May 3

 Up at 7:15 this morning, sunny about 10 degrees. Helped Steve with a bit of DIY in the new bathroom. Put up staging ready to prepare for painting a skylight window.

 Emily(their daughter) and Stu and Jacob,9 and Ollie 6 arrived about ten thirty and stayed til noon.



Steven and I went to the hardware store in Oswestry to pick up some primer. Brian and Caroline went to the garden centre in Oswestry to pick up a plant for the front garden and supplies for a hanging basket. Home at 2 pm and received a message from Dean to give him a call. Apparently there was an incident on the train line and he's not sure when he would be able to continue his journey. He's at Preston Station now and may be delayed a couple of hours. We'll stay tuned and then heard from him that he's catching an Uber from Preston to Manchester then the four o'clock train to Gobowen arriving about 6:10. If this works it's a great solution- he's very resourceful.

Temperature today is a little cool and about 14 degrees but with a nice fire on its very comfortable in the house. The stove is a combination of wood and coal and they use both.

Good news from resourceful Dean; he made his connection at Manchester and should be on time in Gobowen. Steve and I went to the Hengoed cemetery of the Church of Saint Barnabas which has been decommissioned and torn down.  I had seen a sign on the road for Commonwealth Graves. Steve researched this online and discovered there were eight burials there. We found six which we thought was very good. They all seemed to have a connection to this area. 

Back home around five o'clock Caroline was preparing a shank of lamb for supper: really looking forward to this. They also surprised me with a little gift-two Five Crowns score books, one for Bonnie and one for us. They are an excellent size. Caroline also did a small wash for me which will take care of me until I get home. 

 Steve and I picked up Dean right on time at Gobowen. He had a great trip from Manchester (other than the delay) after sharing an Uber there.  He told us all about his time in Glasgow and all the things he did.  And so on back at the house where we had a glass of wine and supper which smells absolutely delicious is going to be at 7 o'clock. Well the lamb shank broiled potatoes, carrots, greens, cheesy cauliflower and gravy were all superb. What a feast it was, followed off by a lemon meringue pie which would give Fletchers a run for its money. 



After dinner we repaired to the lounge where we taught Dean to play Five Crowns. it was a close game all the way and it ended up in a tie  between Caroline and I. I did prevail in the tiebreaker but it was a hollow victory.

 Off to bed at 11 o'clock

Comments

  1. CreatingwithCarol.com3 May 2026 at 18:04

    Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Julie4 May 2026 at 09:26

    This trip sounds so wonderful! Especially with such great friends. Dean handles glitches much better than I do 😉

    ReplyDelete

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