Grand tour of England Day 7

It took ages to get queued up on the huge campsite to get grey and black waste disposed of and take on enough water to do till the next site. Then we went to our nearest supermarket to stock up - I was so excited that at last I’d see inside a Waitrose. It was very busy and VERY expensive. Poor Mr C.

I got a sympathy card for dear friend Ruth who had texted a couple of days ago that husband John had died. He’d had 2 stem cell transplants over the years for bone cancer. She said “No more pain for the man with the heart of a lion”. So has she. She is exhausted.

We were heading to Somerset to visit friends who we’d not seen for 9 years when we visited them in Cyprus where they lived at the time. We first met when our daughters went to play group together in Platres when the chaps worked there.

But first we stopped at Stourhead House another NT property. (I booked a timed ticket last night). It’s Palladian style. There was a queue for the house so we didn’t go in. I expected the house to look down at the gardens and lake but they were over the hill. We did 9000 steps wandering through the beautiful gardens. Things must be late down here too as lots of azaleas and rhododendrons were still blooming. There was a one way Covid system in operation. Along the route we happened upon Greco follies looking down at the lake. A pretty bridge crossed at one point. I thought it would make a pretty setting to have Mr Darcy emerge from the lake but Mr C pointed out his white shirt would be green with the algae. I’m sure there must be some way of preventing that in an eco-friendly way. Or maybe algae is the way to go.

We got an ice cream on the way out. Miserly scopes compared with the north. And I complained about the price of diesel in the Outer Hebrides - it was cheaper there than Cirencester. The temperature shown outside the van was 35 degrees. No wonder we were wilting.

We are now parked up outside our friends’ house. There are no restrictions on white vans here. We had a lovely catch-up and we’ll have coffee with them before we head down to Cornwall. I hope the G7 and their entourage have gone. We’ve not kept up with the news as we’ve been so busy. No bad thing