Tuesday With Friends

An old school friend of my late husband's and his wife, N. and F., came to see us on Tuesday (28 July). They live in Wath-upon-Dearne (South Yorkshire), where Steve was born. As a surprise guest, they brought along their 8-year-old grandson. R. was very well behaved, even though I imagine it must have been very boring for him to spend the day with four adults, two of which he had never met, and listen to them talking about boring things only adults can spend hours nattering on about.

They arrived at around 11:00 that morning, and since the weather was once more perfect at 25C and a sunny sky with some fluffy clouds, we sat with mugs of tea in the garden that comes with renting the cottage. R. had fun on the swing for a while and then retreated into the house where he was drawing on his kindle (modern kindles can do that - I didn't know!). He showed us his drawings later, and they were pretty good.

The five of us strolled across the market square and along Kirkgate to the Cathedral; a visit there has become something of a tradition when N. and F. visit us in Ripon. Young R. was quite impressed with the huge building and once again behaved perfectly.

Entering a couple of shops on the way, for lunch we ended up at the large upstairs table at Oliver's Pantry where the four of us (without grandson, but sometimes with a dog) had enjoyed meals before. 

After a last cup of tea/coffee back at our place, our friends started the drive back south. When R. sat already in the car, he came out once more, approaching my sister with outstretched arms and saying "Cuddles!", and of course he got a hug and kiss from both of us. He also asked very nicely whether he would be allowed to come again when his grandparents would visit, which we confirmed.

My sister and I then went to the Spa Gardens, where we had not yet been during this year's stay in Ripon. As everyhwere else, the lawns were brown and yellow, but there were still some flowers, and the band stand was nicely decorated. My sister treated me to an ice cream from the little café/kiosk at the top end of the gardens, which was very nice.

On our way back to the cottage, we picked up a few bits and bobs at Tesco's and got things ready for a couple of friends coming over for nibbles and drinks that evening. I have mentioned Sheila and Neill a few times on my blog before, for instance here, and you may or may not recall that we'd been to see them for a cold drink in the morning last Thursday.

The garden that belongs to "our" cottage has a nice sitting area with chairs and table, where we'd prepared the nibbles and drinks. J., our landlady, joined us after a while, which was very nice. Everybody got along so well, and conversation was flowing as freely as the well-chilled wine we served. It being such good weather, we remained sitting outside until about 10:00 pm, when our guests took their leave.

We'll see all of them next summer, we hope, and possibly some of them sooner than that.