Wokingham

Sunday May 6, Monday May 7

On Sunday morning we woke up to a delicious cup of English tea, proudly prepared and delivered by Annabelle, one of Ray's grandchildren. The morning was relaxing catching up with Toby, Keri, Annabelle and Sebastian. How the children have shot up. We last saw them at Alanna's wedding in 2014 where Seb dazzled the guests, including a very young lady, with his break dancing. Now he's all grown up at 10 and into scoring goals in soccer. Annabelle, on the otherhand, is a "tweenager" as Keri says. Growing fast, and elegantly and enjoying all types of athletics. Annabelle and Seb are coming to visit us in Squamish this summer. With their love of outdoor activities, I know they are in for a fun time.

Late morning we set off for a walk through the forest and a picnic! Great fun!! Then we walked a bit more, and got in our 10,000 steps, and came to the Woodland Tea Room a unique spot in the middle of the forest on the edge of fields where horses, donkeys, and cattle grazed peacefully. The specialty of the tea room was millionaires shortbread, a slab of shortbread covered with caramel and topped with chocolate!! I gave half to Ray so only consumed about 1000 calories instead of 2000!! Then we continued our walk through the woods and arrived back home late afternoon. Part of the joy of walking in the woods was the carpet of bluebells surrounding us, bringing back many happy moments from my youth in England. Another part of our joy was being with Toby and his family.

Monday was Bank Holiday here in England, and so a sleep in for all! Another lazy day. Ray and I got our SIM cards, his works, mine doesn’t!! Later we had a walk in the blazing sun to California Country Park. We walked on a trail made out of the rubber from used car tyres mixed with stone. Toby loves to run on this trail as it feels almost spongy and makes a perfect running surface. We came to a lovely pond and watched the ducks and some beautiful white birds that we think are terns. And of course there was the inevitable ice-cream shop and a tasty chocolate mint ice-cream!

In the evening we had a delicious barbequeue. Chicken, sausage, roasted veg, and roasted potato wedges. We sat in the garden and enjoyed the heat wave in England, watched the stars, the jets going into Heathrow, and finally climbed the stairs to bed.