Meeting up

 Well, that was a wet night. The rain hammered down for hours and thunder rattled across the skies. The Gorse Fox was amazed that Ellie slept through it all (he only wished he had). Ellie wandered into our room at 6:30 to tell the Gorse Fox that her light had turned orange and request the iPad. She snuggled down into bed between us and gave us another thirty minutes.

Urban-cub collected Ellie, and then we got ready to go out. We had arranged to meet up with Betty and Barney Rubble for the first time in about 18 months. We pottered off across the country. The roads were empty and we seemed to get there in no time.

It was nice to see them after so long. We settled down for some coffee and biscuits and an initial catch-up. As lunch approached we headed off to The Hoddington Arms at Upton Gray. They were still taking Covid precautions, which was comforting. We signed in and settled down with the menu. It was a little more limited than before but there was still a good choice, We all started with some lovely crispy chicken goujons. For the main dish, the Silver Vixen had beer-battered Cornish haddock and chips and the Gorse Fox had a "Hodd Cheese and Bacon Burger" (he likes burgers, but rarely gets the opportunity to have one). We had a lovely meal with plenty more catching up on all the family comings and goings.

Back at Betty and Barney's, we settled back down with some tea and several hours of chat. We are all up to date on the news, now. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we see them again.

We were home just before 8pm and it was clear that the weather had been significantly better at home than it was in the damp and drizzly Odiham. We opened up the Orangery to let some of the heat (and Jasper) out.

It had been a lovely day.