Sunday 24 August 2008

We had an actual summers day

My parents and I, with my youngest son, planned to visit my sister and brother in law down in Dorset today for a barbecue and some social time. Of course, when I woke at 7am it was raining really heavily. Okay, we are English, we understand that you can cook in the rain as long as you get to sit under cover to eat (or else your plate fills up with water). So we continue with our day. We had to drive 50 miles each way, so made sure to fill the car with LPG (better for the environment and for my bank balance).

As we drove through the forest and on through the countryside of Dorset the sun finally remembered it was August and came out to shine on us. We all contributed food of course, to make sure its not an expensive day for anyone. The was of course too much ( we all bring enough for everyone just in case the others have some problem)so we have enough for a cold meal tomorrow....and maybe the next day actually.

After cooking, eating and clearing up we took a stroll together along the cliff top. Not to far as the ground is uneven and my parents are 80 (also there are adders and I am a scaredy cat - anyone reading in Aus or the US - I know how pathetic I sound).

In the evening we let the sat nav direct us a different root back home and missed any traffic. A lovely day and just about warm enough to be called summer.

This evening I phoned my husband. He asked how are day was as he loves these kind of days. We don't get them often as he works weekends. I told him all the bits of our day but that everyone aid that my lamb kebabs were okay but his are better (its true) and told him it wasn't so warm. He said it is so hot where he is, around 40 degrees, that he would find a temperature of 16 degrees about perfect. Looks like he is suited to English summers as a large part of our day was 16 before hotting up to an amazing 18 degrees at noon! Everyone has their spiritual home and I feel that his is here!

We also decided he doesn't go alone next time, 3 months was too long but he needed it to go home for the first time in 25 years. Next time, maybe in three years, he can go for 6 weeks and me and the boys come for the last two weeks.



This is my dad and Steve (sisters husband)from the caravan window.

I was also going to mention that when we meet as a family, which we do very often, we also make sure to spread the cost of anything between us. Today we all contributed food, and divided up the leftovers as we waste nothing. At Christmas we all contribute some food to the main day but we also entertian a day each, to spread the work as well as the cost. We also dont like to waste so we buy, for example one piece of dutch cheese or brie and take it from house to house.If we run out then we buy more but we dont like to overstock and risk waste.

3 comments:

  1. Adders? As in...snakes? How big are they? I don't like anything that startles me. Lizards and big bugs included.

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  2. Well not very big, about a foot long. They are poisonous but not normally fatal. The area where my sister has a caravan (like your RV)has loads but you dont generally see them, they run(?) away when your footfalls come close.
    All lot of blogs I read seem to suggest that everyone is very cool about snakes (Rhonda Jean and her pythons at the bottom of the garden, another lady in Arizona,maybe - it was somewhere hot, with a nest of rattle snakes), but I am really not. If there was python at the bottom of my garden then I would move, probably to different country!

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  3. Your first paragraph reminded me of a barbecue I had with a friend who visited last year. We ended up sitting outside under umbrellas eating our dinner. If nothing else, it created a memory for when we're old and grey :)

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