inn which had been our local and was now closed. Then on to have a look around High Wycombe a town of which Nigel also had many memories having lived nearby in his younger days.
On the road again to Windsor where we stayed at the New Oscar overnight. Windsor is Nigel's birthplace and it holds many memories for him. Nigel flew from Heathrow to Toronto on the 8th to meet up with and spend a couple of weeks with his newly found half brother, Roger and family.
The next bit is a mystery as i must have returned, on my own, to Castandet. I assume i caught the ferry from Portsmouth but have no recollection of this!
The year ended with Christmas celebrations with our friends Jane and Michael. Jane had recently had knee surgery and was in convalescence. She was allowed out for the day so Michael went to collect her and Nigel and I went over to theirs and prepared the Christmas meal. We stayed overnight afterwards.
