In a touch of marvellous timing, Fi & Rich needed us to look after their house, Bob the dog and Meggie the cat while they went off to be young and groovy at Glastonbury – all coinciding brilliantly with us renting out our place for the tennis for the first time ever. So – a week in Henfield, West Sussex we have had!
Popped down to the beach midweek with both of the dogs – Bob was a bit barky so it was rather short lived, but enough time for Miss Mads to swim around searching for the (obviously sunken) beach stones we'd lobbed in for her.. And we had a good walk with Janine & Flossy, then lunch with Ross too in Arundel, at a lake place I'd never been to – all sunny and lovely. Plus a fab lunch with our next door neighbours on Friday and picked up our postal voting slips – oh, if only there was someone decent on there to vote for!
This Sat we drove up to the Haycutter pub in Oxted – really lovely, huge gardens and very good food – to see my sister in law Heather on her birthday, plus brother Rick, Jess and Pat and their two kids Lettie & Polly (who's finally grown a bit), plus Heather's sister Fuff. Perfect English summer's day to be in a pub garden and a tractor for the kids to play on, so that was all v nice.
Jules came down to join us for steaks on Sat eve, then Sunday saw the turn of H's brother Tim & wife Mel, coming over to Henfield for a cracking (and crackling) bit of BBQ pork with the three of us (Nicky being in Germany watching footy), done to perfection in Rich's Kamado Joe. Had a wander round the extensive gardens, lunch in, pudding out and a good catch up about their plans to move permanently to France next year. T&M headed off at 5ish, leaving us to watch the – mostly dire – England match, which did at least somehow result in a last few seconds win.
Just time then to try and fathom why the new groomer we went to gave Maddie a number one all over – she now looks more like a spotty Dalmatian than a spaniel as the 'light trim' we had asked for was so short. H is bemoaning the loss of her furry tufts but I'm sure they'll be back soon enough.. Leaving just enough time for some Meggie cuddles on the office sofa. Lots of purring and very nice to hold a cat again
Now at CCL for my last chemo pre Croatia – we are off to the boat for the next 2 weeks while the house is still occupied, then home for vast piles of tenant laundry, towels etc and the rest of the summer. Hurrah! x