To the banks of the Mersey

So up and a cheeky poached egg breakfast with Sue and John. Fond farewells, with Whiskey the dog springing about squeaking its toy, which John said made the sound of a bitten rat, we left Bromyard.

Lorraine drove for half an hour to see Lorraine's lovely cousin Maxine, where we were warmly welcomed, and spent a couple of hours sipping coffee, nibbling on fruitcake while her dog, Zippy contentedly gnawed a large bone under the coffee table. Heard about Tay and Emilia -- now studying away from home and doing well. Simon was working in Liverpool today, but Maxine was on a day off from work, so I think she was pleased to have some visitors.  

Fond squeezes goodbye with Maxine, then we drove mostly along the A5 road through some absolutely beautiful Autumn countryside on either side of the Welsh border. The Shropshire hills, which I had never seen. They were stunningly beautiful. The tiring bit, for Lorraine, was that as we were driving, partly through Wales, then towards Merseyside, I adjusted my accent to talk to her in.   

We arrived in Runcorn at around 4:20, and checked into the Premier Inn close to Carl's house. Basic, but clean and perfectly fine for a night. 

Got an email from Jeremy offering me a reading in Lewes in January for the Needlwriters, which I happily accepted.

Just after five we met Carl. So good to see him again, I thought he was looking well. 

He drove us to the Old Town of Runcorn, and he showed us the Jubilee Bridge spanning the Mersey, and joked that was it for sights to see.  Then to the Hazlehurst Studios, to see Ellie. Lovely to see her. She is an excellent person. She showed us her studio, the nerve centre of her art business. And she took us through the warren of studios encountering various people at their artistic jobs. It was Friday night, so not many folks there, but there was a guy recycling transport material into bags and laptop cases, a woman designing a Santa isn't real Christmas card on screen and so on. 

Then Carl drove us all back to the hotel, and Ellie stayed chatting with us as Carl went home to collect Jayne. A lovely opportunity to find out more about her.  I'd not seen Jayne for ages. We all had a really cheery meal in the Beefeater, and it was so nice to see Jayne again. Lorraine liked everyone lots, and was very interested in Jayne's spectacular crochet work. Loved seeing them all again, and promised to come up again soon.

Kicking myself after that I didn't take more photos. But here is Ellie in her studio. Although she does a bit of retail work part time, her heart is here. Liked her trays of pencils and so on.