Site of Battle of Shrewsbury 1403

We had a lovely evening with Jean and Tom. We first met Jean on a walking holiday in Spain 25 years ago, and although she was 20 years younger, we got on so well. A few years after that she sold her house, gave up her job and went travelling. She met Tom who was from East Germany, on her travels and he moved here, went to uni, got a web design job and they married and had 2 boys, now teenagers. They are a lovely family. For various reasons we’d not seen each other for 12 years, but as Jean had been very ill with a huge cancerous tumour on her kidney, we very much wanted to see her again. She is taking the holistic approach after having her kidney removed, eating no sugar or dairy or meat, and has had a water filter put in because of all the impurities. Cleaning fluids, soap etc have all been researched to get the least impure. I hope it works. She has a stressful job so is meditating too. I do admire her. What a scare it was, especially as her GP said her symptoms didn’t qualify for further investigation. She went private for a CT scan and they found an 8 cm tumour.

This morning they took us out for breakfast at a farm shop/cafe near the Shrewsbury 1403 battleground where Henry IV best Henry Percy of Northumberland and his rebel forces. That defeat didn’t hold the Percys back for long. The Duke of Northumberland is something like the 8th biggest landowner in England.

Our journey to the Elan Valley in mid Wales was quick. We had a couple of hours heavy rain but after that stopped we enjoyed a walk up the valley to the reservoirs built around 1890. The scenery is pleasantly rolling and very green.