Mom & Dad

Blogging has been a little light lately - my parents arrived on Wednesday evening and it's been pretty much non-stop since then. We had a pub dinner in Bury on Wednesday night, and then they came to Stowmarket to see the house. It's been given the seal of approval!

Thursday night we met them for dinner at the Ravenwood Hall Hotel near Bury, where we'd last been nearly 20 years ago in a blizzard. When I was a kid we used to go to Holland at school vacations - my dad had an office there. We always took the ferry over from Felixstowe to Zeebrugge, and one night we stopped in for dinner on our way to the night ferry. We remembered the food as being really good, and I've been meaning to go for ages. Mom suggested it and off we went. The food was gorgeous- dad and I split some mouthwatering beef (rare, of course), and then I had the world's best rhubarb fool for dessert. YUM.

Friday I took the day off work and we went to Ickworth (where I had to PAY - the new girl in reception was not responding to ANY amount of name dropping or mentioning of the fact that I was a full-time volunteer for a year), walked around for a bit, and then headed cross-country on teeny-tiny back roads to Lavenham. I'd only been there once for the choir concert in December, so it was really nice to see it in the daylight! It's such a funny little town - it's so old and there are no right angles to speak of.

Saturday we had John's parents over for lunch and then Mom and Freda and I went to the garden centre and bought some plants for our garden. There are bunch of begonias, expertly planted by Mom and James, and a bay tree, a honeysuckle bush, and something else that I can't remember. I'm preparing for a pitched battle against the honeysuckle - apparently they're fairly...er...enthusiastic.

Sunday was a train-fest - we drove up to Peterborough to ride on the Nene Valley Railway and the miniature railway at Thorpe Hall. The boys took lots of pictures (and videos - to appear soon). Here we are on the mini trains:



Phew.

I'm taking another half day tomorrow to see Mom & Dad and we're going round F & T's for dinner - it should be fun. Then I'm going to sleep - I'm totally zonked lately and I can't tell if it's general in-law wear and tear or what.