A grey rainy day!

 I had forgotten to mention that, not only were we gardening on Sunday but we also cleaned the hot tub! Part of my job was to clean the lid of mould and spiders! I did need help to get it back on the hot tub!

I think I've shrunk!

Yesterday, Monday, dawned grey, cold and rainy so we headed off to Upton House  (National Trust) near Banbury Oxfordshire. The house was built in 1695. It's last owner was Viscount Bearsted who inherited a large fortune from his father, the founder of the Shell oil company.

The Viscount was a major collector of art, mainly English and Continental old masters. The house is more like an art gallery than house. The unusual part about this house is that you can view the old masters at close quarters and not behind a barricade!

We then wandered around the gardens - the autumn colours were gorgeous,

These Cedar trees are 350 years old!

Not sure that my aching muscles from my gardening stint were helped by all the walking!

Doesn't matter how much exercise I'm doing it isn't helping my jet lag!

 

Off to England.

*Joy of Sydney to Singapore!

Luck was on my side - no one in the seat beside me! Definitely not a full flight!

Don't you hate watching a few movies, thinking hours have passed, only to look on the flight map to see that you hadn't even left Australia!

An announcement told us all that a couple, who met on this flight 5 years earlier had got engaged during lunch - round of applause from us all.

Just as you start to nod off imminent landing is announce!

All the talk about how wonderful Changi airport is doesn't come to fruition as Qantas are 'parked' in the 'rough end of town'!

*Joys of Singapore to London!

Not one, not two but three empty seats beside me! I managed to sleep across three seats after wrestling the seatbelt around myself  - didn't want to be a projectile if we hit turbulence!!

Somehow time passed and then the landing announcement was made. I put on the 'tail camera' to watch our decent. The wheels were down, we were lined up with the runway lights, just getting ready for touch down when straight  back into the air we went!! I think all our stomachs churned! The pilot gave his apology for the scare but said  the plane, which landed before us hadn't got off the runway quickly enough! It was pretty impressive at the way the A380 got back in the air - good pilot and air traffic control!

Finally on land I caught the train to Paddington and then onto Worcester. Luckily my taxi - Jake and John - were waiting for me!  I  needed a walk and, as luck would have it, Marks and Sparks was near.  A few items ended up in my basket!

I managed to stay awake until 8:30 pm! 4 hours later I was wide awake again - much like now! I was able to make a cuppa with the travel kettle etc. placed beside my bed. Eventually I fell asleep again!

Following breakfast I was set to work - prepping oranges for marmalade, filling bird feeders , down in the dirt setting onions and garlic - the slave driver did give me something to kneel on! I then went on to helping with clearing out dead plants!

The autumn colours are lovely but the garden was looking rather bedraggled so a clean up was necessary. It was a mild 13C - although I was wearing my puffer jacket. Morning coffee outside in the garden - most sane people would be inside! - was very pleasant. I always enjoy listening to the song birds here as a change from the  raucous Aussie birds.

 Checking the garden produce!