Westward ho to Sue and John

Setting off with a song on our lips westward ho to Bromyard, where Sue and John have moved. Long car journey, with delays on every motorway we used. The M25 particularly evil. However it was fun to be on the road, with my wifey. We listened to an audiobook chapter of a book recommended to us called From What Is to What If by a bloke called Rob Hopkins, talking about greening initiatives and doing business differently by unleashing the power of positive imagination.  

As the journey lengthened, and we got off the major motorways, the landscape became gorgeous with high hills and lots of trees. About five and a half hours on the road, we were delighted To arrive at Sue and John's new home, Oaklands, to a warm welcome and just in time for dinner, that Sue had pulled out of the AGA. They showed us around the new house, which is stunning. The house was once the location of a local school, but has been rebuilt with oak beams, using traditional methods with flagstone floors and oak beams, and a conservatory too. It is soundtracked by the regular cooing of wood pigeons, which preside over a steep but lovely little front garden, with stems of lavender being bent by bumble bees while the pretty cottage garden out back, with lots of flowers and tall hollyhocks and a steep view of a couple of streets below, then out onto beautiful countryside, with wooded rolling hills, and the sky over the recently mown cornfield patrolled by red kites and, Sue said, the occasional RAF aircraft.

John showed me the traditional carpenter's marks on the oak beams to indicate where they should be placed. Which reminded me of Tolkien. Whiskey, the little Norfolk terrier I played football with this time last year, even more springy than I remembered, and I got a licked face and hands. 

Lorraine and I very happy to be here and see Sue and John again. And relax...

Below carpenter's marks in the oak.