Lovely visit!

It's now 10 days since my visit to Pat, John and Maggie. I have only been home a few hours and am starting to feel like having a little nap, but's it's only 1:30 pm here, so I'm determined to stay up.

I also enjoyed my visit with Pat. The memory of her I have taken away with me is that she is very quick to laugh. I remember that our conversation covered a lot of topics and we laughed a lot.

Pat's needlework designs are lovely. She has her models on the wall. I have been in her part of England previously, and was familiar with some of the scenes pictured. Suffolk, and the rest of East Anglia (the bulgy bit sort of north of London on the eastern side of England, which most tourists bypass), is well worth a visit. One of Pat's designs is a Suffolk Sampler with cut-down versions of some of her larger designs. I can see myself stitching this one. It won't seem like such a big design because I'll be able to complete one little scene at a time.

Maggie is a lovely little dog, who seems to really enjoy sharing John's chair with him. He seems more than happy with that arrangement too. I had a bit of a chat with John while Pat made a cuppa, but mostly Pat and I just talked.

I had not really seen snow before, that is I had not been where it fell _and_ stayed on the ground. I think there was a bit more in Ipswich than in Felixstowe. We might have had about 2 inches (which I know is not a lot compared to where some of you live). I was fascinated to feel the snow as it fell and to see it settle on my clothes and not melt immediately, then to see the places where it melted quickly and where it stayed around for several days.

It was Tuesday just after Christmas when the first light snow fell. It was still there a bit by Friday when we had a heavier fall (the more snow Pat was expecting), which my sister said made the roads a bit trickier for driving. However, we went out in the evening and the cold front had passed, the temperature was up a bit and the snow was disappearing. By next morning when we drove over to near Oxford for the New Year weekend the snow was virtually gone.

We visited Burford Needlecraft and spent a bit of money. They had the stitched models for Jane Greenoff's new Sampler Book on loan. Seeing them in person convinced me to buy the book. I'm sure it will be much more exi here in Oz. :)

Apart from experiencing snow, the other strange thing about being further from the equator close to the time of the Winter Solstice was the sun being low in the sky all day. That took a bit of getting used to.

My sister lives quite close to the big house (Christchurch Mansion) which Pat had told me about. It's free to visit and is full of all sorts of stuff from various eras, including Constable and Gainsborough paintings. There were also a couple of doll's houses.

I won't burble on - I'm not sure I'm making too much sense.

I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year in England, and my visit with Pat, John and Maggie was a major highlight. I hope all of you had enjoyable Christmases too.

Rosemary (back >It`s not OT - she`s an 5RCTNer. Just had a great visit from Rosemary Peeler,

"Rosemary Peeler" wrote

Thanks so much for coming, Rosemary - and we`re so glad you enjoyed the visit. Poor John is most apologetic that his taking a sleeping pill the previous night had left him so dozy! Added to that, Maggie sitting on his lap has the same comforting and sleep inducing efect of a large hot water bottle!

Glad you found Pin Mill - my grandmother used to play piano in there - she was one of the King family - who were the boatbuilders whose yard is just across the road from the Butt and Oyster. Last time we were in there, the food was OK, but pretty basic. It`s a nice spot, though with a great history of smugglers. There was a maidservant (Margaret Catchpole) who fell in love with a Smuggler from the PinMill area (Will Laud) and stole a horse to ride to warn her lover of a planned ambush by the Excise men. She was caught and transported to Australia, where she became well respected before her death. You may have seen her portrait in Christchurch Mansion - well, it always used to be in there - somewhere near that enormous model sailing ship.

Christchurch mansion is said to be haunted, although they tend to keep it quiet. You hear the sound of a laughing nursemaid chasing after a group of happy, giggling children along the landing. Nice, unscary, kind of haunting, that. There`s a little dark panelled room just before the picture gallery that really gives me the willies, though. The ex Ipswich curator (a friend of ours) told me that the panelling came from another old house in Ipswich. Whatever it absorbed there, I`m sure it came with it! (Stone tapes theory - or in this case, wood?)

I must pop in to see Barbara at Bears and Stitches - she`s a lovely person, but it`s such a long walk (for me!) from the car park - and all uphill. I usually pop in there when we go to the opticians, round the corner.

I do hope you make it back here - we`ll take you out to lunch - either the Ferryboat down at Felixstowe Ferry, or The Queen`s Head at Erwarton, near PinMill (very close to Erwarton Hall, which belonged to the Boleyn family, and where Henry VIII sometimes visited Anne Boleyn). Her heart is said to be buried under the aisle of the church, and they did dig up a heart shaped casket some years ago, containg a small amount of dust.

I wonder what happened to Tegan? Hope she`s OK! I was hoping she`d be able to join us. We had been intending to go down to Kent for Christmas, but Richard drew the short straw this year and was on duty all over Christmas and the New Year.

Anyway, it was great meeting you - always nice to have a face to put the name to!

Pat P