Easter Sunday Reflections

Things have been a bit busy in 'Stand and Stare Land' over the Easter weekend.  School finished last Thursday then my Mother in Law arrived shortly after lunch on Friday.  Fortunately she is the perfect house guest and she politely ignored any dust that I missed during my frantic tidy up on Friday morning... 

I'm very fond of Mark's Mum because she is a very easy person to have around.  She's very happy to 'muck in' with whatever we're doing and never demands any special treatment or entertaining.  She keeps herself very fit and joined in all our walks over the weekend.  We've had a lot of fun.

On Easter Sunday we had a family day out with my parents, my sister and her family.  We went up to the Severn Valley - calling in at the Visitor Centre above Highley and then going to Dudmaston House for some walks round the grounds and a picnic. 

The trains were steaming up and down the Severn Valley Railway. We watched them from the Visitor centre with a cup of coffee and a piece of home-made cake...

We spotted a few early bluebells during our walk.  I'm sure the woods by the river will have a huge carpet of blue fairly soon...

The house at Dudmaston is quite difficult to photograph.  The ground drops away very steeply toward the 'big pool'..

We walked all the way through the woods and round the 'big pool'.  I tried to take pictures of the reflections.  It would have looked a lot more impressive with blue skies.  I must take Mark back there again when the weather is a bit more decent.

This is my youngest niece outside the coach house. 

We all wrapped up warm and enjoyed a 'bring and share' picnic. I did savouries for myself, Mark and the parents; my sister did savouries for her family (because they have all sorts of allergies) then Mum did sweet things for everyone. We each provided our own flasks of coffee - ranging from decaff for my Sister, through milky and weak for my parents to full on black Columbian for me!!!!

It all worked out very well.