Weekend in Essex

Nothing much to report this week - no photographic opportunities so a few more from last week's storm.

The winds have continued and although our garden was covered with pine needles we have had the garden tidied this week and it looks a lot better. The beds have been cleaned up and we can now see the wood for the trees, so to speak. In the spring we can decide what we might do to replant.

Pete was in London from late Tuesday and has been very busy with work. He managed to take a few days off so we could have an extended weekend back in Essex to celebrate Pete's brother Paul's birthday and we had a Mexican meal with Pete's brothers and their wives on Saturday.

Generally planned as a quiet weekend to catch up with the family, it never pans out as expected. On Sunday Gemma had a shunt in her car and although minor it cast a shadow on the day. We had also heard that Diane's mum Joan had died this week and as the funeral was on Monday Pete would be able to attend. Pete has known Diane for as long as he can remember, being related to a close friend of the family and Pete would normally refer to her as a cousin. Diane and her family flit in and out of our lives as things change for us all, but it's always great to see them. The funeral will be a sad affair, but Pete will meet up with most of his close family there, as they all knew Joan.

Julie is working now and spends a lot of time at Ajanta trying to help out and promised to spend Thursday at Kitely House near Plymouth at the Christmas Fayre. Because of this she had to travel up by train on Friday, but was able to meet up with Gemma at Hammersmith for a bit of Mother Daughter bonding. Her next trip back will be for Matt's birthday in December where she will again go back by train.