A Butterfly at last

Xena got home about 5am this morning and had to be up and out by 9.30am to get her train to London. However she was rather disorganised and we had a last minute change of clothes plus searching in her suitcase for her tickets.  We didn't leave until 9.45 and got to the station with 5 minutes to spare, so it was a very quick goodbye, and I ran with her into the station, the train was still there (or so I thought!), and I watched her get on.

When I got back to the car Alan asked if she'd missed it as he'd seen a train leaving at the time hers was due to leave, and I said that must have been another train - however, I started to question myself and then I received a text from Xena to say that her train had already gone and the one she got on was going to Seaford!  Thank goodness she'd asked someone.  Anyway, the next train was at 10.42am which she got and she texted me later to let me know that she was on the Eurostar.  She thanked us for everything and said that I was the best mum ever and that she loved us - we're going to miss her!

This afternoon we went over to Kate and Martin's as Kate's sister kindly let us have the use of her field for Alan and Martin to have an afternoon of target practice.  Alan took his air rifles and pistols and Martin had his cross bow.  Kate made a lovely picnic lunch, and we sat and relaxed in the sunshine watching the boys play.  I did have a go at shooting some tin cans with one of Alan's pistols and I surprised myself as I kept hitting them!  We also enjoyed some aerial displays of a spitfire that flew right over us and did a barrel role. Also there were three buzzards that kept flying over us too.  

We stayed until about 5pm and then headed home and I got straight in the hot tub while Alan sat and had a coffee on the terrace.  I joined him after about half an hour and we sat outside for quite a while as it was lovely and mild.

We had some sad news tonight though, Xena messaged me to say that her granddad passed away today.  He was her Polish grandfather, so tomorrow they're heading to Poland for the funeral.  To make matters worse, her mum had been there for the last couple of weeks, and had gone home earlier than planned on Thursday, so I'm sure she's feeling pretty bad.  It's so very sad as Xena's had a great month and I'm sure she was excited to tell her parents about her adventures, but she got home to that news.  Life's really hard at times!

Anyway, my blip today is of this lovely peacock butterfly that I spotted on the Buddleja this morning.