Gwen

We hadn't seen Gwen for simply ages, not since we got back from Australia and popped down to Salisbury for the weekend.  We don't have any plans to go down to stay until August, when we are going to stay with Jeanette and Matthew for a weekend and then when we are booked into the Old Mill for the late summer bank holiday.  We couldn't leave it that long between visits, but didn't want to go down and stay in a B&B. We are going to Ireland for a few days mid-June and are saving our money for that.

Then,  couple of weeks ago, I remembered that this weekend is a long weekend.  And not only do I have the Monday off work, but I happen to have the Tuesday too. We decided that this would be a good weekend to make a day trip down on the Sunday because there would be no need to get up and rush about on the Monday.

So, at 7:15 in the morning, we left home in wind and rain and dismal weather and headed south towards Salisbury.  The big advantage to leaving at that time on a Sunday morning is that there is almost no traffic.  As we headed south, the weather improved.  By the time we reached Gwen's place the sun had come out and the temperature had gone up.  I was rather too warm in the wintry clothes I had put on at the crack of dawn that morning!

We gathered Gwen up and off we set for a drive through the New Forest.  It was a beautiful morning by the time we got out there and the paths and roads were filled with cyclists and walkers and people out enjoying the day. We saw ponies and cows, as you would expect, but also donkeys which we weren't expecting. I don't think any of us have seen loads of donkeys wandering about in the Forest before.  We had a nice lunch at The Red Shoot.  Its not an easy pub to get into if you are not especially ambulatory, but it is picturesque, the food is all right and the pub is popular with walkers, cyclists, drivers and the people from the holiday camps round about.  Gwen enjoyed it, I think, despite the difficulty she had getting in and out.

Then we headed back to her place through little country lanes and small villages. Gwen is pretty much housebound unless there is someone available to take her out in a car, so we try not to use the main roads and motorways when we take her out if there are viable alternative.  And if what you are doing is going for a country drive, then there are alternatives :-D

And then we came home.  Along the motorways.  We had pretty much been in the car all day, barring an hour n the pub at lunchtime, and were keen to get home expeditiously.  (The advantage to leaving at about 2:30 on a Sunday that is in the middle of a long weekend is that there was still very little traffic on the roads.)  You can understand that the Builder was tired when we got back.  He had been driving since 7:15 in the morning.  But all I had been doing was sitting in my chair, admiring the view, reading the Sunday papers on the iPad and messing about on the internet.  It's surprising how very tiring that is.  We were in bed by 9:45

It's a bright and sunny morning today.  I might even get out into the garden.

Dappled sunlight in the New Forest