Back to the days of green grass, full flower beds and lush fields! To June of Sunday 26th to the fine yet windy day of the village fete. Water & Wine stall had to be moved to a sheltered spot, as bottles were being blown over! Apart from that, the afternoon was brilliant. Lots of happy visitors enjoying all that was on offer. The amount raised was amazing, £2895, which was to be divided between the church and village hall. Big thank you of course to Simon & Harriet for hosting this great event once again around their beautiful gardens. To so many who helped in any way, thank you, also to all those who supported us, wonderful.
The village hall on Saturday 2nd July for Breakfast Together was enjoyed by so many as everyone tucked into delicious bacon baps, croissants and coffee, all was abuzz. However, our guest speaker, Laura Hazel, soon had everyone’s full attention as she began her talk about ‘Home to Rome’. Graham & Laura’s walk from home, Ashe Park, on local paths to Farnham, the Pilgrims Way to Canterbury. Dover to Calais, the only non-walking part!! Then following along the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrims route, to Rome. Graham was keeping up with Laura’s talk and showing some great photos up on the screen. What a feat, tremendous. Laura has written a book, with illustrations, a short account of a long walk!! Within no time at all the boxes of books they had managed to bring, sold out. Laura had very generously donated all the proceeds to the church funds. It is the most amazing book, brilliantly written, recommended to all. Their trail names were ‘The Keeper’ – Graham and ‘Mountain Goat’ – Laura, which is the name she has written under. M. Goat. Home to Rome. Entertaining right to the last page. The Keeper’s Data:-
- Number of footsteps taken between us: 5.3 million.
- Number of miles walked from our home to the Vatican: 1,450.
- Number of types of food scavenged en route: (nature’s bounty = fig, peach, apple, pear, plum, kiwi, blackberry, hazelnut, walnut, tomato, grape)
- Number of friends who joined us at some point en route: 37.
- Number of friends lost as a consequence: 0 (hopefully).
- Number of blisters lanced: 6 (not ours, thankfully).
- Number of different beds slept in: 75.
- Number of eggs cooked in hotel kettles: 18.
- Number of wayside figs plucked: 67.
- Number of boots worn out: 6.
- Number of days the same shirt was worn: 75 out of 75.
An amazing couple, their next walk is in Africa!
Jane Austen Evensong on Sunday 17th with the United Benefice Choir, was well-supported, followed by refreshments outside in the balmy evening sunshine. Jane Austen visitors have also started to arrive from overseas and this country, as tours have at long last started.
Book group has continued, July at Amanda & Dave’s new home in Alresford, wonderful, where we eventually discussed ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak. Highly recommended, score of 8. Thank you, Amanda, for hosting, your delicious banana & walnut cake and grand tour, so lovely to see you. August meeting was at Sally’s, thank you for hosting in your lovely garden, found shade where we were framed by beautiful roses. We were chatting for ages, had a very short discussion of the book ‘The Love Song of Miss Queeny Hennessy’ by Rachel Joyce. Generally speaking, very sad and quite depressing, score of 4. Thanks to delicious cakes and good company, we all enjoyed the morning.
Coffee & Cake mornings have been well attended if somewhat warm, although thunderstorms have been forecast for the one on 15th August that may cool things off, although expect that might change!
The flower ladies were out in force on Wednesday 20th July, along with some of the family, to decorate the church for the wedding of David & Lisa’s daughter Jenny to Gavin. What a privilege. Gorgeous flowers, full summer meadow colours, what a very special time we all had that morning.
Windows and curtains have just been closed as the temperatures soar once again. Inside for the rest of the afternoon until it cools later. The gas BBQ will be used again for dinner, beats heating the kitchen up! There are only so many ways to have salad… Come September it will have cooled off a bit, especially for the very special Coffee & Cake morning on Monday 19th Sept., all in aid of McMillian Cancer. Lots of ladies making cakes, so there will be even more delicious ones to choose from, would be lovely to see you there.
Off to buy more hedgehog food, they are such a delight to watch. There are four who come every night with the odd extra one occasionally. One being very bossy, pushing them out of the way making one curl up into a ball. They are quite noisy with their grunting and crunching of food. We even heard one lapping at the water bowl. The garden is getting very stressed, no slugs or snails! Hence more hedgehog food. Fingers crossed for gentle rain! In the meantime, keep cool and enjoy the sunsets, some have been stunning.