Friends

October 8, 2025 / fgrtommo / 5 Comments

A couple of recent events have got me thinking about friends. Friendship is a nebulous and sometimes transitory thing. I looked up a definition on Wikipedia:

Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an “acquaintance” or an “association”, such as a classmate, neighbour, coworker, or colleague.

Although there are many forms of friendship, certain features are common to many such bonds, such as choosing to be with one another, enjoying time spent together, and being able to engage in a positive and supportive role to one another.

Using that definition, I can see that I have been fortunate and have had a lot of friends in my life. I’ve been supported by, and enjoyed time with, friends at school, university, work and, now, in retirement. I have not felt the need for a lot of friends at any one time. I seem to prefer relatively deep friendships with a few rather than broad but shallower relationships with many.

Painting Depicting Friendship By Samuel Peploe (Scottish Colourist We Encountered In an Exhibition Of Scottish Colourists Earlier This Year) — *^{Painting Depicting Friendship By Samuel Peploe (Scottish Colourist We Encountered In An Exhibition at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Earlier This Year)}*

Having said that, two of my biggest life regrets are to have failed to keep in touch with any school friends and not making the most of a network of colleagues at work. I would like to know what some of my best mates at school are doing with their lives now and whether we still have things in common. And putting more effort into maintaining a network of work colleagues would have made my life in jobs, and between jobs, a little easier and, perhaps, more rewarding.

Two of my four main friends at university have died recently. The preparation for and conduct of a memorial service for one of these a few weeks ago, has been one of the events that has got me contemplating the value and meaning of friendship. Indeed, these deaths got me thinking more about mortality as well as friendship.

The remaining two best friends from my university era and I got together in London for lunch and a few beers to discuss our prospective speeches at our friend’s memorial service. There was a lot of catching up on what we were each doing, a bit of nostalgia and many funny reminiscences. But what struck me most was that, despite not meeting either of these guys for many months, we slipped into a shared history and conversation as if we talked together all the time.

We have been in contact with each other with varying degrees of intensity over 50 years and there have been many events together over that time. However, the other surprising thing for me was how much of that shared experience I have forgotten. As the old stories came out over the drinks, I could have sworn that I hadn’t been at several of the occasions that were being recalled. But the photos did not lie; I was usually there!

The memorial service itself was in Oxford. Jane and I were able to spend a very pleasant morning there before the memorial ceremony. Oxford centre was busy with tourists and a fresh batch of students. In a bit of free time, I visited the site of the old castle – a large mound next to the newer castle but one without good views across the city as I had hoped. I also strolled out of the crowds along the Oxford and Coventry canal and then through the pretty and interesting area of Oxford called Jericho. I had a very calming hour or so.

The ceremony in the Oxford Friends Meeting House was moving and the speeches (including my short one I think) were well received. Then we adjourned briefly to a packed pub and continued some of the reminiscences and the catching up with current lives. The whole process was very friendship affirming even though we had just lost a very good friend.

Post Memorial Service Catching Up — *^{Post-Memorial Service Catching Up}*

It’s been harder to keep up friendships with people I met during my 30 or so years in London since I moved completely out of the city a few years after retirement. I managed to stay in touch with a small group of friends in London who met every few months to work our way through the alphabet of cuisines. I made it to most of those sessions but they came to a natural end once we reached ‘Z’. I’ll need to redouble efforts to stay in touch with the participants.

Meanwhile, I have invested time in building up a new friendship group in and around our local village. And yes, building friendships does take effort and time. I have been lucky after moving to Gloucestershire post-retirement in that this is Jane, my wife’s, home territory. She has a large network of friends here and that provided a ready-made group of acquaintances.

Also, many of her family are based nearby. And, of course, family can be friends even though, apart from one’s partner, they are not chosen. Jane’s sister has recently moved to the local area and I’m looking forward to getting to know her and her husband a lot better as we become able to meet up more often. Plus, one of the things I am continually thankful for is that the relationships I have with my sons and their partners is akin to great friendships; I feel we both get on very well with them all.

My strongest local friendships have been built through my personal involvement in the local football team (Forest Green Rovers) and village events including Parish Council meetings, the Village Fete and Festival, the Pub Quiz and Crawl and, especially, the village’s Horsley Climate Action Network. These friendships may not have the longevity of some from my education or working life but they are some of the best.

Variable Weather During Prep For This Year's Village Fete — *^{Variable Weather During Prep For This Year’s Village Fete}*

This leads me onto the second recent event that got me thinking about friendship.

I am a frequent attendee at the local Talk Club (a session for men who generally don’t talk about feelings much, to talk about feelings). When this was on pause two summers ago, one of the other attendees and I decided that we would continue meeting up on walks. We would use these to keep tabs on each other thoughts and feelings and provide any support we could while enjoying the countryside, keeping our fitness up and providing custom to a few of the local pubs. That continued until my friend needed to go into hospital to have a fairly major operation.

*^{Peaceful, Sunny Scene On The Walk To A Friend}*

A month or so after that, I walked over to his neighbouring village to see him. It was a beautiful sunny day and a long leisurely walk. On the way, I was struck by how much I had missed him and had enjoyed our chats. Even after almost 70 years of making friends (and losing them again), it is still possible – indeed, easy – to make and maintain friends if one puts in the time and effort and are lucky enough to find people who are open, who listen as well as talk, and are fun to be with.

A Fruitful Summer

September 8, 2025 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

Summer this year has been consistently sunny and warm. We have been able to plan on the assumption of good weather. Day after day, with only the briefest of interruptions, we have appreciated our gorgeous local landscape in clear air and sunlight. Although keeping the vegetables anywhere near watered enough has been a challenge, the fruit harvest – both cultivated and wild – has been huge.

*^{On A Local Walk To The Shops In The Sun}*

Of course, we now know that it has been the hottest summer in the United Kingdom on record. It has also been one of the driest and, for the first time in local living memory, the stream running through our hamlet has run dry for weeks on end. That is a huge concern since we also know that climate chaos is here and only going to get worse. Increasing wildfires, floods, oppressive heat and difficulties in growing food are all inevitable. But even while knowing of this impending crisis, we have loved the summer weather and, almost as much, the recent rain showers that have started to indicate the onset of Autumn and started to refill the stream.

I picked and used or froze all the gooseberries and blackcurrants. We also managed to consume, or give to friends, a rich harvest of gorgeous plums and damsons. However, the wild bullaces (like small damsons) will stay on the trees this year and we have only picked a small fraction of our apples so far.

Walking the local paths and roads, I have seen lots of buckets of apples offered up to passers-by by those with apple trees heaving with fruit. And all those walks have tended to take a little longer than usual as I stop to pick and eat the blackberries along the way. The familiarity with the local hedgerows I have gained since retirement, means I know where the best blackberries are as the summer progresses. It’s wonderful how many varieties of wild blackberries there are, each bearing different tasting fruit at different times.

The only downside from all this fruit is that I’m gaining a few pounds of weight as I turn the fruit I pick into delicious but calorie filled crumbles. Still, it’s only for a few months that I have this fresh fruit glut and then I will retreat to more parsimonious use of the harvest we have frozen. I have time to get my weight back to target by year end.

There have been many other aspects of the summer that I have enjoyed. In recent weeks we attended a lovely wedding of one of Jane’s nephews and his wife. Of course, like so many days, this was bathed in warm sun. That helped to make the event memorable and lovely. During and around it, we got to see our sons, their partners and our grandchildren – all chatting and playing together. That was an enormous treat.

*^{Looking For Grasshoppers With First Grandchild}*

Another recent event that was enhanced by the great weather was an 11-mile charity pub crawl around 11 nearby pubs. This started at our village pub (The Hog) mid-morning and, for the hardiest (not including me), ended late at night in a curry house or back at The Hog. I managed half the stops (and pints) but had the excuse of wanting to divert up to Forest Green Rovers to see my team’s game mid-afternoon (we won!) before rejoining the increasingly noisy crawl crowd. There was much merriment, new relationship making and well over £1,000 in fundraising for the MND Association during the day. I look forward already to next year’s occurrence.

Jane and I have been out and about a few times too. We went to Frome to wander the pretty streets before heading on to Bruton and the Hauser & Wirth gallery there. Frome is comparable to our local town of Stroud but is a little wealthier, has a few more independent shops and is a little more upmarket. Stroud is moving gradually to that benchmark I believe.

At the Hauser & Wirth gallery we saw an exhibition of works by Jean Tinguely and his partner Niki de Saint Phalle. We had come across Tinguely for the first time earlier this year when we visited Basel. It was good to make the connection with that short trip and the mechanical sculptures we had seen in one of the parks there. A neat touch at Hauser & Wirth was that, as in Basel, the sculptures were powered to show their intended movements.

*^{Jean Tinguely And Niki De Saint Phalle at Hauser & Wirth}*

The Hauser & Wirth gardens, by Piet Oudolf, are always worth visiting. The planting is dense and constantly changing with the seasons. Whilst many of the plants were still in full flower, others remained interesting because of their seed heads and textures. The only strangeness is the building at the far end which looks like an elevated spot from which to view the flat garden space, but just isn’t.

*^{Piet Oudolf Designed Garden At Hauser & Wirth}*

Even more recently we visited Edward Jenner’s house in Berkeley just a few miles away from us. Jenner created the smallpox vaccine which has since saved millions of lives and eradicated the disease worldwide. His house and garden are not particularly remarkable but his life was and it is well told through the exhibits on show.

For me, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the displays was how they showed the vehemence of opposition to compulsory smallpox vaccination in the 19^th century. Scepticism about, and opposition, to vaccination was, it seems, as strong then as it has become again now despite all the health gains in the meantime.

Edward Jenner's House And Garden, Berkeley, Gloucestershire — *^{Edward Jenner’s House And Garden, Berkeley, Gloucestershire}*

It’s been a very good summer. We haven’t done any a big holidays but the weather at home has helped my retirement feel like a big, comfortable holiday at home. Waking up to clear sunshine, wandering into town for the newspaper and daily shopping, pottering around the thirsty vegetables in the garden, indulging in the burgeoning fruit harvest and relaxing in the evening sun has all been very pleasant. Now, as Autumn approaches, maybe we will think about getting away for a bit…..

Sleepy Sheep In The Summer Sun — *^{Sleepy Sheep In The Summer Heat}*

Art, Gardens and a Big Anniversary

August 4, 2025August 7, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Our time in Edinburgh – the bread on either side of our Fife sandwich filling – was busy.

We did some of the usual things with First Grandchild (FG); going to the playground, visiting the National Museum of Scotland and meeting his hopeful requests: ‘can you play with me?’.

^{Playing Cards With First Grandchild (FG)}

We also went to the Museum Of Childhood for the first time. FG loved the activities available and we liked the nostalgia of seeing the toys from our own childhoods and those of our sons. Entrance to the museum was free and we will definitely be going back with FG.

Construction Toys From My Youth Including Betta Builder, My Favourite — ^{A Display of Toys From My Youth At The Edinburgh Museum Of Childhood, Including Betta Bilda, One Of My Favourites}

FG also had a tremendous time at the Newhailes Gardens and Adventure Park near Musselburgh. This is owned by the Scottish National Trust and is a wonderful facility. I wandered the grounds while FG loved all the activities. I then joined him to build towers, and to watch him get some experience of sack and egg and spoon races.

We did spend some time away from our Edinburgh family so they could get back to something resembling their routine. A huge highlight of this was a visit to the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland. Based on reviews I had seen, I was expecting great things and it truly was an excellent display. The exhibition was so good, I’ll cover our visit in a separate blog post after this one.

Jane and I visited a few other galleries while in Edinburgh. In the basement of the National Gallery was an exhibition of work by Paul Furneaux who we know our Eldest Son admires. I liked his paintings too.

'Temple Path' By Paul Furneaux At the Scottish National Gallery — *^{‘Temple Path’ By Paul Furneaux At the Scottish National Gallery}*

Furneaux also featured in the Open Eye Gallery which is always worth visiting as was The Scottish Gallery opposite. The latter had an exhibition of paintings by Alexander Goudie who I enjoyed getting to know a bit.

Another Painting BY Paul Furneuax, This Time At The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh — *^{Another Painting By Paul Furneuax (‘Rain City’), This Time At The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh}*

One afternoon, I slipped off and went to a free show of Post-Modern art at the City Art Centre. A little embarrassingly, I got told off for taking a photo here (see below, top) – I just didn’t see the signs prohibiting photography. Otherwise, my visit was very satisfactory as previous shows there have been. I particularly enjoyed the rather macabre painting by John Bellany of men gutting fish (also below). Bellany had a separate (but not free) exhibition at the centre but I didn’t pop in.

*^{Scottish Post Modern Art At The City Art Centre, Edinburgh}*

Jane and I also visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art briefly to see three or four rooms of works by Louise Bourgeois, Robert Mapplethorpe and Helen Chadwick. This was mildly diverting but only Bourgeois’s spider, which we had both seen variants of before at the Hayward Gallery in London, and the famous photo of Mapplethorpe’s disembodied head (see below) left much of an impression on me.

Beyond the art and beyond Edinburgh, we also took some time out to explore some gardens. Recalling these visits now reminds me that I failed to mention in my last blog post a very pleasant hour or so spent in the St Andrews Botanic Garden during our time in Fife. It was a longer walk out of the St Andrews town centre than we expected but well worth a visit to see a rather wild and experimental garden that is investigating how gardens, and the insects that live in them, can cope with our changing climate. Semi-wild gardens, busy with insect life, can be very attractive at this time of year.

Now we travelled south from Edinburgh to the Pentland Hills and Tweed Valley to Dawyck Botanic Garden. This is a 65-acre arboretum with a lot of mature indigenous trees and a large number planted using seed collected a couple of centuries ago in America by a traveller called David Douglas. He met a sticky end in Hawaii after falling into an animal trap already occupied by a bull, but his legacy at Dawyck is impressive.

The setting is lovely with gorgeous views across heavily wooded valleys to open hillsides beyond. It would be worth visiting again in Spring when more of the azaleas and rhododendrons are in flower.

We then went on to Little Sparta, the home and garden of Scottish poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay whose work I have often seen in various places in and around Edinburgh including, during this visit, the City Art Centre. This year is the centenary of his birth.

The garden is in the middle of nowhere. It is both a little chaotic and very sweet. Throughout the garden are little paths and about 200 individual art works from golden heads to simple inscriptions and stone sculptures. I particularly liked the open area beyond the wooded garden which included an attractive lake.

Of course, we ate and drank well while in Edinburgh as usual. A highlight was a drink at the Newbarns Brewery and Taproom followed by an excellent dinner at Ardfern. We will be going to both (and Ardfern’s sister restaurants) again.

Our stay in Edinburgh was completed with a rather splendid lunch at Timberyard. This was with our extended Edinburgh family including ES’s wife’s parents and was to celebrate Jane and my 40^th wedding anniversary. FG provided the rubies from his toy treasure chest and then got on with some drawing, leaving us to enjoy a splendid three courses. The restaurant is a lovely space and the service and food are top notch.

ES’s wife asked what advice we had, given we have achieved 40 married years together. I mumbled something about needing patience to adjust as circumstances and each partner change at different times. I’m not sure if retirement brings a requirement for more patience. Certainly, intermittent contact with grandchildren and no work to worry about allows much more time to think about getting along than full blown parental childcare and employment ever did!

We took our time over Timberyard’s food but there was still time to take in England Woman’s Football Team winning the European Championship after extra time and penalties. It was a thrilling end to a lovely week and a half in Scotland.

Enjoying Fife

August 1, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We have just returned from a really excellent time in Scotland. We stayed with our Edinburgh based family and then gathered them up for a few days in Fife. We then returned to Edinburgh for our wedding anniversary celebrations and a bit more time in our favourite city. This is the longest sustained period we have spent with First Grandchild (FG) (and his parents) and it was a real treat.

We decided to travel to our holiday Airbnb in Fife via The Kelpies. These are huge metal statues of horse spirits that, as legend has it, tempted humans into the river and drowned them. The story may be a bit grim but the monuments, designed by Andy Scott, are very impressive. FG was less enamoured with the Kelpies than we were but walking around them was a useful activity break before the next section of driving to a recommended cafe in Culross on the north bank of the Firth of Forth.

FG’s wife always ensures that we eat very well when we visit Edinburgh and surrounds – either through her excellent and seemingly effortless cooking, or through her restaurant recommendations. The Mercat in Culross was a cafe and homeware shop that Jane had also heard about and the toastie lunch there didn’t disappoint.

*^{Views of Culross (Top One Courtesy of National Trust Scotland)}*

Culross is a very pleasant town. The market square was small but pretty and the buildings along the coast front were clearly historic. They are preserved well enough to, apparently, be used in a lot of period films and television series, some of which we have seen. The old wealth of the town was based on coal. While FG enjoyed the substantial playground, I read up on the innovative way in which the coal was loaded onto ships via a tunnel under the water of the Forth of Firth and then up a lift shaft onto the pier.

*^{Culross And The Firth of Forth (Pic Courtesy of National Trust Scotland)}*

Our holiday home was one of four new, eco-type buildings on the Charleton Estate in East Fife. It housed us comfortably (once we got used to the limited storage spaces and the absurdly steep stairs to Jane and my bedroom) and was surrounded by a golf course and open land we could walk around. In summary, it was near ideal and a great base for discovering other parts of Fife.

I liked Fife very much. We had visited the east Fife coast once before immediately after the wedding of ES and his wife in late 2022. Then, however, Jane was ill and the weather was so poor that we didn’t appreciate the environment much beyond being impressed with the scale of the flooding and the wind velocity. This time, we had warm and mainly sunny weather.

Many of the Fife towns have an interesting industrial and mercantile past often based on coal. The usually pretty main streets of solidly-built Georgian or Victorian houses and cottages indicate a historic wealth. Around these, the landscape is clearly fertile and is dominated by agriculture – mainly potatoes, wheat and attractive fields of manure/ground cover crops such as white radish and phacelia.

The coastal towns near our base were particularly attractive. Anstruther looked a bit touristy but Elie harbour was lovely and we spent several hours there helping FG potter about, make sand constructions, search for ‘treasure’ and paddle.

Even better was St Monans. I love this place. It’s a stop off from the Fife coastal walk – some of which is walkable only at low tide. It has a great, compact, sturdy harbour, many 17^th and 18^th century cottages and several grander old houses. I particularly enjoyed the views of the church (one of the oldest in Scotland) and the walk along the coast to a windmill.

*^{Coastal Walk Route And St Monans Church}*

On the walk I saw and/or heard interesting birds including yellowhammers, curlews, redshanks and oystercatchers. I then passed a huge tidal swimming pool built in the 1930s and still popular with wild swimmers today.

St Monans has a long history of fishing and industry. The windmill was used to pump sea water into buildings with salt pans. The foundations of these buildings are still visible. Using local coal, it seems that the salt industry all along the Firth of Forth coast was huge in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries until foreign imports became too competitively priced. It was interesting to see the remains of this bit of St Monans’ history.

On top of all this, St Monans has some very good cafes and restaurants including the Giddy Gannet and the East Pier Smokehouse (which provided an excellent smoked seafood stew in a beautiful location).

*^{St Monans From East Pier Smokehouse}*

We also ate very well at the The Kinneuchar Inn in the centre of another nearby, very pretty little town (Kilconqhuar). At all these meals, FG was very absorbed with his pebbles, shells and card games and was so well behaved (with a bit of ‘management’) that we could relax.

While in Fife, we also visited St Andrews. On the way, I was dropped off in Cupar while the others went on to an adventure park and a pick-your-own fruit farm. Like so many other towns, Cupar has a history back to Medieval times and a lot of nice old buildings. However, apart from a nice parish church and a walk along the Eden River, Cupar was relatively unassuming and unmemorable.

St Andrews, on the other hand, was very grand with its ancient university (founded in 1413), its prestigious golf course, beautiful beaches and historic buildings.

The cathedral, built in 1138, is now a ruin but has an impressive location. Within its grounds is St Rule’s Tower which pre-dates the cathedral. Together they are an impressive sight and a big tourist attraction.

St Andrews Cathedral and St Rule's Tower — *^{St Andrews Cathedral and St Rule’s Tower}*

Our break in Fife had all I could have wished for. We enjoyed variety, history, wildlife, attractive British landscapes, pretty towns and great places to eat. That culinary pleasure included a very good home barbeque engineered by ES. Plus, of course, we loved spending quality time with FG. We loved seeing him enjoy the whole holiday whether on the beach, in the playgrounds or learning how to play simple card games. I hope we can do something like it again sometime.

New Quay and Grandchildren

July 16, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

There have been a number of highlights in the last month but few, if any, have beaten the times we have spent with our grandchildren. We were lucky that the geography of Britain is such that the Edinburgh-based family passed through our neck of the woods twice on their way to and from Cornwall. Additionally, we have been called upon to do a bit of ‘emergency’ baby sitting for the Bristol-based family; another absolute pleasure given that the illness preventing nursery attendance was mild.

On one day, our two grandsons got to meet each other again at our house. Seeing them together is such a heartwarming event even if the age difference prevents playing together much at this stage.

Not everyone wants children and not all can have them. But I now feel luckier than ever that we managed to have three boys. It has added immeasurably to Jane and my shared history and we would have a lot less to talk about if we hadn’t had them. Most of all though, having children has opened up the possibility and, now, the reality, of having grandchildren and enabling us to experience a whole new dimension of fascination and love. Fortunately, we have lived long enough to see and enjoy them.

Second Grandchild (SG) is less than half First Grandchild’s (FG’s) age. He’s toddling about now he has learnt to walk, loves watching FG and he smiles and smiles. Our babysitting efforts with SG are win-win-win for us, parents and SG alike; we get quality time with him, his parents can focus on work and SG gets undivided attention from doting grandparents.

First Grandchild (FG) is industrious and always wants to help. He seems to love helping with weeding, cooking, vacuuming up dead flies and almost anything that he can see we are doing. He helped me pick gooseberries and plant seedlings; his favourite phrase seems to be ‘Can I help?’. Long may all that last.

I made the gooseberries FG helped me pick into jam. That felt like a huge achievement because of the lengths to which I had I had gone to protect the crop from badgers. I pinned down netting every few inches but they dug underneath. I put rows of brick around the netting but they moved those and dug underneath. I felt I was building Fort Knox. The only thing that seemed to deter them was a sprinkle of my urine on the grass around the bush (well away from the berries I should add). Anyway, we got 3.5kg of goosberries and several pots of very nice jam.

*^{Happy Success: From Picking The Gooseberries To Producing Jam}*

Despite the very hot weather and lack of rain, I have also had a bumper crop of blackcurrants. The badgers are less interested in blackcurrants and I just need to keep the birds off them. I’ve stocked the freezer with a several kilograms, given a kilogram to a neighbour and made a batch of jam already. There are more to pick and I’m looking forward to doing – it’s an outdoor task of repetitive, mundane simplicity and exactly the sort of thing I find relaxing and therapeutic.

^{Pots Of Blackcurrant Jam – Enough To Keep Me Going For A While}

In a break from all this fruit picking and family conviviality, Jane an I visited a couple who we know from our time in London and who have a house in New Quay in Wales. We have visited there a few times previously but I don’t think I have been there since before the Covid pandemic.

*^{View On The Beach Walk North Of New Quay}*

The town, once a thriving fishing town, is now dominated by tourism. It is set between two lovely cliff and beach walks – north towards Aberaeron and south towards Llangranog. We walked both ways in much better weather than had been forecast and ate in both these towns. I loved the walks in a fresh breeze, with few other people about, and with terrific sea and cliff views. The whole stay was a good dose of natural beauty, catch up chat and good food against a backdrop of lovely hospitality.

*^{Cliff Walk To The South Of New Quay}*

Later this week we are off to Scotland to visit FG and his parents and are looking forward to that enormously. We are hoping the weather holds but continues to become a little cooler (I’m sure Scotland won’t let us down on the latter front). Whatever, it will be great to see the little one and his Mum and Dad again.

But first, a little more fill in babysitting for the not very poorly Second Grandchild; always (so far, anyway) a pleasure!

*^{SG Not 100% Well But Still Attentive}*

Belfast to Derry and Back

May 24, 2025 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

Eight months since our last visit to Belfast to attend and celebrate the wedding of Youngest Son (YS) and his wife, we visited again a couple of weekends ago. This was a very relaxed trip with few fixed plans, no real schedule other than our flight in and out, and just a desire to catch up properly with the newly wedded couple and to see a bit of Northern Ireland again. We were helped by terrific, sunny and warm weather and, as usual, great hospitality starting with a barbeque in YS and his wife’s pretty, sunny garden.

*^{Playing Molkky (A Finnish Game Akin to Petanque and Skittles) In The Garden}*

On our first full day in Northern Ireland, we took the train to Derry/Londonderry. The train journey was very comfortable and relaxing with great views of grassy fields and hills. Then, as we passed Coleraine and Castlerock, we looked out on beautiful beaches and wide inlets before approaching Loch Foyle and the city of Derry.

*^{Coastal Views Between Castlerock And Derry}*

We traversed the Peace Bridge over the River Foyle. The bridge was funded by the Northern Ireland Government and the European Union Fund for Peace and Reconciliation. It is an unusual s-shape with two main supports. We learnt later that the shape is to indicate that the path to peace is not straight and that the two pillars represent the two sides of any peace agreement and the importance of both to enduring harmony. Derry has been a fulcrum of conflict for centuries between English and Irish and Protestant and Catholic, but the bridge is a testament to the current atmosphere of relative calm, hope and peace.

We headed into the city and refuelled with coffee at The Hang Ten Brewbar. There was further, more alcoholic refuelling in the sun at Peadar O’Donnells traditional Irish pub and then we strolled through the city to meet up with a city tour guide.

Looking Up Waterloo Street, Derry (Peadar O'Donnell's Pub On The Right) — *^{Looking Up Waterloo Street, Derry (Peadar O’Donnell’s Pub On The Right)}*

He gave a brief account of the early history of Derry including its initial establishment as a monastic community by St Columba in the 6^th century and the much later takeover of the city as part of the colonisation of the area by livery companies based in London – hence the alternative name of Londonderry. These companies, loyal to the English Crown, build the city walls in 1619. These have apparently never been breached despite a myriad of sieges and attacks since – hence a third name for the city: ‘The Maiden City’.

The guided tour followed a simple route around the top of the city walls which have a roughly rectangular layout with four original gates in each side. Between the two thick sides of the wall is a mass of clay that helped to absorb the power of cannon shot. Atop this is a thoroughfare broad enough to carry large heavy wagons.

On Derry's City Walls — *^{On Derry’s City Walls}*

Of course, the walls also provide great views of the surrounding countryside, the river and some of the more significant buildings in the city itself.

St Augustine's Church, Derry — *^{St Augustine’s Church, Derry}*

These included the pretty St Augustine’s Church (The Wee Church on the Walls’) and the First Derry Presbyterian Church. The tour ended in the very centre of Derry from which we could see all four of the original gates and could show our appreciation to the tour guide for a very informative and interesting 90 minutes.

Our evening meal back in Belfast was at the very good Mourne Seafood Bar not far from Belfast City Hall where YS and his now wife were married.

Throughout our stay, we ate very well. It is great seeing one’s offspring mastering skills I have never possessed and YS’s control of his new barbeque was excellent. He is barista trained and has access to good Belfast bakeries so breakfast at home was very good. But even better were the breakfasts at Cultura (where I had a really exceptional Italian Hash) and Neighbourhood Cafe (where I was greedy and had both the lovely fruity, minty coconut granola followed by the excellent Scrambled Eggs Rayu). The quality was reminiscent of the great breakfasts we had on our trips to Australia some years ago when YS was based there.

*^{Murals Near The Cathedral Quarter, Belfast}*

After breakfast at Neighbourhood, Jane went with YS’s wife to her osteopathy studio for a treatment for Jane’s shoulder while YS and I wandered nearby to see The Cathedral Church of St. Anne and some of the local murals. During the several times we have visited this Cathedral Quarter I had not previously noticed the distinctive cathedral spire which was, this time, shining in the sunlight. The way the spire protrudes down into the interior of the church was an interesting bit of design.

Another highlight of our trip was an outing to Mount Stewart, a large estate on the edge of the extensive Strangford Lough and now owned by the National Trust.

We didn’t go in the house this time since the weather invited us to spend our time in the beautiful gardens and wandering around the lake.

We also ventured into the woods following signs to a red squirrel hide in the hope we might spot one. In the hide we sat quietly for five minutes peering out of a large and presumably one way window. Moments after I had I whispered to Jane that this was probably all a bit of a long shot and waste of time, a red squirrel appeared around the side of the hide. It was a very exciting moment followed by 10 minutes of watching this little, shy creature poking around the feeding boxes and scampering over fallen logs. Red squirrel numbers have collapsed in the last century due to viruses and competition with larger, invasive grey squirrels, but are now beginning to revive due to conservation efforts such as that we saw. We felt very lucky to see one.

*^{A Red Squirrel; Very Happy In Its Conservation Area At Mount Stewart}*

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Belfast and to Derry/Londonderry. Belfast seems to be thriving despite some political and governmental issues. It was nice that we had an opportunity to peek at a soon to open restaurant associated with Yotam Ottolenghi. He is certainly a famous restaurateur and his investment in Northern Ireland must be a good sign for the region.

Site Of The New Restaurant Associated With Ottolenghi — *^{Site (A Repurposed Mill) Of The New Restaurant Associated With Ottolenghi And Opening In 2025}*

It was great too to see how YS and his wife live, why they enjoy Belfast and Northern Ireland so much and how they have made their home there with their rather elegant and increasingly mature dog ‘Reggie’.

We were glad we could repay their relaxed hospitality with a bit of gardening. The centre point of our effort was the retrieval of an old zinc water cistern from a local skip and working with YS and wife to fill it, and a few other pots, with herbs. YS’s new barbeque is now surrounded by these pots and is adjacent to a bit of planting that we all felt very proud of. It was not only a very enjoyable weekend but a productive one.

*^{New Planting (Just Missing The Jasmine That YS Added Later)}*

Edinburgh: Holiday or Home?

March 7, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We have visited Edinburgh many times since Eldest Son (ES) moved there and increasingly frequently since he and his wife had a son there. We have fallen in love with the city.

I have always liked city living. Jane is more of a rural lover. I too have really enjoyed my several years of retirement in a comfortable home, out in the beautiful countryside of Gloucestershire and our lovely community in the Stroud valleys. But now we are beginning to recognise that our current levels of mobility won’t be forever and that we need to plan for that. Living in a town or, better, a city like Edinburgh, might be the solution.

*^{Classic Edinburgh View – The Castle From Princes Street}*

We have spent a lot of time debating the options and it is a privilege to have those choices. To help in the decision making, we spent a month from late January in Edinburgh. All our previous visits to Edinburgh had been little more than long weekends. This time we wanted to see how it felt to get a more profound and thorough feel for the city, and to think about how it might be to live in it for at least a substantial part of the year.

The month we spent in Edinburgh deepened our regard for it. We managed to get to the cinema once and the pub a few times, but barely scratched the surface of the nightlife that is available. However, I could already see that there is a lot going on and that I could resume my love of small-venue music gigs that absorbed me in the latter years of my working life in London. It seemed clear too from a couple of visits to the local pub with ES’s parent-in-law, that making new friends wouldn’t be too hard.

In the event, I don’t think that we are closer to a decision about where our next couple of steps will take us in terms of where we live. We continue to toss ideas around.

I think that we have concluded two things. First, that the model of hiring a flat in central Edinburgh for a month is one that we want to repeat (although the flat we stayed in this time was really good and set a high expectation for next time); we had a great time and I think the arrangements were helpful to ES and his wife without putting so much pressure on them to provide the hospitality.

The second thing is that we want to keep a base in the Gloucestershire area so that we can stay close to Jane’s roots and the ones I have put down since we moved here, and be close to Middle Son, his fiancé and Second Grandchild. Now we need to work out what that means. Fortunately, we don’t have to make a decision immediately; to an extent, we can see how events unfold and influence things – goodness knows that recent world events have shown how quickly perspectives can change.

^{Our Rural Idyll – Different From Edinburgh But Not Too Shabby As A Location}

Regardless of all that, our winter Edinburgh month left us with a huge number of happy memories.

Best Solo Moments for me during this visit were those alone with First Grandchild (FG). One was when Jane was rather immobilised with her broken arm, and I took FG out to a local park. He played wonderfully considerately in the playground and then we went on a long walk during which we chatted incessantly. I felt so proud of him .

^{Me: “It’s Like A Trampoline”
FG: “It Is a Trampoline Grandad!”}

The other, was when I was babysitting and putting FG to bed but couldn’t work out how to zip up his sleeping bag. FG (like me) is a person who likes routine and I could see that he was struggling to manage his emotions about my zip incompetence and the impending break in routine. Just as he visibly got control of those emotions, I finally worked out that the zip went downwards not upwards and we could celebrate together.

Best Moment with Jane was probably one of her earliest ventures out after her accident when we went to The Port of Leith Distillery for lunch. This a building that stands alone amid demotion works On one side it overlooks the port and the Firth of Forth and, on the other, The Royal Yacht Britannia and the adjacent, drastic demolition and renovation of a chunk of Leith. The views were great, the demolition work was entertaining to watch (for me, anyway), lunch and drinks were nice and going to Leith on the tram felt like a very positive step in Jane’s recovery.

*^{Port Of Leith Distillery: The View From Our Table, The Building And The Inside}*

Best Pub was Teuchters Bar & Bunker just over the road from where we were staying. It has a great range of local beers, really good comfort food and a very convivial atmosphere. ES’s father-in-law took me there a couple of times and he seemed to know everyone which led me to…..

….Most Embarrassing Moment was in Teuchters when, leaning back to meet yet another new acquaintance standing just behind me, I slid off my chair onto the floor. I did say the beer was good!

This just beat another embarrassing moment when I again fell on my backside. This time I was blown over by the a gust of wind during the last vestiges of Storm Eowyn. At least I fared better than a magpie that was also caught out by the gusty wind and died yards away having been blown against a building.

Best Bar: Spry, as usual. We managed to get there almost every week.

Best Cinema: Everyman Cinema. It was our first visit to an Everyman cinema that serves food and drink to you in the auditorium while you relax on their sofa-like seats. I made two mistakes; first I didn’t understand the ordering system and needed to be prompted by the staff to indulge. Then I unwisely chose their largest bottle of beer – daft if you need to sit through a two-hour film without a loo visit. We saw the Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ and really enjoyed the whole experience.

Best Toastie: The toastie I had at the aptly named Toast in Morningside Road was exceptional. But for consistency over several visits, I’d recommend Cairngorm Coffee just up the road from where we stayed. We even had a special Valentines Day orange flavoured toastie there.

Best Restaurant: We didn’t make it to as many as planned but taking our Edinburgh family to The Free Company, a farm and restaurant in the outskirts of Edinburgh on the edge of the Pentland Hills was a real treat. FG behaved impeccably and did some good dancing on the way out that put my Dad-Dancing to shame.

*^{The Free Company Restaurant As We Arrived (It Was Almost Full When We Left)}*

Best Museum was, of course, the National Museum of Scotland which we visit almost every time we are in Edinburgh. However, for the first time, I also visited the Surgeons’ Hall Museum and enjoyed that. This museum has several parts covering the origins, history and the future of surgery. The section called the Wohl Pathology Museum was very impressive although, after 20 minutes of looking at exhibits showing deformed, vitamin-deficient skeletons and the results of cancer on internal organs, I felt a little squeamish and cut the visit short.

*^{Outside The Surgeons’ Hall Museum (No Photos Allowed Inside)}*

Correction. I covered best art galleries, cathedrals and graveyards in earlier posts. However, before moving on from Edinburgh posts, I should just correct a prior statement about there being two cathedrals in Edinburgh. ES’s father-in-law corrected me and pointed out that there is also St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral nestled next to the new St James’s Shopping Centre and overlooking a plaza with modern and old statues. For completeness, here it is…..

Maybe we will pop inside and have a closer look during our next Edinburgh visit.

A Different Way In Edinburgh

February 7, 2025 / fgrtommo / 3 Comments

We are booked for a month into a very comfortable, nicely warm and well-furnished Airbnb in central Edinburgh that has a view of the Castle. Our idea has been to try a model for visiting Edinburgh that is different from our usual 3-4 night stays with Eldest Son, wife and First Grandchild. In part it is just an extended holiday, but in part a test as to how we might find living more permanently in this wonderful city.

*^{Sunrise Over Edinburgh Castle From Our Airbnb}*

The first two weeks have been extremely successful – until a bit of a disaster yesterday; more on that later.

We have already visited lots of Edinburgh sights – the museums, cathedrals, galleries and exhibitions – got into the hinterlands of Edinburgh and, of course, done a bit of grandchild entertainment. Were lucky enough to have a double dose of grandchildren when Middle Son, his fiancée and Second Grandchild visited us on our second weekend. That visit, plus the nature of the intermittent contact with First Grandchild over a longer period than usual, has created a bit of a feel of living here rather than just holidaying here.

*^{Edinburgh From The Top Of The National Museum of Scotland}*

No doubt that feeling would have been further enhanced by Youngest Son and his wife being able to join us as planned on our first weekend in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, Storm Eowyn put paid to that. Their flight was cancelled and Edinburgh was all but shut down during the worst if the storm. Even at the end of the storm, the gusts of wind were strong enough to knock me off my feet!

Because of, first, Storm Eowyn, and then a visit from Middle Son and family, we have tended to eat in rather than out. However, we have sampled a couple of our favourite bars and a few cafés, and we love the local pub (Teuchters). Anyway, there are two more weeks for trying some more recommended restaurants.

*^{Another View of Edinburgh Castle From Flodden Wall}*

Cooking in a holiday home is not new to us but doing so most evenings over a few weeks is another way of generating a feeling of being ‘home from home’ rather than just being on holiday. Next week, we are even entertaining Eldest Son’s parents in law. That will be a further novelty but a nice reflection of how things might be if we moved to Edinburgh more permanently.

During our days here, we have been very active. We have, of course, sampled the normal delights of the Royal Botanic Garden the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Modern Art Gallery of Scotland the Scottish National Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland. Edinburgh is a capital and has public buildings, exhibitions and collections to match that status. There were new exhibitions in all of the galleries and all were a pleasure to visit – although it was sad to see the Storm Eowyn damage in the Botanic Gardens.

*^{Storm Damage – One Of The Largest Cedars In The Royal Botanic Gardens Has Gone}*

The Scottish National Gallery is celebrating 40 years of its photography collection and curation. Photography is not my favourite art form but it was good to see some pictures by some famous photographers (such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Annie Liebovitz, and Lee Miller) among the often gritty, local Scottish fare.

*^{40 Year Celebration Of Scottish Photography Collection – Including The Iconic Lennon/Ono Photo}*

The Modern Art Gallery continues to show the substantial Everlyn Nicodemus exhibition which I saw on our last Edinburgh visit. I sped through that but perhaps somehow enjoyed it a little more on a second viewing; plus, there are several other works in the gallery’s permanent collection I had not focused on before.

^{‘After the Birth’ By Everlyn Nicodemus}

The Scottish National Gallery had a sequel to an exhibition of JMW Turner watercolours that I had seen in the gallery two years previously. That had shown the section of the Henry Vaughan collection of Turner watercolours that had been bequeathed to Scotland. This new exhibition was of the selection of watercolours bequeathed to Northern Ireland that again, as part of conditions of the donation, can only be shown to the public in January.

*^{Turner Watercolours at the National Gallery of Scotland}*

There were no surprises in the collection of blurry seascapes, sunrises, sunsets and mountain valleys shrouded in mist. But I like Turner’s style and enjoyed the viewing despite the long queues to get in.

Also at the National Gallery was a small exhibition of art inspired by the landscape of the Orkneys, called ‘In Orcadia’ and including large, interestingly constructed paintings by Samantha Clark.

That was good but even better, I thought, was the large exhibition of paintings by the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. There were hundreds of paintings on show and of course, not all hit the spot for me. But overall, I thought the quality was very high and I could imagine several on my living room wall.

^{The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Annual Exhibition}

We also went to diverse art exhibitions at Dovecote Studios and the City Art Centre. At Dovecote we saw textiles and paintings by Ptolemy Mann. The designs were colourful and bold but Jane was a little disappointed that the majority of the textiles were manufactured in India not Scotland.

*^{Dovecote Studios And Ptolemy Mann Artwork}*

At the City Art Centre were two exhibitions of modern Scottish art and of pop art; I liked the pots by Lara Scobie at the former and the typically irreverent set of cartoonish watercolours by the seemingly slightly unhinged, David Shrigley.

^{Works By Lara Scobie and David Shrigley At The City Art Centre, Edinburgh}

We made a couple of trips to the National Museum of Scotland. The first to see some of the displays that we don’t get much of a chance to see when accompanied by First Grandchild. The second was with him; his increasingly calm inquisitiveness was a joy to participate in.

One concept we discussed, as we passed some of the dinosaur and wild animal exhibits, was that of skeletons. Subsequent conversations indicate that he understood how creatures often have skeletons and that you can’t see until after they are dead. It’s fascinating to watch children learn.

*^{Everything From Dinosaurs To Hi-Tech On Show At The National Museum of Scotland}*

And now we come to the misfortune of yesterday….. Apart from Storm Eowyn, the weather during our stay has been largely dry and sunny. However, it has also been cold and yesterday morning my wife, Jane, slipped on some ice and, it turned out, broke her shoulder. The pictures of x-rays that we came away from the hospital with have helped First Grandchild understand the importance of bones but there is no other upside to the accident.

We’ll cope and enjoy the rest of our stay in Edinburgh but plans regarding how are changing……

Heading Into 2025

January 13, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

My memories of Christmas are beginning to dissolve into a blur of having felt very good about the convivial familial get together. It was great to have our close family in our house – the only exception being Youngest Son’s wife who had to dog-sit in Belfast. It was, once again, amusing and interesting to see the two grandchildren in close proximity and to compare and contrast their current, very different characters. Jane ran the kitchen with help from all and we ate and drank well. But now we head into 2025 with the promise of new challenges and entertainments.

The cold snap has brough some frosty and icy conditions underfoot but some beautiful clear air and skies. My physiotherapist has advised me to continue walking despite my uncomfortable knee and so I have limped around to keep it mobile. I think that continued walking, and the daily exercises I’ve been given, are helping my knee although they have also strained other parts of my hips and legs so health sometimes feels like a running battle.

I’ve been thinking about New Year resolutions as I always do at this time of year (but, usually, not so much thereafter). I will maintain my ongoing targets for drink free days, limiting alcohol unit intake, weight and walking steps. However, I also want to be more proactive generally about the various health niggles that I suppose are inevitable at this time of life.

*^{More Cold Walking On The Way To Town}*

I’m also keen to do better on a resolution I made this time last year: to be more creative and do more creative things. I made some progress early last year with visible sock darning, devising and running a darts competition in the local pub, and creating a few treasure hunts for First Grandchild. But my creativity petered out and, for example, the Kintsugi kit remains untouched and making sourdough bread is on hold. I must do better.

I also need to read more books and not just newspapers and magazines given that I enjoy fiction so much. I have resolved to read more during the day since, currently, I never manage more than a few pages each night in bed just before nodding off. Currently a 500-page book takes me almost 6 months to get through even when it’s a good read (as I think Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is).

My ability to find that daytime reading space is related to a resolution to nap less after lunch. I love our very comfortable sofa adjacent to the kitchen with its view out into the garden and nearby copse so I just have to avoid sitting on it after lunch!

Our local Talk Club for men sharing how they feel and what they are going to do about improving their mental health, has restarted after a 6-month hiatus. At the first meeting of the year, held in a new location above the village pub, I realised once again that my only real anxieties at the moment are rooted in health – which I need to take a bit more control of where I can – and world events. So, another resolution is to reduce use of social media (I have already left the increasingly toxic ‘X’) and continue last year’s resolution and listen to the news on the radio even less. I’m not sure if that will help but Talk Club is a good mechanism to ensure that I think about how world news affects my well-being and if increased abstention from hearing about it makes any difference.

The year has, apart from the ongoing health irritants, started well. Following the family-oriented period over Christmas, I have resumed visits to the village pub and contacts with friends and acquaintances in the village. It is clear from talking to them that I, and Jane, have been fortunate to avoid flu so far this winter.

*^{Promising Sunrise Viewed From Our House}*

Also, Jane has gone off for a week-long sewing retreat at Merchant & Mills, her favourite sewing pattern manufacturer and textile sales room in Rye. That has been a nice change for us both; she has enjoyed the retreat and learnt some new sewing skills while I have fended for myself successfully and have got to watch some streamed series in the television that Jane has no interest in (Series 3 of Industry on BBC iPlayer is, again, remarkable).

Next, we have an innovative trip to Edinburgh – innovative in the sense that it is a month-long stay rather than just a long weekend. We are both excited about how it will feel to be on holiday for so long (with the logistics helped a little by the likelihood of a bit of house sitting by some family members while we are away). We are looking forward to seeing the Edinburgh branch of the family in a different context and over a longer period than usual and to getting to know Edinburgh even better. The icing on the mid-winter break cake is that we are accommodating the Bristol and Belfast branches of the family on a couple of weekends while we are there. It’s a stimulating start to 2025.

A Birthday and Christmas Prep

December 20, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Having grandchildren coming to stay with us at Christmas has added a higher than ever level of expectation of fun around the festive period. I keep envisaging their excitement when the big day comes. For example, I’m looking forward to the wonderment of First Grandchild (who is now three years old) when the sherry, mince pie and carrots we will leave out for Father Christmas and his reindeer disappear overnight, to be replaced by present-filled stockings. We are ready!

But first, the last few weeks have contained much enjoyment of different kinds. First there was FG’s third birthday and a visit to Edinburgh to share in that. Then we had friends from London staying with us, followed by a choral concert in the nearby town of Tetbury and a test of our grandparenting skills while looking after Second Grandchild unsupervised.

In between, there has been preparation for Christmas, a bit of physiotherapy for my knee, wrapping up of my volunteering duties for the year at the local school and food bank, and the writing of a draft Parish Nature Action Plan for the Parish Council. It’s not work but it’s felt quite busy.

As usual, we loved our time in Edinburgh. The trip up in the car was pretty smooth (though the freezing cold weather slowing operation of some of the electric vehicle chargers on the way back was problematic).

*^{Freezing Weather On The Way South From Edinburgh – Lovely To See But Limiting On EV Battery Capacity And Charging Rates!}*

Once in Edinburgh, the hospitality Eldest Son (ES) and his wife lay on was as lovely as ever and further enhanced by their newly refurbished kitchen. It was great too to see ES’s parents in law, as we usually do, over a big Indian takeaway. We got out and about to see some of the sights that are now becoming familiar to us. Plus, of course, the centrepiece of our visit was FG’s birthday party.

FG’s birthday party was shared with that of his best male friend and it was very successful. The bouncy castle was very popular and FG spent a lot of time on that. There were a variety of other toys and activities around the room and these were also well used. The brutal beating of a Piñata in the form of a cardboard donkey full of sweets felt a little incongruous and unsettling but was a highlight for the birthday boys. For the adults, there were a few beers to provide some relaxation amid the hubbub of the kids scurrying around and the simple, raw excitement in the room.

*^{Along The Water Of Leith Near Dean Villag}*^{e, Edinburgh}

I skipped out of some of the post-party clearing up to watch Forest Green Rovers Football Club play (and win!) a vital top-of-the-table game on the television. I also skipped out on one, sunny afternoon to walk down the Water of Leith to Dean Village and then to the Modern Art Galleries.

*^{View From Outside Modern One Gallery, Edinburgh}*

At Modern One gallery (there are two separate national galleries of modern art) I saw an exhibition by Everlyn Nicodemus. It was a larger exhibition than I expected (especially given that it was free) and, by the end, I was also surprised by its variety. I can’t confess to have been moved much by the work but a lot of it was wonderfully colourful and vibrant. The whole experience of walking around the exhibition with so few others was quietly pleasing. It always seems worthwhile visiting Edinburgh’s art galleries.

*^{Some Of The Colourful Paintings By Everlyn Nicodemus}*

We also always seem to make time to take FG to the Royal Botanic Garden and the National Museum of Scotland. The Botanic Gardens are great year-round and FG likes the visits to the café there. FG also loves both seeing the exhibits at the National Museum – especially the natural history section – and getting to and from it on the bus. Watching FG’s mind take in all the sights in the museum is very rewarding and I never tire of going there.

*^{Natural History Hall At The National Museum Of Scotland}*

Next month we are visiting Edinburgh again and, this time, for a month. It will be a very different experience our usual long weekends with ES and his wife. I hope the Air BnB we have chosen is as good as it looks.

Although the weather is bound to be wintery, our stay will, at one level, feel like an extended holiday and we will be a couple of tourists taking in the sights again. But, on another level, it is a bit of a trial run for seeing if we would like to move more substantially to Edinburgh. We are both excited by the prospect of spending more time in the city; Edinburgh is such a wonderful place and being near ES’s family for a few weeks will enable a different relationship with all of them, at least temporarily.

Back home, we entertained our London guests with extended chat, Jane’s cooking, plenty of drink, a lunch at The Woolpack Inn in Slad (in our opinion, the best local pub food) and a walk by the Severn to see the Purton Hulks.

*^{Along The Canal Walk Towards The Severn And The Purton Hulks}*

These ‘hulks’ are boats deliberately run ashore and filled with debris and concrete to form a barrier between the tidal Severn River and the adjacent canal. They create a rather ghostly atmosphere and an interesting historical distraction from the huge views up and down the Severn estuary.

*^{One Of The Purton Hulks Overlooking The Severn Estuary (Tide Out)}*

Our entertaining skills were also tested when we looked after Second Grandchild (SG) for a few hours while Middle Son and his fiancée went out for lunch – their first outing together without SG since he arrived. It turned out to be a breeze. SG seemed curious about us substituting for his parents but calm and quietly playful. When he refused to have a nap in his nursery, I took him out in his buggy. While we were out, he was attentive to his surroundings, regarded me with apparent interest and occasional smiles, and then gently fell asleep. What a pleasure retirement is when one can do things like that with a grandchild!

Now Christmas is approaching. To get in the mood we went to a choral concert in a very Christmassy Tetbury. The concert was in the main church which is very spacious and dominated by rows of high, enclosed pews. The church looked marvellous with so many candles lit on huge chandeliers and elsewhere, and the concert sounded great when the choir was in full blooded flow.

*^{The Standish Consort And Ensemble La Notte at St Mary’s Church, Tetbury}*

Now we look forward to our sons arriving for Christmas. Youngest Son arrives later today (unfortunately without new wife who is bound to Belfast by their dog for this trip). Then Eldest Son’s entourage arrives next week before Middle Son, his fiancée and SG arrive on Christmas Eve. The semi-planned Christmas schedule is full of fun and games, walks and meals, Secret Santa, and sitting around the wood-burner and kitchen playing and chatting with the little ones and adults alike.

Now I have retired and I have no background (or foreground!) thoughts of work to contend with during the festive period, I can focus on all of the above. It’s a treat and a luxury.

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Family