Visits

My mother-in-law had a fall and has been in and out of hospital. It is her first real fall and she has done a thorough job of it. We've been down to the southwest to see her once and will be going down again soon.  It is a 200 mile drive (so 400 there and back) so it is not something you do in an afternoon. Add to that the fact that some days she is not up to visitors, and we  need to be there several days to make sure we can see her on a good day. It is a good thing that there are other family who live much nearer than us so she can have regular visitors.

The first visit was also our first experience of Airbnb. We stayed in a fabulous old cottage which was quirky and spanking clean and I would love to go back. The next time we will be staying in a small converted barn on a farm. If anyone wants to stay with Airbnb then get in touch and I'll recommend you because then you get £25 off your stay. I'll get some credit too but not as much as you. Worth having!

Town. market. starlings.

My husband and l went into the city centre to visit the market for the first time using our new bus passes. We found some bargains on the cheese stall - a bag of stilton crumbs for £1 which weighed nearly 500g. I can see some broccoli and stilton soup in our future. I also found some vegan cheese which l bought for my granddaughter who is lactose intolerant. She was very pleased and enjoyed it very much. She said it was the nearest to real cheddar that she has tried because it is one thing that she really misses.

There were some starlings flying around the outdoor market. They were oblivious to the humans around them. In fact some starlings were fighting over a dropped piece of bread about three feet from where l was standing. I was quite fascinated. One doesn't normally get that close to wildlife and l found it really interesting to watch them up close.

My husband is not a big fan of bus travel but he survived the experience. Next time, we will go a bit earlier so that the trip home is earlier than the start of rush hour. The bus home was a lot slower than the bus into town and also had to stop and start a lot. But he has agreed to a next time......... : )