A right royal treat

It's been potato planting time around here. The field across from us is deeply ridged, and looking like chunky corduroy.

On Saturday, Mike spent four hours at the QE having a blood transfusion, so our youngest son and I enjoyed some quality time together, visiting the Barber Institute, and wandering around the University campus, and along the canal towpath, before returning to the hospital.

The following day our grandchildren arrived, to spend a couple of days with us, while R & S were down in London, attending the very last Hamster gig (a band we have followed for many years). So, on Sunday, as it was fine, I took A & W to the allotments, where they helped me plant our potatoes. There are quite a few chitted potatoes left over - enough to go in some potato bags, and a few more to cram in somewhere on the plot. I was pleased to see the new cherry tree bursting into blossom, and the plum tree is already covered in flowers.

Monday was a very busy day. We made and decorated cakes, baked bread, set some seeds in the greenhouse, and A & W constructed hot-air balloons from strips of coloured card, with cake cases as baskets. Later, after our evening meal, the travellers returned. I don't know who was the most tired - them or us! But we had all enjoyed our day.

Tuesday morning our friend Dave arrived from Leeds, to take us by car to Norfolk, where we were to stay for two nights at the Neptune Restaurant (Michelin Star) in Hunstanton, run by his son Kevin and wife Jacki. What a lovely couple. What a comfortable room. And what superb food and service. To be highly recommended. On our way to Hunstanton we stopped off at the church in the village of Harpley, where Mike's ancestors once lived, and left some flowers on the grave of the last one to have lived in the village, and who we had met briefly before she died. There is quite a story connected with all this as, after her death, we had ended up having to arrange this lady's funeral and eventually the erection of her headstone. Otherwise, she would never had been buried along with the rest of her family, in the village, but would have had to have a pauper's burial, which could have been anywhere in Norfolk. It was only as the result of my family history research that this all came about. After driving through another village, with ancestral connections, we called on our friends John & Von, who moved from Shipley some time ago, to live in Norfolk. What a gathering - Dave had never med J & V before, but it appeared that they had all lived in the same area once and knew lots of the same places and people, so there was a lot of reminiscing.

The weather wasn't kind to us (although we didn't have snow!) so Dave's plans to take us to some interesting places didn't quite work out, as we were reluctant to get out of the car, due to the icy wind and rain. Still, we did visit Sandringham, and took the opportunity to look around the house, which we thoroughly enjoyed, and as it wasn't too busy we had plenty of time to chat to the guides. Both Dave and Mike had family members who had worked at Sandringham in the past. We even found a bronze sculpture of a horse with our surname! Must do more research when I have the time. When our sons were younger, we spent a number of holidays in Norfolk and, despite the grim weather, it still looked as good as ever. I love the architecture - the flint walled cottages with their red, tiled roofs. The villages look so neat and tidy.

On Thursday morning, after thanking Kevin and Jacki for their wonderful hospitality, and leaving the Neptune, we met up once again with J & V, at the cafe on the Sandringham estate, and for the men there was more catching up and chatting about their mutual friends, places they knew and college days (they were all at the same college in Durham). In the meantime, we girls caught up on family news and, naturally, things to do with plants and gardening.

As we headed home, we didn't envy all those caravanners heading towards the Norfolk coast. We passed one caravan, on its side, and blocking three lanes on the opposite carriageway, with miles of tail-back. When we arrived home, the first thing I noticed were the daffodils - no longer looking their best, but bent double, as a result of the cold, snowy weather.

We can't thank Dave (and K & J) enough for treating us to such a super two days, during which we really did feel like royalty. It's just a pity he won't be reading all this on his computer - unless we show him how to use it!