Devizes and around

After Jill, Rod and the kids had gone on Sunday (the kids having been delayed a couple of hours because Steve's car wouldn't start, and he had to call out the AA), Grace and I postponed our exploratory walk around Devizes. The weather wasn't good, and we were feeling tired from late nights and early mornings over the past few days, so we stayed in and watched "Girl with a pearl earring", a really good film from the stock of DVDs in this house, AND "The men who stare at goats", which we brought with us and was really quite awful.

We awoke on Monday morning to a cold house, with the central heating boiler registering a fault, and this delayed our stroll around Devizes. When we did get out, the weather was cold and damp, and we were glad to find a number of shops, ranging from interesting to fascinating, through which to browse. We bought ourselves a beautiful mirror to add to the small collection we have in the house.

In the same shop, I was much amused by one particular key fob. Amongst dozens, each of which bore one of the "Keep calm" slogans which have found their way onto so many items over the past few years...

...I found one which summed up perfectly my feeling about these mottos!

Unfortunately, St John's church, next door to our house and said to be rather beautiful inside, was locked. We'll have to try again another day. 

We walked out to the canal down by the Devizes Wharf and Canal Centre. It was all deserted, so we walked down the towing path to the next bridge, and made our way back to the house from there.

After lunch, we went for a drive, first of all to the Caen Hill flight of locks on the outskirts of the town, then on a scenic tour around the nearby countryside, returning across Salisbury Plain. The weather was dismal, the scene devoid of other people, and the locks forbidding. We're looking forward to navigating them one day, though, in good weather and with other people about.

In the evening, we watched only part of "Cruel Intentions" because it was such an awful film!

Our Ruby Wedding Anniversary

December 15th marked our 40th Wedding Anniversary. On 13th, Grace and I drove to Devizes in Wiltshire, to stay in a house there for the week. We arrived around 1:30pm, and met the delightful Sue, co-owner of the house, who made us very welcome and showed us around. My sister Jill and her husband Rod arrived later, and we spent a good evening together, catching up, not having seen each other for over two years.

The kids arrived the next morning, bringing with them food to feed an army, it seemed! and for the next several hours Naomi and Eddie were hard at work in the kitchen.

We were joined in due course by Grace's three sisters, brother-in-law Mike, and niece Kathryn with son Jake and partner Alistair (Kathryn has the distinction of being the only one of our several nieces and nephews who was present at our wedding, so it was very fitting that she should be there), and Grace and I were given some lovely, generous presents. At lunchtime, Naomi served up a fantastic buffet meal of some ten savoury dishes with salads and sauces, plus an amazing chocolate cake, and a huge Eton Mess - I was too busy eating to get photos of all of it!

Flowers decorated the dining room.

After the meal, we enjoyed an afternoon of games, chat and much laughter. It was an excellent day, and a superb way to spend this anniversary of ours.

Some of the family aren't very familiar with canal life, so I put together a slideshow to give them something of an idea.

With a couple of hours or so to drive back to Somerset, Grace's side of the family left later that evening, while Jill, Rod and our kids stayed the night. Our thanks go to them all for sharing a memorable day with us.