Yorkshire

Photo’s are at:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ULsi1ssqxpPqqj8MDilxaerSmK9DGlbU?usp=sharing

The trip to blighty for the “other” wedding of the year (my bro’s) started with a quick visit to Winchester for a family lunch where we met our nephew for the first time and I introduced our niece to lipstick – you can never start too young;-) I thought it finished the look of the outrageous pink frilly party dress we brought Lucy over from the US which she INSISTED on wearing immediately and then playing on the climbing frame with reckless Uncle Geoffrey 😉

The trip continued with a visit to Gary in Cheshire where the sun came out (for the first time in living memory 😉 )..we met Gary’s new lady, Tracy, who was very good fun – full seal of approval has been given 😉

Unfortunately she couldn’t make it to the wedding of the decade later that week which was a shame.

Additional downside of the trip generally was that there seem to be an over abundance of rather excellent gastro pubs in Gary’s area and despite the fact we attempted some exercise and dragged him kicking and screaming for a long hike along the canal (with a detour to the homemade ice-cream store at a local farm!) AND we walked up a hill somewhere else so I could take lots of hilltop type photos we both managed to gain VAST quantities of weight which we still haven’t managed to dislodge 😦

So….onwards to the Suffolk coast where we caught up with G’s Nan in Aldeburgh and again the sun shone – and yet again we managed to find some of the best food we’ve had in the UK…….which was a good and a bad thing……you might begin to deduce that that was the general flavour of the trip back….

During a moment of abstention from consumption, G managed to find the old family farm where his great grandfather lived and where he had fond memories of playing as a child during the summer school hold… we also, after some significant time hunting about the Suffolk undergrowth, managed to find the church where his grandmother is buried – probably the smallest church in the world – or was it just that the weeds and the grass were very tall?? 😉 Spookyyyyyy……but G seemed to be happy to have achieved something historical for once 😉

To cut a long eating fest story short – by the time we made it to the wedding – only 6 days after arriving in blighty – I was no longer able to pour myself into the dress I had brought for the wedding – and hence the new shoes, hat and handbag were also wasted space in my luggage allowance 😉 Despite the best efforts to get me zipped up and still be able to have the facility to breath we had to concede defeat and I turned up at the wedding in my alternative “fat” wedding dress 😉

Anyone who says English food is rubbish clearly hasn’t been to the right places. Not that G got off scot free either – I’m sure the goon suit he had to wear as an usher wasn’t free-flowing comfortably around the stomach either 😉

The wedding was lovely – again the sun came out – although it was 20 degrees colder than our sensitive Floridian skin could really take now 😉 – and the country house Paul and Katie chose for the wedding was absolutely beautiful…the whole day was very glam from the ceremony through to the fireworks over the lake 🙂 Bride and groom looked fab – as expected!

Onwards and upwards – we then headed into the frozen north of Harrogate where the weather was so nice that Caroline and I managed to hike round most of the Dales and sun ourselves for nearly a week far too frequently at the courtyard tables of an endless stream of cute coffee shops – again – the calories consumed far outstripped the calories expended – not that a single slice of delicious homemade cake or a single mug of lumpy Horlicks was regretted (at the time 😉

Another trip down – many months in the gym to recover 😉