September
How
time flies. Our car needed its second
annual service on Tuesday 2 – about a fortnight early but we were in danger of
exceeding the 10,000 miles annual limit.
This involved driving it to Powick, near
The weather continued warm and sunny for most of the
month and we were able to have a couple of late barbecues on Saturday 6 and Saturday
13.
◄ A glass of wine with the barbecue for Roger
Our visit to
Sadly, Wednesday 10 was Roger’s last outdoor bowls of
the year, a morning roll-up which he helps to organise. On returning to Toddington, he was surprised
to see a small but growing crowd of people by the roundabout, and a number of
police motor-cycles: everyone appeared
to be peering up the road towards Stanway – was there a new locomotive being
delivered to railway? Had there been an
accident of some kind? Roger parked in the
drive and was told that the Tour of
The
breakaway group takes the roundabout … followed by the peleton, heading down the
Winchcombe road
Fired by her success at the Winchcombe show last
month, Teresa also entered the Broadway show on Saturday 13. She entered a range of pastries and
preserves, and she and Jay shoehorned their selection of photographs as best
they could into the somewhat different categories required at Broadway. This time the photos did not win over the
judges, but Teresa again had a first prize – for her lemon curd this time.
Teresa’s
entries in the cooking classes and her winning lemon curd: ‘Wow, what a
wonderful flavour!’
On Sunday 14 we again met up with Helen and Jay in
Much of our focus during the month was on helping Jay
to move out of her flat in Oxford, and back home for a while: she needed an extension to finish off her
D.Phil, and commuting from home seemed to be the only viable option until the
parameters for, and funding of, the extension became clearer. Her flat, in any case, was only available on
a year’s contract as the landlord wished to keep in step with the academic year, it being very
close to
On Tuesday 23 we took our annual trip on
the near-by Gloucestershire-Warwickshire Railway. It was a bright, warm, sunny day.
On arrival,
with a few minutes to spare before our ride, we found 2807 in the car park,
waiting to go on loan to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in
◄ Roger next to 2807
Our first ride
was on the steam service to
The train
itself had the largest number of carriages we had ever seen on the line, and
the reason became clear when we stopped in Winchcombe: several parties of schoolchildren boarded the
reserved coaches to re-enact a Second World War evacuation scenario. Teachers and pupils had dressed in period
clothes, and most had actual or replica props with them: haversacks, gas mask boxes and tuck boxes. Apparently this is all part of the history
curriculum nowadays.
We proceeded
from Winchcombe via Gotherington Halt (but not on this occasion) and past
Bishop’s Cleeve; a slight haze meant we could not see all the way across to
The ride
affords wonderful views over the countryside we live in and drive through all
the time, but the new vantage points mean we continue to notice features that
cannot be seen from the road. The GWR
handout also names the hills bordering the line – one otherwise never seems to
see which is which.
Back at
Toddington, the diesel service was waiting to depart for Winchcombe. We opted to look around at Toddington for a
while, until it returned to go north from Toddington to Laverton Halt on the
way to Broadway, which will soon become the northern terminal of the line. While we waited, we were lucky enough to see
4270 taking on water – with a little acrobatic assistance from the driver.
On board the
returning diesel, we were taken over the splendid 15 arch viaduct at Stanway. We proceed just a little further north this
year to where a turning loop has been installed to enable steam drawn trains to
use this section of the line. In the
diesel railcar, of course, the driver simply walked to the other and, and most
of the passengers followed him to get the best possible views on the return
leg.
We looked at
the Flag and Whistle restaurant before leaving, but weren’t tempted this year,
though Teresa did have a snack on the train.
So back home for lunch after an entertaining and relaxing morning.
Roger’s indoor
bowls started for the winter, with his opening games at