On my drive home yesterday, I stopped in Shirwell to take some pictures of the Shirwell trees. This is a big stand of beech trees that were planted at the highest point in Youlston Park (originally home to the Chichester family), to commemorate the battle of Waterloo in 1815. This stand of magnificent trees can be seen for many miles around.
Now that the trees are nearly 200 years old they are coming to the end of their lives and quite a few have fallen in the severe storms of the last 2 winters.
Looking across the parkland and the grand drive leading to the house, hidden in the trees on the left.
Yesterday was WI again and we had 2 local ladies ( who cater professionally), cook a 3 course meal on camping stoves in front of us and make enough for all 20 of us to have a taste of everything. They were very relaxed about their cooking and their off the cuff comments to each other were very funny. Even after crispy tuna, rolled chicken breast stuffed with blue cheese and vegetables and an apple dessert that didn't have a name because they made it up on the spot, we still had room to eat the 'refreshments'. We take it in turns to do the food which is supposed to be a sandwich and a bit of cake to have with a cup of tea but the members who have the skill and the time like to produce a scrumptious home made spread and last night was no exception. This morning I had agreed to teach in a school which has a high number of challenging children. I was a little out of my comfort zone because even though I used to teach there regularly, (right up to the 10 year-olds), the last 3 years have been almost entirely in 1 school. I thought it would be good for my confidence to step into a new situation and as it turned out the morning wasn't too bad. I did have to do playground duty, it's funny how often that happens. After work I popped into the local college and collected a car-load of bagged up wood shavings and Romas is cleaning out the hen house so the hens can have a lovely deep bed of clean shavings.
