Quilting and other Things

There were to be four walks offered today but the fourth leader has injured his knee and can't lead any walks. They hope to get replacements in for the rest of the week as there are 50 guests. We decided to do the medium walk today along with 24 others. Its called The Bays and Downs of West Wight. The walk is 14 km (or 8.75 miles) with 310m (or 1025 ft) of ascent. They get the ascent by adding the total climbs for the day. The descent is not mentioned. If an HF leader tells you its all downhill or perfectly flat the rest of the way, don't believe him (you thought "the cheque is in the mail" was the worlds biggest lie). The walk started and ended at the house. We went down the driveway and headed up the street to St. Agnes church. Its a Thatched roof church (one of 18 in England). There's a date stone in the wall that says 1694 but the church was actually built about 1908. They recycled stones from another site. A bit further up the road, we turned onto...

We left, complete with Karen's two smaller suitcases and both packs full about 10:40 to walk over to New Beckenham station for the 11:10 train. Its a longer walk than to the Beckenham Junction station we usually go to. We had to go to Waterloo East and walk over to Waterloo. We wanted enough time to get lunch before getting on the train for Brockenhurst. We both ended up at the Pasty Shop for lunch. Karen got chicken & mushroom and Helen Anne got steak and Stilton. They were very tasty although Karen isn't sure hers actually had any mushrooms. Shortly after we finished eating, Karen heard them announce the earlier train to Brockenhurst so we jumped on it. The train from Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier was an old fashion, slam the doors behind you, train. So Karen did. On the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth we got two seats in a corner by the front window. It was a very pleasant way to travel -- lots of sailboats out. Both ports have a large pier / anchorage are...

Helen Anne I was in bed asleep about 9:30 last night – much later than I expected. This morning about 7:30, I woke up feeling pretty good. I heard Karen so went to say Good Morning. She’d crawled back into bed so I lay down to visit. Next thing I knew, it was 9:15. Karen Helen got up about 7:30ish and crawled into my bed, so we could visit but fall asleep. I was ready to be up and didn't want to toss and turn and wake her up, so got up. I managed to have breakfast, a shower, slip in and grab the clothes I had worn the day before and leave without waking her up, it was about 8:30 or so when I left. I went to do some errands and got home about 9:30. She had been up for about 15 minutes. Both We packed everything for next week into Karen’s two smaller bags, as that is easier for moving around train stations. We finally wandered into London about 11. We got the train to Herne Hill and then changed trains to get to St. Pancras International. There we got some lunch at Pr...

Karen I had a quiet morning, heading out to Heathrow about 10ish. I bought to zone 1-6 travel passes for Helen Anne and I and when I got onto the platform, a new officer at IHQ from India was waiting for the train as well. We visited on the train to Herne Hill and she changed there to get to Blackfriars and I went on to Victoria. I had to wait for a few minutes for the District train that would go through Baron's Court, so I could change where I like to change but was out to Heathrow in plenty of time to meet Helen Anne. Her plane landed about 11:23 and she came through around noon. I had got a couple of waters and greeted her with a 1L bottle of water. She was thirsty! She was looking at some thing in her rucksack on the way to Victoria and I had a few pieces of Bridge Mix. I was even nice and shared but she did provide the twist tie to keep the bag closed. Helen Anne It was a smooth flight over to London. I got some sleep doing my usual tuck me in my corner as soon as the main a...