Salisbury - and a 90th birthday party

The weather was awful on the way down to Salisbury on Tuesday. The high winds and heavy rain showers lasted most of the way down.  We drove slowly and carefully!  But by the time we got there, the weather had cleared to a glorious spring evening.  Still windy but at least we had blue sky and sunshine. The new people at the Old Mill have done up the back garden and installed a huge charcoal grill.  Alas, they are only doing their barbecue menu at weekends during the spring.  I have every intention of heading back down during the summer to give it a go.  In the meantime, I made do with agrilled steak indoors for dinner.

Wednesday was also warm and sunny. We walked into Salisbury after our excellent breakfast to do a little light shopping and to acquire some sparkling wine and sparkling not wine for the birthday toast later in the day. Then we walked back to the pub and off loaded.  And then we turned around and walked back into Salisbury. We pottered around a few more shops and had a nice walk and then headed to Wagamama's for an early lunch. And they had mochi ice cream.  I LERV mochi ice cream!  I quite enjoyed my yaki soba noodles as well.  And then back to the pub, change into our party clothes, and head to Nunton for the birthday party.  (12,500+ steps on my step counter on Wednesday :-D )

It was The Builder's mother's 90th birthday on Wednesday and her daughter Marie and daughter in law Jenny had organised an afternoon tea celebration in the dayroom at The Orchard, where Gwen has lived until she went into hospital last November.  At the moment she is living in a care home while being assessed to see if she can return to independent living. (We are hoping she stays where she is - she is positively thriving there. This, unfortunately, means the social workers think she'll be OK going back to her unit. We do not think this is a good plan!!).  The party, though, was an excellent plan.  Lots of people from The Orchard and from Nunton itself came to celebrate.  Jenny and Marie had prepared an excellent spread for afternoon tea. Gwen had a lovely time.  So did we all!

Happy birthday, Gwen

No dinner for us on Wednesday evening!

We took Gwen out for a light pub lunch before heading home on Thursday.  This was an excellent plan from the point of view of extending the birthday celebrations a little.  It was a dreadful plan from the point of view of getting home again.  We had completely failed to take into account that today is Good Friday and that lots of people were heading away yesterday afternoon for a long weekend away, or even for a week away.  It took us almost six hours to get home. It usually takes around three and a half.  The traffic on the M42 was at an absolute standstill pretty much for the length of it.  We should have gone home in the morning. Or stayed until today.  Oh well, we got home in the end.

The poor Builder has been struck down with a gastric upset.  He had been hoping for a peaceful night slumbering after driving for all that time yesterday.  Alas, he spent most of the night in the bathroom.  (I was blissfully unaware of this until I woke up this morning after a very peaceful night slumbering.) We are not sure if he has picked up a bug or whether it was something he ate. I don't think it can have been what we had when we got home last night, though.  We both ate that and so far I seem fine.  Fingers crossed he is better for tomorrow and that I don't come down with it. We are supposed to be opening Bishops' House tomorrow morning and I suspect that replacement volunteers will be thin on the ground  this weekend!

Click on the cathedral to get to the Salisbury photo album