The Courtyard Circular: June 2013

England 5th - 10th June

The main event of the month was my trip to England with Pat. We arrived at Candy's on Wednesday afternoon to be greeted by Matthew and Charlie and James who had come over to erect the marquee they had brought with them for my 'surprise' party on the 8th:

Candy, Matthew, Charlie, James and I repaired to the Five Bells afterwards.

  The following day, which was warm and sunny, James came with me to Peterborough to renew my passport. How fortunate that he did: I'd managed to leave my wallet in a phone shop in Wisbech and would have had no money to pay for it. Having ordered the passport we sped back to Wisbech, retrieved the wallet and had lunch in the courtyard of the Rose & Crown before returning to Peterborough to collect the passport.

  Friday - again warm and sunny - was my birthday, and we had a family supper at the Bank House in King's Lynn:

Pat's behind the camera.

   The party was held on Saturday, guests sheltering from the cold in the marquee beneath the wonderful plaque Matthew had constructed, referencing God's Wonderful Railway. 

As a boy, I used to  'spot' their locomotives at Temple Meads station, as an adult I bought models of their engines and rolling stock and constructed kits of its buildings. As a young man my maternal grandfather worked for the company.

   On Sunday several of the guests - including Dave and Sue, Chris and Di, and Maggie and Phil - who'd stayed in Wisbech overnight braved the cold to pop in to see us before returning home. Matthew, Charlie and James came over to dismantle the marquee and take down the lights.

  When we flew in to Ancona on Monday it was cloudy but warm - 25 degrees. However, travelling south down the A14 it became progressively colder and wetter. By the time we reached Force to pick up the dogs the temperature had dropped to 13 degrees and the rain had become a torrent.

Tempo inglese.

The weather picked up two days later and we enjoyed twelve days of sunshine with temperatures in the thirties, apart from a freak storm which shattered our window over the stairs.

 Unfortunately, the good weather didn't last and most of last week has been far colder - upper teens and low twenties - with lots of rain, not at all in keeping with the English stereotype of southern Europe. I blame the arrival of the dayboys: Tony and Shona and John and Judi.

And:

We had pizzas with Tony and Shona at Le Fate in Smerillo on the 1st and Jane came to supper the following day. We went to Le Fate again with Jane and her guest John on the 14th and dined at a taverna in Foce on the 19th with Peppe and Angiola. Norman and Jayne have invited us to supper this evening.