Nostalgia

Our French friends went home on Tuesday morning and our next lot of visitors arrive tomorrow though only for one night this time. We did enjoy the few days our French friends were here and we were lucky with the weather and able to show them our neck of the woods at its best. On Monday we decided to stay close to home and so we went to Sherborne (this was on their list of places they wanted to visit having perused the leaflets I'd taken over when I visited them back in March)

They liked gardens so we visited this garden created in 2005 on what was the tennis courts of my school back in the mists of time.

The building across the road covered in scaffolding and tarpaulins was where I went to school and I was sorry we weren't able to show our friends this lovely building. But it can be viewed here for those of you who are interested. We couldn't make out what the sculptures were meant to represent and I think the coloured flags were some sort of installation depicting Hope! You can just make out our husbands waiting by the gate - I think they were hungry!

These buildings next door to the school house the council offices.






The gardens are very peaceful and tranquil and I'm sure I could hear the ghost voices of the girls who used to use these courts for tennis in the summer months and netball in the winter! I could hear the thwack of the balls across the net in summer and feel the chill of frozen fingers on the netball in winter (not that I was very good at netball so hardly ever had the ball in my hands!)

We decided to have a snack lunch in the Town Mill Bakery on The Green in Sherborne where we sat on these weird but strangely comfortable seats and were served our soup and bread on wooden platters. Delicious and something quite different for our visitors!

We also visited the Abbey of course - sorry no photos - and I was taken back to school services there such as Carols at Christmas etc. And on to the Methodist church which is on the main street and where I used to go every Sunday morning dressed in my Sunday best - I remember well a new navy coat and a yellow pill box hat (similar to one Princess Alexandra wore at the time) and gloves - even in summer we wore gloves to Church!




I must be getting old since my memories of those days are fresh and clear but I often can't remember what I did yesterday (or even today sometimes!)

I have more photos of some of the other places we showed our visitors and will post those later when our friends who arrive tomorrow have gone and I am back to some semblance of what passes for normal here! (I have made the Marmalade cake for tomorrow Lesley and will let you know if it tastes good when we have tried it)

Thank you for your kind comments on my previous post - maybe Helsie is right and we should make a book of toilets in England! To those who wondered what the other lady thought when I took out my camera - that other lady was my French friend and she already knows I am a little eccentric anyway!