September

On Tuesday 1 Roger played in his last competitive bowls match of the season – a rearranged triples league game. Overbury won to clinch second place in the league. On Sunday 20 Overbury had their closing of the green event – a roll-up, tea and presentation of the club competition prizes. Roger had a good run in two events, collecting two runners-up awards. The weather was glorious – so much so that the green was opened the following day also. Indoor bowling started later in the week with a practice roll-up at Malvern.

As last year, we had a short break at Alton Towers, staying a couple of nights (Monday and Tuesday 7-8) at the Alton Towers hotel.

Alton Towers

Last year we became members of the Gloucestershire-Warwickshire Railway, which entitled us to one free round trip a year between Toddington and Cheltenham. On Saturday 19, as the end of our membership year loomed, we took the trip, and had a very enjoyable ride. The weather turned out as warm and sunny, and the train was quiet enough for us to have a compartment to ourselves. We took the camera, and Teresa shot a brilliant video of our engine. Roger was less successful, managing to capture a large selection of bushes and telegraph poles from the moving train, but here are some of the more presentable pictures:

Running in British Railways livery, our engine was the tank locomotive 5619, built in 1925 and on loan from the Telford Horsehay Steam Trust

We passed through Gotherington Halt (now a private residence) … briefly disembarked at the Prestbury Park station in Cheltenham (a view down the platform above) … and returned to Toddington, where a horse drawn carriage was waiting for a wedding party from the First Class compartments, and whisked the bride and her parents off to Didbrook church

On Tuesday 22 our pony Clyde moved to a new home. For a couple of months he had had a cough and not been ridden in lessons, nor by Jay. Jay was advised by the stables that he would have to be retired: obviously we could not continue to keep him there at full livery rates.

Fortunately, after much frantic searching for the possibility of grass livery, Teresa found that it was available at a reasonable rate at Wood Stanway, only a couple of miles from us. He seemed very content in his new surroundings (grass, grass and even more grass).

◄ Clyde in his new surroundings with his new friend Jimmy

Apart from visiting Clyde, Jay was busy with her project, finishing off the work she started in the labs during August. She also learned that she got very good marks for the module of her final exams that she sat this year, though I don’t think it was formally classified at this stage.

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