Sun at last

Our grandson’s 16th birthday, but we didn’t manage to speak to him till mid-afternoon. He’s a great joy in our life – as are our other two dear grandchildren, but we are especially close to Phil, who spent his first 4 ½ years with us and his mother, who was very young and unmarried at the time. Luckily he liked our idea for a birthday present, a weekend with us down south and a day in London, though he’s nervous about the train journey and changing trains. I had thought of the Science museum and maybe a theatre, but he suggested the Natural History museum. It's great that the idea came from him and that he malntains his interest in natural history, in spite of all the video games.
 
Our guests all slept well and we had a long, happy and fairly chaotic breakfast out on the verandah. All very relaxed and they said they loved the scenery, the quiet and being out of Rio. Mark is a chaplain and the Vicarage is the scene of constant activity -meetings, Alpha courses, people staying and dropping in and so on. His parents are here for two month and his mother, a keen gardener, wants to brighten up the large, bare vicarage garden. So while the men, except for Luke,  went off to play golf, the rest of us took the dogs for a long walk up the hill, collecting a few plants along the way from a friendly gardener, and then collecting more from our jungle garden once we got back. We visited the ruined house and garden way up the hill and saw old and more recent signs of landslides and destruction.
 
By the time we joined the men for lunch at the club, the sun was out and it was a glorious day, in spite of the cold wind. They left at around 4 pm to get back in time for a contemporary  community service, with Luke playing with a band. We wandered into town to stock up on beer and bubbly for NYE - have to do it now, as we'll be away until just beforehand. Hoping that digitaldaze and Barrioboy will be joining us.