Friday, April 16, 2021

 It has been a busy week. On Monday we travelled up to Wiltshire to visit my Dad for a few days.  We managed to book some self contained accommodation nearby which was perfect for our visit. We had a good journey up, but my goodness the amount of traffic heading down our way and probably onto Cornwall was unbelievable. The sun shone the whole time although it was a bit chilly, but my Dads front garden is very sheltered so we were able to have picnic lunches sat outside and fish and chips one evening.

 We took him out for a coffee every morning to different places.  On Tuesday morning we went to The Rowdey Cow which we only discovered last summer.  It is a cafe with a big garden, a play area, some petting animals, a small walk around pony paddocks and an ice cream parlour.  It is a lovely place to go as a family and we spent a good hour and a half there. 


After lunch we left my Dad's and went into Bath for a walk and a bit of shopping for the girls.  It wasn't particularly busy, probably because there are no foreign tourists at the moment, and it was a pleasant couple of hours.  I worked in Bath when I first left college so it's always nice to go back and see what's 
changed.  This is a not very good photo as we drove down into Bath.    
                                                      
                                                    
On Wednesday morning we went back to the edge of Bath to Alice Park.  This was a real trip down memory lane for my Dad as his Grandfather was park keeper here in the 1940's/50's so he spent a lot of time here as a child. I used to bring Daughter S here as a toddler before we moved to Devon as it has a very good play area and a big sandpit.  The only real change is the addition of a very nice cafe. 

On Thursday we met my Sister and Brother in Law in the town park and had a good catch up and took advantage of Costas 50p drink promotion. We had a good walk around the park and reminisced about our primary school days.  Me and my sister went to a small private school until we were 11 which backed onto the town park so we used to come over with the headmistress for games lessons.  I can picture us now playing rounders, the Headmistress with her skirt tucked up almost in her knickers blowing her whistle!  She ran the school with her Husband until  ill health forced her to retire. The school closed in 2012  and has been empty since. She died in 2015 aged 87 having devoted most of her life to teaching and the school having no children of her own. We have such happy memories of our years there and it's a shame, looking over the fence, to see it decaying.

We set off home tea time yesterday and all agreed it had been a lovely trip catching up with family.  The only difficult thing for me was my Mum not being there and part of our visit -  very, very hard.

Today has been spent recovering and starting on the endless pile of washing!


6 comments:

  1. What a busy week. Lovely to spend time with your Dad but I know how you feel, these sort of trips feel so painful when you know someone else would once have been there. I think it's getting better and then it can hit so hard again. :( It's lovely you can remember your school days so fondly, I can just imagine your headmistress! She sounded like a special lady.

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    1. It is very difficult, it almost feels disloyal to be there with him, chatting and laughing without my Mum. It was great though, for him to have company and some trips out.
      Our old Headmistress was an absolute character and her life was her school and her pupils.

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  2. What a lovely, if bittersweet, week! I bet your Dad had a whale of a time. xxx

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    1. Yes I think at times he was probably a bit overwhelmed with so much company and conversation but in a good way! When I got home I found my nasturtium seeds had sprouted so thats exciting x

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  3. It would have been lovely to visit with your dad and he must have been thrilled to see you. I'm so pleased you were able to spend this time together. X

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