Christmas in Norwich

24-26 Dec 2011: Daughter Sophie was our host for Christmas again, having a 'social Sunday' in Norwich. There were 11 of us at lunch, a mixture of Sophie's friends from Uni and the York tavern, and us. Will cooked a venison casserole!

Tuck in folks!

It's all so delicious that Will finds the casserole emptied

Skyping with Henry and Carol

Getting our just desserts

Lucy and Tom arrive for the evening fun

Thankyou to Sophie and Will for organising this - it's a new paradigm of Christmas celebration (sorry Charles Dickens....) 

Henry and Sophie.... and?

16 Nov '10: We had our first meeting with Barney, Sophie's dog. He is a black retriever - what a wonderfully friendly young hound, he just loves human company. Unfortunately he is too excitable when he thinks Becks is around, so we have to be a bit careful to ensure that Becks has an escape route, through an opening too small for Barney - i.e. his catflap.
We were lucky to have both Sophie and Henry here at the same time.
    Henry has been thinking of changing job, so it has been a good chance to discuss it. We don't want him to move south (i.e. not visit us so often), but he has to do what is right for him.
 Sophie has been making good progress with her art classes on Saturdays (and homework between) and she brought some of her sketchbooks over.

Cycle ride to commemorate Luke Day

May 29: As a wonderful act of commemoration of Luke, 17 brave friends of Sophie and Luke cycled from Walney Island near Barrow to the Wear rivermouth at Sunderland over the Bank holiday weekend.
See Sophie's album of photos on Facebook.
They kept us entertained along the way with regular text or Facebook updates (until Henry fell in a ford and dunked his iPhone, which was dried out a couple of days later).

The Tan Hill Inn is the highest point on the route.

All arrived safely at the North Sea, near Sunderland.

Bike ride to Attenborough

23 April : We have family staying, and the garage is full of bicycles and the decks are being cleared for Sally's birthday party on Sunday.

During the afternoon, daughter Sophie and DNC went for a 30 kilometre bike ride - some things are more important than mucking about with drills, screwdrivers and wire! Quality time! We went to Attenborough Nature reserve and back, along the Trent.

I rode on Henry's bike, a 'Specialised', and my daughter has a similar bike - so seemed like an easy ride - and during the afternoon, my son took my bike (a 30yr old Dawes) and gave it a thorough service.