IT'S GREAT TO GO AWAY BUT...

…it’s also great to come home!  After our lovely meeting with Rainette and Geoff yesterday, we slept well in our Premier Inn, but I was annoyed that I had left our apples and drinks in the fridge at our holiday cottage in North Yorkshire - but we managed and I like to think that the horses might enjoy the apples.

After a Full English this morning - which we didn’t really need after all the delicious food we had yesterday - we set off for the National Memoriam Arboretum, which was only about 20 minutes up the road.  I had previously booked, so we were able to walk straight in, but even by 10 o’clock, there were lots of people there, with several large coach parties.  However, there are 150 acres of beautifully kept grounds, with over 26,000 trees, so we were able to be well distanced from other people. 

It is a wonderful place - very peaceful and it is laid out very well - of course, we got chatting to a couple there (well, you might know I would!) and the lady said she was a medical genealogist, so she was intrigued when we told her about Mr. HCB’s Uncle Ernest, who had died in July 1944, and the subsequent meeting we had with his widow.  She was also very interested in my family history and new family, which we have found after doing DNA tests, and she said she had been thinking about doing DNA tests for sometime, so hearing my story has encouraged her to do it sooner rather than later!

After a circuitous drive home, when our Satnag kept sending us the wrong way, we popped into the Burford Garden Centre for coffee and cake - so much sweet stuff has been eaten this week that the new Way of Eating starts tomorrow - so we thought we might as well finish off the holiday well.  On our arrival, our lovely neighbour, Lynn, asked if we had had a meal and when we said we hadn’t, she brought over a savoury dish and a piece of cake - so must make sure we eat that before midnight!

We have had a lovely holiday and although I didn’t take many photographs today - somehow it didn’t seem right to be taking lots - I was thrilled to find a little pink flower, which you can see in the middle of my collage, which shows some of the memorials.  If  you want to read more about the National Memorial Arboretum, you can find lots of information here.

No need, I’m sure to remind you about clicking - but here is the LINK if you have forgotten it.  You will be helping those who cannot afford to pay by clicking - so on their behalf, thank you very much.  

“Just because I can’t control 
     what life throws at me, 
          doesn’t mean I can’t control 
               how I handle it.”
Devin Duncan