Grandma's visit and after.

Our daughter and Son in Law were taking the family to a barbecue, on the bank Holiday Monday, so we collected Grandma, and gave her another roast dinner. She spent the afternoon with us, and admired the garden, she hasn't been up in the Summer for a while.  We had a small piece of the  Birthday cake.Then later we all went up to our Daughter's for tea. There was plenty left from the day before as our Daughter hadn't realised that her brother would be going home on the Sunday. We all had more Birthday cake.
On the Tuesday, Son in Law had things to do with job seeking, and we asked Daughter if she would like to come to the big garden centre  on the bypass. There wasn't enough room in her car for Grandma, so she came with us. Daughter was a bit careful with what she could spend, due to their current situation. We had lunch in the outside area as it was quite warm, and any mess the children made could be cleared up by the birds. Then they went off to play for a while in the play area. Grandma wanted something that she couldn't get locally,and has no transport anyway, so we helped her there I loaded up my trolley with mostly trailng plants for my containers. Sadly they had sold out of the Winston Churchill standard fuchsias, one of mine did not survive the winter, the other has few buds on one of last years stems. Later we dropped Grandma off at our Daughter's and kept her heavy stuff in the boot, ready to take home.

our honeysuckle

The tall ceanothus

One of the spreading ceanothus

some of our roses

Potentilla in the bottom corner

On the Wednesday I offered to take Mum in Law shopping, as she was planning to return home on the Thursday, so she could go to the funeral. She did not buy very much, but we had cool bag we could lend her to take the cold stuff home.  had bought some of the dairy free 'ice cream' which she likes, Daughter had bought some, and Mum in law bought a third pack.
We had been asked to babysit from 4 pm to 6 pm as our Son in Law had an interview and Daughter was meeting a friend in need. a lot of the time the children spent being read to by Great Grandma. however Daughter hadn't quite got the times straight and her husband was not home till about 7.30 had I known I could have fed the children and Grandma, but never mind.
On the Thursday, we collected Grandma and her stuff, and set off for the South Coast. we didn't leave till after the rush hour.The journey there was quite reasonable. Mum in Law said she would like to take us out to lunch, when we had a stop on the way down, but when we arrived at around 1 pm, husband said he wanted to be home by 4!
I told him we would never make it, so we had a bit of a break, but then set off. As we both thought he would get overtired, I drove to the services, where we bought food and ate it in the car. Then we set off with husband driving, but had a much slower journey,especially  on the M25. we arrived home a around 6.30 pm.
On the Friday we had a fairly lazy day, husband announced that he wanted to have a look for something in the local Aldi store. We have 2 now, so we visited both. They have been doing a lot of cycling stuff lately. I did buy some 'padded knickers', but they are nowhere near as thick as those which I bought online.
Saturday was the usual into town for shopping and bus back, and Sunday, church.
On the following Monday and Tuesday I got stuck into replanting my pots. I had to remove all the daffodil bulbs,and leave them for the foliage to die back. I used quite a lot of compost, and was not sure what to do with the old stuff. I rang the council,and they said not to put it in the green bin, which is where it always went, but to take it to the dump. After some conversation and a bit of thought, husband decide it should go in our compost bins,and we could save money by using our own 'home grown' compost for potting. I went to the supermarket on the Wednesday, and when I got back he wasn't home. I thought he had walked into town, but no he had gone off on a bike ride.
Son in Law had heard that he had been accepted for a job in Milton Keynes, so we didn't need to collect Lydia, she would  have Daddy care. When husband got back he had made it even further than last time, as far as Northchurch.
On the Thursday morning, our friends in Dunstable, with the miniature railway in their,garden were
having a Coffee morning, in aid of the Christian Charity for whom their Son works, Caring for Life, so we spent a pleasant part of a morning sitting in their garden, drinking coffee  and chatting. sadly there were not many people there, although others may have arrived after we left.
Home gain we got on with packing and sorting stuff, then husband decided to go on another bike ride, but I was too busy.He went South,as far as the grounds of the Grove in Noth Watford, although now it is a hotel they prefer to be known as the Grove Croxley Green.
Friday was spent collecting stuff together, packing the car, cleaning and tidying the house,setting up security lighting, and we set off at about 3.30 pm on our annual 2 week holiday. This time we were going back to St Ives. We stopped at Leigh Delamere, but the choice of food was not to our liking,so eventually we decided to go to the West Cornwall pasty company kiosk, and get a pasty and wedges.
We also had a  coffee, and then I went onto the small M&S store and got us a dessert each.
Later when we stopped at Taunton Dene for the night, I had a massive acid reflux, so had to go in search of indigestion tablets. that is why I rarely eat pasties, I always suffer afterwards. Husband would eat them every day if he could.
I had taken milk with me, and my supply of Ovaltine, but I realised I had no means of boiling the milk, I didn't fancy using the kettle, so I compromised with half hot water,and half milk. It didn't taste great, and I didn't get off to sleep very quickly. Still, we were half way on our journey.