Full Day

After yesterday's wash out - not even a blip photo of any sort - a much busier day today.  Friday was actually a very pleasant, gentle day at Ruth's with my Mum when heavy rain delayed and then dampened a visit to Bournville Garden Centre.  Today we packed it in!

Straight after breakfast Mum and I set off for Redditch and a meet up with very good and longstanding family friends.  Sue and Mike were regular campers at Rhydyronen in the seventies (and for decades later our neighbours in caravans) when Mum and Dad took the five of us there for almost the whole of the long summer holidays.  Their children were around the age of my sister, the youngest of us.  I remember them being at the site when I camped there alone in 1977 before the rest of my family arrived.  Mum and Sue have a lot more in common than memories so it was a very happy chat filled morning, all the more so since age and health have severely limited the chances of meeting up.   Now that we have somewhere nearby to stay, we'll hopefully see them more often.

Back to Ruth's and before a late lunch we shopped for Easter eggs and a plastic covered walk in mini greenhouse in Stirchley.   Aldi's finest!   After  a rather late lunch Mum and I set off back to Wales breaking our journey for tea and cake at the windmill in Shropshire where it was great to catch up with Celia and Iain too.   Thankfully the drive home was traffic light and trouble free.  We almost beat the sunset.   A delicious meal at Jamie's for for me before home, unpacking, blip .... and bed.

Muscari latifolium  at the windmill.  A form of Grape Hyacinth.  A bit more classy and a little less invasive but from this display, which I've noted in previous years, when it's happy it does a little too well!