A good weekend.

This weekend John and I went to visit my brother. The drive isn't too arduous as it is mainly on the motorway and it was running smoothly as we set off on our journey. We stopped half way through the journey for coffee and a short rest and still made good time. The sun was shining and it was lovely to see the trees coming into leaf. We had left home relatively early as we had all decided we would go out for a late lunch at a restaurant once we'd arrived. For once everything run to plan, no major road works along the way and we arrived ready to enjoy the weekend. My brother and his partner live on boats which are moored next to each other.

Fortunately the weather was calm for the whole weekend so no being buffeted around by the wind. Lunch was very leisurely and delicious. Back at the boat we caught up with family news and gossip and we chatted and drank wine late into the night. 

On Saturday we decided to visit Stonehurst Farm. The weather had gone rainy so we didn't want to venture too far from base.  The farm also had a small motor museum which was very interesting. This bus is used for rides on special open days.

The person responsible for the museum wasn't on duty and so we had no information about the vehicles. However John and I did reminisce about the cars and vans that we remembered from our childhood. I certainly remember the baker coming round in a van like the one below.

This car did not fit into my memory particularly but I knew there was an old gentleman in the village where we lived who occasionally drove a car like this.

These two looked fun.

My brother spent some time reminiscing over this Austin Healey frog eye Sprite. He'd owned one himself a while back.

I really liked the toy pedal car and I remember my older brother and me arguing over who was going to drive our pedal car. He always won.

As it was also a working farm there were animals. The lambs were very cute.

This ewe had three lambs and the farm were worried she might not be able to look after them all.

This group of ladies had been bought down from the hills to lamb and there were two ewes in labour.

The pigs were cute but this sow seemed to be worn out by her offspring. I'm not surprised I found it very hard coping with one baby at a time. This group were very noisy.

This little family were very peaceful,

When the sow opened her eyes and saw us she left her sleeping piglets and came for a good scratch on her back. She really enjoyed it and grumbled when I stopped and said goodbye to her.

There were also cows, donkeys, ponies, rabbits and guinea pigs. The small children were enjoying having cuddles with the rabbits, and there were several demands to have one as a pet. When our children were small we had rabbits and guinea pigs and also hamsters. The children would look after them for a while but got grumpy with needing to clean the hutches and feed them once the novelty had worn off.

The farm also had a cafe and we enjoyed lunch there. The baked potato with chilli con carne was very tasty and the apple pie and custard was amazing. It was getting late as we headed back to the boat. We had managed to stay dry over the day. We always seemed to be inside a building when the rain fell.

We had another quiet evening on the boat sipping wine and chatting. I sat and did some knitting and as a result I have nearly finished the left front of my cardigan.  I also took my crochet with me but I didn't work on this project.

On Sunday we enjoyed porridge for breakfast and coming up to mid day we left to travel home. the journey back was good apart from a holdup for road works on the motorway. It was lovely to see my brother and his partner and we plan on visiting more often than we have done. When we got home Missy and Twiglet gave us a very excited welcome. You would have thought we'd been away for weeks rather than two nights! They did eventually quieten down.

Today I have a few bit to do and then I want to get on with some sewing. I hope you all had a good weekend.

Take care

Lyndsey