The giant family party last weekend was a great success. Someone counted 39 of us, all in some way related, either through birth, marriage or partnership. Some of them I hadn't seen since the last such gathering 10 years ago, when my lovely great aunt was a mere 80 year old whippersnapper, some I had never met before as they have joined the family in the intervening years, and some I have seen more recently but not with everyone together, which is always a special treat. Of course there was a huge hole at the top table where Mum should have been, but she was very much there with us all in our hearts, and doubtless quaffing more than one celestial G&T in Aunty's honour.
Here we all are, having eventually been organised into some sort of order out of chaos:
It was a really splendid day, the sun shone on us and we all had a great time.
The next day, as the sun was still shining, I took my Dad to Polesden Lacey. As I work for the National Trust (albeit only temporarily) I have been given a membership card. To my shame I have been to very few NT places in recent years (well, since I left home donkey's years ago really - my parents often took us to visit stately homes and gardens which I didn't enjoy at the time! I have since regretted not doing more of it in my adult life) and so have determined to make use of my card while I have it. Polesden is a lovely grand Edwardian country house and estate which in the early 20th century played host to many a grand party, with royalty frequent visitors. It was particularly interesting to see an NT operation at the complete opposite end of the scale to the one where I work - so many people and such a huge estate and gardens. A lot of the house is not yet restored and open to the public but the rooms that are open are very well done and sympathetically presented. The gardens are beautiful, though unfortunately we were about a fortnight too early for the rose garden at its best, and the views across the rolling hills were quite lovely. I loved the deck chairs scattered on the South Lawn, with photos of King George VI and the Queen Mother, who honeymooned here.
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| View from the house across the Downs |
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| Deckchair for two |
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| Rose garden not quite at its peak |
And what of the running? Not a lot to be honest! I completed my first ever park run on Saturday, which I was surprisingly nervous about, but in the end it was good fun. I managed to run the whole way round Stoke Park, twice, without stopping for a walk, which I haven't done for years as I was previously much less fit than I am now. It's quite an undulating course with a lot of grass underfoot which is a bit different to road running but I completed the 5K in 31:55, finishing 197th out of 265 finishers. Not bad for a novice, and a good target to aim at. There is no run in Stoke Park this weekend due to the Surrey County Show on Monday (it'll be raining then...) so I think we'll just go into town for coffee and shopping and I'll run again next weekend. Apart from that, no running this week (a lot of walking to and from and at work though, with two school visits and six sessions of bug hunting and pond dipping) until yesterday, when my sister came to visit - not the one from New Zealand, the other one. We are doing the Marlow 10k together next Sunday and she hasn't run for a while so we went for a little jog yesterday to see how she was. It was great, we did the 5-ish mile route down to the river, along the towpath and back up through Jacob's Well, chatted all the way round and felt pretty ok. I was very disappointed, however, to find that, even though we both set our phones at exactly the same time and ran side by side, she ran 1/4 mile further than me...!! What's that all about hey William?! Ho ho.
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