Tuesday 2nd October 2018, Greetham, Rutland
We have been staying with Neil and family in Beverley for the past four nights. With such warm and sunny weather we have been out with the grandchildren visiting country parks, exploring the villages of the East Riding, gathering fruits from the hedgerows and listening to Deyvi enthusing about the residential course organised for those in their final year at her primary school. From being terrified of leaving their families for the first time when they set off, the youngsters returned bursting with excitement and new found friendships. It seems to have been a rite of passage for them all. Deyvi insists she went a child and returned as an adult. That's pushing it by any stretch of the imagination! She's as zany, gabbling and obsessed with things as most ten/eleven year olds and chatters on incessantly about Minecraft, the chemical elements, what her friends say and do and how stupid all the boys in the class are. We adults quickly discovered how to zone it out and her chatter flowed on unabated until we could eventually stop it with lemon drizzle cake as we paused for coffee and cake in the parish church of Warten which we passed through when out walking with Neil and Deyvi! She is though, a typical youngster soon to become a teenager and will doubtless eventually be extruded from the education system as a thinking young adult we can all feel incredibly proud of!
Neil, Deyvi and Jill, Londesborough. Yorkshire.
We also found the opportunity to visit friends living in nearby Hessle on the banks of the Humber estuary. At this point the delicate white ribbon that is the road-bridge, flies out high across the wide estuary, supported on a cat's cradle of delicate wires, linking the East Riding of Yorkshire with Lincolnshire. It really is beautiful!
This morning we left Beverley behind and set off southwards. I suppose we are gradually making our way home but having spent less time than we realised in Scotland we are in no hurry to get back. So we decided to turn east somewhere around Nottingham and this evening finds us near the shores of Rutland Water. Rutland, the smallest county in Britain, is very pleasant. Neither of us recalls visiting before but it has been very good. In Melton Mowbray we ate raised pork pies for lunch - that is their contribution to Britain's culinary heritage and they are determined nobody will pass through the town without being aware of the fact.
Rutland Water. Whitwell. Rutland
Actually, Ian has a friend, formerly a colleague from the Library Association's Local History Group committee, whom he hoped to see. She is retired and thriving in Rutland, busily involved with her local museum. Unfortunately we missed her when we finally found her home, having been unable to forewarn her of our brief presence in the neighbourhood. In Oakham though, a couple of the residents came out of one of the houses when I parked. I expected to be informed that I was contravening some parking by-law. Instead they launched into a tale of delight at seeing a Romahome exactly like theirs and wanted to swap notes about travels and exploits. They even invited us in to their home and gave us their name and address so we could drop by any time we were in the area! It was very kind and gratifying but unlikely we will be this way again as it is the first, and perhaps the last, time we have ever explored this part of Britain!
Time to revert to sleeping back in Modestine this evening. It was good to have experienced solid walls and a roof for a few nights. Such opportunities prevent us from becoming completely feral!
