Bristol

People sometimes ask me if I worry about putting my life out into the world with this blog. But this blog has brought me nothing but good.
When my Father died and I wrote about it here a wonderful girl named Kelly from Boston wrote her condolences and became a fast friend. Through Kelly's blog I discovered Earwig sandwich and the wonderful Lulu Labonne.
I have only met Lulu twice before, one of which was last year when Richard was sick; she drove all the way to Norfolk to meet him and brought an incredible array of marvelous food and cooked us a delicious meal. I'm so glad they got to meet.
Lulu had a large birthday this week and to help her celebrate, I drove to Bristol. I have discovered that I quite like driving and the four hours or so it took me to get there were a joy with good things on the radio all the way.
Once there I was slightly nervous about spending a weekend at a surprise birthday at which I knew only one person.

But Bristol is an amazing city throbbing with life...

and great street art.
I shouldn't have worried; I was wrapped around by love.
Hilary's husband had organised a canoe-ing adventure on the river Wye and everyone was in such high spirits that there was no time to be nervous.
There was a champagne picnic and much hilarity
and even though it rained...
and there was a LOT of cow poo beside the river Wye...
There were King fishers and Peregrine falcons and the lowest rainbow I'd ever seen (that pot of gold must have been REALLY close by).
So this little bunny will be going to Bristol again as soon as I can to get some more time with that most excellent girl Lulu Labonne. Thank you blog land and the wonderful world wide web.

Currant crazy

Look Kelly P, it's a whole year since you were here doing this in Harriet's garden. There weren't any red currants this year only black. Now I've been franticly googling for recipes to use them all up. We still have a few jars of jelly left over from last year..thus the jar sitting on my thigh of "one I prepared earlier"...




The only time we had to pick was really early this morning so we had to tiptoe into the garden so as not to wake Harriet.

Margie Pie Pie

Don't you just love it when your friends get on like a house on fire? First Sue Thomas wowed all my buddies. Then Kelly knocked 'em all flat, coming all the way from Boston without having met me before. Now along comes Margie & I'm left trailing along behind as they laugh uproariously at one another.

I can't be mad though as it's so wonderful to see it happening. In my dreams all my friends are together in one place, in one country at the same time.

We gave Margie the "Shopping In Primark" experience today. Even baby Zebedee liked it. With sunglasses for a pound how can you go wrong.

Fairwell Kellypuffs

At last she's gone & I can say how I really felt about her.....

she was even lovelier than I expected.

Sunny natured, keen on any adventure, easy going, sleeps through anything, the perfect guest. I keep thinking of all the things we didn't get to do.

Here are some photos of some of the things we did get to do. Bury St Edmunds' gatehouse to the Cathedral....

Holding up a ruin or two...

The Bury St Edmunds rose..

Ricardo sniffing said rose...

Ickworth house, some great masterpieces but a certain sense of desolation as no one lives there any more. The bacon butty by the mere at Creake abbey

Redcurrant carnage

Yesterday, Kelly & I went to visit Harriet, she invited us to pick redcurrants. An absolute golden opportunity..... few could say they had had the pleasure.It started out as the most fabulous experience but started to get a bit tedious when we realised it had taken us 3 hours to strip the currants off ONE BUSH. (No lunch in the mean time, just some builders strength tea.)

How's this for a whopping blackcurrant.....

This morning I thought I'd just make a few quick pots of redcurrant jelly. Three more hours later & two trips to the shop for Richard to get (7 kilos of ) sugar. The kitchen looked like a crime scene.

Kelly part 2

Well how amazing it is to meet someone you've never met & have so much in common.

Last night when we got home from a marathon airport pick-up, my throat felt really sore, "Oh no" I thought, some sort of lurgy. It turns out it was just from talking so much on the trip home.

We slept in until 2pm today. Then Kelly & I went to Attleborough to the bank & I showed her the Lidl experience....how could she come all this way & not experience the delights of that great retail giant.
On our way home we took the scenic route through Wilby & Quidenham. This is what we did a lot of.It's great to see this lovely place through someone elses eyes.

Kelly is here.....

Kelly has landed.
She's safe, she's lovely & she's knackered after a short trip that turned into a much, much longer one.

Heathrow pick up...

This is what you have to look out for if you are at Heathrow on Wednesday

Kelly is coming

In April last year when my dad died, I received 2 comments on my blog from people I didn't know. It was amazing how much they soothed my grief. I felt there were like minded and compassionate people all over the world. The world shrank a little bit & life didn't seem so lonesome.
Now one of them is coming to visit. Kelly my long lost sister is bravely putting her trust in the universe & coming across the pond to little old East Harling in Norfolk.
I hope we can live up to her expectations. It will be interesting to see how two mad bloggers write about the same thing.
We are trying to figure out the menu. Will it be Navarin of lamb? Or maybe the broad been & beetroot salad. Definitely Tiramisu. I keep meaning to ask what you eat for breakfast Kellski.