Dot and our friend Joan pictured during a walk down the Yare Valley from Cringleford to the University Broad yesterday. We returned on the other bank, through some woods and up on to Colney Lane, which has been closed to through traffic – making a rather exclusive and semi-private little community. Can’t imagine how that happened.
Joan, who taught with Dot at Muswell Hill around 1970, stayed overnight on Wednesday, after arriving just after lunch, which Dot and I had enjoyed with her aunt Jessie at Caffe Italia. Jessie was in the city to visit her husband, who was taken into hospital on Monday when his illness worsened suddenly. But he is doing remarkably well there.
Had a cup of tea with Jackie Willis on Tuesday in the massive Sainsburys store at Longwater – first time I’ve been in there. She has set up a company, Care Motoring, to teach driving in a more thorough way, hopefully improving road safety. Many of her clients are people who have already passed the test. We met some time ago when I was writing about road safety in the Eastern Daily Press.
Incidentally, the EDP has finally got round to mentioning that my page has ended after 11 years. They’ve put my farewell page on their website, and it contains a reference to my own website, though they may not have noticed. Seems a bit more satisfying: I had been feeling rather in limbo. I’ve been putting the occasional commentary piece on my website and hope to carry on doing so.
Dot has done another church school inspection – at Salhouse – which turned out to be a bit fraught through no fault of the school’s. She was pretty tired when she got home (Shrove Tuesday); fortunately I was cooking for our normal Tuesday invitation meal, and we all managed to stay awake. Well, more or less. Must have been the pancakes, courtesy of friend Bridget.
Last night we had a very lengthy DCC meeting covering a multiplicity of church topics. Never really enjoy these: I’m not very good in meetings and find it hard to balance between not taking part at all and being more forceful than I mean to be. We have agreed to drop our Ditchingham weekend this year, which will disappoint a few people, including us. Everything is changing, it seems.
Lovely weather yesterday for our walk down the Yare: a bit chilly, but dry and a certain amount of sun. It seems much the same today. An article in the EDP today said we need to get used to not having winter – so stand by for several feet of snow over half-term. Still, a case of wine has just arrived from Cooden Cellars, so we will probably survive.
Have been having an exchange of e-mails with Jeanette Eglington, who is Beverley’s half-sister and my cousin once removed. She also lives in South Africa and has given me more information about the family, which I am about to insert in my tree on Genes Reunited. Great to be in touch with her and Bev, and to find out more about the African branch of the Lentons.