Soon
into April the boys' schools broke up, and they had
two long weeks to fill before Easter arrived. One
trip during the first week was to Beale
Park near Reading. It was a good opportunity to
meet up with Sue, Lily and "little baby"
Thomas T-J.
We've
been to Beale Park before, but it was during a particularly
hot day last summer. This time the weather was cool
and sunny, and ideal for seeing the animals. Luckliy
the crocodile kept still.
Two
or three times a year we meet up with David, Alison,
Ben, Sarah and Francis (one of Bridget's two Godsons).
It was another bright spring afternoon, and the three
boys (James, Matthew and Francis) had a great time collecting
sticks and chasing after David and Alison's dog, Tiggy.
The Cotswolds where they live is a lovely area, full
of small villages and sandstone houses. A river runs
through their village, and Matthew just about kept his
feet dry although his wellies are now rather too short
for wading.
During
the second week of the holidays we spent a few days
in Salisbury at Grandma Brenda's, including a trip to
the cinema to see Ice
Age 2, and a day at Marwell
Zoo. We chose the right day for good weather, and
although it was quite cool it remained bright and dry.
In the penguin pool there were some playful ducks that
you can watch from above and below. And hence you can
work out how ducks use their feet to propel themselves
along so efficiently. James got to see the young rhino
that was still a bump when last we visitied the zoo.
On
Easter Saturday Bridget did the third stage of her Thames
Path walk, from Putney to Richmond. Meanwhile Malcolm,
Grandma Brenda and the boys spent the day at Kew
Gardens, meeting up with Bridget for lunch as she
walked past - great timing! The boys were set a challenge,
Matthew had to find the biggest thing, and James the
most beautiful. Matthew found there were lots of types
of bigness (trees, flowers, leaves, cactus etc), and
James found there were lots of ways for things to be
beautiful.
On
Easter Monday we went to Ham Farm at West Wycombe
for the now-traditional new-born lamb hugging. Easter
being late, most of the ewes had already delivered
their lambs this year; apparently on the previous
weekend there had been several delivered in front
of visitors.
We
looked up Ham Farm on the internet, only to discover
that our account
of last year's lambing comes high up the list
- they don't have their own web site yet.
