Enjoying good company and good food...

I have never seen a sky quite like the one that I witnessed this morning save for where the sunrise or sunset occurs over water but this was taken well inland and I guess the super hard overnight frost was a contributing factor and this frost also ensured that there was to be some Olympic-sized windscreen scraping going on all around the Close.

I had set aside today for a trip down memory land as I was returning to my home village of Keinton Mandeville and catching up with family and friends.  My lovely Godmother Janet was 85 last week and my Uncle Ivor and Aunty Margaret are now both in their 90s.

I started with a visit to the local church of St Mary Magdalene where my gran and granddad on Mum's side are laid to rest.

This Parish Church has a 13th century chancel and the remainder is dated to the 19th century and is built out of the local blue lias stone.

The whole place is beautifully kept even though this parish now shares the vicar with at least two others so I am guessing congregation numbers are small.

This morning with the frost twinkling on the grass and the sunshine beginning to break through it looked fantastic.  There was no sound save for the birds and so I had the place to myself.

I walked across the grounds to go and see my grandparents' grave which still has the remains of some artificial flowers on it.  I kicked myself for not getting some flowers but to be fair at this time of year my choice would have been limited anyway.  I had been into the garden centre previously and seen that a lot of the plants had been decimated by the weather.



My godmum has been very poorly.  We had arranged to meet today and go to a local garden centre so that I could choose something for her to buy me for my birthday.  I do remember her telling me that when I reached 18 she would stop giving me presents and here we are 42 years later and she is still doing it.  Yesterday she didn't know if she was going to be well enough but when I rang this morning she was determined to go so we went to Dobies outside Shepton Mallet for a spot of lunch and a mooch around which was nearly cut short when I got a phonecall from John so say Mum had text him to tell him she had had a fall but was ok.  He had tried to call her back to check she was ok and got no response so had gone into a bit of a panic and wanted me to try and get hold of her which I couldn't do either.  In the end I sent her friend Sue around to check she was ok.  Actually John needn't have worried - Mum had gone out for coffee and couldn't hear her phone!!  Dobies was massive and the restaurant was excellent and Janet seemed to enjoy herself so that was good.

I returned Janet home so she could have a rest and then went down to visit my Aunt and Uncle who were both in really good spirits and even though they have both suffered with quite a bit of ill health recently they look relatively unchanged since my last visit in May.

I spent an hour or so with them chatting and having a cuppa before going to see Jane and John.  They will be over in a few weeks' time for their annual Cypriot break although they did pass through recently before and after a cruise of the Med.

This evening Jane and John, Janet and Alan and my cousin Julie (her mum and dad are Ivor and Margaret above) and I got together at the local pub - the Quarry - for a very pleasant evening meal together - many thanks to the men for paying for my and for Julie's meal.  So lovely to all be together again.

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Today may have been cold in the UK but poor John woke to snow in Droushia!!! Mum's unfortunate break-dancing episode which was followed by the missing persons debacle does not seem to have had any lasting effect on her thankfully as she has been in touch which is good.

Hazel and I had arranged to meet her sister Gloria at Brimsmore Garden Centre today which was lovely and then in the evening we had organised to meet up with my old work colleague Jacky for dinner at the Pen Mill Hotel but freezing fog and treacherous driving conditions put paid to that.  Instead Hazel and I ordered a takeaway and had a fabulous curry from The Magic Spice and watched the Sheffield United v Manchester City game on the TV so Hazel declared that we would watch Yesterday, tomorrow - confused???