August Bank Holiday

This weekend had everything, from Lauren picking Alex up as they walked into the sea for a swim and hurling him into an oncoming wave. Not the best way to make friends and influence people. In all fairness to Lauren, Alex asked her to do it and being kind and generous, she did just that. I think Alex was the one to laugh the most, while Lauren was trying to defend her actions to Robert. Alex has a soft spot for Lauren and no matter what she does, he loves it. Lauren also attempted to teach Alex to body surf and later went on to give Robert a few pointers. If you wondering, it was great fun and really special to have Michael, Gary, Claudia, Alex, Lauren and Robert with us.

It was a mixed bag of events, a belated birthday celebration and the weather was kind to us. Pickle ball was played and Susan did say she was exhausted that evening. Prickly sport that Pickle ball, I do believe it is very competitive and I am aware of my family and their competitive streak, not for the faint-hearted. The dynamic of our family, do intrigue me, but let’s not delve into that right now.

We swam every day and that was a special time for Susan and I, as we swim at different times in the week and weekends are our swimming together time. This weekend we had our boys and Lauren join us, thanks, I really enjoyed the companionship. As is the tradition, food and wine made up a good part of the weekend and board and card games, President comes to mind and I did triumph over Alex at Ludo, three times in a row.

I am writing this blog in the late afternoon sunshine, t-shirt and shorts, yes we do have some good days and the summer weather has been quite elusive, I attach the image as evidence, Angela will need this or she will think it was just a figment of an over active imagination. Russell will be impressed, living in eternal sunshine.

Comments were made about my last blog being all over the show, in fairness to me, it was a collection of ideas and thoughts, put to paper. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe enjoyed the balance of ideas not in order but there to read and digest. 128 comments did seem excessive, but all done in good humour. James from Ottawa summed my blog up beautifully.

‘As is the norm, your blog brightened my otherwise dull day and made me read it a few times, maybe you were telling me something I did not understand. Is water wet? Please elaborate in one of your future blogs.’ James

Tonight I am roasting chicken thighs in the Air Fryer after marinating them in a herb, lemon and garlic coating. The chicken thighs will be accompanied by roasted broccoli, mashed potatoes with fried garlic and onion and sliced, ripe tomatoes. Italy did have an influence on my cooking, more basic and clean, I would call it. At this stage of the night I have just poured my second glass of Merlot, I know Angela, I do drink slowly but then if you think of the effort that goes into making this Californian Merlot, it is worth the sipping.

Susan and I decided it was time for a walk with Jenson on Saturday afternoon, wanting to try somewhere different we settled on Compton Acres. Officially described as;

Compton Acres is recognised as one of the most important ornamental gardens in England.

Constructed in 1920 by Mr Thomas Simpson, today, Compton Acres Gardens are still acknowledged as one of the finest privately owned gardens in England. Enjoy over 10 acres of horticultural heaven.

Since 2003 the gardens have undergone a great deal of development; including the construction of the Italian Villa.

The Gardens themselves have been refurbished to a high standard of horticulture including planting many thousand new plants to add interest to all groups of visitors. The garden has 5 main themed gardens joined by a series of links, including a sub-tropical area, a southern Hemisphere collection adding more variety to the planting styles in the garden.

Well, that is the official version, we did enjoy all the exotic plants and the different theme gardens. On the day they were exhibiting bronze art of animals throughout the garden. Jenson marked any section that he found vaguely interesting, not sure how much wee that dog stores but he did leave his mark. We did enjoy coffee and snacks after the walk, a gift to ourselves for daring to go where loads of people have been before.