Long Overdue

We've had another full on busy week, so by the end of the day I'm often too tired to post.  We've met with our new HE friends twice now, we made a first visit to them and then they called to play on Friday.  They live in a village north of us and it's a do-able half hour drive straight up the motorway:

The Orange House.

Cars and Lego Play.

Kitchen Play

S with Pip

Gotcha!

On Monday of this week Benedict attended the HE sports lesson at Bolton Arena.  He had a fab time and it's interesting to see how his confidence has grown in these past weeks as he's encountered new folks.  Whilst he and Dave were out of the house, I caught up on much needed paperwork.  Sara very kindly took Pip out for the day.  They ran errands in town and then took a train to Morecambe where they had lunch at Frankie and Benny's, played in the sea and the sand and then took a bus ride home.  They were both shattered after their day trip, Pip slept like a log that night!

On Tuesday Pip was with Debbie and Sara treated Benedict to a trip to town and lunch out.  Dave and I managed to attend midweek mass followed by a coffee and gluten free treat at Beetham Garden Centre.  (Note from DH - oh for the ability to go for a walk with a flask of coffee - now our health confines us to road accessible places!!) We sat outside and enjoyed the warm sunshine.  After tea I helped Sara with her packing as she was travelling way up North the following day.

On Wednesday Sara began her epic trip to North Uist (*) and Jacqui and John's Croft.  Despite the best laid plans of mice and men Virgin Trains let her down at the start of her journey.  Her train was cancelled due to overhead wire problems and the next train out was forty minutes later.  This had a domino effect and as a result she missed her connecting bus and ferry to Stornoway that night!  It was a megga stressful day  trying to sort out alternatives including a flight but in the end it made to find her a hotel for the night and resume her travel plans the following day.  She landed safely on Thursday and rang on Friday to say that, she'd been digging a trench and been on a bike ride.  All good stuff!

(*DH note -  See Comments, for some reason, we mistakenly had the island to the south, Jacqui and John are on Lewis!)

On Thursday we visited a long standing friend.  Rondie and I have known each other since college days, she's the only person I've kept in contact with since my youth and we'll have known each other 29 years this year!  It was lovely to see her and the new home which is a bungalow.  They moved in the summer of last year and despite being only twenty minutes down the road it was the first time we had met since last year, sigh!

View from the back.

Always Smiling

On Friday we had our visit from our HE friends and despite the drop in temperature we played in the garden all afternoon.  Benedict and C get on like a house on fire.  Pip and A are still trying to get the measure of each other and it's quite comical watching them interact!  I think they'll establish a good friendship through time and maturity.

Where's the sun gone?!

Our very own Flower Pot Ben!

In all it's been a good week but I'm glad to say that Holy Week should be lot quieter and I'm hoping to catch up on some desk work with Benedict in preparation for his First Holy Communion.