Visits to see the family are infrequent due to their very busy life style with so many activities in the evening and weekend too but yesterday we drove about 250 miles south to see two of the grandchildren play leading parts in a spectacular production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.   Because M and A had to work and the children had school, we drove home leaving warm sunshine with the visibility being clear enough to see the distant Welsh mountains from the M6.  Many of the hedges and some of the trees already look green whereas this side of the border there are still few hints of green.  We spent a couple of hours in Penrith, then encountered mist and low cloud on the Border hills and wind and rain nearer to home.  It was probably the first time on our many journeys on the M6 that we had never experienced hold ups due to massive roadworks or traffic jams. 
A vehicle that attracted interest was this old wooden van being transported up the motorway and then on to the A7 where we lost it at Longtown.  It is a van with windows built in 1949 by Jowett and sold at auction earlier this month and probably been bought by someone for restoration.  It looks as if it had been unused for a while according to the auction website but has had some recent improvements. This video and photos may be of interest to some people