Every cloud has a silver lining, for sure, but you do need clouds for that, and this summer we didn’t have many of those, did we?
It started, for Mary and I, on May 28th with a trip to Broadway in Worcestershire for a ride on the newly extended Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Heritage
Railway from the new Broadway station with GCR’s Oliver Cromwell on loan to them for their Return to Broadway Steam Gala. It was in the 80’s that day!
Then we went to Belfast for a few days in the first week of June and were basking in the longest spell of dry weather they had had in many years. A local taxi driver quipped, “Normally, the only thing missing in Belfast is a roof over it to keep the rain out!”
Upon our return, because the weather looked set fair, we thought we’d snatch another few days in a friend’s apartment in Whitby after our next deadline at the end of June. We visit Whitby about once a year and take the opportunity to catch up with our graphic designer Ali, and her husband Simon, who live just north of there.
“We’ll have to come down to yous two next time,” said Ali in her mild Auf Weidersein Pet accent (to our untrained ear).
And still the weather held…
At the beginning of August, as Ali and family were holidaying in Sherwood Forest north of Newark, we arranged to meet on our home turf. I hired a little narrow boat from Sileby Mill, booked us in for lunch at The Waterside in Mountsorrel and, luckily, still the weather held. We had a great day tootling up and down our lovely namesake, the River Soar.
Later that week a cousin from Australia stayed with us for a few days and we did the local sights in and around Loughborough. We took her on a diner train on a beautiful summer’s eve and showed her Queens Park on a glorious Sunday afternoon, giving us a glimpse of what our valley has to offer through another’s eyes.
Then, on Tuesday 7th August our summer came to an abrupt end with an operation to mend Steve’s long term injured shoulder… followed by another deadline and the return of those bothersome clouds. Grrr…
Steve & Mary Johns
