A GATE WITH A VIEW AND A SURPRISE MEETING

After a great service at Church followed by coffee, Mr. HCB took us out for a drive to our special place at Eastridgte, where there is absolute peace and quiet and which did us both good.

There was so much to see in the beautiful countryside, from fields of buttercups to hawthorn bushes to dog roses and meadow vetch and even a few stray bluebells.  I always think that one of the derelict trees along this road looks as if it has a duck on the top, so as we had been talking to Becky and Ryan after the service about hobbies and found out that Ryan collects ducks, this shot in the middle left is especially for him.  I’m sure there must be a name for someone who collects ducks - and I don’t mean “quackers”!  

Mr. HCB is in the middle shot surveying one of the fields on the Eastridge Estate and although it looks a beautiful day, there was still an edge to the breeze.  As we drove along the road, we came across a cottage, which is probably also part of the Estate and saw the beautiful wisteria on the wall, but didn’t like to stop and take photographs.  However, as we drove past, we realised that the cottage was empty, so Mr. HCB kindly reversed so that I could take some shots.

Moving on we passed the little house at the bottom right, which has pleached limes all along the boundary and also a beautiful wisteria and rose archway up to the front door - one of our favourite houses, so of course, we stopped so I could take a shot of this too.  It is such a beautiful time of year and we were delighted to see so many lovely sights.

And then, coming back we dropped down into Baydon and both said “Wouldn’t it be funny if we saw Frank and Rachel - some friends of ours - in the field next to the lay-by!”  We always stop in this particular lay-by when we come back from Eastridge and have seen them there before, but never really expected to see them today - BUT they were there!  We weren’t sure if it was them at first, so we shouted “Helllooooooo” to them and as they turned around we could see their lovely faces!  I have put a shot of the selfie in as an extra - it’s not very good, but at least it shows us all.  It was great to catch up with them as we haven’t seen them for sometime and when they offered us a Bakewell tart - as we hadn’t had any lunch - we accepted and as Frank said “It would be rude not to!”  We then had a lovely time with them until I realised the time and said we would have to leave as we were going to Church this evening.  

So all in all a lovely day - I haven’t had time to cook, so it will just be a quick sandwich before we go back to Church for our evening service of Prayer and Praise - and we have much to praise God for today, not least the Bakewell tarts - oh sorry, and Frank and Rachel and the beautiful countryside!!  ;-)

There were certainly lots of insects around as we sat in the field with our friends, but we weren’t that bothered, but I guess you might be if you had:

MYRMECOPHOBIA - which is a fear of ants. 
The term is usually applied to species of plants that recoil or don’t respond well in the presence of these insects. But research touching on phobias and insect “swarms” suggests that some people are also freaked out by ants.

P.S.  Thank you for all your lovely comments for yesterday's Silly Saturday Gang's game of Hide & Seek, which were gratefully received by them.