"The Woods"

Yesterday I had a lovely day and I am so sad I cannot post photos at the moment because they could show how good it was, never mind I will try to describe it!

I am very lucky to have a close loving family, among them my niece Liz,her hubby and their son Max (nearly 2…going on20)! They invited Jan, Liz's mum  ( my sister in law and if you read my blog you will know we lost her hubby, my brother last year) my remaining brother who I am sure he will not mind me saying is 86 who is a widower as well  and me who as you also know without my dear John, we are getting careless of losing the ones we love it seems.

Anyway we went to have a 'happy easter sunday lunch' with them, and it certainly was very good, always made welcome there and it looked a picture, we were welcomed by Max, who had been on an easter egg hunt, he was supposed to be tired and needed a sleep, but he soon forgot about that when we arrived, the dining table looked lovely and both Liz and James had made a delicious lunch.

I was allowed to sit near Max in his high chair, and we had fun, he had never had smoked salmon before so after feeding me with some he suddenly ate some by mistake, and then had seconds! rich taste that boy… after a 3 course lunch we were ready to have a doze, but of course we wanted to see the woods!

For a lot of years a happy band of local people have been making sure that Gunton Woods are looked after, the local council now own them, but mostly the "locals" help keep them in order , young Max and Liz are 2 of the helpers, and if you think he is too young you would be mistaken, he is a fit little boy he has his own wheelbarrow, plus one of the men has made him a little wooden rake, they go a few times a week to help with the bark laying for paths, without the aid of the photos cannot really show the beauty of the place, it has grown a lot since I last visited, it is a little oasis of peace, a lot of new trees have been planted and Max showed us his special one, there are bird boxes and fish ponds, an amazing amount of daffodils and primroses, foxgloves ready to flower, and bluebells which will not be long coming into flower, all the shrubs and trees are begining to sprout their new leaves, there are seats made of the stumps of old trees and some clever folk have fashioned tables and they have made such a good job of the hedges all woven, and it was really wonderful to wander through, We walked for a few miles in there and only then went into part of it.

It was so good to see so many people there enjoying the peace, a lot of dogs, some unfortunately not on leads, but however on the whole the dog owners were good, some of the dogs had run through the flowers and knocked the heads off,  a couple of the dogs wanted to play, but some of them Max knew  were well behaved.

We wandered back to the house and a nice cup of tea, and more easter presents, so a lot of spoiling went on, Jan had got him some books so Max and I sat on the floor and looked at them while the tea was being made, James also got the little wooden train track to show us, Max loves that.  James  showed us one of the Dr Who videos that has the Red London bus in it, (which he actually bought and restored and takes to a lot of shows, also had their photos in one of the 'Lets Talk'  magazines) it was quite late when we left, and apparently Max had a little something to eat and was in bed and in the land of nod by 6.25, bless him how he managed all the company and of course he walked a lot more miles than us backwards and forwards showing us all they had been involved in, what a good boy he was, such a wonderful day, so thanks again to everyone for letting me share it with you all.

I will send  the photos on e mail, sad that I cannot post them on here, I am pleased with them, even the ones you took Liz, I did not realize how long my old coat was ha ha! But it was warm and we did need the warmth as it was a cool day, but not so bad in the woods.

I heard on the news that some people want Easter Sunday to be like an ordinary day, but lets hope common sense will rule the day, let us keep some special religious days ones of peace, some may not want to go to church but we need to keep families together I am sure the shops can stay closed for a few days a year, and if you want some where to go, choose somewhere like Gunton Woods and take time to enjoy nature and let the staff of the shope have a day off!